Online vs. Offline in DOA5: DOA4 All Over Again...

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DrDogg

Well-Known Member
I thought we had moved beyond the online vs. offline argument back in the early days of DOA4, but it's been coming up quite frequently here and on the Facebook group, so I feel it needs to be addressed yet again.

Unfortunately, online in DOA5 is not quite what we had hoped for. The latency (lag) present in EVERY SINGLE MATCH (no matter what your connection) prevents skilled players from blocking, countering, sidestepping and attacking properly. It doesn't mean you cannot do these things, it means that you can't do them as easily as you'd be able to do them offline.

Now, if you think you can do these things online, it isn't because you have a magical connection or that everyone else has a bad connection. It means that you do not have enough experience playing the game at high levels of skills in a lagless (offline) environment to recognize the difference. There's nothing wrong with that, because not everyone is a competitive player who wants to travel to tournaments or even cares to prove their skill.

You can block lows with no problem online? That's great, but you're guessing the low is coming and blocking well in advance. Offline, top players wait until they actually SEE the attack animation begin, then block/counter accordingly. This is called reacting or blocking/countering on reaction. There's no guess work or reading/yomi involved. It's one of the few things that separates the average player from the top players in DOA5. It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to react to things online. This is not up for debate, it is fact and happens in many online fighting games.

Now, there's nothing wrong with playing online. In fact, please play online. Play DOA5 as much as you can. The problem is when you take your online wins and assume that they are a good measure of skill. They are not. You cannot claim to be a top player if you've never placed well in an offline tournament. You cannot claim to be better than another player if you have never played them offline. You can say you're good and you're learning the game via online play, but do not compare your skill to anyone else if you have not played them offline.

Even the top offline players do not play the same online. Mamba is a good example of this. He's been a top DOA player for nearly a decade. He's proved himself time and time again offline and no one questions his skill. Yet, when he plays online, he abuses online tactics. The difference is that he knows they are online tactics. He knows that he cannot play the same way offline. And when he wants to prove he's better than someone, he calls them out at the next offline tournament.

This is all 100% fact. It is not an opinion and it is not up for debate. If you have a question, feel free to ask. If you don't understand what has been said here, feel free to ask. If you require more of an explanation, I would he happy to provide it. Let's keep things civil and have a proper discussion if need be.

Mods: Please do not move or close this thread (prematurely). This message needs to be seen by a lot of people in this community. It will prevent other threads from exploding like what's been happening in the character forums recently. I'm sure there will be arguing here, because people won't understand, but we need to get this message across to people (again).
 

J.D.E.

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
I totally agree with this post. I don't get why people feel good about beating a high level player online when it doesn't mean jack. There's no ramifications & the netcode is not solid. Did you knock em out of a tourney? Beat them where it actually "mattered"? Thats what I mean by ramifications. On top of that, your moves get butchered! Online is for fun & I get on to practice & spar with some friends just as well as others do. Even high level players get on & practice but this netcode butchers almost everything you try to do that you've learned. But yet people feel good about it & let it go to their heads. On top of that, trash offline players like they haven't won or placed in anything. Call it "dick riding" or whatever, but there's gotta be line drawn somewhere with people disrespecting high level players. They've won tournaments. They earned that privilege! So they deserved to be called "High Level Players". I can understand that you can't travel (I can't even always travel). I can understand if you like "just playing" online. That's good, but offline has more ramifications & no lag interruptions. That's when your true skill set show. If you're confident in your skills, that's 1 thing, but if you wanna write a check you can't cash & then play a high leveler then get exposed & then go crying " I'm getting treated like shit", that's a whole different level! People just need to be quiet, play the game, & show everybody what you can do. Everybody respects 1 another as a human being lbsh, so that shit needs to stop too.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a high level player. My goal is to go as far as I can & learn to become a player who just knows how to play the game. So yes I agree with this topic. Thank you for making this & yeah they'll be some arguments because people are ignorant.
 

Berzerk!

Well-Known Member
Completely support the statement above. Do please play online, but remember its limitations and do your best to find ways to play offline. Do not make claims about skill based on online play, but take any confidence you gain from playing online and display it offline, where it matters.

One of the reasons there is still a debate in the DOA scene is actually one of the reasons DOA represents an opportunity for the fighting game scene as a whole - we have a lot of new or lapsed players who haven't really experienced the fun of an offline tournament. That's potential for growth. But we do have to understand the advantages of offline, and as you get better, that its the only legitimate proving ground - but not just that, the best place to learn.

Take what you've learned and show it at tournaments, and you are solidifying your basics, correcting many flaws and errors you'll find formed from online play, plus standing up to be counted as a member of the community, and representing DOA to the fighting game scene.

Even if you do not feel you can "win", you will learn so much more about yourself as a player by participating in offline tournaments and casual play that I encourage beginner players to do this... find your local scene, attend your nearest major... get involved any way you can.

Online, talk to people, encourage them to visit FSD, tell them about the next event coming up.
 

Berzerk!

Well-Known Member
DOA4 had a netcode worth making this arguement over. This game does not.
Actually, you'll find the central point made here is agreed in other fighting game communities that have games with better netcode (VF5, SC5, even SF works better online) - there is NO netcode that makes online and offline equivalent, and there is no substitute for playing at an event due to many factors in addition to the game being better quality offline.
(Atmosphere, pressure, etc)
 

HiguraShiki

Active Member
I'm fairly new to DOA and even I agree with this statement. I don't understand what is with all the morons lately that like to talk shit when they haven't even proved anything....
 

DR2K

Well-Known Member
Actually, you'll find the central point made here is agreed in other fighting game communities that have games with better netcode (VF5, SC5, even SF works better online) - there is NO netcode that makes online and offline equivalent, and there is no substitute for playing at an event due to many factors in addition to the game being better quality offline.
(Atmosphere, pressure, etc)

Yeah playing against the CPU is like playing the game in lightspeed mode. My only offline play, so much agreed.

Other fighting games level of play is much higher though. Regardless this games netcode is so shit, which is why this arguement hasn't had as much ground as it did in the DOA4 days.
 

J.D.E.

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
Completely support the statement above. Do please play online, but remember its limitations and do your best to find ways to play offline. Do not make claims about skill based on online play, but take any confidence you gain from playing online and display it offline, where it matters.

One of the reasons there is still a debate in the DOA scene is actually one of the reasons DOA represents an opportunity for the fighting game scene as a whole - we have a lot of new or lapsed players who haven't really experienced the fun of an offline tournament. That's potential for growth. But we do have to understand the advantages of offline, and as you get better, that its the only legitimate proving ground - but not just that, the best place to learn.

Take what you've learned and show it at tournaments, and you are solidifying your basics, correcting many flaws and errors you'll find formed from online play, plus standing up to be counted as a member of the community, and representing DOA to the fighting game scene.

Even if you do not feel you can "win", you will learn so much more about yourself as a player by participating in offline tournaments and casual play that I encourage beginner players to do this... find your local scene, attend your nearest major... get involved any way you can.
Online, talk to people, encourage them to visit FSD, tell them about the next event coming up.
I agree with this post too. Just felt I had to get my point across. lol
 

iHajinShinobi

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
This definitely does "need" to be addressed once more. Because the majority of who play this game here at FSD, DOAW, and online in general have a very awkward and seemingly cocky mindset and mentality of themselves from just playing online a lot. Online rank, grade points, and latency do not make anyone a good player.

This is a perfect example of what I mean and what's being talked about; http://www.freestepdodge.com/threads/omaster-legendo-experience-on-dead-or-alive-4-5.2220/

I mean, sure, there are definitely folks who play this game and have that mentality of wanting to be a better player. JDE, Aelivia, HiguraShiki and Gill Hustle are examples of those who have a good mindset of becoming better players.

Online is totally fine for learning the game, but there are still a lot of folks who are in the dark about it, and how different things actually are offline (in general, not just in DOA). It needs to be addressed all over again and people need to realize that it's just a simple fact.
 

iHajinShinobi

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
^ I mentioned the three of them because they are who I've talked to and always seem to have the right attitude (also doesn't let wins online boast their egos) about wanting to get better, is all.
 

HiguraShiki

Active Member
^ I mentioned the three of them because they are who I've talked to and always seem to have the right attitude about wanting to get better, is all.
sad-cat.jpg
 

Steady G

Well-Known Member
Lmao this thread is hilarious. What happen to just playing games for fun? Thinking about who is better than somebody else would create more tension in the DOA community. Team Ninja didn't give me a handbook of who are the top players and what not to do/claim in this community. So I say everybody in the DOA community is a top player! :cool:
 

Sam Sultan

Active Member
If online wins are not a good measure of skill then how come top online players(Emann, Bladez and Lopedo) have also turned out to be top offline players as well? I mean look at the results Emann got 3rd place and Lopedo and Bladez won there first offline tournament by beating those so called "Top offline players" and some of those "Top offline players" got beaten pretty bad by the online players.The theory(i am calling it a theory because there is no actual evidence that these 'facts' affect the game in such a way that it makes online wins insignificant in fact there is much more evidence that it doesn't rather than it does) posted in this thread is fine and dandy but could you please provide me with an actual example of someone who seemed very good online, turned out to be not that good offline or even turned out to be pretty bad.
Now if we look at the actual results of tournaments one can ONLY conclude that online wins are as good measure of skill as offline wins if the connection between the two players is good, since thus far the online results match the offline results, again examples for this are all good online players who tested there skills offline.
Now let me explain my self more. You see it's one thing to say that you are not able to do certain things online which you probably can do offline and it's another thing to state that those things affect the game in such a way that a decent measure of skill in online play is not possible.
You are saying that people don't punish wiffs or unsafe moves as much as they should online but if you watch offline matches and pay good attention you will see the same thing happening offline, an example of this would be the GF of NEC13 Bladez VS swifteye. So it's not as much a matter of not being able rather than a matter of not wanting to punish.
So you see i am providing you with clear evidence which support my statement and all you doing is just state some so called facts and make a statement with no evidence what so ever and claim that you are right and everybody else is wrong.
Now until you got some clear evidence to prove me wrong i'm just gonna go with the theory that is actually supported by results of real matches online and offline.
 
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