Ultimately, I have read some posts about people sad because they don’t feel they are improving in the game, rants because they get beaten hard by someone, and stuff like that.
That, among other “hot topics” like Taunting and Tea-bagging, made me think about it for a while.
Am I a good player?
Not a skilled player, not a competitive player. A good player. Someone who people likes to play with. Or against. Someone who enjoys playing, and makes people enjoy, no matter the result. Am I a good player?
I believe I’m a good player. I belive people likes to play with me, both cooperative and competitive, no matter the result. I believe people likes to fight against me on KI, even if they frequently lose, or if they always win. The result doesn’t matter: the objective is having fun. I have fun, and I could say that people who fight against me have fun.
But why? Why do I enjoy playing, and why do I make others enjoy playing with me?
Well, I belive that’s the reason of this topic title: Sportsmanship, good practices, and how to be a better player
Sportmanship:
People usually forgets something very quickly: When you are playing multiplayer games, you are playing against someone. Someone who exists, not a programmed AI. Someone who can suffer, who enjoys, who has concerns. And sometimes, we forget about this, and we dehumanize our opponents. And that’s not fair.
When I fight against a random opponent in ranked or exibition, I acknowledge about them being actually SOMEONE. And that’s very important, because whatever outcome comes in that match, I have to acknowledge that I wasn’t fighting against the CPU: I was playing with someone.
This is very important, because sometimes I will win, and I will be happy with that, but sometimes I will lose. And then, I will evaluate WHY I lose. If I’m fighting CPU, I could blame a poor designed AI, but I can’t do that when I lose to SOMEONE. When I lose, I lose. Me. It could be a close defeat, but at the end, my opponent got better results than me. I can’t blame one several facts for my defeat(He got lucky on one trade, the MU was in his favor, lag, I was eating a sandwich and playing with my toes…), but keeping ignoring the most important one: I made mistakes, and my opponent didn’t.
And this is key. I have to learn from my mistakes, but also from others success. It was ME who lost, but MY OPPONENT IS WHO WON. And when you lose, you have to concede that to your opponent. Other people may have better reactions, better execution, better practice, better knowledge… And that’s ok. No one is unbeatable. And other people may play more than me, practice more than me, and have better skills than me. They deserve that victories then. It would be unfair otherwise! And that’s fine. I don’t have to be the best of the world. I just want to have fun
I have to respect that others may be better than me. Because it happens. Some will be better than me. I will be better than others. I could try to improve my skills, but I’m not going very far if I don’t accept this. So I have to be humble, and accept loses, because they make my victories bigger. Sportsmanship must be always present.
Good practices:
As I stated, when we play multiplayers, we play with and against other people. And it’s good to remember that.
When I finish one ranked fight, I usually send a message to my opponent, saying “GGs” and, if they were notorious in something, remarking it (“Nice TJ, those juggles were sick!”, “Nice antiairs man, the sky was yours!”, “That resets were incredible dude!”)
This helps us to acknowledge that we are facing PEOPLE, not AI. This is a byproduct of online multiplayers: We dehumanize our opponents. It would be easier to lose against our brother, or a friend, when playing local, because you see who defeated you. You know that person. Losing to an unkown adversary is harder to swallow. Because we don’t know who defeated us, so we can start guessing wrong stuff: he was lucky, he didn’t deserved it…
After losing a fight, especially close ones, I always say to myself: I lost because of my mistakes and his success, I have to correct mines, and hope to get better, so I can force him into making mistakes to. I can’t say something like “you got lucky because I did that -99999 on block move and you block it, otherwise, I would win”. I have to accept that my opponent had the read, I was easy to read, whatever, but I have to accept that both of us are playing, not only me.
Knowing that you are fighting SOMEONE helps you to avoid some disrespectful stuff, like hate messages and rants. Why should I send a message to my opponent for losing? What do I earn? Why should I rant about my bad luck instead of trying to acknowledge what my mistakes were?
Try to think in your opponent as your best friend, playing just side by side with you. Would you react by the same way? Then don’t be salty when you lose. Whoever won you, is a person with feelings. You have no right to be mad at someone for winning you in a game. You were trying to do the same.
At the end, this walltext can be summarized into this: Have fun playing, respect your opponent, and be happy. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose: Just relax and enjoy. Some of my most enjoyed matches were defeats, but I learned from them. Be happy trying to improve, but don’t desesperate for not being better. If you enjoy playing, improvement will come sooner or later.
Because videogames are for making us happy and have fun. Take the positive, learn, adapt, and be a better player. But don’t hate or be mad. Is not worth of your time.
Some random tags:
@BigBadAndy @MandrillManiac @SlenderCashew50 @FallofSeraphs76 @SonicDolphin117 @SightlessKombat @KevBones10 @ItzTymeToDul @STORM179 @TheNinjaOstrich…
