The Masked Carnie

I've just spent the last few days introducing people to Flash Duel.  It was definitely an interesting experience.  I think I've got a bit too much esteem for Mr. Sirlin than is healthy, so I was a bit overenthusiastic when trying to teach people the game.  Once I calmed down and taught the game as it is, accepting success or failure, I got a fairly reasonable balance of reaction.  Some people love it, some hate it.  Fortunately, the store owner loves it, and I actually could not beat him.  It shows I certainly have things to learn, and I'm glad I have the determination to keep at it.

Ya know, I had a really long post ready to go today.  The more I wrote it though, the more I realized it was a futile effort.  I'm saying the same things another great player has said, but probably not nearly as well.  Instead, I'm going to refer everyone to my favorite book. Playing to Win was written by a champion Street Fighter player, but it does more than focus on fighting games.  He actually takes Sun Tzu's book Art of War and translates it to games.  There really isn't much difference, as Sun Tsu speaks of victory regardless of any morality whatsoever.  In war, that sense of victory really comes from having a clear definition of what that victory is, and the more you detail that victory, the more difficult it becomes.  Let me give you a simple example.  I'm not exactly sure what our definitions of "victory" for our overseas wars are, but I'm pretty sure they all hinge on removing so-called "terrorist" groups.  If you define victory ...

Aside from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, I haven't really gotten myself involved with anything David Sirlin has done.  In fact, I haven't participated in any of the testing because I'm too cheap to create the materials.  I also know now from the example of Chaos that I have to really twist people's arms to get them to try anything new. Ironically, I am not cheap enough to avoid buying a finished product, and the deluxe model at that.  I ordered Flash Duel yesterday, and to drive up interest in Yomi, I'm going to bring it to my local game shop.  The game is supposed to take about 5 minutes to play and has the flavor of two fighters training with each other for the upcoming tournament. I look forward to getting my friends involved in this.  I haven't checked on this game in any way, so I'm going on faith that Mr. Sirlin is a good designer.  I think I'll be justified.