Gaming Mind games??

[The Enemy]

Hello fellow gamers of various caliber. I need your help. I love fighting games and with little practice I can master just about any character I like, but there is still something about fighter games that I'm at a loss for. If you read the title you guessed it, mind games. I've been reading online all about different characters and fighting styles in fighter games, and allot of places mention the ability, or lack there of, to use mind games during a fight.

There in lies my question, what are mind games in fighter games?? Do any of you know?? If so please tell me, I have no clue, but I want to learn more about these mind games and maybe have an extra advantage the next time I play a friend:).

[desertphoenix]

[COLOR=DarkRed]Well there are a few things you can do, but I'm not sure they count as mind games. The top things that trow people of their game is taunting them with the character or taunting them in real life. Another thing can be your character choice and style. Picking a character that is widely accepted as weak, such as Xianghua, and exploit their strengths. I guess that wouldn't work a lot of times, since better players know she has good parries and quick hits. You can pick a character that is distracting, has an unusual play style to the game, has high sexual tension, or high on the weird factor. Voldo from SC has all of those traits. The best thing I think you can do is call the other player on their play style and trash talk about that but still keep your cool. If none of those count as mind games, I don't know what does. [/COLOR]

[The Enemy]

Hmm I see, thanks. SC was a good example and it's funny that uyou mention voldo, in SCII he's my best character. Maybe second best right behind Raphael. Anyway thanks again for the input, if anyone else has anything they wanna add go for it.

[Venge]

It may not be a mind game directly, but one thing you can do is this: get in the mindset of the character. BECOME that character. Make yourself believe that that is YOU fighting. An example is DBZ Budokai 3. My main character is Vegeta. When I play as him, I HAVE to win, no matter what, just like the character himself. And its rare that I lose when I can do that. It may take time to get into character, no pun intended, but it helps out a lot. Also, try talking like your character in real life. ^_^

[Allamorph]

[quote name='Venge']It may not be a mind game directly, but one thing you can do is this: get in the mindset of the character. BECOME that character. Make yourself believe that that is YOU fighting. An example is DBZ Budokai 3. My main character is Vegeta. When I play as him, I HAVE to win, no matter what, just like the character himself. And its rare that I lose when I can do that. It may take time to get into character, no pun intended, but it helps out a lot. Also, try talking like your character in real life. ^_^[/quote]
[FONT=Arial][COLOR=DarkRed]Venge[/COLOR] has a point, if it's a little on the "whoa, dude, it's a game" side of the net. For instance, in SC, I play heavily as Talim, and I usually tear my opponent to shreds while sustaining little if any damage. I do so because I learned how she moves, I learned to feel where she wants to strike next, and I can allow her to string attacks together to match up with the opponent's recover time.

She has a solid rushing opener which can work three ways: she charges and punches mid-leap; she charges and double-kicks, landing on the other side; she charges and somersaults over her opponent, coming up behind them poised for a donkey-kick (the name escapes me). All are equally effective openers, and when varied will make your opponent hesitate, trying to figure out if you're going for the knock-down, the switch, or the psyche-out . . . that is, if you decide to open at all.

Also, the better you know [I]all[/I] the characters, the better you can exploit their weaknesses; this works even better if you can play as if you know what your opponent is going to do, even if you're only adapting really fast. Your opponent will get frustrated that their attacks aren't landing or are getting constantly interrupted, and may resort to button-mashing or just guarding, which is easy to break through/psyche-out.[/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I've always thought mind games to be stuff like faking your opponent out by following a pattern for a while, then switching things up to nail them when they get used to countering that pattern. Or, in other words, making them think you're going to do a certain move so that they'll try to counter it, then countering their counter with something different from what they expected.

I wouldn't count trash talking as a mind game. That's just harassment meant to distract them. lol[/color]

[Guest The Blue Jihad]

Trash-talking is absolutely critical to a successful mind-game.

The in-game performance (patterns, fake-outs, etc) can unsettle your opponent, sure. There have been many, many times in Smash Bros Melee, GoldenEye, Gears, and Halo--or even just poker at a kitchen table--where my friends have gotten discouraged after it became obvious I was toying with them for most of the match.

But that's only half of a mind-game proper. In-game performance will only take you so far. And often, the mileage you get out of solid in-game performance will end right before you really get inside your opponents' heads. That is why you absolutely need to know how to trash-talk well. Example:

A few weeks ago, my buddies and I were playing Smash Melee. I selected Zelda. Nick made fun of me: "Dude, if you don't change into her other character at the start of the match, you're a ****ing moron." I very casually turned to him, cracked a sly grin, and blew him a kiss. He got worried very, very quickly, because he realized right then and there that I knew things he didn't.

During the match, as I reflected nearly everything, connected each aerial kick's sweet spot for bonus damage and kickback, and dodged and blocked to the point where they couldn't even touch me, I barely said anything. When I'd kick one of them out, I'd wish them well on their journey. After I reflected a fully-charged Super Scope blast, I told them to not worry about it, because it was okay. Any time I made any really diabolical strategic play, I said something. Other than that, I was completely silent.

After the match, Nick only had this to say:

"...I...I just got raped by Zelda."

Trash-talking is an artform, folks. When someone knows how to trash-talk, it's never harassment meant to distract anyone. Hell...even lousy trash-talk still is intended to get in and mess with somebody's head.

Two most important things for successful trash-talking are [b]anticipation[/b] and [b]timing[/b].

[Allamorph]

[QUOTE=The Blue Jihad]Trash-talking is absolutely critical to a successful mind-game.

Trash-talking is an artform, folks. When someone knows how to trash-talk, it's never harassment meant to distract anyone.

Two most important things for successful trash-talking are [b]anticipation[/b] and [b]timing[/b].[/QUOTE]
[FONT=Arial]I couldn't have put it better myself. Timing slams is intricate to learn, but once it's learned, it can create a win out of a questionable situation.

For example, whenever I just want to be a jerk on SSBM, I pull out Red Marth while [I]saying[/I] I'm pulling out Red Marth. To date, I have never been defeated with this color, even though color obviously has nothing to do with my skill.

Example two: I was fighting a friend once in SC II; he had Raphael, and I was using Talim. Due to a opening error, I allowed him to take my health so far down that the bar barely registered it. I was literally running on fumes, and had resigned myself to guarding. I saw him set up for a sequence I recognized and paired a nice Guard Impact with the phrase [I]"That's enough of that,"[/I], and took him completely out in about five seconds. Meaning dead, not ring-out.[/FONT]

[The Enemy]

Thanks all, your information is very helpfull and appretiated. I do want to know more about the in-game stuff however. The word play is ok and all but me and friends constantly make fun of each other and stuff so trash talk won't work on them. They do however know that I'm usually the best at games. I use this against them, whenever I win by allot I'll note that they can't ever beat me, or they don't have a chance. This works best in SCII when I use Raphael.

Anyone who's fought Raphael knows about his parry move, if not then you've never really fought him. I am superb at this move and I can dodge just about everything. My friend was using mitserugi and I killed him slowly over the coarse of about 2 or 3 minutes. But he was completely offencive and never landed a single hit. Eventually I got him to believe it was pointless because nothing would hit me lol. I suppose that's a big area for mind games. But I'm getting a new game soon called virtua fighter 4 evolution. The character I want to master is Goh, he uses judo. For those who don't know judo is a martial art that is almost completely grapples, I'm learning judo in reality so I want to master everything he can do asap. If someone could more thuroughly explain in-play mind games that would do allot of good. Thanks allot though to all who have posted so far, your help is appreciated and will be used whenever I get the chance.