Community Learning from the Japanese Players

We've heard a lot of things about Japanese players in the community without really playing them, and the stuff said has been somewhat of a mixed bag. Recently a player from the fighting game community took a trip to Japan to see for himself, and he came back with constructive things to say.

The player learned that Japanese players are patient, and enjoy helping one another with their game. It becomes a more social activity instead of a creepy solo performance of practicing tech and withholding it for yourself in your bedroom.

"When I spent time [in Japan], they told me about how they train. It's very different from rest of world. I think that's why they have an advantage. They train (hundreds of fights), take a break/eat, then go at it again. And help each other."

A lot of people comment on the size of tournaments in the states for our game, and some people say it's because Dead or Alive is not the most popular fighting game, but the real case behind this could be a lack of effort from the community itself. With a million digital F2P, and a million physical copies out there, that doesn't really explain a thirty man tournament at a major.

Emperor Cow, Sweet Revenge and Hajin are some good examples of how the community should be doing things:

1. International Play - We're starting to see more of this, and this is great for community growth.
2. Guides, Tech Sharing - It doesn't always hurt to share what you know if you want the community to grow. A more knowledgeable community can equal a happier, and larger community.

I ask the community this: What do you want for the DOA community? How have you helped? How much does community actually even mean to you?

Perhaps we can learn a great deal from the players overseas, and while I think we as a community are doing better than we ever have; I believe now is the time to step it up a notch and go into beast mode.

 

Funny thing is I read an article that paralleled this one about PR Rog over in the SF scene going to Japan and saying the exact same thing about their scene and playerbase vs the American one. Guess it doesn't even matter what the game itself is, the Japanese are just genuinely more helpful and open to share.

It's in their culture. They are raised with a community mentality, unlike us, so they generally have a better idea on how to support them.

 

I must say that I'm pretty impressed of this community and I enjoy meeting lots of good players here. I had absolutely 0% knowledge of fighting games. What's a crumple stun, what's a sit-down stun, what's a throw-punish etc. I've learned so much here and people answer your questions very quickly (in a friendly way). People here do like to share combo videos, FTs, pseudo FTs, tricks and all sort of things, which is fantastic and help a lot.

Now for the things I'd like to see in the future are videos that are completely different. We make lots of combo guides, combo videos etc. But how about a video explaining on how to beat a specific character like Hitomi. We only learn how to fight with a character... but not how to beat a specific character. It probably isn't something new players want to see; but these type of videos will surely also be helpful for professional players out there.
How about a video helping people to deal with spammers? Lots of people have problems fightin' 'em and can be extremely frustrating when losing to a player only using 3 moves.
How to fight button-mashers?
How to fight opponents which take their distance (like Lisa players like to do)?
How to deal with laggy opponents?
How about a video explaining the move details in training mode?
Or how about we actually explain every moment of a match what has been going on through your mind while fighting and why you decided to use certain moves at certain times?

I think we should expand the knowledge in different perspectives. Combo guides and all sort of videos we've done so far are very good; but imo still 1-dimensional. I'll defenitely work on a "how to beat Pai players guide" & probably also the move details video (maybe also thread) 'cause every single information on there helped me out a lot.

 

The scene is getting better in London, compared to the wasteland it used to be back in vanilla days. People still need to come down sometimes, but it's expensive here, so they have to save for sessions and travel. We#re still not sharing as much as we can though.

Come down to Hog on fridays you FUCKING WASTEMEN. We got 3.1 and 5U, so get on whatsapp and chat.

WASTEMEN.

 

The scene is getting better in London, compared to the wasteland it used to be back in vanilla days. People still need to come down sometimes, but it's expensive here, so they have to save for sessions and travel. We#re still not sharing as much as we can though.

Come down to Hog on fridays you FUCKING WASTEMEN. We got 3.1 and 5U, so get on whatsapp and chat.

WASTEMEN.

I never heard anyone use the term, "wastemen" before.

 

I never heard anyone use the term, "wastemen" before.

London slang for people who are of impeccable waste.

 

The #3 point which is missing here - is contribute to your existing community and build your local scene.

If you have anywhere that people play fighting games locally, pair up with a friend, take a setup, and just go play DOA!

All it takes is at least 2 people playing to start growing interest.

Keep in contact with your local scene and keep encouraging one another and alerting people to events or meetups.

Speaking of which, Australia's major DOA tournament is next month:
http://www.freestepdodge.com/threads/may-9-2014-battle-arena-melbourne-6-melbourne.4393

 

Bullshit @Nightpup Every Brad player has been complain since day 1 (except chosen1, but he sucks and doesn't post here anyway). No adjustments made.

Hm... I have never complained about Brad.

The "Hey, yo, help me learn this character" is probably the most common question around and probably needs the most addressing, really. Most of the information on a character is out there (not all), but it's also incredibly disorganized and on different levels. A single character shouldn't be a research project. Me, personally, I'll probably work on this as i get better myself. Though, me saying this is beating on a dead horse. I won't be happy until someone can start playing DoA 1 week, and the next week be casual level competent with at least half the roster. I doubt i could ever get Team Ninja's help, but they would be able to help more than anyone.

I had experienced that "research project" issue by myself many times. It could even become such painful that giving up seems better option despite all the love for the game. So, I think it could be a good idea make the key doa content of the game learning path more accesible. I don't even know if such thing is possible, the game already provides a good tutorial. What could we do in order to avoid that every interested player have to spend looooots of time doing those researchings...? (...moreover, a research already done individually for a lot of previous players...)

In order to avoid getting out of topic here, I created a this new thread:
No more unnecessary research projects!

I must say that I'm pretty impressed of this community and I enjoy meeting lots of good players here. I had absolutely 0% knowledge of fighting games. What's a crumple stun, what's a sit-down stun, what's a throw-punish etc. I've learned so much here and people answer your questions very quickly (in a friendly way). People here do like to share combo videos, FTs, pseudo FTs, tricks and all sort of things, which is fantastic and help a lot.

Now for the things I'd like to see in the future are videos that are completely different. We make lots of combo guides, combo videos etc. But how about a video explaining on how to beat a specific character like Hitomi. We only learn how to fight with a character... but not how to beat a specific character. It probably isn't something new players want to see; but these type of videos will surely also be helpful for professional players out there.
How about a video helping people to deal with spammers? Lots of people have problems fightin' 'em and can be extremely frustrating when losing to a player only using 3 moves.
How to fight button-mashers?
How to fight opponents which take their distance (like Lisa players like to do)?
How to deal with laggy opponents?
How about a video explaining the move details in training mode?
Or how about we actually explain every moment of a match what has been going on through your mind while fighting and why you decided to use certain moves at certain times?

I think we should expand the knowledge in different perspectives. Combo guides and all sort of videos we've done so far are very good; but imo still 1-dimensional. I'll defenitely work on a "how to beat Pai players guide" & probably also the move details video (maybe also thread) 'cause every single information on there helped me out a lot.

I think these "videos that are completely different" could be a great idea.

 

I'm thinking that making a whole new tutorial could be made (as stated in the branched thread) and that covering these undercovered topics would be part of the project. We really need to, as a community, actually work together and talk about the best way to get this game taught, because it's a mystery right now to most people playing it. I think this is all leading to the right place, right now, though.

 

I'm not sure why this presented as a revolutionary concept. Americans are known for being un-compassionate, judgmental, self-interested dicks. Not all of them, but once you get a community going, they almost always are. It's not just a FGC thing, and it's not just a gaming community thing. Americans are just predisposed to be assholes because the culture reinforces it.

In regards to helping people and the drama-llama complex, it's same-old, same-old. Some people stir it up for no reason and refuse to help others, and other players are naturally nurturing, helping, encouraging and just generally good people. Seriously, I could name some people in this community that are just such great people/players. They are always helping and contributing whenever they can, and never speak ill of others. They circumvent the drama and are just great people.

But some folks don't want to be like that. And they're just dicks. Sadly, we're in a culture that looks up to them for it, so they'll always have sound little spot waiting for them on Cunthill. I'd prefer we have more of the other type, but I can't really do anything to change that. I can only manage how I behave.

 

The #3 point which is missing here - is contribute to your existing community and build your local scene.

I think your point is fairly obvious and a bit preachy, but noted.

The point of this topic is to not only to shine on the importance of International play, but to break myths of other players being better because of where they live.

 

The point of this topic is to not only to shine on the importance of International play, but to break myths of other players being better because of where they live.

I'm not familiar with that myth. I usually hear the opposite. "I'm super good because I'm God's gift to humanity. Bleurgh!"

 

I think your point is fairly obvious and a bit preachy, but noted.

The point of this topic is to not only to shine on the importance of International play, but to break myths of other players being better because of where they live.

What you're aiming for is not a myth, but rather, the mindset that's holding people back. It's the mentality of certain players themselves that fuel this superiority contest. While it's not everyone, you have some that are more volatile about this division mentality and take it too far.

 

I think your point is fairly obvious and a bit preachy, but noted.

Are you serious? In a post where you call point out people being constructive, I'm surprised at the tone of this response. I'm responding directly to your original post, and it was never a criticism:

I ask the community this: What do you want for the DOA community? How have you helped? How much does community actually even mean to you?

Among your other good points that stand to be reiterated in this context, it's growth of local play. The principle of listening to others and being willing to share info has to happen at this level, or noone gets to the level where we interact with international or interstate events.

The point of this topic is to not only to shine on the importance of International play, but to break myths of other players being better because of where they live.

It's all connected once the principle of sharing information is understood. It has to start grassroots.

 

I'm not sure why this presented as a revolutionary concept. Americans are known for being un-compassionate, judgmental, self-interested dicks. Not all of them, but once you get a community going, they almost always are. It's not just a FGC thing, and it's not just a gaming community thing. Americans are just predisposed to be assholes because the culture reinforces it.

In regards to helping people and the drama-llama complex, it's same-old, same-old. Some people stir it up for no reason and refuse to help others, and other players are naturally nurturing, helping, encouraging and just generally good people. Seriously, I could name some people in this community that are just such great people/players. They are always helping and contributing whenever they can, and never speak ill of others. They circumvent the drama and are just great people.

But some folks don't want to be like that. And they're just dicks. Sadly, we're in a culture that looks up to them for it, so they'll always have sound little spot waiting for them on Cunthill. I'd prefer we have more of the other type, but I can't really do anything to change that. I can only manage how I behave.

That's the west in general. I know of a few communities of mostly europeans that are very elitist. But there is something we could do about it. We could either call them out publicly or say to our buddies privately "don't bother with that cunt." I haven't run into anyone here that i could say is honestly a dick, but i haven't been here that long, so...

 

I flew to Tokyo and got to play against the Japanese. I want to say it's to easy to say "Well, like, the Japanese are just nice and stuff and they play and help each other out lawl while Americans are just assholes and stuff and just want to win so they hide things."

Like, no. Japan is just more geared toward playing video games in general. You'd see this after spending one day in the arcades in Akihabara. The culture itself is different/not the same. Video games aren't seen like they are in America. People play video games regularly and they play them for long periods of time, and not only that but they stick with their game or apply the same dedication to other games.

I'm not saying helping other players out isn't something you should do or that you shouldn't come up with a nice tutorial video or something, I'm just saying, even if you could be the most helpful DOA player ever, the most approachable, the most clear and respect, it's still not going to be enough for people to just play the game.

Think of it like the sorta ugly girl with really good values, or the truly nice guy that has a lot to offer, but chicks don't dig him. It doesn't matter how 'good' they are as people, it's not going to further their progression in being popular with the opposite sex. Only other good hearted people will be able to relate/be attracted to them.

Just my 2 cents/opinion.

 

...

Now for the things I'd like to see in the future are videos that are completely different. We make lots of combo guides, combo videos etc. But how about a video explaining on how to beat a specific character like Hitomi. We only learn how to fight with a character... but not how to beat a specific character. It probably isn't something new players want to see; but these type of videos will surely also be helpful for professional players out there.
How about a video helping people to deal with spammers? Lots of people have problems fightin' 'em and can be extremely frustrating when losing to a player only using 3 moves.
How to fight button-mashers?
How to fight opponents which take their distance (like Lisa players like to do)?
How to deal with laggy opponents?
How about a video explaining the move details in training mode?
Or how about we actually explain every moment of a match what has been going on through your mind while fighting and why you decided to use certain moves at certain times?
....

You spot strong points here. These questions come back so often in discussion.

Knowing how to play your character is the first step in learning a fighting game. This is widely illustrated by combo videos.

The second step is to understand how your opponent is playing and how to deal with it. You are asking the right questions and unfortunalty there are few / no video on these topics.

That's why a lot of people (including me) stay at a low level because we have to find by ourself what to do in a dedicated situation. For example some are raging about turtlers or pokers but it's because they don't know what weapon of their character they should use.

 

The #3 point which is missing here - is contribute to your existing community and build your local scene.

If you have anywhere that people play fighting games locally, pair up with a friend, take a setup, and just go play DOA!

All it takes is at least 2 people playing to start growing interest.

Keep in contact with your local scene and keep encouraging one another and alerting people to events or meetups.

This, DEFINITELY this. This is how the Southern California scene got noticed and picked up. It all started with Vincent Rayne, Air gear and myself.

People need to get up off their lazy asses and just get out to their to local venues and play the game publicly. It takes time, but things will pick up if you just keep at it. More people will eventually try the game and actually try to learn the game if you get them interested in it.

Nothing happens overnight, sale your game out there and make it look good. Brush up on your knowledge so you can answer questions if people ask you anything. DOA would NOT have gotten noticed in SoCal at all if we gave up on it.

1337LoungeLive, Level Up Series/Wednesday Night Fights and SoCal DOA were all possible (and blessings) because the scene kept at it.

Those of you who have a seemingly good chance at something, or an opportunity to start something. DO IT!!! You don't know if you'll be successful or not until you try.

It disgusts me when some players outright refuse to be part of a local offline scene CLOSE IN THEIR AREA and choose to play online. Meanwhile, there are tons of other players who would love to be in that position, to be near an offline scene. This game needs it's offline scene to grow, everywhere. DOA will never be where we want it to be if this doesn't happen.

EVERYONE that plays this game on a regular basis, trust me when I say this. You will learn a lot more with other players in person than you ever will online. I leveled up a lot faster out here in NorCal playing Requiem and Prince Adon than I ever have since DOA5 Vanilla.

@Prince Adon @Requiem and myself have quite a few players in NorCal that want to play offline, so we're having casuals offline at different venues to get things rollin' out here.

 

I flew to Tokyo and got to play against the Japanese. I want to say it's to easy to say "Well, like, the Japanese are just nice and stuff and they play and help each other out lawl while Americans are just assholes and stuff and just want to win so they hide things."

Like, no. Japan is just more geared toward playing video games in general. You'd see this after spending one day in the arcades in Akihabara. The culture itself is different/not the same. Video games aren't seen like they are in America. People play video games regularly and they play them for long periods of time, and not only that but they stick with their game or apply the same dedication to other games.

I'm not saying helping other players out isn't something you should do or that you shouldn't come up with a nice tutorial video or something, I'm just saying, even if you could be the most helpful DOA player ever, the most approachable, the most clear and respect, it's still not going to be enough for people to just play the game.

Think of it like the sorta ugly girl with really good values, or the truly nice guy that has a lot to offer, but chicks don't dig him. It doesn't matter how 'good' they are as people, it's not going to further their progression in being popular with the opposite sex. Only other good hearted people will be able to relate/be attracted to them.

Just my 2 cents/opinion.

I never told you this bro, but you are the wisest young person I grew to know, seriously.

 

I must say that I'm pretty impressed of this community and I enjoy meeting lots of good players here. I had absolutely 0% knowledge of fighting games. What's a crumple stun, what's a sit-down stun, what's a throw-punish etc. I've learned so much here and people answer your questions very quickly (in a friendly way). People here do like to share combo videos, FTs, pseudo FTs, tricks and all sort of things, which is fantastic and help a lot.

Now for the things I'd like to see in the future are videos that are completely different. We make lots of combo guides, combo videos etc. But how about a video explaining on how to beat a specific character like Hitomi. We only learn how to fight with a character... but not how to beat a specific character. It probably isn't something new players want to see; but these type of videos will surely also be helpful for professional players out there.
How about a video helping people to deal with spammers? Lots of people have problems fightin' 'em and can be extremely frustrating when losing to a player only using 3 moves.
How to fight button-mashers?
How to fight opponents which take their distance (like Lisa players like to do)?
How to deal with laggy opponents?
How about a video explaining the move details in training mode?
Or how about we actually explain every moment of a match what has been going on through your mind while fighting and why you decided to use certain moves at certain times?

I think we should expand the knowledge in different perspectives. Combo guides and all sort of videos we've done so far are very good; but imo still 1-dimensional. I'll defenitely work on a "how to beat Pai players guide" & probably also the move details video (maybe also thread) 'cause every single information on there helped me out a lot.

That's a good point, but that`s to be implemented in a video is nearly impossible. The experience about several characters and their movements/movesets is clearly of advantage. I for example have it against the VF characters harder because I don´t use them and I have no idea of their frames, moves, etc.
As example:
Eliot as such is always portrayed as a weak character but if we are honest, most don´t have the faintest glimmer when they fight against a good Eliot player because simply lack the basic general knowledge over this character.

 

This, DEFINITELY this. This is how the Southern California scene got noticed and picked up. It all started with Vincent Rayne, Air gear and myself.

People need to get up off their lazy asses and just get out their to local venues and play the game publicly. It takes time, but things will pick up if you just keep at it. More people will eventually try the game and actually try to learn the game if you get them interested in it.

Nothing happens overnight, sale your game out there and make it look good. Brush up on your knowledge so you can answer questions if people ask you anything. DOA would NOT have gotten noticed in SoCal at all if we gave up on it.

1337LoungeLive, Level Up Series/Wednesday Night Fights and SoCal DOA were all possible (and blessings) because the scene kept at it.

Those of you who have a seemingly good chance at something, or an opportunity to start something. DO IT!!! You don't know if you'll be successful or not until you try.

It disgusts me when some players outright refuse to be part of a local offline scene CLOSE IN THEIR AREA and choose to play online. Meanwhile, there are tons of other players who would love to be in that position, to be near an offline scene. This game needs it's offline scene to grow, everywhere. DOA will never be where we want it to be if this doesn't happen.

EVERYONE that plays this game on a regular basis, trust me when I say this. You will learn a lot more with other players in person than you ever will online. I leveled up a lot faster out here in NorCal playing Requiem and Prince Adon than I ever have since DOA5 Vanilla.

@Prince Adon @Requiem and myself have quite a few players in NorCal that want to play offline, so we're having casuals offline at different venues to get things rollin' out here.

I wish i had one, but there's absolutely no way i can build one without being relatively competent myself. I am trying, though, but i know it'll fall through when i can't teach them, which is coming up soon.