[Gaming] Why we need to win to have fun?
Recently, I was talking with an online friend that I met in the FGC community. We quickly developed a kind of gaming friendship where we discovered that we both shared the same interests and played the same games, other than fighting stuff.
In our last conversation, he told me that he was basically quitting fighting games due to a lack of progression. I was a little bit confused about that since he seemed to enjoy playing fighting games together. When I asked him, he told me, "I'm not improving; even though I'm trying my best, I am still losing low-rank matches." He was bronze/silver on the SF6 ladder, by the way.
The first thing I asked him was, "Do you still have fun even though you're losing?" and he promptly started to laugh like he was saying, "Dude, who's the idiot who likes to be a loser?", and that laugh got me thinking a lot. I already talked about some gaming goals here, like how I was practising and honing my skills after coming back to fighting games and then I hit high diamond, almost master level, which was like a HUGE accomplishment for me, in my honest opinion. But that's not about me. I started thinking, I'm almost at my 30's, and I still haven't figured how am I suposed to play and improve at something, and how to deal with the invisible barrier that says, "Dude, you need to make money, stop thinking about improving at a game cause you got little time for that!", I don't think that someone who really enjoys the thrill of competing will EVER be satisfied with being mid-levelled or in low ranks just because.
I just wanted to say here, because I probably didn't mention it to him, that I truly understand his frustration and I support him. I know how sad it is to realise that you know and love something a lot, but you ain't got time to invest in it to the point that all you can do is give the most you can, which isn't enough, or just see everything slipping through your hands. I've been there too, and I hope that someday you just get past that and, well, keep playing and enjoying some fights. It's not about being positive in your win/loss percentage or even reaching the higher ranks. This means nothing to anyone. We're not playing at EVO, or even being paid for it, so just do whatever you want at the pace you want.