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Games with large Skill Gaps

Character action games (i.e., the original Devil May Cry series, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising), fighting games, God Hand, Vanquish, Monster Hunter, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. Things like that.
 
at conventions they ran halo 1v1s with a pro and most people couldnt even touch him with most challengers dieing within seconds of them spawning and even if they did get the first shot he would just turn around and pop a couple of perfect headshots, killing them in seconds.

i mean the average first to 10 took about 40 seconds.

Halo has a very high skill gap between highly skilled players and average players. We just usually see pro footage and thats pretty hard to judge because they are all top players.
I'm a big fan of Halo but while it has a relatively big skillgap compared to most other console shooters it really doesn't compare to fighting games, MOBAs, RTSs and a lot of PC shooters.
 
Racing sims. Beginners can literally barely get around the track, let alone compete.

This.

When I read posts from folks struggling to drive in something as forgiving as Horizon 2 even with driver aids on and claim cars have no grip - I wonder if they are trying to play with their nose or something.
 
Since the most common and representative examples have already been mentioned, I'll (non) contribute to this thread with:

Chess 2: The Sequel

It's like regular chess, but in the form of a sequel. I assume that the skills you acquired in Chess 1 (aka regular chess) translate pretty well to Chess 2.
 
Isn't OP's TF example disingenuous? One shows a version with controller controls and the other mouse and keyboard?

Not saying there isn't a skill gap, but the examples don't work.
 
Melee. High level Fox play is some of the most tech intensive shit on the planet. Not to mention the way people play has changed radically from how it started due to how much room for growth the game naturally has.
 
I really think MOBAs take the cake here.

If you think about how much time needed to master a single hero and the variation to play that hero then it's already an excruciatingly large amount of time.

And then you multiply that by a hundred because there's around a hundred of them plus the constant updates changes the meta real quickly. One hero could be GOAT today and be worst the next.

Definitely these + Counter Strike and both Starcraft games

Yep those two too. I think them surviving this long means that there's a lot of room for growth. I can't think of any other games that compare.

Edit: Just watched The Flash vid of him in BW. WTF dem macros...
 
Most arcade STGs with complex scoring systems have enormous gaps between WR-level players and people who are just starting out. (Hell, there's usually an enormous gap between a WR-level player and somebody who can reach 75% of their score.) That's especially true when it comes to games that attract 'specialists', aka people who primarily focus on one game instead of branching out and dominating the entire genre. Some examples of that would be Ketsui, Battle Garegga, and Dodonpachi Daioujou. SPS, Kamui, and HFD respectively have spent god knows how many thousands of hours playing those games. I can't even begin to imagine how long it would take for a complete beginner to get anywhere near their levels, lol.
 
Yep those two too. I think them surviving this long means that there's a lot of room for growth. I can't think of any other games that compare.

You can always, technically, list all the games that derive from these 4 (5) games. Also, almost every game where there is very little emphasis on luck can be added here

Armored core series requires a skill. Once you start online battling the skill level to win against veterans is huge.

Oh man, don't remind me. I recently got Verdict Day and the amount of butt whopping I got hardly compares to anything I have ever played. Part of it is because their cores were a lot better than mine I suppose.
 
Armored core series requires a skill. Once you start online battling the skill level to win against veterans is huge.
 
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People trying to argue that Halo is more or at least as complex/complicated as PC Arena shooters makes me literally sad.

Man, really. People should play whatever they like, but there's no need to go bonkers just to defend your fav title.
 
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Noobs get obliterated immediately and repeatedly.

Meanwhile the pros do 1-1-8 runs (getting the minimum experience necessary to beat the game, giving you attack and health stats of 1, the same amount you start with).
 
I think its worth noting that talking about the difference between a complete green player and an elite level competitor isn't the same as talking about the difference between general beginners and general experienced players. You don't have to be at the very top tier of competition in order to be an 'experienced' player.

Like, many games I see here are the sort that I would classify as 'easy to pick up, hard to master'. So yea, you might see a large skill gap between a beginner and an elite player with these. But, other games are 'difficult to pick up, even more difficult to master'. This is where I think you see the biggest skill gaps between beginners and experienced players. Beginners are notable not just because they're 'not great', but because they can barely play the game at all.
 
Ikaruga - I shall forever be a complete noob at this bastard!!! Give me a bullet hell game and I'm decent but a more measured SHMUP like this and I am likely the worst person that will ever play the game. :(
 
Oh man, don't remind me. I recently got Verdict Day and the amount of butt whopping I got hardly compares to anything I have ever played. Part of it is because their cores were a lot better than mine I suppose.

It's a matter of your AC design vs there's and your skill in using your design to the max. Since they added in various armors strength to weapons, sometimes you can be mismatch with your armament so you just need to change it or have a few AC designs ready. It's hard to have 1 AC for all occasions versus the older games.
 
FPS games. You can tell when someone has inexperience, is getting his way around, or has valuable experience.

Like, in CoD, if someone can tell where you are from the collision noise in BO2 (running into a van) grass rustling in MW2, they are most likely a threat.
 
Resistance: Fall of Man required as pretty large amount of skill. 11 head shots with the Carbine baby. 4 kills with a clip if you knew what you were doing.
 
Common, really? I mean if the Halo games have a large skill gap according to you, what games have a small skill gap? I think the Halo games are some of the lowest skill gap fps's out there. If you want to see high skill fps gameplay watch some Quake 3 Arena. Even top level Halo is full of unskillfull misses and sidestepping instead of aiming. And the movement speed is really low in Halo games as well.

I think you can only compare it to console fps games, where it is pretty clear it has the highest skill gap

obviously if you compare it to quake 3 or counter strike then it'll fall flat
 
People trying to argue that Halo is more or at least as complex/complicated as PC Arena shooters makes me literally sad.

Man, really. People should play whatever they like, but there's no need to go bonkers just to defend your fav title.

If it's not so complex, why are you level 27 in halo 3.

Anyways, fighting games have the biggest skillcap no contest.
 
Dark Souls PVP. It's usually obvious in first few seconds of a fight how experienced your opponent is. Equipment can go a long way in revealing that, but not nearly as much as the actions one takes in the first few seconds of engagement.
 
Beginners usually can't even successfully play as a big European country in Europa Universalis 3, let alone a one province minor. Experts can take over the world as Ryukyu.
 
Don't forget one of the 'simplest' and basic puzzle game: Tetris. The difference between beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg6U1qJwCjk and Grand Masters: http://youtu.be/jwC544Z37qo?t=2m59s is astonishing.

More impressive than I was expecting, but to me it's like a Rubik's Cube or Chess. It's purely mechanical and algorithmic at some point. There is a clearly defined, mathematically calculable "perfect" way to play it. It's simply not complex enough, not enough factors are present to make it as impressive as something like Starcraft, where you cannot possibly take into account all factors at all times to play it "perfectly".
 
Common, really? I mean if the Halo games have a large skill gap according to you, what games have a small skill gap? I think the Halo games are some of the lowest skill gap fps's out there. If you want to see high skill fps gameplay watch some Quake 3 Arena. Even top level Halo is full of unskillfull misses and sidestepping instead of aiming. And the movement speed is really low in Halo games as well.

I don't think any console shooters really come close to Halo CE. Can't really the say the same about later Halo games, but CE has some crazy high level play.
 
Common, really? I mean if the Halo games have a large skill gap according to you, what games have a small skill gap? I think the Halo games are some of the lowest skill gap fps's out there. If you want to see high skill fps gameplay watch some Quake 3 Arena. Even top level Halo is full of unskillfull misses and sidestepping instead of aiming. And the movement speed is really low in Halo games as well.

No way. A good Halo 2 team that knows weapon spawn times and map control and work together are nearly unbeatable except for other top ranked player's.

Halo 2 and 3 to some extent have huge skill gaps.
 
I'm not saying Halo doesn't have any skill gap at all. But there are just so many games that have a higher skill gap, imo, that it doesn't make sense to bring it up in this thread as an example of a game with high skill gap. I mean there is a great difference between a bad and a great TF2 player, but games like Brood War or Q3 are just on another level.
 
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