Over and over throughout life, we’re told that we should pursue a specialty. In our education, those of us who go to a trade school or university are required to pick a major area of study. As sports players, we’re slotted into archetypes or player roles. And in our jobs, we’re expected to scrupulously optimize a narrow set of skills. Sometimes it’s good to specialize in this way. There are levels of excellence that we simply can’t reach unless we practice an activity with devotion and persistence. But there are other times when we need variety. Consider the landscape of fighting games.
Competitively, fighting gamers are almost always specialists. We have our “mains,” i.e., the characters we play most seriously; we have our trademark playstyles; and we even have our favorite games. But there are good reasons to experiment, especially when it comes to that third category. There are literally hundreds of fighting games out there, and almost all of them have something to enjoy, something to appreciate, and something to teach.
This was the subject of a recent conversation initiated by Twitter user @ItsInigma. Speaking to Dragonball FighterZ players, they said that playing other fighting games would “change your perspective.” Many FGCers chimed in with their agreement, but the point is true for any game, not just FighterZ. In this post, we’ll explore some of the reasons why you, too, should play more than one fighting game.
Reminder that if DBFZ is your first fighting game, competitive or casual, try playing another fighters too
BBCF, GG, SF, MKX, UNI, etc
It’ll change your perspective 🙃
— Mr Let Em Know (@ItsInigma) August 12, 2020
1: To Improve
All fighting games share certain fundamental elements, but that doesn’t mean they’re all the same. On the contrary, every game takes those same fundamental elements and rearranges them in different ways, emphasizing some over others and introducing unique wrinkles and variations. As a result, every fighting game teaches a different set of lessons about how to excel at the genre. Some prioritize offense; others, defense; still others, reads, mind games, technical knowledge, and so on.
If you only play one game, you’ll only see the genre from one of these angles, meaning that you’ll only exercise some of your skills. That’s why, even if you only want to get good at one of them, playing multiple fighting games will make you a better all-around competitor, as @Kyo_Yukanna discovered.
So true playing games like samsho, kof and phantasy strike really helped me get better at fighterz
— KyoYukanna (@Kyo_Yukanna) August 13, 2020
Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Most of the great fighting game players cross not only games but genres. Daigo Umehara, the Street Fighter legend, has multiple world championships in Guilty Gear; Carl “Perfect Legend” White has championships in both 2-D and 3-D titles; and so on. By trying their hand at different titles, these professionals round out their skill sets and become more dangerous in competition. But you don’t have to be a world-beater to get that benefit. Playing multiple games will make anyone a stronger competitor.
2: To Fall In Love
According to a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, it’s a myth to think “people desire partners who uniquely fit their ideals.” In other words, even though we may have a clear idea of the type of person we’ll fall in love with, that idea is almost always wrong.*
Fighting games are similar. From playstyle to character selection to the games themselves, we don’t always know which choice will be the most fulfilling. Especially for newcomers to the scene, it often takes a lot of experimentation to settle on a main and an approach. But we can even fall in love with a new game just by trying it out. That’s what happened with @Milionissimo, who started out as a Street Fighter V player but now considers Tekken their game of choice.
And who knows? I used to play only SFV (i’m kinda new to the fgc :p) because 3d games scared me, now i pretty much play tekken more than anything, maybe you’ll find something you like even more like i have c:
— Evil Viteibe (@Milionissimo) August 13, 2020
You won’t end up head-over-heels for every game you try, obviously. As in the world of dating, there will be some times when you enjoy yourself and others when you’ll be happy to move on to something else. But you can’t know for sure which way it’ll go unless you get out there and give it a try.
3: To Make New Friends
As @gamecontroller0 points out, a game is more than just a piece of software in the FGC . Every game or franchise has its own mini-community, which means that every new game you try is a new chance to meet new people and make new friends.
Fighting games may seem daunting and scary, but with the right people or game you’ll have a great time.
— Marvin Bryce (@gamecontroller0) August 13, 2020
It’s always important to remember that the FGC truly is a community. No matter how isolated we may be when we get behind the sticks, almost everything we do as fighting gamers involves our compatriots. Whether we’re training, spectating, theorizing, or just socializing, our experiences in the FGC are always shaped by our fellow gamers. The more we can embrace them, the more we’ll be enriched by our time in the community.
4: To Keep It From Getting Stale
No matter how much we love our favorite games, everyone gets burned out from time to time. Humans simply aren’t capable of performing the same task at peak efficiency forever, so we all need a little bit of a break from time to time. When we find ourselves in a rut or when we’ve hit a wall in your progress, sometimes the best thing to do is to switch over to a new game and introduce some variety into life.
That’s one of the benefits that @SoulRobba gets from playing multiple titles. The nice thing about this approach is that it gives us time to stay connected to the genre we love without overstressing ourselves or forcing ourselves to push for a specific goal. For many of us in the FGC, it’s all about the grind and leveling up – and that’s great! But even the hardest-working professionals know that they need time to kick back and relax, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to simply pick up a new game and make it your stress release valve.
This is why I play 2-3 different fighting games to keep myself from boredom and it helps me appreciate other games as well. https://t.co/GfsJpB6o7Z
— ☽TSN|Soulrobba@#BLM (@SoulRobba) August 14, 2020
And More!
These reasons only scratch the surface. There could be an entire book listing all the benefits of playing multiple titles as a fighting gamer. In addition to working different skills, a new game will also expose us to new tactics and archetypes, thereby giving us entirely new approaches to the games we already play. While we’re making friends, we’ll also be learning more about FGC lore and the unique elements that make our culture what it is. In short, finding a second or third game will amplify and breathe new life into all of the things that we already enjoy in our first games.
Of course, not all of us will be able to pick up a new game right away. Games cost money and they require time, which not all of us can spare. And if we’re still deeply involved with a single game, the timing may not be right to pick up a new one. But sooner or later, whatever it takes, as fighting game players we owe it to ourselves to play multiple games and fully explore the genre that we love.
Eli Horowitz (@BODIEDnovel) plays Street Fighter, Marvel, Smash, Guilty Gear, and more. He’s a novelist and software professional who lives in Pittsburgh. You can buy his first novel, which is set in the FGC, here. For more, check out his website here.
*For more, see http://nautil.us/issue/88/love–sex/your-romantic-ideals-dont-predict-who-your-future-partner-will-be
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