Go Players Who Play Street Fighter: Thoughts on the Two?

Hey All,

So after getting into go-I started to think about the games I really liked as a kid-one of them was Street Fighter 2 and it’s later evolution. Recently I’ve been watching competitive Street Fighter Tournaments and it is really amazing to see the level of understanding and application that the players exhibit.
Of course-on the surface-they are different styles of games-one is on a board, the other on a screen, one is black and white and quiet, the other is loud and colorful, one is slower one is very fast paced. I think the thing that go is reconnecting me with is the level of dimension and complexity such a simple basis for a game can have.
Also that there are different areas of expertise and skill that you get to understand as you play and learn more-which seems to be pretty well systematized and documented-sheesh-over thousands of years!
Playing Go has helped me to reappraise that game in that light. They have different qualities for sure-but I see a lot of ways that Street Fighter-and I am sure a lot of other fighting games follow systematic conventions-Handicaps, Relative Ranks (not in the same way as Go)-but then there is a lot of latitude and freedom that the better professional players have in their playing styles that really mixes things up. Part of it is nostalgia and feeling glad that Street Fighter has lasted so long, but I do also wonder if a game like Street Fighter has dimensions and traits of a “Great Game” like Go, Chess, etcetera. Could it actually be a game that kind of deconstructs your brain, builds it and makes it better as you develop more deeply in it?

I feel like my experience opening up to playing and learning go helps me to open up to Street Fighter once more-I would love to learn it as systematically as Go can be learned-so I can appreciate a good game-share and sharpen my skills with others. But I wanted to tap into the forum here to see if there were folks who had an appreciation of the two types of games and what they liked about them-I think more specifically what a person who really appreciates Go appreciates about Street Fighter.

Thanks!

Tyrone

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You might be interested in, if you don’t know it already, “Playing to Win” by former competitive Street Fighter player and game designer David Sirlin.
He writes about different player archetypes and the mindset of excellent players, with examples from his experience with Street Fighter. I’ve never played that game in particular, but the concepts are universal.

These texts used to be online articles available for free. He then expanded those into a book, which now seems to be also free.

Whether you agree with every statement in that book or not, it certainly motivated me to improve my attitude in Go, in games in a broader sense and ultimately, in life :slight_smile:

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What a cool reccomendation-thank you so much!