Celestial Kurse
Member
I remember playing Dead or Alive 3 like it was yesterday. Sitting in the floor of my girlfriend's brother's room holding an original Xbox controller in my hand as I watched the screen flash that well known stormy sea breaking way to the mountain that signified Team NINJA. I was no stranger to fighting games by then. I had my fair share of bouts in Soul Edge, Bloody Roar Primal Fury and Mortal Kombat, so to say I was confident in my ability to win would be an understatement. I remember the music clearly in my head as the main menu came up and my girlfriend explained the controls of the game to me. X to block, A to grab, Y to punch and B to kick.
She sorted through the menus to quickly for me to really grasp all the options available and before I knew it we were at the character select screen. I cycled through them all, taking in the artistic design. I remember being impressed with the detail of the clothes. the textures of the fabric, the hair designs and the costumes in general. Of course, being a 16 year old boy, I was drawn toward the female character designs but I wasn't going to make comments on their aesthetic prowess while sitting there next to my girlfriend at the time. I instead took mental notes on which characters I liked best and since I had no idea how to play I chose a character I thought was the most attractive. And that character was Hitomi.
After the character select screen we selected a stage and what we wound up with was the Beach. The game flipped through a quick loading sequence before presenting us with the 1st round. I was pleased to find that you could move about before the announcer issued the "Fight!" command. I didn't wait to look at my moves, or ask about combos, I ran in and mashed the hell out of the Y button. I'll never forget that first time I experienced Hitomi's pressure game. In-your-face punch variations highlighted with alternating kick options. I had no idea what I was doing with her, but I loved every second of it. It's funny, I remember my girlfriend getting mad because I was blocking. She told me, "You can't do that, it's cheating!" Now days we would call that "being salty". But back then I just smiled. It was a natural part of the game to be frustrated when having a difficult time.
We played all afternoon until it was time for me to go home. That next week I had my own copy of the game and from that moment on begun my struggle to find my place in the DOA world. The struggle to settle with being a casual player or a pro. Given, then, I was young and I couldn't go to tournaments due to my family's financial situation. For the next 2 years I played DOA3, but not as much as I thought I would have. And the reason was that it is no fun fighting computers constantly, to me at least, and my other friends weren't as big into fighting games as me. Eventually DOA2U came out and I got it for Christmas, 2 months after it's October release.
I found myself back in that struggle. I wanted so badly to be good at DOA, so I got Xbox Live and I played it everyday for hours and hours. Under the gamertag Soul Nio I co-founded a clan with two other players, Split 69 and GrandgunbladeX, Grand Soul Guns. Now we don't see many clans, but back then we did. If you were any good at DOA2U or well known online then you were in some prestigious clan. That marked the beginning of my attempt to be pro. As pro as online would let you be. Back then the online scene for DOA was alive and kicking. Lobbies were packed all the time, no matter what time I got on there were people on. There was challenges, clan matches, tournaments and passion for this series.
I shared this passion and with that feeling came a hunger. A hunger that eventually made me hate the game. I fought so hard that I lost site of the important things in my life. School, my job... my mom. I rarely left my room, I would get pissed at my mom for asking the simplest of things. I worked enough to pay the internet bill and my Xbox Live payment, the rest of my time was spent with that controller in my hand fighting and training my Hitomi. I never studied frame data, I sat there with the controller in my hand and I found out what worked and what didn't.
Before I had realized it I had dropped out of school. I guess it happened slowly at first, a day here or a day there to play DOA. Then I stayed out for a whole week. I was 18 by then and had it set in my mind that I knew what I wanted and at the time all I wanted to do was play DOA. So I stopped going. And my life became all about the game. But everything has to crash down at some point and it did. One day I realized that the hunger to be the best had made me someone I didn't want to be. All I did day in and day out was play. I finally decided that I needed to step back. I resigned from my clan and let my Xbox Live lapse.
I stopped playing DOA for a long while after that. It wasn't until DOA4 released that I started back up. But I realized when I got DOA4 that that desire I had back then wasn't present anymore. To be honest, I wasn't even interested in playing online that much, which was good because there wasn't many online at the time. I played it a lot, but it never got too overwhelming. But it gave me time to figure out my stance on the series I enjoyed so much.
I can proudly say that I have found my place among the DOA fanbase... I am a casual player.
I am a fan of Dead or Alive. I love playing the game. I love supporting the game. Despite my outspoken campaign against DLC costumes, I buy them. Because this is how us casual players support the series we love. We purchase the games, DLC, merchandise, etc. I would love to go to tournaments. To play with everyone else. But the reality is, I work 60+ hours a week and my vacations are far and between. What little time I have to myself isn't enough to train for competition play and I am legitimately afraid of what would happen if I let myself follow down the path I did when I was younger.
I will continue to do what I can to support all players and fans of DOA. Because we all have one thing in common, we are fighters. Osu!
She sorted through the menus to quickly for me to really grasp all the options available and before I knew it we were at the character select screen. I cycled through them all, taking in the artistic design. I remember being impressed with the detail of the clothes. the textures of the fabric, the hair designs and the costumes in general. Of course, being a 16 year old boy, I was drawn toward the female character designs but I wasn't going to make comments on their aesthetic prowess while sitting there next to my girlfriend at the time. I instead took mental notes on which characters I liked best and since I had no idea how to play I chose a character I thought was the most attractive. And that character was Hitomi.
After the character select screen we selected a stage and what we wound up with was the Beach. The game flipped through a quick loading sequence before presenting us with the 1st round. I was pleased to find that you could move about before the announcer issued the "Fight!" command. I didn't wait to look at my moves, or ask about combos, I ran in and mashed the hell out of the Y button. I'll never forget that first time I experienced Hitomi's pressure game. In-your-face punch variations highlighted with alternating kick options. I had no idea what I was doing with her, but I loved every second of it. It's funny, I remember my girlfriend getting mad because I was blocking. She told me, "You can't do that, it's cheating!" Now days we would call that "being salty". But back then I just smiled. It was a natural part of the game to be frustrated when having a difficult time.
We played all afternoon until it was time for me to go home. That next week I had my own copy of the game and from that moment on begun my struggle to find my place in the DOA world. The struggle to settle with being a casual player or a pro. Given, then, I was young and I couldn't go to tournaments due to my family's financial situation. For the next 2 years I played DOA3, but not as much as I thought I would have. And the reason was that it is no fun fighting computers constantly, to me at least, and my other friends weren't as big into fighting games as me. Eventually DOA2U came out and I got it for Christmas, 2 months after it's October release.
I found myself back in that struggle. I wanted so badly to be good at DOA, so I got Xbox Live and I played it everyday for hours and hours. Under the gamertag Soul Nio I co-founded a clan with two other players, Split 69 and GrandgunbladeX, Grand Soul Guns. Now we don't see many clans, but back then we did. If you were any good at DOA2U or well known online then you were in some prestigious clan. That marked the beginning of my attempt to be pro. As pro as online would let you be. Back then the online scene for DOA was alive and kicking. Lobbies were packed all the time, no matter what time I got on there were people on. There was challenges, clan matches, tournaments and passion for this series.
I shared this passion and with that feeling came a hunger. A hunger that eventually made me hate the game. I fought so hard that I lost site of the important things in my life. School, my job... my mom. I rarely left my room, I would get pissed at my mom for asking the simplest of things. I worked enough to pay the internet bill and my Xbox Live payment, the rest of my time was spent with that controller in my hand fighting and training my Hitomi. I never studied frame data, I sat there with the controller in my hand and I found out what worked and what didn't.
Before I had realized it I had dropped out of school. I guess it happened slowly at first, a day here or a day there to play DOA. Then I stayed out for a whole week. I was 18 by then and had it set in my mind that I knew what I wanted and at the time all I wanted to do was play DOA. So I stopped going. And my life became all about the game. But everything has to crash down at some point and it did. One day I realized that the hunger to be the best had made me someone I didn't want to be. All I did day in and day out was play. I finally decided that I needed to step back. I resigned from my clan and let my Xbox Live lapse.
I stopped playing DOA for a long while after that. It wasn't until DOA4 released that I started back up. But I realized when I got DOA4 that that desire I had back then wasn't present anymore. To be honest, I wasn't even interested in playing online that much, which was good because there wasn't many online at the time. I played it a lot, but it never got too overwhelming. But it gave me time to figure out my stance on the series I enjoyed so much.
I can proudly say that I have found my place among the DOA fanbase... I am a casual player.
I am a fan of Dead or Alive. I love playing the game. I love supporting the game. Despite my outspoken campaign against DLC costumes, I buy them. Because this is how us casual players support the series we love. We purchase the games, DLC, merchandise, etc. I would love to go to tournaments. To play with everyone else. But the reality is, I work 60+ hours a week and my vacations are far and between. What little time I have to myself isn't enough to train for competition play and I am legitimately afraid of what would happen if I let myself follow down the path I did when I was younger.
I will continue to do what I can to support all players and fans of DOA. Because we all have one thing in common, we are fighters. Osu!
I think I'm the middle lol 
