Why Training is More Satisfying Than Street Fighter 4

Last week after more than ten years of anticipation, Street Fighter 4 was released for consoles.  This is a pretty big deal if you like fighting games.  What's more, the people at Capcom have taken some incredible stylistic risks, and redone all the art in a rough 3D anime sort of style, and filled the whole thing with sumi-e type ink flourishes.  Even if you don't give a damn about games, you should watch this just for the artistic value.

Stirs the blood eh?

I'm debating about whether to dive into SFIV.  I spent most of my teen years becoming a Street Fighter player and even entered a competition once and came in third.  These days with online play I can take on people from all over the world while wearing my pajamas.  It's pretty tempting.

Today as I was working out I was thinking about how much more satisfying it is to play PCP than play Street Fighter.  I'll never be one of those people who automatically assume that a video game is a poor use of your time.  In my mind, Street Fighter is a perfectly good way to spend your time.  Once you get good, it's kind of like high speed chess.  You need strategy, creativity, and decisiveness to play Street Fighter, all of which can be carried into your regular life.  So don't expect a "you kids need to get off the couch and get some fresh air and exercise" lecture from me.

Here's why SF doesn't satisfy like the PCP.

In Street Fighter, there's always someone better than you.  Not only better, but much, much better, so much better that when you lose in 10 seconds you feel about 3 inches tall.  It's not a pleasant sensation.  You can put in hours and hours of playtime and still get crushed by an even more hardcore player.  And with online leaderboards you can see that even though you're pretty good you only rank 19,000 in the world.  19,000!  Uh... yay!?

In contrast, because it's physical, a workout routine like the PCP can only be done a certain amount of time in a day.  After an intense hour of training it simply doesn't make any sense to keep going.  You'll just wear your body out and have counterproductive results.  On the other hand, I can put in three hours of Street Fighter and still not feel satiated.

Second, there will never be anyone "better" at training than you.  You have your one body and what you do with it is up to you. Fatten it up, trim it down, add bulk or increase flexibility, it's all up to you.  No one has any right to judge what you do with your only true possession, your physical presence.

And finally, the rewards of being a badass Street Fighter player are, in the big scheme of things, pretty miniscule.  A very small group of people will give you some props, but the vast majority will think you're kind of a loser.  And you kind of are.  Because no matter how you look at it, it's only so cool to move little men around a screen and hit buttons.  I wonder what percentage of top level Street Fighter players have girlfriends, or even have relationships with females at all.

But when you start to gain some control over your body, the rewards are immense.  Whether it's deserved or not, people respect someone with good posture, broad shoulders, and a trim waist.  Opportunities open up because without saying a word an in shape person is communicating that they have motivation, discipline, and patience.  As I tell the PCPers, imagine two people with the same qualifications are interviewing for a job at your company.  One of them is fit, and the other one is a pasty sunken eyed wimp(i.e. Street Fighter pro).  Who are you likely to give the job to?

So, we have activity one, Street Fighter, in which you can put hour after hour of time and at best work your way up a few rungs on a ladder than no one else cares about, and STILL get your ass kicked regularly.

And activity two, a one hour a day commitment that will make you feel confident, look better, live longer and healthier, make a good impression on strangers and the opposite sex.

It's a no brainer really.

...but I still might buy Street Fighter 4.