From: seth@cie.uoregon.edu (Seth Scott)
Newsgroups: alt.games.sf2
Subject: Re: Worldwide Guide to SF2 Etiquitte (Survey)
Date: 23 Jan 1993 21:30:08 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Network Services
NNTP-Posting-Host: cie.uoregon.edu
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(Nice first name, Mr. Killian :)

Here at the University of Oregon, we've got all sorts.  Our general level of
play is high, but not the equal of major metropolitan areas (L.A. hard-cores,
or even Portland masters are slightly better).  Here is the etiquette that
I have observed:

1)  Stuns:  unless you are feeling charitable, you're free to do anything you
    know to do to a stunned opponent.  The corollary to (2) below, though, is
    that a vastly superior player is expected to be sporting, and to let
    a less skilled player recover.  After all, for us, the objective is no
    longer to prove that we can get the combos out-- and a master who triples
    (or guile-4-hits) a stunned novice is going to be critized.

2)  The more experienced player gives the other player second round.  Yeah,
    some of you (Maestas) might scoff, but that's the generally accepted
    practice.  Against someone that is my equal, I give (or get) the second
    round; if the player is completely helpless, really, then masters here will
    teach the player moves, and try to tie a round to gain extra time.

3)  "Cheapness" has undergone many changes in the time that the fellows and I
    have played.  At one particularly controversial point, a wry Guile player
    formulated a priceless sentence:

        "If it hits me, it's cheap!"
   
    Since then, "cheapness" involves the most blatant stuff-- throwing a single
    short kick and then throwing, or doing "superman combos" with Zangief,
    or strong punch/throw with Chun Li...  the 'tap-bite' with Blanka.
    Such things do happen, but they tend to begin a humorous and vocal
    "cheapness escalation" with "counter-cheapness measures" and a general
    "decline in civilization."  

    It is also regarded as mildly unsporting to hit a rising player with a
    damaging attack, so that a player with no energy left is faced with damage
    that he can't block and avoid.  True, some heroic measures are possible
    (dragon punching through the fireball, as most masters here do routinely),
    but if another master does it to me, I take it as a compliment-- he didn't
    want to give me a chance to take him out!

    Most everyone here can "cheese" if he wants to, but for the most part,
    throws are reserved as a trick of timing-- for instance, a friend of mine
    (the best Chun Li player around here) enjoys this infuriating tactic:
    when Ken/Ryu throws a roundhouse or forward footsweep, he follows the
    sweep in to throw.  Now, Jay (the Chun master) has exquisite timing, and
    his aerial throws and ground throws are tricks of superb timing and entry;
    if he accidentally does a throw while taking a hit, for example, he will
    give the other player a "free throw," since the throw didn't require any
    skill to execute (in the local opinion).

    The maxim is this:  there are CHEAP things that take NO skill to do 
    (ex:  Bison torpedoes, back and forth, back and forth....), there are
    cheap things that take some skill to do, and there are nasty things that
    take much skill to do (like throwing someone as he withdraws a technique,
    like Jay does).  Generally, the "cheap" things are those things that 
    TAKE NO SKILL to execute; the more impressively skilled a move is, the
    more acceptable it is.

		That's how it is here, at least.

				Seth E. Scott
				seth@cie.uoregon.edu