The question of whether or not the new trend of including the all-important online feature into fighting games is a good one is a quandary that has plagued me for quite some time now.  It has finally come to the point where I feel the need to spell my thoughts out, for all to see and discuss, in order to truly come to a conclusion on this inner-debate and finally bring closure to it.

My relationship with online fighting games has been a strange one.  For me, it started with a little app called ‘Kaillera.’ It seems like a lifetime ago when I first installed this little device onto my computer.  Back then, things were different.  Kaillera, to fighting gamers, was the equivalent of the printing press, to historical authors.  It changed our world forever.  It was a blessing to all of us and it made the world a better place for all of us.

So many fun times were had.  So many good matches.  So many eye-opening tactics achieved.  I remember the first time that I found out that Goro Daimon didn’t suck.  That was like my personal quickening.  I simultaneously became one with God, and every other being on the planet.  I traversed galaxies and I uppercut Orion directly into a black hole, all within the course of minutes.  Life was good, and all was right with the world.

So I ask you, where did things take a turn for the worse?  I don’t know whether it was the community, or what, but somewhere along the line, when access to fighting games online became a mainstream part of our lifestyle, which was shortly after XBOX Live became available, something was lost in transition.  Was it our Bushidou or code of ethics?  Perhaps it was simply our respect for each other as World Warriors.  I don’t know.

Do you remember the Arcade experience?  The experience of challenging someone, choosing YOUR best character, and trying your hardest to formulate a strategy that would both defeat your opponent and garner his respect?  I do.  Then, if you were on the 2P side, you would look left, and your opponent would be looking at you and he’d say, “Good game bro, I’ve never seen that before.” Generally, when that happened to me, I’d do that, and when I defeated someone, I would still give them a fist pound or something.  There was respect there.  That’s what it was all about.  Wasn’t this what the programmers of the games intended to be brought to the table when they ported the games online?  Having the arcade experience brought home.

I’ve played many games online, so I believe that the first of the new XBOX Live generation that I will start with, is Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike.  I’ve had a lot of great experiences with this game that were pure and true to the Arcade experience, lag excepted, of course.  Even though I’ve played a fair share of people that have dropped on me, I can truly look back on my experience with that game online and say that it’s made me better.  I gained quite a bit of experience that has transitioned into the real world and brought me to tournament level.  I’m truly grateful for the experiences that I’ve had.

But there is another side to it.  The dark side.  It seems like, in this game, and in many others, instead of your opponent choosing THEIR best character, or a character that means something to them.  They choose THE best character, based on online statistics.  The game can’t even be called a game anymore.  It becomes more of a mathematical function that is generally decided at the select screen.  The honor was gone, and so was the respect.

It hit me the hardest most recently in playing a game called Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix.  I realized that every match that I fought was always the most heated during the select screen.  In that game, which is a competitive puzzle game, I like to use a multitude of characters, but there is a clear winner in Akuma and Devilot, who are equally the best characters in the game.  What I had noticed is that if I picked first, ever, my opponent would automatically choose Akuma.  What resulted was an experiment.

What if *I* decided to counter pick, what would happen?  I played 10 games against 10 different people, and on the character select screen, I would simply wait.  What would happen?  So would they.  All the way until time was about to run out, and then they would rush to Akuma.  Of course, I would be sitting on Morrigan, so it was a small deal for me to press down and counter pick Devilot. Boy would they get pissed.  But why?  Akuma vs. Devilot is an absolutely even match-up.  They have a mirror image attack pattern and their damage dealing and taking level is exactly the same.

They were upset because they couldn’t cheat.  Then, the better man would generally win.  If it was me, I was labeled as what one would call a “Niggerjew.”  Cursed to the ends of the earth.  What is this about?  What is it about not being able to see your opponent tangibly that makes one so upset if they take a loss against them, or if it’s a fair match.  Why is it more fun to try to manipulate the mechanics of the game than it is to simply play it to get better.  In the end, isn’t it simply a detriment to you as an individual, to not explore the game and play it for fun, at least a little bit?  Is winning that much more fun than pulling off a successful tactic with the character that encapsulates you the most?  Not for me.  Is winning with a character that you don’t even like more gratifying than winning with a character that you do, who may not be as good?  Once again, not for me.

Many times in my online career, I have played competitive games, and at the very moment that I began to get the upper hand on my opponent to the point where it was hopeless for him to win, he pulled the plug.  For a long time, I didn’t understand the root of this problem.  What was the reason?  I asked many times.  I’ve never seen anyone just up and run away from the arcade console at the long-forgotten Pak-Man Arcade when I used to play there as a child. Often I became so frustrated with this recurring nightmare of an issue that I would strike out against these faceless bastards and lash out at the world.

Wiser now because of such defeats (And that’s what it was, a defeat.  If I got upset that someone dropped on me in a game, then they truly won), I realize what it is.  People don’t want to see X number of losses on their arbitrary stat tracker.  People don’t want to be reminded of that loss that they took to some dude that they’ve never met, who uses Dan Hibiki.  That must be it.  My solution is, why not only track wins?  I feel that this satisfies both parties. Those of us who want a good, fair match, and those of us who want to win at any cost and can’t accept loss for whatever reason.

Solutions aside, the very concept of running away from a loss depresses me.  In my life, I have had as many crushing, memorable defeats as I have had victories.  I have more character as a person due to it and I wouldn’t take it back for anything.  Sometimes, it’s hard to accept loss, but I can do so.  I can understand getting mad at a game such as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, when you take a loss that you feel that you didn’t deserve to take.  But in fighting games?  Fighting games, whether you like it or not, are an intimate relationship with your opponent.  There has to be a respect there.  At least enough to show love to your opponent, regardless of winning or defeat.

Remember when the older kid would give you a round?  Just so that you could get a little bit better on that quarter…  sigh.  I used to think that was patronizing.  But in retrospect, I completely understand it.  Thanks to everyone who did that in the past, on behalf of all of us who came up in that generation.  Maybe that’s why respect is such an important issue to us now.

In playing online for so long and encountering so much lag, I can safely say that the online experience is not an accurate recreation of the competitive environment of the arcade or even offline experience for one primary reason.  In any game, but more so in games like 3rd Strike, and most recently Tekken Dark Resurrection Online for PS3 and Virtua Fighter 5 for XBOX 360, you have to enter commands and combos a fraction of a second earlier than normal.  Believe it or not, in terms of execution, this is an eternity.  It does indeed flub your timing offline and it can cause you to take a lot of unnecessary losses.

Many times lag is a source of frustration online as well.  In Tekken DR for example, I tend to play mostly with my personal friends.  In playing my friend and taking advantage of the lag, he became so thoroughly upset with the game that he almost twisted his controller in half.  It becomes a situation where it is you vs. your opponent vs. The Internet.  The game is a completely different experience, and if you are amazing at the game, your skills simply don’t translate over into the online world.

Why is this such an important feature then, if inevitably, after every game receives this feature, the reaction is the same?  “This is gonna be GRRRRRE… wait… this isn’t great at ALL!  This is TERRIBLE!”

As I sit here, drinking my champagne in my dimly lit room, reclining in my chair, I still don’t have an answer to my original question.  Is it a detriment or an essential evolution of the genre?  Is it really that important?  Can we live without it? I don’t know, but I do know one thing.  While I will never play Tekken DR online again, I’ll be PISSED OFF if Tekken 6 doesn’t come with an online component.  And God damnit Sega, release that VF5 Online patch for PS3, you said it’s possible.

The question remains unanswered.  So now I pose it to you all, what do you think about this issue?