The Art of War, Part 3: Deception
Let us return to The Art of War so that Sun Tzu might help us glimpse the ways of the best fighting game players in the Western Hemisphere. I omit the East because I am not intimately familiar with its players as I am with the unquestionable champions of the West. Of course, Sun Tzu was acquainted with neither when he wrote his little manual of warfare 25 centuries ago, but he still managed to strike directly at the truth.
"...the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him. By holding out advantages to him, he can cause the enemy to approach of his own accord...[and]...entice him with a bait." --Sun Tzu, The Art of War
In fighting games like Street Fighter, positioning is of paramount importance. One maneuvers to place his character just barely outside the range of his opponent's likely moves and just within range to retaliate should the opponent foolishly try to attack from this distance. For example, in all five versions of Street Fighter 2, when Ken and Ryu fight, a sweet spot of positioning is just beyond the reach of the opponent's low roundhouse sweep. If Ryu stands at this distance without blocking (this reduces his the size of his hittable zones...shhhh!), Ken's low roundhouse sweep will miss him. If Ken's sweep misses, Ryu can easily sweep Ken in retaliation or even throw him. Also from this distance, Ken's projectile can be easily blocked on reaction. Any attempt by Ken to jump can be easily countered with Ryu's dragon punch. In short, a wide variety of Ken's most common moves are not effective at this very specific range. The exact location of this sweet spot, of course, varies by character match up and by game.
 |
| This is the so-called "sweet spot" position for Ryu or Ken in Street Fighter: Hyper Fighting. It's just beyond the range of the opponent's sweep. |
The best players are well aware of this nuance of positioning and fight hard to position themselves favorably. The weaker player, though also "fighting hard" in some sense, probably doesn't even know he should be fighting for this exact distancing, so the expert player is easily able to occupy it. And from this catbird seat, the expert is in control.
Commonly, the expert will conceal the very existence of this sweet spot. He'll do a variety of safe moves in quick succession. He'll maneuver back and forth across the sweet spot in an elaborate dance designed to hide the true advantage he holds. Mysteriously, whenever the weaker player tries to attack, he's always just barely out of range and gets hit back for his attempt. In frustration, he makes even bigger mistakes and soon falls completely apart. He is not unlike a deaf person trying to read the lips of someone doing an impression of a poorly dubbed Kung Fu movie; the real movements are too masked by the false movements to make sense of any of it.
The expert player is also aided by the "fear aura" around him. If, during his elaborate dance, he does a certain move or series with great intensity and purpose, the enemy cannot help but believe the tactic is valid. Often, it's just an illusion—a diversion—to waste time until the weaker player takes the bait and falls into the positional trap.
The low strong move from which I've become legendary (described in my first article on Sun Tzu's Sheathed Sword), is a great example of the fear aura. Often in tournaments, I've
done my seemingly-unstoppable low strong at times I know full well it's ineffective, but the opponents don't know that. Their hesitation often allows me to claim the sweet spot position I'm really after.
This tactic of dancing around just out of range of the opponent to lure his moves out is amazingly relevant in nearly every fighting game, including the myriad versions of Street Fighter, the Virtua Fighter series, Tekken, Soul Calibur, even pitiable games like Mortal Kombat.
Personally, I've used the sweet spot of positioning in another way, designed to unnerve the opponent. Like the magician's magician who gives away the secret yet still wins in the end, I have been known to stand at the sweet spot in neutral, doing no moves, and not even blocking. I learned this tactic from better players than myself, but I have that mixture of defiance and infinite patience that lets me hold the stance longer than most.
"Tu Mu relates a strategem of Chu-ko Liang, who in 149 B.C., when occupying Yang-p'ing and about to be attacked by Ssu-ma, suddenly struck his colors, stopped the beating of the drums, and flung open the city gates, showing only a few men engaged in sweeping and sprinkling the ground. This unexpected proceeding had the intended effect; for Ssu-ma I, suspecting an ambush, actually drew off his army and retreated." --Editorial note by Lionel Giles, The Art of War
What's the purpose of standing, seemingly defenselessly? From this range, I'm pretty safe...it is the sweet spot after all. And standing defenselessly and doing no moves is usually a sign that the joystick is broken or something...it's an extreme rarity in fighting game play. In a way, it's an open taunt to the enemy saying, "Just try to do something, you can't touch me." That can be intimidating. When opponents are confronted with a situation they don't quite understand, they're likely to 1) make a mistake or 2) wait until the situation passes. Of course, against me they can wait forever, since I stand in confidence and unending patience, while they sweat in nervousness. Even if I am vulnerable to them in some way, the sheer deception of it all can be utterly convincing.
"If the enemy is taking his ease, harass him; if quietly encamped, force him to move; if well supplied with food, starve him out. Appear at points that the enemy must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places where you are not expected." --Sun Tzu, The Art of War
 |
| Gandhi knew how annoyed you can get someone by not attacking them. |
As a side note, a good way to deal with overly defensive players is to simply not attack them. I've even gone as far as positioning my character across the entire screen from the overly defensive opponent, and letting go of my joystick. They expect attack, and so they shall not get it. I have the will to let time run down to zero, but do they? They never do. They are put off, and must go against their instincts and feebly try to attack. They often get quite mad, which seems odd, since I only employed the logical extreme of their own strategy.
I've also paused and done no moves for stretches of even 20 seconds—in tournament matches—far more than anyone else I've ever heard of. If I must get near the opponent but can't...oh well. Maybe if I wait 20 seconds he'll be flustered and let me in. If the opponent is waiting for my immediate attack, ready with some quick-reflex counter...let him wait on edge for 20 seconds and see how his nerves fare. If the opponent allows himself to be so antagonized, then antagonize him, I say. It's war after all.
Traps
Traps in fighting games are like the "in motion" version of the positional deceptions I've described already. A trap is a sequence of moves that prevents the opponent from acting. A trap might be throwing one projectile after the next at the opponent, and when he jumps, there always seems to be some sort of anti-air attack waiting. A trap can also be one or more tightly spaced moves (no gaps between them) followed by a move that allows the attacker to advance close enough to repeat the trap again. (When the enemy blocks or is hit by the moves, he's knocked back out of range, so an advancing move is needed to repeat the set).
Traps are hardly ever as solid as they seem to be in Street Fighter. Rarely can the attacker complete 3, 2, or even 1 repetition safely without leaving gaps. The effective trapper, though is a master of deceit. Although gaps exist, there appear to be none, and the gaps that are visible are often bait.
Let's take a specific example of a trap to illustrate this. I'll take Ryu's fireball trap in Hyper Fighting Street Fighter, which is basically the same as most fireball traps in any version. Ryu has his opponent knocked down and in the "corner," which means the edge of the playfield. The opponent cannot back up any farther. The game is two dimensional, so there is no way "around" the fireballs other than jumping over them at Ryu. The key to the fireball trap is the slow speed fireball followed immediately by the fast fireball. When the opponent blocks the slow fireball, the fast fireball will hit him basically every time if he tries to jump at Ryu in between. So the "trap" here is really only 2 move long! Not much of trap, yet by illusion, the trap can go as long as 30 fireballs or more!
 |
| Do you know how hard it was to get this badass shot? Red fireballs appear randomly in SF: HF, and very infrequently. |
First, Ryu can start with a "meaty" or "early" slow fireball against his knocked down opponent. This means the fireball is right on top of the opponent as he rises from the ground, so he's forced to block. If timed correctly, the very tail end of the fireball will make contact (rather than the front). This means Ryu has had time to finish the recovery phase of his first fireball in time to throw another one. The mechanics here are not important to the discussion, so just take my word for it that "meaty" slow fireball, another slow fireball, then a fast fireball form a 3 move trap. The opponent will not (easily) be able to jump at Ryu until that series is over.
So now you have your poor opponent knocked down in the corner. He might try to jump before the 3 series is over, in which case he'll get hit and probably give Ryu the chance to reset the series. Eventually, he'll wait for the 3rd fireball (the fast one) after which there can be no more true trap. This is the gap. This is when he can jump. Of course, this is exactly what Ryu expects and that's why he didn't throw a 4th fireball, but instead waited for the jump and did an anti-air dragon punch to knock the opponent on the ground, in the corner again. The trap is reset. Now the enemy is shaken. This trap seems to be unbreakable. Ryu has created the illusion, and can now use it to his advantage.
At this point, Ryu might throw a "meaty" slow fireball, then another slow fireball (that's a real trap), then another slow fireball. Now, that is not a true trap. The enemy could have easily jumped over the 3rd slow fireball, but he's probably too afraid of the illusion to try. Ryu could then throw a fast fireball, since slow to fast is a trap. Ryu might even sneak in 3 non-trap slow fireballs in a row, then complete the trap with a fast fireball. Everyone knows you can jump after the fast fireball, but Ryu must surely know that too so...bam!, another slow fireball, trap reset. Shouldn't have hesitated. The Ryu player is using his "fear aura" to do moves that aren't even a real trap (many slow fireballs in a row) and to reset the trap secretly (by going back to a slow fireball after the fast one). Though the Ryu player's intense, purposeful execution of these moves might make them appear to be a real trap, it's all just an illusion. It's an elaborate dance designed to conceal where the trap begins and ends.
The gaps are the key aspect of the traps. Because of deception, the defender is not able to detect which gaps are real and which ones are merely bait. Sometimes after a real gap, the attacker will simply wait for the defender to stupidly attack. The defender though he was being pretty clever since he weathered the storm, then attacked at his first opportunity. Of course, this is such an obvious thing to do that the expert fully expects it.
I remember doing difficult reversal attacks at "clever" times during one opponent's traps, only to be countered every single time. I finally realized I was as clever as the man who runs from his pursuer into a room totally empty save for a large chair. It may seem "clever" to hide behind the chair, but the lack of all other alternatives makes the "clever" move wholly obvious to the opponent.
Not only can the attacker now fake his way through gaps that let him reset the trap, but he can also create artificial gaps as bait. After blocking a series of 8 fireballs (it sure seemed like a trap), there is an apparent opportunity to jump out. Is it a real gap? Is it a gap that Ryu put there just to make me think there's a gap so I'll jump? Bam! Another blocked slow fireball. The opponent is second guessing himself, hesitating, and completely lost in the web of illusion.
"Thus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something that the enemy may snatch at it. By holding out baits, he keeps him on the march; then with a body of picked men he lies in wait for him." --Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The top fighting game players are able to conceal their strengths (sweet spot positioning) and weaknesses (gaps in traps) while simultaneously putting on mesmerizing dances designed to harass and confuse the opponent into hesitation, irritation, or worst of all—second guessing himself. If only Sun Tzu were here to see it!
August 28th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Is this why they added tactical rolls, forward/rear dashes, different ranges of jumps, and command moves?
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:30 am
It sort of depends on how a particular game is generally played. For example, the King of Fighters series is a more aggressive, rushdown style of play. Rolling, dashing/running, short jumps, quick recoveries, etc. are used in more of an offensive role, or at the very least to turn the momentum of a match back to being in your control. While these options can all be used to try to negate the sweet spots that can work against you, they can also be used to keep yourself more mobile and more threatening in the spots that can work against your opponent. On the defensive, movement options can be used not just to get yourself out of a bad situation, but also to put your opponent in one at the same time.
Advanced movement options don’t neccessarily negate the effects of good postioning, but they can definitely muddy the waters. Sure, it can easily be said that things like rolling eliminate, or at least weaken, situations like fireball traps, but quite often there are enough checks and balances to new systems that it can also add layers of complexity to these situations. Of course, that’s getting into the topic of game design and game balance, which is a discussion for another topic.