Just how bad is practicing via Arcade Mode?

I hear a lot of And That's Terrible vibes from people when one even brings up even highlighting the single player modes in fighting games (and well, single player campaigns in FPS etc). Why is this?

Elitism? I don't know, it's there, so why not play it?

Well...actually, I can't comment, since I don't have a game with an explicitly defined "Arcade Mode" unless you count Left 4 Dead 2 (if you can).

More or less, any game with a main single player vs CPU mode.

^Oh, well I have plenty of those:

• Quake III Arena and, by extension, OpenArena.
• Left 4 Dead series.
• Iron Grip:Warlord.

I think the criticism is going towards Bad, cheap or otherwise pattern-based CPU

I mean, true, a computer will almost never match an experience with a human opponent, but I'm sure they can at least help out with basic scenarios as a stepping stone, right? (except for Super Turbo's AI. Fuck you. fuck you to death.)

That's the general gist of it. Computer players have advantages (they can guess your button presses, they aren't prone to frustration) and disadvantages (they can't read your patterns and generally have a set way they attack).

Arcade mode is fine for a beginner, but if you wanted to get into competitive fighting games you'll need to find others to play with.

Vs. CPU modes are... well... vs. CPU. There's no AI to date that can keep up with human players who are more than half decent and all A.I.s have flaws that can be exploited for an arguably 'skill-less' win. Is it any wonder the Stop Having Fun Guys have nothing but scorn for single player mode?

I strongly disagree, of course, but that's the rationale. The title of this thread would imply that one intends to face other humans in the future and practicing vs. A.I.s tends to lock you into the wrong tactics (e.g. AI Breakers).

Thankfully, the locals at my arcade are friendly enough to provide constructive criticism, but online play, for me at least, is absolutely brutal.

If you just want to get better at arcade mode, then go ahead. However, if you expect to practice on arcade mode and then use that experience against other players, I'd call that worse than useless. You'll learn bad habits that only work because you're accidentally exploiting the weaknesses of the AI, and you may not even be able to tell. And then you'll have to unlearn those when against other players, which will use up more training time. About the only thing you could get out of is to get more familiar with the basic controls or advanced inputs, and training mode works better for that.

Depends on what you're playing as to whether learning to perfect controls (rather than strategies) for a game is more beneficial against the AI or humans, as I have never met a training mode that was capable of teaching me anything beyond "push (a) to punch."

I have never played an actual arcade game, in which I wanted to figure out what I was doing against a person I did not know well enough to give me the opportunity. Better to play the AI in situations like that.

And while, yes, it will be hard to figure out how to beat actual people after playing an AI to perfect strategies, it's much easier to do so than to start playing people from scratch. At least with the former one knows how to play the game...

You think talking about arcade mode is bad? Just wait till you try talking about story mode. Ever since MK vs DC, people have come to the conclusion that having a decent story mode means ignoring the gameplay.

edited 8th Mar '11 1:59:22 AM by ABRICK

Other people are dicks online and aren't worth my time. Then again, every fighting game worth its salt has to have an insanely cheap boss that can only be beat by bumrushing the bastard and hoping that it doesn't do that bullshit rolling in the air move. I'd like to play with other people, but the only arcade is across town and the Tekken 5 machine has broken buttons.

It's also easier to learn new techniques and executions in Training. Arcade really only gives you the experience of when to use those techniques (Which I find more important overall, but whatever).

I like playing through arcade mode, but I FUCKING HATE when the AI cheats in some fighting games.

edited 8th Mar '11 12:30:23 PM by Scardoll

Arcade is usually where I get most of my playtime. Training mode is too boring and Online players are too difficult.

MUGEN is a great example. Mostly because a lot of "tourney" players say it's unbalanced (true) and lol ai.

Being a Blaz Blue player, I say there is nothing wrong with practicing the combos in a combo fighter instead of just going and getting your ass kicked because you didn't practice enough.

Don't listen to the shouts of "Stop Having Fun" Guys, just play the game however you like. I seriously don't understand why everyone thinks that video games are always Serious Buisness.

Thanks

Play the game how you like, of course.

But if you want to get good against other players, Arcade modes will generally do very little except teach you the controls. A.I.s tend to be very good at certain things, like timing moves (because they're just a calculator with virtual fists), but terrible at other things, like reading the player, knowing when to back away and taking advantages of certain situations. You will develop habits because of the predictable way A.I.s play and a human opponent will soon pick up on these.

Start by playing with a friend if you can, but try not to rely on this either - playing against 1 opponent will give you both bad habits because you'll both just learn how to play against each other, what moves to expect etc. A group of friends is much better.

The only way you can really get 'good' is by playing with a variety of people. Look online for a community of players of your game to find people in your local area. If you tell them that you're new and want to practise with someone who knows what they're doing, they shouldn't be jerkasses about it.

This is all assuming your intention is to become a skilled player in a competitive arena. If you just want to play with the computer or occasionally when you have a friend round, then obviously there's nothing wrong with trying out some moves in arcade mode.

There's also the problem that arcade mode is REALLY BORING compared with playing against friends regularly.

edited 11th Mar '11 4:33:40 AM by Smo

My preferred mode of practising in Blaz Blue is going to the training mode, pick Bang as the dummy, then set his AI to 100. The resulting carnage always ends with me learning something new.

I recently started playing Street Figher IV and lemme tell ya, if i had hopped right into the online matches then i would have sold the game the next day. When i first started playing i couldn't beat arcade mode on easy. After i started learning all the tricks, got comfortable hitting three buttons at once, found some characters i'm good with and honed my reflexes properly suddenly i was tearing through the CPU like it was nothing and holding my own against flesh and blood opponents. This happened in a matter of days.

My sudden leap in competence is almost jarring. I didn't get good at Soul Calibur until weeks after going online and still scrape the bottom of the barrel in Blaz Blue. Does SSIV have well-scripted CPU bots or something? It's like the game is teaching by doing.

I wish more games had learning AI ala Brawl