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Any old geezers still play fighting games? How do you fare?

So I recently got back into fighting games with ultimate Mk11 on PS5. I’m an old guy and my reaction times are not what they used to be 29 years ago. I’m fighting these young whipper snappers online and they are just kicking my butt, taunting me, and it’s hard to react. It’s fun but gets frustrating. Maybe it’s time to hang them up?

Any other old guys still play fighting games?
 
I play MK and Injustice with my son. I'm staying as far away as possible from any online vs mode. Except for tekken. I still win like 99% of my online matches. Yes, I am really that good. Been playing tekken since the first part tho.
 

splattered

Member
Define "geezer" ...

I'm 40 this year and still do pretty good in fighters.

Though with twitch shooter stuff like COD I am definitely feeling myself slowing down though I also blame my shitty cox internet most of the time haha
 

Keihart

Member
I would never say that fighting games are mostly reaction time based and are usually more focused on pattern recognition and muscle memory.
It's the whole reason for having old geezers still on the pro scene, specially in games with lots legacy skills like GG or Tekken.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
MK11 would be one of the worst examples to start criticizing yourself over. Especially after MKXL, which had a much more grounded feeling to it. MKXI feels like they tried making it more appealing by changing up all the moves, so everyone has a different learning curve. Sub-Zero and Scorpion play much differently. Kung Lao has changed a lot since MK9, where he felt OP. MK changes can be a blessing and a curse. The game is fun to play, but winning against someone takes more than your typical play style. I find it a lot more punishing than any other fighting game, especially playing someone who is more advanced than you.

I haven’t really stopped and I was born in 85. Why hang up the towel? Losing is all part of getting better. I grew up playing KI, MvC, SF, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Samurai Showdown in the arcades.

I don’t exactly go online every chance I get. I had fun playing the arcade mode when I was at the arcade. I remember people would play as Eddy or Law in Tekken. At the time, it was easy to beat them and they would say “man, you’re good at this”. Then later on you fight someone who wipes the floor with you. This was back in the early 00’s and it’s still the same thing in 2020.

I wouldn’t play games if all I cared about was being good at them online. I’d rather have my own experience with them offline and even online. I’m looking forward to the new Guilty Gear Strive. Someone more advanced than me can teach me something new.

I played a lot of Third Strike years ago. Street Fighter hasn’t really amazed me since SFIV. I have over 100 hours logged into SFV, but it just didn’t grab me with the new characters. I’ve actually enjoyed playing GG Rev 2 and Under Night. I’ve always been a big Arc System fan. I have Melty Blood, Hokuto No Ken, Sengoku Basara X Cross, and BlazBlue. I found it funny because one day I woke up and I realized how many Arc System fighting games I owned. I still play Accent Core.

Summary: I don’t care how hard or who wants to make fun of me. The difficulty and the memorization of the moves fuel me to keep playing. It honestly has not been about the “people” or the “community” since I was in high school and people still showed up at the arcade.

I don’t consider myself a geezer. Age is not important. It’s how you feel about yourself.
 
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Pejo

Member
I like rushdown characters but I can't play them effectively. The only characters I do well with are trap/zoning characters like Mu/Nu in Blazblue and Hilda in Under Night In-Birth. I wish Street Fighter had a character of that style, but Dhalsim doesn't do it for me.
 

Moogle11

Banned
I was never good, but definitely was worse when I tried to get back into them in my late 30s and early 40s than back in my teens and 20s. Probably more years of booze, stress etc than pure aging though. Mostly just stick to single player ones with good SP content like MK and Injustice. Had an ok time with the SP stuff in Soul Calibur 6 and Smash Ultimate as well.

Sold my fight stick as I just wasn’t using it after failing to get into SF5 end Tekken 7 and prefer the NRS games with a pad. I don’t know that I’ll bother much with fighting games going forward. Just too many other genres I like more and not enough time to play everything that interests me as is.
 
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Buki1

Member
So I recently got back into fighting games with ultimate Mk11 on PS5. I’m an old guy and my reaction times are not what they used to be 29 years ago. I’m fighting these young whipper snappers online and they are just kicking my butt, taunting me, and it’s hard to react. It’s fun but gets frustrating. Maybe it’s time to hang them up?

Any other old guys still play fighting games?

How old are you? I played the original MK1 at arcades as a kid when it was brand new game, and I dont see any weaker reaction time now, I even feel better at the game than ever. When exactly the "geezer speed" will start to show up?

Also MK11 feels a lot slower and easier on the advanced techniques side than other fighting games. If its too much dont even try reaching competive level in DOA 6 for example, some of the inputs in even single player combo challenges are super hard to do, I cant imagine pulling them while fighting online.

As for MK11 the game is on the market for 1,5 year people you meet online are mostly experienced in playing it, being comfortable with all the techniques and knowing what to do in every situation is way more important than minimal difference in reaction times, specially at lower level matches (though at tournament level when everyone know everything about the game quicker reaction time may decide the winner). With experience you will learn to read attacks sooner and it will help your weaker reaction times.
 
Define "geezer" ...

I'm 40 this year and still do pretty good in fighters.

Though with twitch shooter stuff like COD I am definitely feeling myself slowing down though I also blame my shitty cox internet most of the time haha

I’m mid 40s so a few years older than you. Granted I’ve only played mk11 for a couple weeks now and not that many hours, but my fundamentals has helped me but reacting to overheads vs low attacks is tougher. Maybe because it’s also online. I know I will get better once I get familiar with all the moves and maybe look at some of the frame data. But running into someone that doesn’t even give you time to breath and constantly comboing you to death and then throw you once you are able to block is not fun. Guess I should stick to offline for now.
 
How old are you? I played the original MK1 at arcades as a kid when it was brand new game, and I dont see any weaker reaction time now, I even feel better at the game than ever. When exactly the "geezer speed" will start to show up?

Also MK11 feels a lot slower and easier on the advanced techniques side than other fighting games. If its too much dont even try reaching competive level in DOA 6 for example, some of the inputs in even single player combo challenges are super hard to do, I cant imagine pulling them while fighting online.

As for MK11 the game is on the market for 1,5 year people you meet online are mostly experienced in playing it, being comfortable with all the techniques and knowing what to do in every situation is way more important than minimal difference in reaction times, specially at lower level matches (though at tournament level when everyone know everything about the game quicker reaction time may decide the winner). With experience you will learn to read attacks sooner and it will help your weaker reaction times.

45. Funny you mention DOA. I last played DOA5 and I felt like I could do pretty well with that game because execution of basic moves was pretty easy and it was more of a mind game. It felt more fluid to me. In Mk11, I feel like I’m controlling a robot and once I press a button, I get hit with a 10 hit combo.
 

xiskza

Member
I mostly play offline modes, I really don't care much for online matches. Guess I'm that oldskool
 

skneogaf

Member
I'm 40 and have o ly ever stayed at the level of my friends.

I may not have spent enough time online so I have limited amount of patterns and play styles.

These kids are born into online fighting so get a broader spectrum of scrubs to fight.

Is my excuse!
 
In my mid 30s

Ultra Platinum in sf 5.
Vanquisher in Tekken 7.
Around B2 or B1 in Soulcalibur 6

Im not too shabby.

Btw - didn’t mean to sound like I’m dismissing your accomplishments. I think that it is impressive especially with 3 different games. And maybe you will still be great in 10 years. Who knows.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Can't say I play like I once did. Mostly when people come over for the holidays since I work lots and fuck paying for psn/season passes. So I just casually play em. (and I can still beat you scrubs LMAO)
turtle more
Fuck off Guile.
 
I mostly play offline modes, I really don't care much for online matches. Guess I'm that oldskool

I guess that wouldn’t be a problem if I had local people to play against but I just don’t find much enjoyment playing fighting games against the cpu. If only arcades were still popular.

I'm 40 and have o ly ever stayed at the level of my friends.

I may not have spent enough time online so I have limited amount of patterns and play styles.

These kids are born into online fighting so get a broader spectrum of scrubs to fight.

Is my excuse!

I embraced online fighters with DOA2 ultimate on the Original Xbox. Honestly still haven’t found a better online fighter experience then that game with the lobbies where you watch the current match waiting for your turn. It really emulated the arcade experience very well with putting your quarter on the machine. It also played very well with very little lag. It really was ahead of its time.
 

Batiman

Banned
I’m constantly getting my ass destroyed by my son in dbfz. I even had to do some training and still can’t fuckin beat him. Im actually good at video games but pretty shit at fighting games. He’s getting bored of me challenging him every other day now.
 
Been a Street Fighter player ever since Street Fighter 2. I can still remember going into an arcade and witnessing Rainbow Edition for the first time. A Chinese guy from our town owned that machine, legit.
 

kunonabi

Member
I still do fine just banking on my fundamentals. That said, I'm awful playing online. I just cant adapt to how shitty netcode is the vast majority of the time.
 

recursive

Member
I like how people use the excuse, "I'm too old to compete at video games because I'm 38".

Meanwhile, Tom Brady is competing for league MVP and Super Bowls at the age of 43.
You are right. All this guy has to do is train 8 hours everyday, get a personal chef, personal trainer, and super model wife to plow every night and his MK game should just fall into shape.
 
29 years ago you were probably playing against your casual gamer friends. When you play an online fighting game beyond the launch window you are up against the best of the best.
 
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*slowly raises hand*

Yeah, I still play fighters and feel that I can hold my own against most players almost as good today as I did back then. Unfortunately, I feel that I’m stronger in 3D fighters more than 2D fighters which basically dominates the market.

I’ve been playing fighters since I was a teenager and while I don’t play them as much as I used to, I still have fun with them. Honestly, I didn’t get serious about them until later in my life though strangely enough.
 
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Pimpbaa

Member
My skills have diminished considerably. I stick mostly to fighters that have a lot of single player content.
 

Wonko_C

Member
The way I see it, Daigo Umehara is 40 years old (or near 40), and still goes beast mode online. I think age will start to be a factor for us when we go beyond 50.
 
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The way I see it, Daigo Umehara is 40 years old (or near 40), and still goes beast mode online. I think age will start to be a factor for us when we go beyond 50.

If I remember correctly, the MainManSWE who is a pro Tekken player who still actively plays fought against a 50 year old Lei player who seemed very solid from the little bit I saw.
 
29 years ago you were probably playing against your casual gamer friends. When you play an online fighting game beyond the launch window you are up against the best of the best.

Actually I’m in LA SoCal area so the Street Fighter 2 scene was one of the best. Went to all the well known arcades to fight the best players in the area.

And I’m ranked pretty low in MK11 since I just started so I’m getting beat up by low rank players. I can’t imagine what the high rank players would do to me.
 
The way I see it, Daigo Umehara is 40 years old (or near 40), and still goes beast mode online. I think age will start to be a factor for us when we go beyond 50.

I haven’t followed the SF scene for a bit, but how is uncle (but still a few years younger than me, lol) Alex Valle doing these days?
 

Blood Borne

Member
Don’t know if it’s because I’m old (36) hence my reflexes are now shit or my enthusiasm isn’t the same. I say this because I’m getting my ass handed to me in SFV, MKX, and Tekken 7. However I seem to do ok in Guilty Gear XRD. Which is why it’s now my favourite fighting game. Lol.
 

Pejo

Member
Don’t know if it’s because I’m old (36) hence my reflexes are now shit or my enthusiasm isn’t the same. I say this because I’m getting my ass handed to me in SFV, MKX, and Tekken 7. However I seem to do ok in Guilty Gear XRD. Which is why it’s now my favourite fighting game. Lol.
You should try Granblue, I feel the playstyle is similar, and it's streamlined/simpler for inputs.
 

Clarissa

Banned
Btw - didn’t mean to sound like I’m dismissing your accomplishments. I think that it is impressive especially with 3 different games. And maybe you will still be great in 10 years. Who knows.

I grew up playing fighting games that's why and I have a close knit of friends who play at a much higher level than me (I get my ass kicked all the time lol)

Also helps that Singapore produced a few Evo champs.

Xian (SF4) and Jovian (SoulCalibur 5)

and the FGC community here is pretty close too.
 
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