Understanding your motivations and finding clean fuel

These days I think a lot about how absolutely ridiculous fighting games are, and the fact that people are willing to devote themselves to playing them is beautiful to me. Fighting game players are special motherfuckers, and the ones who are compelled to compete are invariably driven by different emotions which lead them down different paths. We do not, as far as I know, possess the power to channel our physical life forces to throw fireballs or anything. And yet, the classic fictional trope of being able to manifest our will to fight into a magical energy — chakra, ki, the Force, whatever — applies neatly to the factors that motivate us to play fighting games. When we see Ryu struggle over the years to choose between the Power of Nothingness and the Power of Killing Intent (AKA Satsui no Hadou), he is choosing between different fuels to power his fists. Killing Intent certainly has its perks (you get to juggle with tatsu ->DP!), but it hurts himself and those around him, and ultimately, Ryu decides he’s not about that life. As an older fighting game player and martial artist, I can relate. I started playing in my teens, and the people who I played with were my clearest benchmark for improvement. I chased those wins hungrily, because whether I won or lost was the loudest feedback I could get. My understanding of fighting games was too limited to clearly see how I was improving at the game over time, so instead I relied on my head-to-head comparisons to give me that feeling of progression. <a href="https://pattheflip.medium.com/understanding-your-motivations-and-finding-clean-fuel-dd9e7012212f">Click Here</a>