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Jan. 26th, 2011 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsSo I was chatting with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zarathrustra94 earlier about the decline of arcades, and why would you go to an arcade when you can play against other people over the net. But then I realized, I've always liked the feel of the arcade. Sure, you can play fighting games online now against people all over the world. But I don't think its the same as playing some stranger in the arcade.
As I've said, I play fighting games to show off more than anything else. Which is prolly why I preferred pro wrestling to actual fighting. I mean, in something like UFC, occasionally you'll see something totally bad-ass, but since wrestling is scripted and choreographed beforehand, you're guaranteed to be entertained. But I digress. Playing online, the person you're playing sees what you can do, but I like a bigger audience, to get feedback from a crowd. I mean, Mortal Kombat, ending with a fatality isn't just for rubbing it in to the loser, its to entertain the crowd, much like the gladiator games of yore.
Playing in the arcade, its all the more satisfying to pull of some cool combo or hard to execute move, when you hear the cheers of other people watching all impressed with your skillz. And I also like watching the people about to play, as they take the current fight in, thinking about how they'll tackle the winner when its their turn to challenge them. It makes the competition feel all the more real when you see how the match means to other people.
Actually, I think I tend to play better when I have people watching. You'd think the opposite of me, given how much of a worry wart I can be, like wouldn't the existence of a crowd watching me freak me out even more? But if its just myself, I tend to be overly critical of my play. I'm a perfectionist, and end up setting lofty goals for myself (like playing a gun game left handed for more of a challenge) and get frustrated when I don't reach them, which in turn makes me play worse. But feeling I'm impressing an audience who don't have as high expectations as I have for myself, I feed off that, working harder to give them a "good show" as it were. Take Silent Scope 2 for example. I've done more head-shot auto kills of bosses within a few seconds of the start of the fight in front of a crowd than with no one watching me. If no one's watching, I start getting nervous beforehand, like what if I don't get off that perfect shot and miss and ruin my streak. But with an audience, I'm too busy performing for the crowd to over think things.
It sounds like they have channels in some of these online games that allow you to watch people competing against each other, which conversely means you can have an audience watching you from their computer screens, but that's just not the same as having someone physically there.
zarathrustra94 earlier about the decline of arcades, and why would you go to an arcade when you can play against other people over the net. But then I realized, I've always liked the feel of the arcade. Sure, you can play fighting games online now against people all over the world. But I don't think its the same as playing some stranger in the arcade.As I've said, I play fighting games to show off more than anything else. Which is prolly why I preferred pro wrestling to actual fighting. I mean, in something like UFC, occasionally you'll see something totally bad-ass, but since wrestling is scripted and choreographed beforehand, you're guaranteed to be entertained. But I digress. Playing online, the person you're playing sees what you can do, but I like a bigger audience, to get feedback from a crowd. I mean, Mortal Kombat, ending with a fatality isn't just for rubbing it in to the loser, its to entertain the crowd, much like the gladiator games of yore.
Playing in the arcade, its all the more satisfying to pull of some cool combo or hard to execute move, when you hear the cheers of other people watching all impressed with your skillz. And I also like watching the people about to play, as they take the current fight in, thinking about how they'll tackle the winner when its their turn to challenge them. It makes the competition feel all the more real when you see how the match means to other people.
Actually, I think I tend to play better when I have people watching. You'd think the opposite of me, given how much of a worry wart I can be, like wouldn't the existence of a crowd watching me freak me out even more? But if its just myself, I tend to be overly critical of my play. I'm a perfectionist, and end up setting lofty goals for myself (like playing a gun game left handed for more of a challenge) and get frustrated when I don't reach them, which in turn makes me play worse. But feeling I'm impressing an audience who don't have as high expectations as I have for myself, I feed off that, working harder to give them a "good show" as it were. Take Silent Scope 2 for example. I've done more head-shot auto kills of bosses within a few seconds of the start of the fight in front of a crowd than with no one watching me. If no one's watching, I start getting nervous beforehand, like what if I don't get off that perfect shot and miss and ruin my streak. But with an audience, I'm too busy performing for the crowd to over think things.
It sounds like they have channels in some of these online games that allow you to watch people competing against each other, which conversely means you can have an audience watching you from their computer screens, but that's just not the same as having someone physically there.
