Knowing when to quit?

[Poultrygeist]

So it's generally assumed that if you want results in anything, especially in fighters, you should be persistent enough to stick it out and overcome your weaknesses.  Usually it's a bad idea to just give up when a specific character or matchup is causing you problems.  This thread isn't for any of that, I'm not here because I'm mad at not being able to win.  I have a different problem entirely.

I'm not going to make any friends by saying this, but I think it's necessary if I'm going to get anywhere with this thread.  I don't enjoy Guilty Gear at all.  I haven't enjoyed it since I played it for the first time back in like 2006, and I'm not really enjoying it now all these years later, and I'm not accomplishing anything by continuing to pretend I do, which is a facade I've put up even through my posts on here.  None of these characters really appeal to me, the system to me is tedious and boring, and all I can think about when I play it is how much I wish I was playing BB instead.  When I win, I don't feel accomplished or fulfilled, but perhaps more distressing is that when I lose, I don't feel the motivational salt necessary to improve myself.  My reactions to the outcome of the match are the same as to the match itself, complete apathy.  But none of that matters because this is not a "GG sux, BB rulz" bash thread, I'm trying to get help if I can.  

So why do I play it?  I have a very simple answer for that question.  I play it because Texas does not care about BB at all and because it's it's as close as I'm going to get.  However, through GG I have made some great friends and met some really cool people from the community.  This leads me to my dilemna.  Should I continue pretending that I don't despise GG for their sake, or do I drop the pretense entirely and lose out on the closest thing I have to playing what I do want to play?  I also feel obligated to continue supporting GG because again it's as close as I'm going to get, and also because I want to continue being friendly with our GG scene (Texas is a bit of a GG hotstpot) and minimalize tensions.  If you want an example of how I feel, think of how many VF players forced themselves to play DOA5 because it was close as they were going to get to playing VF6, or perhaps more accurately...how some GG players forced themselves to play BBCT when it came out because GG was AWOL at the time.  

Please help, I'll take any advice I can.  Should I continue trying to stomach a game I dislike because I feel pressured to do so for a variety of reasons, or should I just let go despite the risks involved?  And please don't turn this into any more of a BB vs GG thread than it absolutely has to be, this is not the time nor place for shit flinging since that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.  

[Airk]

If you're really not enjoying it AT ALL, I say ditch it.  But that's the difference between "Well, this is okay, but BB is better" and "God, I hate Guilty Gear."

Basically, the quitting point for a fighting game is when it's no longer enough fun to merit the time invested.

Maybe you could still hang out, and try to play whatever else with the community?

[RurouniLoneWolf]

6 hours ago, Poultrygeist said:

So why do I play it?  I have a very simple answer for that question.  I play it because Texas does not care about BB at all and because it's it's as close as I'm going to get.  However, through GG I have made some great friends and met some really cool people from the community. 

I'm going to answer this question based solely on these three sentences.

I think you should:

• Shift the bulk load of your time committed back on to BB. Your local scene doesn't really care for it? That's fine. Welcome to the life of a Persona, DFC, Skullgirls (in a lot of places), etc. player. It's not a particularly bad situation to be in to be honest, especially since a lot of people do play the games on netplay. You just need to take a lot more initiative in finding games and playing people. Going in the Match Making thread, skype/discord chat, etc. and asking if people want to play is nice but gets inconsistent results. If you're really serious about playing often, you should start talking to people directly, seeing when the best time to get matches in with them are and frequently organize matches with them.
• Keep playing GG but shift your focus on getting the most out of your matches with your friends instead of just playing the game in general. If I've learned anything from playing a wide variety of games and meeting/interacting with lots of people and communities, it's really that the person sitting next to you or on the other arcade cab is what's ultimately going to make playing the game enjoyable. If you've already got great friends and cool people to play against, you've already met the conditions to enjoy your matches. You just need to shift your focus to enjoying your time with your friends. Don't concern yourself with playing other people unless you're up to it.

Those are my thoughts on this situation. Hope it helps in some way.

[Poultrygeist]

17 hours ago, Airk said:

If you're really not enjoying it AT ALL, I say ditch it.  But that's the difference between "Well, this is okay, but BB is better" and "God, I hate Guilty Gear."

Basically, the quitting point for a fighting game is when it's no longer enough fun to merit the time invested.

Maybe you could still hang out, and try to play whatever else with the community?

I'm pretty much in the latter, it's not even that I like the game but would rather play BB, every single moment that I'm playing GG makes me wish I was doing almost literally anything else.  I'm actually scared to tell my friends because I worry that I'll just disappoint them and let them down, even though we play non GG fighters a lot mostly VSav and Melty with the occasional SF, but GG is what we bonded over so it's a bit of a sore situation to me.  This is where the problem lies.

 

16 hours ago, RurouniLoneWolf said:

I'm going to answer this question based solely on these three sentences.

I think you should:

• Shift the bulk load of your time committed back on to BB. Your local scene doesn't really care for it? That's fine. Welcome to the life of a Persona, DFC, Skullgirls (in a lot of places), etc. player. It's not a particularly bad situation to be in to be honest, especially since a lot of people do play the games on netplay. You just need to take a lot more initiative in finding games and playing people. Going in the Match Making thread, skype/discord chat, etc. and asking if people want to play is nice but gets inconsistent results. If you're really serious about playing often, you should start talking to people directly, seeing when the best time to get matches in with them are and frequently organize matches with them.
• Keep playing GG but shift your focus on getting the most out of your matches with your friends instead of just playing the game in general. If I've learned anything from playing a wide variety of games and meeting/interacting with lots of people and communities, it's really that the person sitting next to you or on the other arcade cab is what's ultimately going to make playing the game enjoyable. If you've already got great friends and cool people to play against, you've already met the conditions to enjoy your matches. You just need to shift your focus to enjoying your time with your friends. Don't concern yourself with playing other people unless you're up to it.

Those are my thoughts on this situation. Hope it helps in some way.

This post really made me think and it helps a lot, thank you very much.

1.I extremely strongly disagree with focusing on netplay because even without the lag it's an inferior experience due to the community aspect being drastically reduced by playing over an internet connection instead of in person and real time.   I'm also worried about a horrible connection because BB's netcode is not perfect (when will companies that aren't Capcom learn to accept rollback?) and due to bad weather we've been having I'm worried about my connection being poor on top of that.  That said I'm not opposed to netplay or actively dislike it, and I do try to play as often as I can.

2.I like this idea but...the game is literally so tedious to me that I almost can't do this.  Unless the people I'm playing with are really cool and we're just fucking around then I can't get any enjoyment out of it.  It feels like I'm settling for a product I like significantly less rather than just playing a different game than my favorite.  

I don't know, I'll find a solution to this, these posts do help so I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice.  

[Cross]

How old are you?

Your friends won't care if you like GG or not. If they stop hanging out with you or start pressuring you to play it when you told them you don't like it then are those really your friends? 

Quit guilty gear and play blazblue. Netplay is inferior to in person but sometimes we have to play the hand we're dealt. If you guys go to majors together that will be your opportunity to play in person. maybe your friends will give bb a shot as well, if even only casually, and maybe a few will learn to like it enough to take it as seriously as you. 

[Mumm-Ra]

It's just a video game dum dum, if they're your friends they won't care about it, also you're already playing VSaV which is the superior game compared to any other you listed anyways. 

Also you could start a local BB scene yourself, fuck I live in the middle of bumbfuck nowhere in the mexican part of the Arizona desert and still managed to find a couple of guys that play anime games, you could also teach whoever the game if they show any kind of interest.

Also GG>BB eat it

[Poultrygeist]

4 hours ago, Mumm-Ra said:

It's just a video game dum dum, if they're your friends they won't care about it, also you're already playing VSaV which is the superior game compared to any other you listed anyways. 

Also you could start a local BB scene yourself, fuck I live in the middle of bumbfuck nowhere in the mexican part of the Arizona desert and still managed to find a couple of guys that play anime games, you could also teach whoever the game if they show any kind of interest.

Also GG>BB eat it

Yeah man I know they're not gonna stop being my friends over it, I just like spending time with them so I don't know where I should go with this.

I've been actually trying to usher in people to play BB and have already gotten like 3 people into the game, we're making good progress in growing the scene but I just don't want the GG guys to feel bad that I don't support their game anymore, since Arcsys games need all the help they can get even in Texas where GG is popular.

Spoiler

Wow bro you should probably make sure you get your < sign right next time before you submit your post.  Good thing you can edit it so that it's right!

 

[Airk]

Well, if you're worried about that, you should enter their tournaments or whatever (because a couple of matches probably won't make your head explode) but avoid casuals etc.

[Poultrygeist]

On 12/6/2015, 8:22:36, Airk said:

Well, if you're worried about that, you should enter their tournaments or whatever (because a couple of matches probably won't make your head explode) but avoid casuals etc.

This is probably what I'll do.  If I enter a tournament it still gets support but I don't have to subject myself to it for long.  Although at the same time I do feel like I'm just doing a disservice to the other players by giving them a potential opponent who doesn't want to be there, but they can't really complain because I'm throwing away my own money for their sake lol.

[SoulGuitarist]

If you enjoy Blazblue, play Blazblue.

The games you'll see more improvement in are the ones that you actually enjoy. I play Vampire Savior and almost no one in my community plays the title besides me. A few pick it up but don't necessarily enjoy it.

Pretending to like a game and getting competitive level is indeed possible. However, actually liking the title and learning it seems to see more progress and overall is just more fun. I tried "forcing" myself to play again and sometimes I ended up enjoying it in the end while others I just have zero care for. If you have zero care/enjoyment for the game, don't play it. Put the time your using into playing a game you don't enjoy but has a community in your area and use it for a game that may not be popular in your area (In this case, BB)and you actually enjoy so when (if) the time ever comes you decide to compete in a major, you'll have fun and have the chance at doing well along with also learning things from other players.

Like @Mumm-Ra said, it's just a video game and video games are meant to be fun. Both casually and competitively.

 

 

[Blade]

This is just my two uninformed cents, but playing other games is a great way to take your mind off your problems in a fighting game (reading books, looking at video guides, etc).

If you fight the same group of players even, and you're getting whupped by them all the time, it might be a good idea to go fight some other players and get some fresh insights in to how other people play a game.

Heck, when I feel the urge to ragequit on stuff, I switch to more cerebral games like Tetris or RPGs.

[Dark Ranger88]

If I didn't like a game that all of my friends did I would:

A.) Pick the cheapest EZ mode top tier character I could and spam a braindead flowchart game plan just to make people mad. Oh and try to get under their skin as much as possible if I actually win.

or

B.) Pick a silly character with silly moves and joke around while playing. Try to make as many people laugh as possible.