From: prock@teetot.acusd.edu (The Prock)
Subject: Evolution of play
Organization: usd
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:22:24 GMT

Once upon a time I used to play Klax.

It was a great game.   I played it at the Game Room in our school
during my freshman and sophomore year. 

But there was this game that everyone was playing right next to
my favorite Klax machine.  It was SF2.  In the Beginning only a 
few people played it.  My friend Ro played a lot.  Sometimes I 
would try to play, but the mechanics escaped me.  So I watched.
From september of '91 to november I only played sporadically.
The game was just to hard.

Then I decided to learn.  I got killed regularly.  I couldn't do
any of the moves and people who could do the SPD were unheard of.
(In my Game Room).  


Ro showed me a neat trick one day.  If you hit someone with a short
you could recover in time to throw them and repeat 'til dead.  
Scary!  Powerful!  But there was always the chance that your 
opponent would counter throw.  We all became masters at this 
skill.  Games would revolve around ticking.  We got better and 
better.  

Then one day, in December of '91, this kid came from the high
school from across the street.  He was the first person I saw
who could DP at will.  He ruled.  For that period he would be
considered a master.  Today he would be nothing.

I went home to Minnesota.  I spent all of my money and all of my 
winter break playing the game.  (In fact this game was the 
reason why I subscribed to Usenet!:)  

The rumors flew.  Chun Li could throw her bracelets.  Sheng Long
came out if you perfected every match.  Magic throw and Freeze were
whispered among the croud.  Ryu vs. Ryu battles.  You could pick 
up the rocks and throw them.  Some came true.  Some didn't.

I returned to California to an entirely different game. 
The DP fireball trap was discovered in January.  This was
nasty.  Even more nasty than ticking.  Real stratagies started
to evolve.  Slowly but surely everyone was getting better and
better.  Some places even had contests.  The arcade at University
Towne Center (near UCSD) even had it's own team.  "Team UTC."

People were really good.

Time went on and I got better as well.  Ticking became frowned  
upon around march of that year.  But throwing was never considered
in bab taste.  Only short/throw ticks.  We never had to deal with
all that whining about plain old throwing.  Even coming in with a
roundhouse and throwing was not unacceptable.  But short/throws
would now get stares of contempt.  

Champion Edetion came out and I thought that the designers had to
be insane to make the computer so hard.  But the rest of the game
was great.  I started playing a lot.  By a lot I mean up to five
dollars a day.  

Then I went home.  When I got there I was surprised to find ticking
in full force.  But contrary to the environment at UIUC this had not
created a slew of masters.  Just a bunch of mediocre players who 
ticked really well.  The game also cost $.50 to play.  This may be
why.  But I played all summer long.  The competetion lagged and I
began to stagnate.  Every once in a while there would be someone
who would put up a decent fight but never anyone that truly 
dominated.  No masters.  (I have never, and may never consider
myself one:).  I ended up playing the computer a lot.  

People would complain about ticking, and then tick you back.  
Even I got caught up in the trap of crying cheap.  

When I returned to California this fall I found that I had 
stood still in terms of development while everyone advanced.
Combinations flew left and right.  The best never hesitated.
Ken and Blanka were the prime choice of masters.  One for the
combos the other for sheer power and speed. 

Ticking is not even an option here anymore.  Most everyone who
plays on a copetitive level can easily counter it now.  In fact
getting close to someone is a major difficulty in today's 
incessant corner trap hell.  

The characters that dominate now all have the ability to 
perform some form of decent corner trap.
Ken
Ryu
Sagat 
Guile
Blanka
Bison
Vega 

The game has changed a great deal in the 13 months that I have been 
playing but the one thing that remains true is the spirit of 
competition.

--------

Well there's my daily contribution to the bandwidth for today.
Maybe even someone enjoyed the breif history of SFII through
the eyes of a Southern Californian.  Maybe not.  Oh well:)

		Viva la Street Fighter 

Andrew Prock


Newsgroups: alt.games.sf2