A recent topic arose on whether or not we should interview a local Street Fighter 4 champ in order to clue potential readers in on a few things that would make them better in competition. While Batman333 thought it would be a good idea to discuss timing, execution etc. with a tournament caliber Street Fighter player, Greg Dragon thought differently based on the trend of the internet and negative experiences he had with new-school gamers. It led to a pretty good discourse on the state of gaming competitively, and the care or lack thereof involved. While Batman333 sees it as a positive to have tournaments to showcase skill, Greg Dragon sees it as a huge waste of time. Whose side do you take on the whole thing? Is it worth it to grind hours into a game to defeat any challenger, or is that making too much of a vice that is meant to be fun?

Greg‎‎ Dragon: If I cared enough I could go that route, but I’m too cynical about fighting game tournies etc. Kinda stopped caring about proving my leet skillz. I rather write about the champs than try and be one of them. Excelling at a fighter doesnt seem to be that worthwhile of a feat outside of a bunch of fanbois propping your name. Alex Vale who was in all our old gaming magazines etc. He was like a god during his heyday but nowadays it’s not like that. People don’t care who he is, they talk shit on websites and they all feel they are as good as he is because they own on SF4 online. I’m not big on joining that kind of community in competition.

Batman333: Well it is like that, just a smaller community of people that care.  I mean… Who’s paying attention to the shooter champion Fatal1… No one cares anymore.

Greg Dragon: That’s my point though, so with no accolades for being champion, why even be a champion?

Batman333: What’s funny about what you said… I remember when I recognized him just randomly out of the blue… “Hey is that Alex Valle??”. Seth Killian (Capcom PR, he’s usually the white guy talking about SF4) said “Yo Valle, you got a fan”. You can even see it in the interview he was stand-offish, almost surprised that someone knew of him and his rep.

Greg Dragon: That’s gaming today my friend. When the arcades died so did the social aspect of competition and caring who is and isn’t top dog. At least for mainstream gamers, I do realize that there is a tiny community of rabid Street Fighter fans who keep it going… but I’m talking everybody, not just the “tough guys”.

Batman333: SF4 seems to be the last arcade standing… because Super is strictly console.

Greg Dragon: In that article I wrote about Tiger Heli, it reminded me a lot about going to the arcade. If someone was sick you would go to the machine and watch him dominate. There was something to being great, but when we are all home online on a console, people tend to stop giving a damn. When you see a high score you assume that some loser exploited to get it. Not the same  tbh SSF4, I will train enough to get used to Ibuki/Makoto and play you guys a whole bunch of times then I’ll go back to Mass Effect/Dragon Age. I won’t be wood shedding my Focus Attacks/Cancels or whatever to be a tournament king.

Here is the interview mentioned in the article. If you look closely you will see a broke-down Afro Samurai type who walks by looking very surprised to see the Batman333. He should’ve just asked for an autograph, but now we get to laugh at him.

Don’t laugh at our inaudible bootleg mic, sh-t’s real over here in GodKing land, Batman333 used the money meant for a new microphone to buy hot pockets…