hyperagathon: I agree fighting games are mostly about practicing the execution, and reading your opponent's intentions (when fighting people at least).
Faster reaction time is probably more impactful in online FPS games. There are various online tests for it, for example:
https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime which claims 273 ms as the average. If you look at stats from aim trainers, the people with the best reaction time are a lot faster than that.
Depends on the fighting game. That jab or whatever can be really important. OP seems to have an issue with execution, which tells me he doesn't understand the game's dial-a-combo system. The input buffers and practice methods for using them are not straightforward in these games, especially Mortal Kombat. Slower games like Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter, etc tend to work a little better for that. The problem with fighting games, these days, is that their tutorials are trash. I've had people recommend games on gog for their great tutorials, I try them out, and i come off convinced they're trash. They have this infernal problem of not being able to teach people effectively. The information in them is usually good (or oversimplified), but the worst part is the presentation of the information. From what i've been told (without trying it out, based on some things seen in a video about video game tutorials), one of the more recent mortal kombat games have taken a step in the right direction, but the rest of their tutorials are awful. I could easily go on for a long rant about all the problems with them.
WinterSnowfall: So you're saying your ability to aimlessly mash buttons has diminished? :P
I jest - but to be honest I've never liked fighting games that relied on impossible button combinations for combos. Not even when I was young(er) could I get them right. I think I managed to pull off a few old-school Mortal Kombat fatalities in my lifetime, and that's enough for me :P.
StingingVelvet: I'm not very good at combos either, at least not the long string kind like people who are very good do. I can do a three or four button one pretty easily, but I rarely think to do so. I'm just more focused on special moves no matter how hard I try to do otherwise.
One part of that might be having to be so fast as to take advantage. Speed is really the thing that made me start this thread. In MKX there's a tutorial section where you have to do a combo and then a special move immediately afterward and it took me FOREVER to do it fast enough. I doubt that would have been a problem 20 years ago!
It would've been. If i wasn't so lazy, i'd make a program to help people with combos. Usually combos aren't really the issue, though. They're just the things that everyone and their brother can see first since that's the easiest way to up your damage. Watch your competitive players, and you'll see combos are not the biggest part of their plan, even if they demonstrate them.
