Stick frustrations

I am getting pretty close to just quitting stick for fighting games altogether. It has been a little over a year since I made the switch, and when I first began I promised myself that I would never go back to pad. And indeed, I have not once gone back, no matter how bad I was losing or how frustrated I got. But recently, I realized something: my enjoyment of fighting games has greatly diminished this past year, purely because of my switch to stick. I love the genre because of the dynamic player-to-player interaction and the focus on situational awareness combined with a bit of mindreading. Really, once you strip out all the external factors, fighting games are about your mind versus your opponent’s. The problem is that when I’m playing on stick, it sometimes feels like I’m spending more energy fighting the controls than my opponent.

I don’t regret making the switch one bit though. It was a very good learning experience. I used to be completely incompetent at using stick, and now I’m just halfway competent. But it’s just not fun when I know that I can’t give it my all. I also don’t have that much time nowadays, so I can’t grind everyday like I did when I was younger. Thinking back on it, I really should have made the effort earlier: it probably would have been easier and less frustrating to switch if I didn’t already have almost 8 years of pad experience in my belt.