Rikuto
P-P-P-P-P-P-POWER!
Disclaimer: Wall of motherfuckingtext! I firmly believe most people will disagree with this. At times I disagree with it myself. On nights like tonight however, I find myself overwhelmed with the despair that maybe there is just no other rationale way to view things.
I stay as cool as I can here. In fact to my competitive brothers, I try to be nothing but nice these days. I wasn't always like that though, and I've actually got a pretty dark history of being a complete douchebag. I've repaired a lot of that reputation as growing up tends to help, and spending a lot of time with Mr. Wah who is a very neutral individual in most things has helped me to also chill out as a person.
I do still have one thing that sets me off and turns me into a complete jackass though, and that's the rabid casual.
So this is the typical routine for me.
I go to a new board or community, I see a section for DOA or some other fighter, I check it out.
I notice everyone there seems to be casual oriented, with almost all competitive talk being seriously taboo. Worse yet, should I interject with my thoughts on the game itself I am quickly met with scrub talk about how I take the game too seriously and that I shouldn't try to force my elitist attitude on their public sanctuary. The mere mention of playing the game the "right" way seems to always strike a nerve with people, almost as if I am insulting their intelligence by proxy as they have shown nothing but inability to do so thus far. I don't even have to make such accusations, yet they will always respond as though I have.
This kind of insecurity is quite common, and the casual will almost always lash out first by telling me that I should just let them play the game the way they want to play it, and that I have no right to hold myself above anyone or claim that my way of playing is anymore correct than theirs.
One of the most hilarious things I have done in the past (and I have seen grap3 do this too now) is link Sirlin's Play to Win. I notice quite often that the mere act of this is like forcing a possessed person to read from The Holy Bible. Seriously, they won't do it. They'll sometimes pretend they did it, and they will even try to hold an argument afterwards which assumes that they did it, but they never once had any intention of respecting the article enough to read it. It's that kind of lack of respect and arrogance that leads me to think that some casuals, in fact, most, just can't be reasoned with or talked to.
I don't have to convert every soul out there and nor do I expect to, but I do somehow feel like the casual scrub attitude that plagues current generation fighting games, in fact, gaming in general is incredibly detrimental to its growth. What I mean by growth is in terms of the games themselves competitively (ie how the developers design them), the communities, and possibly even e-sports as a whole.
Video game populaton is growing because, by nature, the worlds population is growing. It is only natural that some of those new births become gamers. The boom of the internet has helped this as well. If a casuals opinion, dangerous and ignorant as it is, is left unchecked then others will adopt this opinion en masse among with the new people joining that community. It becomes a community mentality and it will grow until it becomes dominant and can no longer be removed.
Such is the case for a community of any game, or sport, or thing. That's just how group minds tend to work. Street Fighter has its share of casuals, and crazy scrubs, but you notice that they are quickly put down anytime they say something stupid. The massive competitive community overshadows the idiots opinion so drastically that the idiot can never gain any ground. New entrants to the community that have an open mind about competitive play are allowed to flourish however.
This is the kind of power that having the belief of the majority has. It's the power to instantly silence stupidity with an overwhelming force of numbers. The power of belief is the strongest there is. It can cause revolution and change the very foundations of the world. It can also cause stability, peace, and progress. Belief, like the religions that it is so closely tied to at times, has often been fought for in wars. People often look back at a war over religion and say "what a horrible waste of lives that was, all over a stupid religion".
The Crusades, for example, failed to win the war of belief. They failed that because they lost the strength of arms as well. When you go in with the intent of completely annihilating a belief and cannot stamp it all out, all you have managed to create is an eternity of retribution. No matter how much the world tries to mature after this point, that malice will always exist, and people will always remember that you were the one who came in and tried to destroy their way of life.
So what does that have to do with me? When DOA2U hit, I had learned from my defeat in DOA 3 and had forsaken the path of the scrub. I immediately went on to try and convert others so that they did not have to suffer such a shameful defeat as I had, but could still enjoy the benefits of being a hardened competitive player. It did not work, by and large, and I was met with hostile resistance at every corner. I was accused of all the same horrible things that I had once accused other people of. Being young I did the only thing I knew how to do -- I lashed back. Since they would attempt to demean and destroy my newfound love of the game and reduce its importance to nothing, I would do the same to them.
The difference between the casual and I, now, was that I had come from a similar background but had ascended through my own grit and willingness to persevere under incredible embarrassment and defeat. I knew what it meant to be an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about, and I knew what it meant to have my integrity put to the edge of a knife and spared so I could grow. I knew that the competitive beast was not what I once thought it was, and so I also knew this.
The typical casual would not ever concede their ignorance unless put through similar shame.
The trouble is that all people are different, and will respond to that situation differently. Some will take this sign of mercy at the end of all shame as the olive branch that it is and grow as a person. Most will crawl back into their scrub mentality, curse you to oblivion, and disappear into the night never to be seen again as their shame makes it too much trouble to be around you.
My dangerous opinion is this.
I honestly and truly believe that every single casual player who exhibits this kind of behavior should be put through the burner and humiliated. I believe they should be brought to the point where they feel as though they do not matter at all unless they fight to matter. In going through this process they will grow as a person and see the truth of competitive gaming.
To those that reject the challenge, I believe they should be ridiculed, berated, and driven off permanently. Yes, I actually do believe this, insane as it sounds. I believe this, because as long as their own belief is kept a public majority they are a threat to the growth of the game, community, e-sports, and everything that is associated with what I happen to believe in.
I can see now the reader is taking off his hat, looking at the ground and shaking his head slowly like a cowboy would after he just had to put down a good horse.
"Why such hostile intent, Rikuto? That's going to, if anything, kill growth, right? You can't just drive off the vast majority of the players! Who will we make new players out of?"
Well... actually, you're right. You can't. I don't think the people visiting forums on the internet are the majority though. They are still the minority. Casuals from somewhere like IGN or gamefaqs might reflect the opinions of the majority, but their specific communities are not the majority of people playing the game. Those sites ARE major pipelines that lead into social gaming however. If you were to clean every last condescending voice out of those nests with a "convert or die" attitude, you would certainly kill the majority of that particular community.
That is actually a good thing in my mind. When you erase the public sanctuary for stupidity, anytime a new person visits that forum they immediately see the mentality of the people who have remained through the fire. They see what is considered relevant, and they are much more likely to start asking the relevant questions rather than be "that guy". This is just human nature, nobody wants to be the awkward one stumbling into a new community asking really dumb questions that nobody finds relevant. When this happens across all public venues, every community will begin growing at an incredible rate with the right mentality, and all good things that you want for your games will come that much faster.
Of course, it will never happen unless you first win the strength of arms and stamp them out completely.
So there you have it. If anyone wanted to know why I'm such an incredible asshole on casual forums, but pretty chill on here and other competitive sites, that's why. I fully believe in using the nuclear option against casuals and being an incredible, and at times unrealistically arrogant douchebag to get rid of them. Part of it is an act to set them on the right path, part of it is my care for them to grow, and part of it is because I shouldn't have play therapist for every single retarded casual who has the audacity to talk down to me every time I say something.
Feel free to disagree, I know most everyone will. It's cool though, I'm used to it
I stay as cool as I can here. In fact to my competitive brothers, I try to be nothing but nice these days. I wasn't always like that though, and I've actually got a pretty dark history of being a complete douchebag. I've repaired a lot of that reputation as growing up tends to help, and spending a lot of time with Mr. Wah who is a very neutral individual in most things has helped me to also chill out as a person.
I do still have one thing that sets me off and turns me into a complete jackass though, and that's the rabid casual.
So this is the typical routine for me.
I go to a new board or community, I see a section for DOA or some other fighter, I check it out.
I notice everyone there seems to be casual oriented, with almost all competitive talk being seriously taboo. Worse yet, should I interject with my thoughts on the game itself I am quickly met with scrub talk about how I take the game too seriously and that I shouldn't try to force my elitist attitude on their public sanctuary. The mere mention of playing the game the "right" way seems to always strike a nerve with people, almost as if I am insulting their intelligence by proxy as they have shown nothing but inability to do so thus far. I don't even have to make such accusations, yet they will always respond as though I have.
This kind of insecurity is quite common, and the casual will almost always lash out first by telling me that I should just let them play the game the way they want to play it, and that I have no right to hold myself above anyone or claim that my way of playing is anymore correct than theirs.
One of the most hilarious things I have done in the past (and I have seen grap3 do this too now) is link Sirlin's Play to Win. I notice quite often that the mere act of this is like forcing a possessed person to read from The Holy Bible. Seriously, they won't do it. They'll sometimes pretend they did it, and they will even try to hold an argument afterwards which assumes that they did it, but they never once had any intention of respecting the article enough to read it. It's that kind of lack of respect and arrogance that leads me to think that some casuals, in fact, most, just can't be reasoned with or talked to.
I don't have to convert every soul out there and nor do I expect to, but I do somehow feel like the casual scrub attitude that plagues current generation fighting games, in fact, gaming in general is incredibly detrimental to its growth. What I mean by growth is in terms of the games themselves competitively (ie how the developers design them), the communities, and possibly even e-sports as a whole.
Video game populaton is growing because, by nature, the worlds population is growing. It is only natural that some of those new births become gamers. The boom of the internet has helped this as well. If a casuals opinion, dangerous and ignorant as it is, is left unchecked then others will adopt this opinion en masse among with the new people joining that community. It becomes a community mentality and it will grow until it becomes dominant and can no longer be removed.
Such is the case for a community of any game, or sport, or thing. That's just how group minds tend to work. Street Fighter has its share of casuals, and crazy scrubs, but you notice that they are quickly put down anytime they say something stupid. The massive competitive community overshadows the idiots opinion so drastically that the idiot can never gain any ground. New entrants to the community that have an open mind about competitive play are allowed to flourish however.
This is the kind of power that having the belief of the majority has. It's the power to instantly silence stupidity with an overwhelming force of numbers. The power of belief is the strongest there is. It can cause revolution and change the very foundations of the world. It can also cause stability, peace, and progress. Belief, like the religions that it is so closely tied to at times, has often been fought for in wars. People often look back at a war over religion and say "what a horrible waste of lives that was, all over a stupid religion".
The Crusades, for example, failed to win the war of belief. They failed that because they lost the strength of arms as well. When you go in with the intent of completely annihilating a belief and cannot stamp it all out, all you have managed to create is an eternity of retribution. No matter how much the world tries to mature after this point, that malice will always exist, and people will always remember that you were the one who came in and tried to destroy their way of life.
So what does that have to do with me? When DOA2U hit, I had learned from my defeat in DOA 3 and had forsaken the path of the scrub. I immediately went on to try and convert others so that they did not have to suffer such a shameful defeat as I had, but could still enjoy the benefits of being a hardened competitive player. It did not work, by and large, and I was met with hostile resistance at every corner. I was accused of all the same horrible things that I had once accused other people of. Being young I did the only thing I knew how to do -- I lashed back. Since they would attempt to demean and destroy my newfound love of the game and reduce its importance to nothing, I would do the same to them.
The difference between the casual and I, now, was that I had come from a similar background but had ascended through my own grit and willingness to persevere under incredible embarrassment and defeat. I knew what it meant to be an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about, and I knew what it meant to have my integrity put to the edge of a knife and spared so I could grow. I knew that the competitive beast was not what I once thought it was, and so I also knew this.
The typical casual would not ever concede their ignorance unless put through similar shame.
The trouble is that all people are different, and will respond to that situation differently. Some will take this sign of mercy at the end of all shame as the olive branch that it is and grow as a person. Most will crawl back into their scrub mentality, curse you to oblivion, and disappear into the night never to be seen again as their shame makes it too much trouble to be around you.
My dangerous opinion is this.
I honestly and truly believe that every single casual player who exhibits this kind of behavior should be put through the burner and humiliated. I believe they should be brought to the point where they feel as though they do not matter at all unless they fight to matter. In going through this process they will grow as a person and see the truth of competitive gaming.
To those that reject the challenge, I believe they should be ridiculed, berated, and driven off permanently. Yes, I actually do believe this, insane as it sounds. I believe this, because as long as their own belief is kept a public majority they are a threat to the growth of the game, community, e-sports, and everything that is associated with what I happen to believe in.
I can see now the reader is taking off his hat, looking at the ground and shaking his head slowly like a cowboy would after he just had to put down a good horse.
"Why such hostile intent, Rikuto? That's going to, if anything, kill growth, right? You can't just drive off the vast majority of the players! Who will we make new players out of?"
Well... actually, you're right. You can't. I don't think the people visiting forums on the internet are the majority though. They are still the minority. Casuals from somewhere like IGN or gamefaqs might reflect the opinions of the majority, but their specific communities are not the majority of people playing the game. Those sites ARE major pipelines that lead into social gaming however. If you were to clean every last condescending voice out of those nests with a "convert or die" attitude, you would certainly kill the majority of that particular community.
That is actually a good thing in my mind. When you erase the public sanctuary for stupidity, anytime a new person visits that forum they immediately see the mentality of the people who have remained through the fire. They see what is considered relevant, and they are much more likely to start asking the relevant questions rather than be "that guy". This is just human nature, nobody wants to be the awkward one stumbling into a new community asking really dumb questions that nobody finds relevant. When this happens across all public venues, every community will begin growing at an incredible rate with the right mentality, and all good things that you want for your games will come that much faster.
Of course, it will never happen unless you first win the strength of arms and stamp them out completely.
So there you have it. If anyone wanted to know why I'm such an incredible asshole on casual forums, but pretty chill on here and other competitive sites, that's why. I fully believe in using the nuclear option against casuals and being an incredible, and at times unrealistically arrogant douchebag to get rid of them. Part of it is an act to set them on the right path, part of it is my care for them to grow, and part of it is because I shouldn't have play therapist for every single retarded casual who has the audacity to talk down to me every time I say something.
Feel free to disagree, I know most everyone will. It's cool though, I'm used to it
