Am I the only one who can still have fun while dialing it back a bit? Just “fumble” a few times, fall behind intentionally, and then use your skill to catch back up. If you can’t catch up, your friends win and have fun. If you do catch back up, your friends think it was a close game. Either way you get to flex and nobody thinks you’re a sweaty tryhard and we all get to have fun.
This is part of why super smash bros is so good. Playing against friends who are decent but not as good as you? Play one of your secondaries. Friends are bad but learning? Play a low tier/a character you don’t ever play. Friends are casual gamers/don’t know how to play smash? Spam b moves as a low tier. No matter how good you are you can sandbag pretty hard without your opponent feeling like you aren’t trying/not having fun.
One of us is constantly beating the crap out of everyone else with a particular character? Switch it up.
Or learn to counter whatever they’re doing to win.
Dhalsim’s endless string of “Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!TigerUppercut! You! Win!” was eventually conquerable with the right combination of moves and that wasn’t even player skill, it was a shortcoming in the game’s internal timing (that was bad enough that it overwrote the existing playing sound effect while you were doing it).
Yeah, oops, I was thinking Sagat and somehow typed Dhalsim.
Dhalsim was YOGA fire, which is I think what happens when they schedule the chili cook off at work on the same day as beginner’s downward-facing-dog practice.
On behalf of the dads: We used to let you win all kinds of shit and you never knew! Then one day we couldn’t beat your anymore… and we had two choices while you gloated: convince ourselves we let you win or let the mid life crisis begin.
This is exactly what I’ve had to end up doing in a few games. Some games I don’t mind. Like Battlefront 2. I used to play, and win, tournaments in it so when friends call me in to help them with a game or something it’s great because you get a ton of praise and hype. Your friends going “FUCK THEM UP DUDE! YEAH! GO FOR IT!” Or the thanks for helping a friend. But that same prowess meant that (even if there was easily accessible invite pvp) I can’t fight any of my friends. There are ways you kind of can and everytime I’ve suggested it it’s always a resounding and hard no. I’ve had similar levels of skill in other games that I actively tone down around my friends because I want to be able to play against them and not just play with them. I don’t give a shit if I win or lose. I give a shit that I’m hanging out with people who I like and playing games I enjoy.
It has a perfect handicap system, and the game sucks if you don’t use the correct handicap, but I simply can’t get people to play me with a handicap because they think it’s shameful. They want to play me without a handicap, then I mop the floor with them.
But we can have a really good game that’s really engaging if we use a handicap.
I’m not big on fighting games, don’t they usually have a handicap setting? How do they work? I’m guessing good ones do stuff like break guard easier and do more damage, right?
I would do this when I was still playing Elden Ring. Signal a fair fight, trade blows a bit, make a few “mistakes” that made it seem like I was playing bad. Then score a “lucky hit” that’d finish them off. That way, they hopefully come out of it feeling like it was a fair fight. If I actually mess up and die, that’s fine too. It’s all in good fun. My goal was just to draw the fight out into something amusing and satisfying for both of us, compared to the 10 second hack and slash, Rivers of Blood/magic spam tryhards you’d get all the time. Those I didn’t hesitate to flex on.
Am I the only one who can still have fun while dialing it back a bit? Just “fumble” a few times, fall behind intentionally, and then use your skill to catch back up. If you can’t catch up, your friends win and have fun. If you do catch back up, your friends think it was a close game. Either way you get to flex and nobody thinks you’re a sweaty tryhard and we all get to have fun.
This is part of why super smash bros is so good. Playing against friends who are decent but not as good as you? Play one of your secondaries. Friends are bad but learning? Play a low tier/a character you don’t ever play. Friends are casual gamers/don’t know how to play smash? Spam b moves as a low tier. No matter how good you are you can sandbag pretty hard without your opponent feeling like you aren’t trying/not having fun.
This is how we used to do it with SF2 on SNES.
One of us is constantly beating the crap out of everyone else with a particular character? Switch it up.
Or learn to counter whatever they’re doing to win.
Dhalsim’s endless string of “Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!TigerUppercut! You! Win!” was eventually conquerable with the right combination of moves and that wasn’t even player skill, it was a shortcoming in the game’s internal timing (that was bad enough that it overwrote the existing playing sound effect while you were doing it).
It’s Yoda fire! And Yoda flame!
Yeah, oops, I was thinking Sagat and somehow typed Dhalsim.
Dhalsim was YOGA fire, which is I think what happens when they schedule the chili cook off at work on the same day as beginner’s downward-facing-dog practice.
Dad mode activated
On behalf of the dads: We used to let you win all kinds of shit and you never knew! Then one day we couldn’t beat your anymore… and we had two choices while you gloated: convince ourselves we let you win or let the mid life crisis begin.
This is exactly what I’ve had to end up doing in a few games. Some games I don’t mind. Like Battlefront 2. I used to play, and win, tournaments in it so when friends call me in to help them with a game or something it’s great because you get a ton of praise and hype. Your friends going “FUCK THEM UP DUDE! YEAH! GO FOR IT!” Or the thanks for helping a friend. But that same prowess meant that (even if there was easily accessible invite pvp) I can’t fight any of my friends. There are ways you kind of can and everytime I’ve suggested it it’s always a resounding and hard no. I’ve had similar levels of skill in other games that I actively tone down around my friends because I want to be able to play against them and not just play with them. I don’t give a shit if I win or lose. I give a shit that I’m hanging out with people who I like and playing games I enjoy.
I have this problem with the board game Go.
It has a perfect handicap system, and the game sucks if you don’t use the correct handicap, but I simply can’t get people to play me with a handicap because they think it’s shameful. They want to play me without a handicap, then I mop the floor with them.
But we can have a really good game that’s really engaging if we use a handicap.
I’m not big on fighting games, don’t they usually have a handicap setting? How do they work? I’m guessing good ones do stuff like break guard easier and do more damage, right?
This is the way! Group games are about everyone having fun, not winning.
One of my biggest disabilities is my inability to throw a game I’m playing. I just can’t do it
I would do this when I was still playing Elden Ring. Signal a fair fight, trade blows a bit, make a few “mistakes” that made it seem like I was playing bad. Then score a “lucky hit” that’d finish them off. That way, they hopefully come out of it feeling like it was a fair fight. If I actually mess up and die, that’s fine too. It’s all in good fun. My goal was just to draw the fight out into something amusing and satisfying for both of us, compared to the 10 second hack and slash, Rivers of Blood/magic spam tryhards you’d get all the time. Those I didn’t hesitate to flex on.
God, I miss that game…