« The Salty Runback : IPlayStarcraft »

This week, Haunts and I have played a lot of Starcraft 2 on battle.net. A whole lot. The more time I log Void Ray rushing, the more I begin to squish bits of Starcraft into the cracks in my Street Fighter game, like some sort of Korean aftermarket caulk. 

A lot of players seem to be under the mistaken impression that any game other than a Capcom fighter is anathema to their personal progression. The reasoning is that if they play too much of something else, their mindset will adjust to the new game, and their hard-earned automatic muscle fiber will re-program itself like some kind of Star Trek nightmare. To wit, this is the excuse that many Street Fighter players give for not even attempting to dabble in Tekken, which is especially confusing, considering the truth - Tekken is a far inferior game in all respects, and its players are slavering goblinoids whose flesh transmutes to stone at the mere touch of the sun - marks a sufficient explanation. 

I once asked one of the top North American players how he spent so much time playing World of Warcraft. Didn't he need that time to practice? He responded by telling me that, in reality, Street Fighter encroached on his masturbation, Pop Tarts, and Icecrown Citadel time; he only played SF4 at the random session and at tournaments. 

Of course, you need to practice. However, practice is something you do to learn to do something you don't. We could digress, but you probably practice more than you need to. Manual dexterity is a sliver of the overall game. At some point, you need to learn to cultivate the other elements of your game.

Starcraft is a game that bears more than a passing resemblance to Street Fighter. Both incorporate healthy dollops of prediction, reaction, and coordination. You could think of Street Fighter as a strategy game in its own right and not sound like an idiot. Well, you sounding like an idiot is more a matter of personal responsibility, but you catch my meaning. 

Street Fighter 4 specifically is well-suited for the comparison. SF4 is a game that rewards caution and punishes raw aggression. Even players that are notorious for, quote, rushing that shit down do so with selection and planning. A healthy mix of maul and turtle, and mastering the art of knowing when to do which, will take you places, no matter what character you play. 

You throw three Banshees towards your opponent's mineral line and start slaying Drones. You know that your Cheeto-stained enemy will respond with his Queen, and that lady can take a beating like Tina Turner. So you process Zerg pulp, soak a few hits from the Queen, and then move her target to the back of the line before you lose the unit. As you continue the attack, she chooses a new target or chases the old one. If she switches to a new target, you do the same thing. That's basic "micro". 

You apply scissor kick pressure in the corner, bringing Ryu down to about half health. He has two bars of meter and just stocked Ultra. You throw out an early crouching short to suggest you're going to meaty short. You block instead, baiting a wake up Shoryuken.

Those two scenarios take place in different engines, with different game play, but the theory at work is the same. You're aren't just throwing yourself out there with blind aggression, you're attacking with your hands up - you're rushing while defending yourself. 

If Street Fighter 4 punishes raw offense, then Starcraft is a game that forces it at gun point into train cars and imprisons it at labor camps. Not anticipating the ways that your opponent can attack, and especially counter-attack, will leave you crying into your Mountain Dew. Starcraft takes the concept of Roshambo - this beats that, that beats this - and elevates it. What looks complex is, in reality, a simple game of counters dressed up in a graphic interface. Armored ground and area damage counters light ground, air counters area damage, anti-air counters air, light ground counters anti-air. 

Exposing yourself to other games allows you to take elements that are present in Street Fighter and strengthen them in your own game by entering what amounts to a Hyperbolic Chamber. Starcraft teaches me the methodology of defensive offense and careful management of my resources at all times. Watching someone lose a round 3 with full meter is somewhat like eating Siege Tank when you're sitting on an amassed fortune of unspent minerals. 

There will never be a replacement for Training Mode. In order to play Street Fighter, you first need to understand and execute the fundamentals of the game and your character - movement, command inputs, etc. After you get those things down, however, then you might find that looking in other places and at other sources, especially other games, can be a useful training tool.

You thought this shit was for Ken only?As I climb the battle.net ladders (Rank 1 Gold Ladder 1v1 as of this morning!), I find myself being honestly surprised by the way my Street Fighter game is re-shaping itself. Both consciously and sub-consciously, I'm playing differently. As a result of my penchant to analyze my performance post-match in Starcraft, I've found myself taking that same process more seriously in Street Fighter, encouraged by the progress those steps have helped me make in the former. I am playing a different type of defense and a different type of offense. My overall game is becoming safer, though I find myself taking more risks, as well. It happens that those risks are calculated risks. 

My first love will always be Street Fighter. My Mecca will always be Tokyo, not Seoul. The point is, though, that you can learn a lot from Mega Man, or Einhander, or Bonk's Adventure. It's a matter of perspective. We've talked about philosophy and religion and how they related back to Street Fighter. You can Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon just about anything back to World Warrior. Other video games are a more direct interaction with our favorite hobby, and they are more direct practice for shoring up your weaknesses. 

Maybe take some time to level up a Dwarven Paladin for some arena games. You may find the Alliance is useful for something other than cybersex with a middle-aged man pretending to be an elderly woman.