105
« on: December 09, 2011, 02:47:31 AM »
Accessibility is how hard it is/how much practice it takes/however you want to word it to get to playing at a competent level. Depth, depending on how you look at it is either how many [good] options you have in every situation or infinite by default because the options loop infinitely countering each other in rps fashion. The true depth in fighting games comes from figuring your opponent out and is thus entirely reliant on them. I'm not sure how to explain it but the basic idea is that when you play your opponent instead of the game you have more options. It's not like now you can wakeup mash as an option, but planning for "mindgames" ahead, such as you're going to go high twice then low instead of deciding individually each time you set up the mixup. This is why talking about depth in fighting games is mostly meaningless, every fighting game that isn't completely broken has the same depth.
One of the things that people seem to think is depth but isn't is the number of moves/combos/whatever you can do. In the case of combos, outside of escape-able ones which I won't get into, there is zero depth. After the point of hit-confirming you are always going to go into the best combo for the situation. The decision making comes before the combo, as in how to land it, not the actual combo itself. It's not a choice of do you want damage or do you want oki because unless you aren't prepared for the situation you will always choose the best one. An easy example is when the damage option will kill a character/win a round. It's obvious which is the better option then. If you don't know which is better that isn't depth, that's you not being prepared for the situation.
An exercise you can do to help understand this is find any situation in any fighting game that you want. Make a list of every option that both players have in this situation. Include every single option, not just the good ones. Now create a grid/spreadsheet and write what happens when both players use said options. You'll quickly realize most of your options are completely useless because there is another option that does better against everything else. Not understanding this makes games seem deeper than they are. Even though your 2a will win against some things, your 5a does just as good or better against everything, thus 2a isn't an option for you. In this situation 2a isn't providing depth but an uninformed individual might think it does.
What people are saying about the initial hurdle of accessibility for Melty is true. Melty's chains don't work like any other fighter and there are a lot of system mechanics thrown right at you at the start, especially with the three moons but after you get over that it's easy for a while. Most basic and almost advanced combos/techniques are easy, although some of the higher end stuff will make a vegetarian want to kick a kitten. Once you get there you then have 80ish matchups to learn which isn't hard but it does take time and practically the entire world to get you a full roster. All in all I wouldn't classify the accessiblitiness as hard but there is a lot to do and a bunch of it is thrown at you day 1.
TL:DR just because you can do something that you shouldn't doesn't make depth. Not that people posting were talking about it but people reading it were.
Also lets keep arguing about how accessible and deep melty is when everyone thinks those words mean something different.
Show Posts