Oh yeah I know, by youtube people I thought you meant players who do guides/tutorials/tips/combo videos specifically for helping, this player doesn’t do any of that, they are just videos of him playing sets with people, so I wasn’t sure if you were referring to people like that or not.
Yeah it would be cool if we could get this site to TYM level where pretty much all of the pros post and communicate with everybody else regularly, upload their videos, thoughts concerns etc. Though, one thing this site does better than TYM is the fact that people from MS and IG actually post here regularly (Or like the community managers and stuff) while at TYM I don’t think I have ever seen somebody from NRS actually post except 16Bit and Landsdown maybe once or twice lol
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Well, with this mindset we all have, I suggest we all work on consolidating specific threads to cater to more people like us and hopefully draw more in. I’m calling us as actual posters but this is a shoutout to the mods, who continue to do good btw 
, to help us in this cause.
If any of you guys been to TekkenZaibatsu, you know what I’m talking about. For every character there will be 5 main sticky threads and everything else may be whatever. But out of those 5 stickied threads will be general stategy, matchups, combo thread, punish threadop 10 moves, etc. Obviously we can replicate that to the T, but we can ensure that the main topics that need to be discussed stays on top. I personally suggest something like a general strat, character matchup thread, character punish thread, and maybe a combo thread(?) I’m not sure.
I’m juggling these ideas, so just give some feedback so we all can make this site more inviting for new players and give it a better name overall.
If I’m stepping on toes, I apologize. I am a man that likes to see growth and movement.
I don’t think you have to worry about stepping on toes. Incidentally, one of the mods (maybe @FinchoMatic?) has already stickied tech and combo threads for all of the characters in their respective sub-forums. I think they’re quite a bit less useful in some of the forums where we were already doing this, but for some of the other character forums they should serve as a nice centralized location to start talking shop.
From the Hisako sub-forum experience though, I can say that MU threads are definitely something that can/should be used to spark people’s interest in gameplay related things. “Tech” is a wide term, and enough people aren’t lab rats that they’re likely to either not have anything to say, or will simply shy away from the threads because they feel they aren’t at a level to contribute to them. Match-up threads, on the other hand, are something quite a bit more specific, and represent a relatively larger base of experience for people to draw on and participate in. And I think we’ve tended to find that a lot of “tech” winds up getting discussed in these threads anyway, because person X will say “you should do Y to beat this character”, and the conversation will grow from there.
It’s probably easier to do this for opponents your character struggles with (there’s a reason the Riptor thread took off on the Hisako sub-forum), but at least in my opinion, I think MU threads are a good way to get these kinds of gameplay conversations started.
As to whether the pros “come back” to the forums, I honestly wouldn’t worry about that one way or the other. They will ultimately do what they want to do. Your (our) goal should be to make this space best we can make it to discuss gameplay, full stop. There is a lot of accumulated knowledge here, and quite a few talented players who may not be pros, but who nonetheless are very knowledgable about this game that we all love. 
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Well, I guess this would be the call for all who are willing to go in and come together to help the community grow. NOT by holding people’s hand, or spoon-feeding them, but by showing people what can be done with said character, and allow those people to develop their own “style” of play, carving their own path, and discovering their own unique finds that they too can share with the community.
This will in turn make those who play certain characters want to lab it up, or for those who just fight it out online they can share their experience like “Oh I fought on Ranked last night, and got hit with that Cinder setup, but I figure how to stop it…”. Or even those who watch videos from whatever person on YouTube. They can come here and say something like “I watched this Omen match vid (or combo vid), and thought I could try to do this combo that leads to a CB setup into Instinct then Demonic Despair…”.
Whether it’s little info or wiki-worthy strats you’re posting up, any input helps (I sound like an NPR fund drive, lol)…
I’m practically dedicated in being equally good with Omen while still staying with Kan-Ra, so Omen players, I’ll probably post whatever I find that seems useful.
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That’s my mindset!
I think sharing tech is fun if nothing is at stake. But for competitive reasons, it might not be wise to share if you attend tournaments.
In the beginning, I was learning more from your posts and amazing combo vid(s) than Sleep (before he picked up Aria). Even tried to find your offline tournament entries as Aria. So you do have admirers 
But, I have to be honest that I am not as knowledgeable about the game to give meaningful responses to your tech as I am still learning this game in limited available time.
I have to admit that the Aria boards are empty, and I don’t know how many non Aria players care about Aria tech.
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I’m sure there are tons of people out there who are interested in other characters that haven’t “taken the plunge” because they might not know where to start, and/or they don’t know who is more knowledgable enough to inquire about said character.
Me personally, I just jump in and get bopped til I learn, but not everyone is like that. I’m doing that with Mira right now.
I’m sure we could encourage people we come across either forums or on xbl to post up some useful info. Even if it’s a combo that isn’t max damage for example, we could probably use it for something (mixups, frame traps, etc). And for the sake of argument, if it isn’t as useful as we thought, we can simply let the person know and show him/her better options (anyone who has been on that TJ Combo thread knows what I’m talking about).
As an amateur player, and a beginner, I appreciate the Tech Sharing because it motivates the community into learn more about the game, and also for new players is easier to jump into the game.
But in the Professional scenario, I think is valid to keep your triumph card hidden for the tournament. It would be interesting to know the amount of skill necessary to perform those Techs, cause even if they share it for a newbie like me it would be impossible to execute
Your favorite is when some ones says they have new tech, and how awesome it is…but wont share it.
Nana nana nana… you cant have the tech! LOL
I think preserving your technology for competitive play is smart, however it needs to be really affective. Text that can be countered in game is fine as long as you are still at advantage with it (life bar, yomi, etc.)
This is an interesting thing to me, because while I think the general info is super important here, I think the “tech” side of things is considerably less useful to someone just starting out. Sure, there are some core items/setups that can elevate play for some characters (knowing the basics of the Aria hard knockdown ender->vortex for example), but by and large new people don’t win or lose because they have “tech” - they win or lose because of other, more foundational things. In my experience, a lot of times the newer players for a character are a lot better served by the kind of general help or philosophies that undergird a particular character. “What is Hisako’s gameplan?” as opposed to “how do I do a command grab reset?” Having command grab resets is strong of course, but when they’re just looking into the character “don’t counter all the time” is probably better advice. Threads that can provide that kind of advice without getting too deep into the nitty-gritty are super important when you’re talking about people who aren’t super hardcore fighting game heads.
Again, not saying “tech” isn’t important, but I think defining “tech” too broadly (to include general character philosophy and gameplan) hurts your appeal to people that are really new. A lot of players just flat out skip over the explicitly labeled “tech” threads, just because they figure they’re not at a level where they’d understand it or that it’d be any use to them. More general “starting out with character X” type stuff is probably more foundational to growing your character scene I think.
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Pfft. In a game with so much air play, who really wants the tech of a flightless bird? 
But honestly, I don’t see the need for keeping tech secret. I think it boils down to two reasons that make sharing tech the better way to go.
-More eyes on a bit of tech mean more people offer insight on how to improve and how to beat it. We should be making use of “group knowledge” as we attempt to hone the best strategies and sharpen our tactics.
-Characters and tiers and match-ups and tech and all the gimmicks in the world are still only affected and as good as the player playing them. Obviously there are extreme exceptions. But with an incredible amount of skill, you can still overcome even if your “tricks” are known. For instance, I faced a really strong Arbiter in a mirror last week on ranked. He had his strategies and tactics down flat, doing things I still can’t do consistently. He won soundly but it was still relatively close as far as life lead is concerned. I caught him about fifteen minutes later, recognized the tag, and realized I couldn’t out-Arby him, so I had to outplay him. I laid out a length of rope for him to hang himself on annihilated him in the next match using my knowledge of how he played and how Arbiter typically plays, and then adapted my strategy around that. My point being, player skill, adaptation and gumption still matter even if tech and match-ups are known.
Now, I’m obviously pro-sharing because sharing is caring. But I think respect is necessary. If you ask for help or information and you get shot down, that’s the end of it. No whining or asking again. If someone doesn’t want to help you, honor that.
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Yes I agree. When I was originally writing the OP, at that time I had mentally combined all aspects of learning fighters into one word: “tech”. With that said, I should probably mod the title a bit, so it’s less misleading.
So when we break this “tech” down, I really mean Character Basics, Character Combos, Character Setups/Tech, Character Matchups, and Character Punishing (based on frame data & spacing). Those are at least several topics that should be in every character thread imo. By doing this, the new player can go in and see exactly what they need to become a better player overall, and they have the opportunity to ask whatever questions need to be asked. Then, after that, of course you might find something like a “Best Moves to Use with ‘X’ character” thread, or something like a “Season # Changes for ‘X’ Character” thread, etc…
I can see the reason behind wanting to keep tech secret, but I question the effectiveness. The chances that you and you alone will know something and that you will use it to win money in a tournament is pretty slim. Plus, if you don’t share it you are not maximizing your understanding of how it can be countered. So hiding tech is a short term strategy at best. Does anyone have any examples of someone showing up with some unknown tech and taking a tournament?
Hm. That SFV throw tech/jump back option select could perhaps be labeled in this category, or perhaps in the early days of SF4 OS’s when to many players it just seemed like “holy crap, how does this guy always have the right read?” As you say however, it’s not necessarily that only one person knew about it.
I think in general keeping tech “secret” is less about making sure nobody knows about it (which is very difficult, as you have to test it on someone at some point to make sure it’s airtight) than it is about making sure that it isn’t widely known. It’s one thing if someone knows “in theory” that Hisako could probably drop a combo into a command grab reset, and quite another if they’re experienced in both seeing and playing against this tactic. There’s a certain amount of familiarity that being exposed to a tactic ahead of time gives you that makes it a lot easier to defeat than when you see it that first time. Even if the solution is very simple (just hold up), not being familiar with it gives them one more thing to keep track of in an already frenetic situation. As a competitor, I’d much rather my opponent have little exposure to my playstyle, tactics, and options than a great deal - it just gives you more options and more room to play.
As a thought exercise, compare your first reaction on seeing Spinal’s throw->overhead skull->teleport->teleport->low mixup (or something like that) to your reaction now. There’s a decent chance you still get hit by it, mind you, but the very, very first time you saw it you probably had a 
moment and just kind of blanked out, and then probably ate the next mixup and combo as well with your mouth still hanging open and mutterings of “how the !{%& am I supposed to block that?” in the air. Familiarity with setups and tech lets you approach them calmly and rationally, even when you still get hit by them. Keeping tech “out of circulation”, so to speak, helps preserve that initial reaction to what you’re doing a little while longer, and that is a non-trivial asset within a tournament setting.
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I dont see any issue with ‘hiding’ pieces of tech to help win tournaments. I don’t know that anyone is obligated to go out of their way to share something they’ve found.
That said though, there is a difference in being a jack-■■■ elitist and a decent person.
I asked HK a question when he was streaming once and he completely stopped his tirade mid-match and very very thoroughly answered my question - going way beyond what I had hoped for. I will always appreciate that. Another higher profile player I asked a question of responded with a quick ‘really, you don’t know that? I’m not wasting my time answering that ha ha’ and went back to what he was doing. This was about 2 days after I ‘discovered’ KI, so, to me, the question was legit and reasonable. No big deal, I’m a grownup so I didn’t go sulk in a corner or anything, but it did help identify an asshat.
Shrug.
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I will never understand people who get their jollies by trying to make other people feel small. Nothing good in this world has ever come from that attitude. If the question isn’t worthwhile, ignore it.
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I agree, there is a huge difference between “elitists” and “decent people”. That is another issue that should be addressed to an extent, primarily because it all ties into this talk of sharing “tech” and what not…
For the sake of the community, of course it’s got to go… That mentality not only causes division within the community, but it also prevents newcomers from truly getting into the game and becoming part of the community. Granted, perhaps some people getting into the game can learn certain aspects that are within the Dojo mode— I get it… There are of course other aspects of learning KI that the newcomer might not actually get from Dojo, or even getting bopped online (or offline). That’s where we come in…
As far as the type of responses people make after receiving snide remarks from streamers or pro players, well most of us here are mature enough to handle it accordingly. This doesn’t mean that the said newcomer would want to have to deal with those types of responses on a frequent basis, especially if the reason they left another scene was due to that very same behavior. I have experienced situations where people left a scene like DOA, joined the VF community, and had to deal with some elitist comments or some other form of harassment, and just like that, the newcomer just up and left. That type of “deterioration” should be prevented at all costs, because at the end of the day, we’re only hurting ourselves.
On a minor side note, big shout outs to all of you guys who either read, post, lurk on these boards who actually help out the community from casual to “pro”, where ever you fall in those categories… Thank you!!!
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