About

What this blog is

So I’m rebooting this blog, and I was initially thinking yet another video game commentary site. But then, I thought that’s been done to death, so let me start with something different.

This is a blog chronicling my progress in becoming competitive with fighting games, in particular, Street Fighter IV and Virtua Fighter 5. The idea was heavily influenced by what the community at VFDC and SRK are doing, as well as the “Scrubs to Winner’s Clubs” feature on gootecks’ blog and podcast. I’ll make updates when I see good matches, accomplish goals, and ask for coaching and feedback. Hopefully, I’ll accomplish some of them, and get better, but more important than that, I think it’s important to have a strong online community for the fighting game scene, which will ultimately help all of us.

Who I am

Like a lot of people here, my interest in fighting games began when I first saw Street Fighter in an arcade in 1991 as a kid. The arcade was a dim place in Springfield Mall called Time-Out. Being only 8, I was pretty intimidated by a cabinet surrounded by teenagers and adults, but I was so amazed, I had to get a game in. I think everyone remembers the first time they put a quarter up on a machine, and that’s why the fighting game scene is the way it is. Like a lot of gamers growing up in the 90s, I spent a lot of my childhood in that arcade, going from Champion Edition to Marvel Super Heroes to X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Springfield, Virginia isn’t New York, and it’s definitely not SoCal, but even when I was in high school, there was Time-Out and GameTime with 3S and CvS1 tourneys that I played in. Ever since then, the scene around here slowly died down, and the extent of my fighting game playing was casual 3S and Guilty Gear XX in my friends’ dorms.

I got into Virtua Fighter with VF4EVO, picking it up for $20, since I heard it was deep. I’d played Tekken and Soul Calibur casually, but 3d fighters weren’t really my thing until that game. If you told me there was a game more deep and technically involved than Third Strike, I wouldn’t have believed you, but Virtua Fighter is in a league of its own.  After being a staunch 2d traditionalist, VF opened my eyes to the possibilities.  Every fighting game community and scene has its own character, and Virtua Fighter’s is a lot more tight-knit than I’d seen before.  A game that requires a lot of practice and inspires a lot of dedication, but doesn’t have a huge player base needs a community to survive.  Having met some great people in those circles, and with SF4 making a huge new niche in the market, I’m hoping the same sense of community and cooperation in fostering new players will make its way back to 2D fighters.