Soulja Boy is better than Stephen Totilo in Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

[Ridli]

Oh yeah, this is going to end well.

[Meier]

Totilo brought some weak-ass action and Soulja Boy was like WHAM!

[pulga]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

You're kidding, right?

[ReiGun]

My, this thread turned into a real catfight since I last saw it.

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Oh dear....

[eznark]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Soulja Boy took his pride...Totilo wants it back!

Don King Presents:
Soulja Boy v. Totilo - The Rematch!

[Stairs]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Is this as condescending as it sounds? If so, is this Dennis Dyack ver. 2.0?

[radjago]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

1. You beat him at a game he's never played before.

2. Likewise, he beat you at a game that you've barely played before.

3. You post on GAF, so you must not actually play games anymore. This can only adverse your status as a gamer, although it may help build Gamer Cred which, much like Indie Cred, is utterly useless.

4. Street Fighter is a well-established franchise whereas Geometry Wars has a far less extensive resume.

[stephentotilo]

Is this as condescending as it sounds? If so, is this Dennis Dyack ver. 2.0?

Wasn't intended as such. Since SF2 skills are apparently a good measure of one's gamer cred, I was wondering how some of my other abilities -- my ability to post on NeoGAF, win at Geometry Wars, cover gaming for a living -- rate in terms of verifying that I'm a gamer.

Obviously, I believe they are all equally relevant or irrelevant. Depends on your perspective. I'm going with the latter.

[F#A#Oo]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

We like our game journo's to be atleast decent in general with games. You sucked...SF is an established franchise you should have done alot better.

[stephentotilo]

We like our game journo's to be atleast decent in general with games. You sucked...SF is an established franchise you should have done alot better.

100% agreed. No joke: guess what my New Year's Resolution is?

[jman2050]

100% agreed. No joke: guess what my New Year's Resolution is?

Post your PSN/XBL name in the SF2 thread!

[stephentotilo]

Post your PSN/XBL name in the SF2 thread!

Eventually I will (not that they're secret or anything: Stotil / StephenMTV). I think I need to play against the AI first a bit, no? Until then, I'd just be ignoring requests to play.

[MThanded]

hmm. Rematch in order?

[eznark]

Eventually I will (not that they're secret or anything: Stotil / StephenMTV). I think I need to play against the AI first a bit, no? Until then, I'd just be ignoring requests to play.

I'm pretty terrible at SF, so if it'll make you feel better you can play me. I can realistically simulate the button mashing experience you'll face against SouljaBoy.

[John Harker]

We like our game journo's to be atleast decent in general with games. You sucked...SF is an established franchise you should have done alot better.

This is one of the more rotten things I've read on here, don't tell me you meant that
I'm decent at Gears and good at SF but never played Geometry Wars in my life. I work in the industry, lets lynch me too!

It's always interesting when people speak for GAF as a "we" as if this place actually does have one coherent collective concious. This place's strength's is in its divertsity, depth and breadth. Thank the gaming god's we don't have PR people speaking for us, otherwise we get responeses like the above! haha

[hc2]

People who come into these threads saying that Soulja Boy should die should fuck off. If you don't like the guy, then stop watching his youtube videos! It's like you people ignore the fact that he's done nothing to harm you personally. On the contrary, a lot of his videos are pretty entertaining. Of course, this means that he should definitely "die in a fire." Yeah, okay.

Hey, some of these gamers, this is all they got, make fun of their "hobby" and you make fun of their life. Serious business.
Soulja Boy may be a clown, but he is smarter than he looks or acts.

[wmat]

Hey, some of these gamers, this is all they got, make fun of their "hobby" and you make fun of their life. Serious business. Soulja Boy may be a clown, but he is smarter than he looks or acts.

You're lucky you edited that one. Totilo's not a clown in my book, at least.

[EternalGamer]

I don't even really like rap or hiphop music, but every time one of these Soulja Boy threads come up, I find Soulja boy comes off as a pretty likable guy while many GAF posters come off as pretentious nerds.

[hc2]

You're lucky you edited that one. Totilo's not a clown in my book, at least.

Yea, I took it too far the first time.
Personally, I tried one of the fighting games, I picked the scantily clad maidens and lost because I was watching body parts jiggle.

[Dyno]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Dude, your butt must be HURT to make you whine like that. Hoo Wee!

This year you gotta get your SF skills up to passable. It's like you're reporting on Roman history without learning Latin.

Regain your honor, son.

[Ourobolus]

Wow, that was pathetic. Stephen should have Supermanned him.

[dfyb]

Wasn't intended as such. Since SF2 skills are apparently a good measure of one's gamer cred, I was wondering how some of my other abilities -- my ability to post on NeoGAF, win at Geometry Wars, cover gaming for a living -- rate in terms of verifying that I'm a gamer. Obviously, I believe they are all equally relevant or irrelevant. Depends on your perspective. I'm going with the latter.

just stop it.

there's no extra ability required to post on neogaf. stop bragging about winning at geometry wars against some celeb. soulja boy does not make a living off playing or writing about games -- you do. you are exerting yourself as an authority on games, but apparently, you barely know how to play them. you could have won that SF match and it would still be embarrassing for you. that match didn't come down to skill -- it came down to luck, because neither of you knew how to play the game. it wouldn't be a huge deal if it was some newer or obscure game, but this was street fighter II -- the defacto, meat and potatoes, fighting game of the video game industry. SFII demonstrates standard gameplay mechanics that virtually every fighting game adopts -- but instead of seeing someone who employs these standards into their play (blocks, fireballs, etc), all we saw were two people jumping and using medium kick as if they've never played a game in their life.

people here have been harsh on you, including me, but i know that you're not alone. plenty of your peers probably suck just as bad (it's always depressing to watch new gameplay footage being played by the gaming press). the scary part is that you guys write published opinion pieces on these games. so i just hope you keep that in mind -- that in order to write about games, you really should know how to play them -- just like a film critic needs to be film literate, you need to be game literate. or at least invite some experienced players to play the games and give you their feedback (which you'd then include in your article or whatever) -- even game review sites like 1up will do this, and i always appreciate it when they do. and hell, they'd be able to give you a few tips while they're there.

and just FYI, i wouldn't bother fighting against the AI in fighting games. AI will just teach you bad habits. practice against other players (which is what unranked matches are for) and if you need practice executing certain moves, go into training mode. if you like a character, read up on a guide to see what you should be trying to do.

[jett]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Don't worry about it, it's pretty clear you both blow at SF2.

[Mermandala]

As far as I'm concerned, Totilo going out of his way and off the beaten path to interview Kenta Cho maxes out his gamer cred score.

[Sho_Nuff82]

Wasn't intended as such. Since SF2 skills are apparently a good measure of one's gamer cred, I was wondering how some of my other abilities -- my ability to post on NeoGAF, win at Geometry Wars, cover gaming for a living -- rate in terms of verifying that I'm a gamer. Obviously, I believe they are all equally relevant or irrelevant. Depends on your perspective. I'm going with the latter.

I know you're saying this sarcastically, and I don't necessarily mean this as an insult, but seriously my mom is better at Street Fighter II than you are. Or at least she was the last time I played her back in 1992.

It's SF II for crying out loud. It's as ubiquitous as Tetris among gamers, anyone who's been gaming since before this decade should at least know the motion for a Hadouken fireball on a gamepad.

[dfyb]

As far as I'm concerned, Totilo going out of his way and off the beaten path to interview Kenta Cho maxes out his gamer cred score.

i think it speaks more of his journalistic 'cred'. i have a hard time imagining he stumbled across these games himself on his own gaming escapades (i found them while researching examples before i started working on an indie shmup myself) -- i assume it was a tip from a gamer friend that kenta cho would make a nice interview, and like a good journalist, he made the interview happen.

[The S-Word]

the scary part is that you guys write published opinion pieces on these games. so i just hope you keep that in mind -- that in order to write about games, you really should know how to play them -- just like a film critic needs to be film literate, you need to be game literate.

i feel kind of the same way even though alot of neogaf would disagree for some reason. As a person that plays videogames i would like for the people who write opinion pieces on videogames to be competent in videogames. That geometry wars score wasn't too hot either...

[FromTheFuture]

Stephen, you would've been better off if you never posted in this thread. This will not end well.

[Mermandala]

i think it speaks more of his journalistic cred. i have a hard time imagining he stumbled across these games himself on his own gaming escapades (i found them while researching examples before i started working on an indie shmup myself) -- i assume it was a tip from a gamer friend that kenta cho would make a nice interview, and like a good journalist, he made the interview happen.

True, by gamer cred, I suppose I mean his credibility as a journalist on the subject of games. His "gamer cred" in terms of skilled play level -well- he should certainly stay away from reviewing a fighting game, that's for sure. Does he even do reviews? I don't remember any.

[nyong]

That dude was lying his ass off when he said he had never played Geometry Wars before. He was doing alright, much better than I would expect a brand new player to.

[fernie417]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EgmXXjNcWk

See, now this is why Soulja Boy is cool by me. His music? I don't really care, it's probably awful, but the dude trolls a bunch of video game nerds and gets paid and publicity for it.

And a video game journalist doesn't need to play well to make me want to read what he's saying. I don't particularly care that Totilo isn't any good at Gears of War or Street Fighter, his writing is still better and more interesting than most of the tripe that floats around various gaming blogs. But then again I think N'Gai Croal is a pretty cool video game journalist too while the rest of NeoGaf would say otherwise, so what do I know?

[dfyb]

See, now this is why Soulja Boy is cool by me. His music? I don't really care, it's probably awful, but the dude trolls a bunch of video game nerds and gets paid and publicity for it.

from the video you quoted alone, he made more than $25,095.75

[stephentotilo]

Stephen, you would've been better off if you never posted in this thread. This will not end well.

I don't regret posting at all. What we got out of this is a good conversation about what some people want out of their gaming reporters.

I agree with people commenting here who say that anyone who writes about a game should be able to demonstrate that they've had some experience with games -- at least enough to be proficient in the ones they cover.

Where I part ways with some of the folks in this thread is the idea that me sucking at Street Fighter II somehow invalidates my ability to cover games. If I ran a Street Fighter site or a fighting game site or had ever reviewed a Street Fighter game, then I could agree with that argument. But that's not the case. I've never reviewed a Street Fighter and haven't had much opportunity to cover the series up until now. I had played SF2 a bit when I was younger in the arcades and on my SNES and was never more than decent. I hadn't touched any of the games since then and chose it as my final game against Soulja Boy because my readers suggested it and because, I guessed, it would allow me and Soulja Boy to have a pure tie-breaking round. Was there really any better way to break a tie then with Ken vs. Ryu?

My earlier comments in this thread were intended to deflate some of the criticism of me which I found to be absurd. I have played more games than most people get a chance to in this past year and am grateful to have the ability and opportunity to do that as part of my job. It informs the work I do a great deal.

Nothing I've ever reported on or written has been criticized for demonstrating some deficiency that could have been compensated for by playing a given game more intensely. That's because I've played a ton of games and study up before covering stuff.

Against Soulja Boy, though, I wasn't doing reporting. We were playing. For fun. For a bit of a PR stunt. Nothing more.

I'm glad this thread went this way, though. It's been a good discussion, all.

[RobbieNick]

I don't like Souja boy's music, but he doesn't offend me in any way. He's just a kid having fun. I don't see what harm he's doing.

[aubradley84]

Where I part ways with some of the folks in this thread is the idea that me sucking at Street Fighter II somehow invalidates my ability to cover games.

I agree that this is a key point. I don't enjoy survival horror games at all, in fact I've never played RE 4. Yet the simple fact I haven't played that game doesn't disqualify me from being able to cover them. I've never understood why SF II is held as the ultimate sacred cow in the industry, as though you must be exceptionally proficient at it in order to be a real gamer. I'm really good at Rock Band, but that doesn't make me a particularly great writer, nor does Totilo's futility at SF make him a bad one. We all suck at something, so what's the big deal?

Furthermore, anyone calling Totilo illiterate at gaming is just making baseless accusations. I'm not saying he's a game journalism god, but he does a damn fine job and I constantly look to Multiplayer as a trusted site for thoughtful gaming news. No one who works for that site is a gaming illiterate.

[Shiggy]

I still wait for this topic: "Stephen Totilo is better than Soula Boy in Brain Age"
Though that wouldn't be a tough fight for him

[bluemax]

And what else do they have to do outside of writing reviews (which requires playing the games)? They're not doing any real journalism, they just regurgitate whatever information game companies give them, such as press releases and exclusives, or, in the case of Totilo, Croal, et al, they link to other peoples stuff. Does Totilo even review games? I wonder if he does anything? Like I said, if you're a games journalist and you don't seem to know the very basics of video games, and I'm not talking about scoring headshots or the mysteries of the fireball motion , I'm not even suggesting he be better than Soulja Boy, I'm talking about just not looking like a total nincompoop and being able to move his character around. He's the one who supposedly chose Street Fighter for their next game. I don't know, maybe the demo version didn't have his main. I can't believe that people are trying to defend game journalists that don't play games, it's like a sports journalist that doesn't watch matches. Maybe half the people here are game journos? The other possibility is that Soulja boy's PR rep pressured him into playing badly.

I hope that 2009 is the year that games journalism finally dies. By far the most pointless and worst for of mass journalism around.

[Grecco]

I've never understood why SF II is held as the ultimate sacred cow in the industry, as though you must be exceptionally proficient at it in order to be a real gamer. .

Don't mistake general competency with "exceptionally proficient". SF is so ingrained in the social consciousness of gaming that some level of respectability is expected. There are certain games that most gamers should know how to play even if they don't play regularly. Pacman, Tetris, Street Fighter. Ect.

[Son of Godzilla]

I unno, I've played the fucking shit out of most Capcom fighting games. Hell, I basically lived in the arcades when MvC2 was popular. And I was damn good at it. I still got my ass kicked by the comp as Raiu in the HD demo.

[Etelmik]

Let me know if you find any journalism that took more effort than your typical neogaf post.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...geru-miyamoto/
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...moto-part-two/
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...-zelda-portal/

Some people are just joyless.

[mik]

How long before this happens:

stephentotilo
Soulja Boy's Bitch
(01-02-2009, 02:15 PM)
Reply | Quote


LOL @ it being the demo, btw. The recession has really hit MTV hard, apparently.

[gutter_trash]

4 pages of a thread about getting lucky with 360 controllers in HD Remix. Jesus.

if it was Genesis 6-Button, SNES controller, Saturn Controller or even Dual Shock.. hey I could watch

but 360 controllers? how can anyone make a big deal about this?
It's like racing cars with the hand-brake raised up

*edit, I finally stomach the whole match even if it was a 360 controller......
both of you are lame. yes both Soulja Boy and Stephen Totilo are both ubber lame
GTFO off the internet

[Aginor]

Interesting how beating Soulja Boy in Geometry Wars doesn't make me a gamer. The only yardstick is being decent at Street Fighter II? I did not know that! How does being able to post on NeoGAF rate in terms of verifying my gaming credentials? Higher or lower than covering them for a living?

Who are you who ? the fuck is soulja boy ? you both suck you more so for asking why SFII matters i mean FFS its one of the holy grails of gaming (contest it all you want even folk who didnt like it understand its importance) and if you think otherwise you obviously sucked monkey ass at it back in the day

[AranhaHunter]

Do the kids nowadays really like Souja Boy? The dude is lame as hell

[AstroLad]

watch this dude review sfiv and then give it like a 8.5 or something b/c he sucks at it.

[PTCoakley]

100% agreed. No joke: guess what my New Year's Resolution is?

Hey, at least you're willing to admit it and are gonna try to get better. Maybe you guys can have a rematch that isn't cringe-worthy after some training.

[Shurs]

I think the better question, Stephen, is why are you wasting your time with puff pieces such as this? I think you have one of the more interesting ways of looking at games, in comparison to your peers. Your shared pieces with N'Gai Croal are an excellent read. You are contributing, and well I might add, to a symposium on game journalism whilst rolling out the old industry standards like lists and video features of game models rolling around in your office. I mean no disrespect. I'm only speaking so harshly because I feel that you are capable of more. You have an excellent voice, please don't waste it on stunts like this. Give us more in depth exploration of games in your Game Diaries , not a better version of Kotaku.

[Holy Order Sol]

Someone forward this to Daigo.