I usually respect the opinion of others, but....

AHA HA HA HA HA!

Oh god... I needed a good laugh.

Yeah I thought this was singlehandedly the stupidest statement of everything he posted. What because it hasn't because yet another genre watered down into an open sandbox game it hasn't changed? Sorry fighting games have as much forward movement as any other genre in gaming. Tell me what has greatly evolved in the last 10 years? All his examples of progress are bulk. (fighting games can be played online just like FPS can.)

If anyone can defeat you by spamming the same attack over and over;News flash unless the game doesn't allow you to counter it(like the horribly defective Justice league fighting game on genesis and Snes wouldn't let you block a sweep after blocking a jump kick. It was a terrible game.), then you horribly suck at fighting games. I get if it's a move you haven't seen before you'll have no idea how to counter or block it. (hence why takes skill and it's good to fight a variety of people to learn new tricks and tactics.) But at some point you need figure it out or it's your fault for being dumb enough to let them win by using the same attacks over and over.

Any game that's worth a crap will allow you some way to punish anyone who doesn't have a deeper bag of tricks. Same with button mashers, they might surprise a person and steal a round or two but once the player adjusts for the fact the person they are fighting has no clue what they're doing they will manhandle them.

He mentions things being repetitive, but what genre isn't? How is any sports game any less repetitive than fighting games? MMO's is nothing but constantly repeatedly the same basic concepts of healing/tanking/or dpsing all way to the lvl cap and best gear. FPS are just mowing down people over and over. If you don't like repetitive thnigs, video games aren't for you. Since the bulk of the time they take the same concept and steadily up the ante every level till end of the game.

This like me posting an article why wine tasting sucks despite never actually partaking in it just because I don't like wine. Stamp this guy Noobtard on his forehead. He doesn't deserve anyone's attention.

Sure there's plenty of fighting games who's stories are nothing more than a bunch of characters from around the world having a giant **** measuring contest for whatever personal reasons.(that's like 90% of them which this tourney will some how decide the fate of the world...like being the best fighting is how people get elected or something.) Street fighter has gotten mindblowingly stupid infact as it's story is best ignored.

But many types of games can be thrown under the bus for having paper thin or little to no story. Megaman for most of the original series was Doctor wily (or someone fronting for him.) has created 8 robot masters...blow em up. Beat em up were usually someone got kidnapped and rather than call the police(because the justice system gotten so bad that it's no logner an option.) lets go take justice into our own hands and pile driver every hapless idiot that walks up to you. (which I wish more of life's problem could be solved that way.)

Most Jrpgs are so cliched that there's an entire page outlining them all. Basically some 12-15 year old boy needs chase after some girl he just met and kill monsters which will somehow lead to him saving the whole planet. (thank goodness for teenager hormones being the catalyst for saving planets.) Most genres have a mountain of games with the same formula for stories. Fighting games really aren't any worse offenders than the rest.(which if I had say the two best story lines of fighting games I'd say Mortal Kombat and Soul calibur ..atleast till recently in 4 were among the two best.)

I think gaming really needs work on being more than a thinly veiled excuse for people to beat up or shoot stuff. That's really the whole gaming culture as a whole not just fighting games.

While I could easily list all of the JRPGs that defy your claims (in a PM, naturally, since public discussion of specific games is forbidden), I agree that the linked article is beyond stupid. "A couple new characters" means entire new forms of gameplay in fighting games, where the actual football players on your roster don't seem to have a huge effect on the game, as they're all basically all the same guy with different skins on top.

this statement is contradictory or poorly written. people who develop skill in the game can easily slam button mashers because they have control of when and where they pull off their special moves. scrub players take saturation characters, like maxi and eddy gordo, but they use combos that skilled players can counter because they know how the combo is going. they dont emulate real skill, they become roughly equivalent to a player who is learning the characters, but ince they dont spend the time learning how the characters play, and what predictable holes are in their defenses and compensate for them, they can be taken down by an actually skilled player.
ultimatelythe author writes from a position of ignorance and his contribution to serious discussion is moot. its the internet, everyone has a voice, and shortly we learn that everyone doesnt really have much to say.

as for whether fighting games are evolving, i really reel i just need to point to arc system works stuff. the myriad of systems in guilty gear and later blazblue introduced so much depth and paper rock scissors to the genre that it evolved the genre significantly.

Stupidity is a skill to some degree in direct competition because sometimes acting stupid vs what the best thing for you to do, throws someone off and allows you an advantage that can lead to victory.

Most people in general can be beaten in Soul Caliber 2 by one 3 button combo being done over and over again, but I don't think I've ever beaten any truly competitive player with it.... I have won a small tournament with it, which was funny ^.^

There is plenty of skill in the competitive scene... maybe in the casual scene...

Okay, for future reference.

You should respect the right of others to HAVE an opinion.
You are under no obligation to respect the opinion itself. Especially when the opinion is built of naught but fluff and idiocy.

Remember they're like ***holes. Everyone's got one. And everyone's entitled to their own wrong opinion too.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Skilled players have actual skill. One friend in college was able to easily pull off 10-hit combos against other players, can't remember the game though.

People can fake being "skilled" by performing the same BS combo, or few sets of moves over and over. To the average player who button mashes (like me), that imitates the people who are actually skilled, to a degree. When you are lying face down at the end of the match, there is no real difference. You lost, they won. Against actual skilled players, they won't, but that doesn't matter. They won against you.

That's really well said. Thanks, I've been looking for the precise words to express that for a while, for reasons having nothing to do with this bullcrap article. And that's what it is, of course. This dude is clueless.

I'm sure there's exceptions to every rule; Not the point I was trying make though. Otherwise I agree your assessment as well.

it eally depends on how invested you are in the genre. i see first and third person shooters as horribly generic affairs, but thats because i dont like them enough to take the time to learn the distinctions, conversely i can see the depth in the minor differences between ryu and ken that presents to me enjoyable gameplay variations, or better still, ky kiske and sol badguy. to the outsider they are all "shotos" but because it is something that i take the time to learn, i can see the variety and depth. a possible analogue is in music, one often hears how people who dislike a certain genre saying "it all sounds the same" and to an ear that doesnt enjoy it, it probably does. As an aside, as a fan of stylized rt and fluid animations, fighting games have always held a place in my heart, even if stories usually were secondary at best.

oh and dark, i got you now, the clarification of intent helped. mashers can get by to an untrained eye, but that can be said for any genre, familiarity breeds discernment.

There have been several games of both genres that have tried, but were immediately rejected by both reviewers and most of the public.

Reasoning: "They changed too much of what we were used to."

Then again, I feel the same way about FPS games, and mainly because I go off of what I see, since I haven't played a FPS game since the original Medal Of Honor. All of them have you go in and shoot everything you see for the most part. I know there are exceptions, but they are kind of few and far in between.