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What do you look at when you play?

EntropicByDesign

It's all so very confusing.
I've seen this brought up a handful of times in streams and other areas. Stupendous even had some kind of eye-tracking setup on his stream for a while, showing where his vision was focused when he played. Snake-Eyes said in an interview back in the SFIV days, that he watches the space between the characters.

So, what part of the screen do you concentrate on when you play? Do you focus on yourself or your opponent or maybe the neutral area between you? Any insights on why you focus on where-ever it is that you do?

I have a habit of watching my own character, or the space slightly in front of my own character.. I kind of default to this, and I dont know why I have so much trouble training myself to do otherwise.. because I honestly feel like I get better results focusing on the opponent's character directly. I can see myself in my periphery and since I know what buttons Im pushing and what I'm doing, I dont feel like focusing on myself is all that helpful.. where-as keeping my eyes on my opponent directly helps with my reactions, helps me identify patterns and habits and just generally "feels" better.
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
I just look at the other player's character. I know where I am and what my character is doing, so I don't get any value out of staring at myself.

I've always tried to wait and react to what the other character is doing, so that maybe a part of that mindset.

But then, with my old man reactions coming in, I should probably find another approach. The idea of studying the space in between the two is interesting.
 

Raidenwins

Raiden Practitioner
I've seen this brought up a handful of times in streams and other areas. Stupendous even had some kind of eye-tracking setup on his stream for a while, showing where his vision was focused when he played. Snake-Eyes said in an interview back in the SFIV days, that he watches the space between the characters.

So, what part of the screen do you concentrate on when you play? Do you focus on yourself or your opponent or maybe the neutral area between you? Any insights on why you focus on where-ever it is that you do?

I have a habit of watching my own character, or the space slightly in front of my own character.. I kind of default to this, and I dont know why I have so much trouble training myself to do otherwise.. because I honestly feel like I get better results focusing on the opponent's character directly. I can see myself in my periphery and since I know what buttons Im pushing and what I'm doing, I dont feel like focusing on myself is all that helpful.. where-as keeping my eyes on my opponent directly helps with my reactions, helps me identify patterns and habits and just generally "feels" better.
Very good topic. I do the same thing you do, i.e. I default to looking at my character, but I know it's better to be looking at your opponent, though I have a hard time doing so. It seems the habit of looking at my character is very strong and it's hard to break it. I think it's obvious that you have to be looking at your opponent, in order to see what they are doing and react properly to it.

I find that when I focus well and I look at my opponent at all times, I get better results. It's similar to sparring in real life, for those of you who practice martial arts. I've always been taught to at all times watch my opponent straight in the eyes, because that's the best way to tell when they are about to do something. I suppose the equivalent in fighting games is to look at your opponent's character and try to determine what they are doing or going to do and then react accordingly.
 
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Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
Mostly the characters.

Στάλθηκε από το C6833 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
 

EntropicByDesign

It's all so very confusing.
Very good topic. I do the same thing you do, i.e. I default to looking at my character, but I know it's better to be looking at your opponent, though I have a hard time doing so. It seems the habit of looking at my character is very strong and it's hard to break it. I think it's obvious that you have to be looking at your opponent, in order to see what they are doing and react properly to it.

I find that when I focus well and I look at my opponent at all times, I get better results. It's similar to sparring in real life, for those of you who practice martial arts. I've always been taught to always watch my opponent straight in the eyes because that's the best way to tell when they are about to do something. I suppose the equivalent in fighting games is to look at your opponent's character and try to determine what they are doing or going to do and then react accordingly.
See, this is actually really interesting, the comparison to RL combat sports.

There have been studies that I believe have PROVEN*, not just shown, that visual data from our peripheral is processed FASTER than data from our primary focus. I *think* the working idea is that primary focus visual data is much more complex and more subject to conscious processing. Ie, we directly think about shit we see more, rather than subconsciously reacting to it with ingrained muscle memory.

You mention watching their eyes, and traditionally boxers/fighters did that because it was thought you could read your opponent's actions in their eyes - and you certainly can to an extent, but it's more about reading when they are TAKING an action, more than what action is being taken. Ie, I can see my opponent's eyes 'ready', but that doesn't tell me if he's planning to jab or looking to feint or whatever.. Unless he's really slipping and I see his eyes flick in a specific direction - then I can read a body shot or somesuch.. but then we have the mindgames inherent in misleading with the eyes, or masking your expression and so on.. So, anyway, watching the eyes has been analyzed and researched and it turns out, what this is doing is putting your opponents body in your peripheral vision - which allows for faster reactions to movement from the legs and hands while letting you keep ALL of your opponent in your field of vision.. because anyone here who's ever boxed, or fought in any kind of full-contact combat sport, you know the punch (or kick) you dont see, does twice the damage of the ones you do, even if both land cleanly. This also plays in to the technical advantage a southpaw has over an orthodox fighter in some situations, and why the battle for lead-leg positioning is so incredibly important - ASIDE from the body mechanics involved that is (which are the primary reasons ofc)

So it's not too much of a stretch to say the 'best' place to watch, is very likely the neutral space between the two characters - favoring probably the neutral space in front of the opponent slightly.
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
See, this is actually really interesting, the comparison to RL combat sports.

There have been studies that I believe have PROVEN*, not just shown, that visual data from our peripheral is processed FASTER than data from our primary focus. I *think* the working idea is that primary focus visual data is much more complex and more subject to conscious processing. Ie, we directly think about shit we see more, rather than subconsciously reacting to it with ingrained muscle memory.

You mention watching their eyes, and traditionally boxers/fighters did that because it was thought you could read your opponent's actions in their eyes - and you certainly can to an extent, but it's more about reading when they are TAKING an action, more than what action is being taken. Ie, I can see my opponent's eyes 'ready', but that doesn't tell me if he's planning to jab or looking to feint or whatever.. Unless he's really slipping and I see his eyes flick in a specific direction - then I can read a body shot or somesuch.. but then we have the mindgames inherent in misleading with the eyes, or masking your expression and so on.. So, anyway, watching the eyes has been analyzed and researched and it turns out, what this is doing is putting your opponents body in your peripheral vision - which allows for faster reactions to movement from the legs and hands while letting you keep ALL of your opponent in your field of vision.. because anyone here who's ever boxed, or fought in any kind of full-contact combat sport, you know the punch (or kick) you dont see, does twice the damage of the ones you do, even if both land cleanly. This also plays in to the technical advantage a southpaw has over an orthodox fighter in some situations, and why the battle for lead-leg positioning is so incredibly important - ASIDE from the body mechanics involved that is (which are the primary reasons ofc)

So it's not too much of a stretch to say the 'best' place to watch, is very likely the neutral space between the two characters - favoring probably the neutral space in front of the opponent slightly.
It would be hard to do at home on the couch, but way back in the SF2 days I tried playing on an arcade unit while looking at my hands. It was interesting, and seemed to work fine, but I don't know that it was the most enjoyable way to play the game.
 

Lex Luthor II

Lord of Lightning
duhfuq? Why are you guys looking at yourself? There is no reason to do that and it seems backwards to me. Always look at your opponent. In real fighting, in basketball, in fighting games.

I mean looking at them you can still tell in your peripheral where you are at. You don't need to see you, unless your forgot which character you were using suddenly.
 
Depends on where the characters are and whats happening.

If i'm defending, i focus on my opponent to react to mixups and watch for assist animations with my peripheral.

If im attacking, i commit my strings to muscle memory and glance away at my assist gauge and meter to understand what all of my options are, then focus back on my character.

From range, i dunno.. i mean, screens are usually small enough to be able to see everything.

Tl;dr - my focus changes depending on what's happening.
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
I dug this up, because I've been thinking about this in relation to certain characters that exist in a number of games. There are some characters who's identity practically revolves around some illusion that it's always their turn. Rig in DOA, Taki in SC. Maybe Jacqui here in MK11 .

It's not just about their moves being fast or their negative window being super small, but focusing on the wrong visual que. When it comes to people like me that just watch the opponent, the visual que for when you can move can mistakenly be coming from their return to neutral instead of your own. I'm noticing I'm repeatedly surprised when I'm actually supposed to take my turn when labbing where I'm struggling to claim my turn. When I force myself to look at my character I can see how the timing lines up my recovery animation ending faster than I expect. I think subconsciously I'm thinking we can't move until their recovery frames are over but they would still somehow, magically, be negative.

Forcing myself to look at something totally different than I instinctively want to is super tough, but it seems to make sense of situations where a character seems to just be able to get away with looping negative moves all day. Getting a specific punish down is fine, but in lots of games it's hard to remember everything you might encounter and it's important to be able to solve new problems on the fly.

I've got to guess I'm not the only one out there getting in my own way.

I'm normally anti-necro, but it seemed related and not a topic that needed to be raised twice.
(This was not an easy thing to find and necro)
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
I look at the space between both characters when playing footsies and trying to space. I look at my character when doing a combo and I'm looking at them when they're on offense and/or mixing.
 
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Damaja325

Stylin' & Low Profilin'
i mostly focus on the space between me and the opponent and directly at the opponent when it's their turn per se.
 
Depends on what I'm doing.
If I'm looking to whiff punish something or try to hit somebody with a button, it's the space between me and the other guy.
If I'm locked in a blockstring I watch the other guy trying to react to overheads or throw attempts.
If I get comboed I check out meter and health and shit.
 
I mostly play Killer Instinct these days as you guys know, and generally, I'm watching my opponent as I play, while regularly glancing to check on Shadow Metre and Instinct Metre for both of us.

When I'm being comboed, I'm looking at them trying to analyze the strength of the attack. Sometimes I look at myself as different strength attacks cause different hit stun animations, but I find I usually fail there.
 
In my case i'm mostly looking at the opponents char, and i might be too focused on it aswel. i have issues with meter awareness leading to my bad managing of said resources. also i suspect this also being the reason why i ( confirmed by shao kahn himself, so it's 100% facts ) suck at cancel chars as there's always a subtle hint in that chars animation that tells you when to react to get the optimal cancel if that makes sense to any1 xD. like sonya's ring cancels there's a specific animation to the AMP version, and if i look at the animation specifically i manage pretty well but that's not happening in reality for me.
 
Personally, I love playing setup characters. I think I may be lacking in neutral and footsies, but I make up for it in space control and planning.
you did more than make up for it. I and i'm sure many other had a blast watching your cyrax go to work in mkx! Just letting you know:D
 
The other character. I'd like to stare at the middle of the screen, but my reactions are too slow for some stuff then.

Still not sure when to look at the meters (unless there's something like D'Vorah cocoon that gives you all the time in the world).
 

Cobainevermind87

Mid-match beer sipper
Difficult to answer. To me it's the same as when you're driving. Never spending much time focused on one particular point, but more just quickly scanning all around to assess the overall situation, constantly giving yourself the most updated version of the big picture. Certain areas get a higher percentage of the focus depending on the particular circumstances, but I never really stop scanning. I always want to be a step ahead.
 

Saltea Moonspell

"Mind Over Matter" I dont mind, and X dont matter
Monitoring space, and meter behavior is essential, though in this game, the auto regenerating bars, take so much of off player in terms of control and building.