Am I the only one who can still have fun while dialing it back a bit? Just "fumble" a few times, fall behind intentionally, and then use your skill to catch back up. If you can't catch up, your friends win and have fun. If you do catch back up, your friends think it was a close game. Either way you get to flex and nobody thinks you're a sweaty tryhard and we all get to have fun.
This is part of why super smash bros is so good. Playing against friends who are decent but not as good as you? Play one of your secondaries. Friends are bad but learning? Play a low tier/a character you don't ever play. Friends are casual gamers/don't know how to play smash? Spam b moves as a low tier. No matter how good you are you can sandbag pretty hard without your opponent feeling like you aren't trying/not having fun.
Right you just have to find a sweet spot handicap to use. You can absolutely both be challenged at the same time, just find the right equivalent of tying one arm behind your back.
One of us is constantly beating the crap out of everyone else with a particular character? Switch it up.
Or learn to counter whatever they're doing to win.
Dhalsim's endless string of "Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!TigerUppercut! You! Win!" was eventually conquerable with the right combination of moves and that wasn't even player skill, it was a shortcoming in the game's internal timing (that was bad enough that it overwrote the existing playing sound effect while you were doing it).
On behalf of the dads: We used to let you win all kinds of shit and you never knew! Then one day we couldn't beat your anymore... and we had two choices while you gloated: convince ourselves we let you win or let the mid life crisis begin.
This is exactly what I've had to end up doing in a few games. Some games I don't mind. Like Battlefront 2. I used to play, and win, tournaments in it so when friends call me in to help them with a game or something it's great because you get a ton of praise and hype. Your friends going "FUCK THEM UP DUDE! YEAH! GO FOR IT!" Or the thanks for helping a friend. But that same prowess meant that (even if there was easily accessible invite pvp) I can't fight any of my friends. There are ways you kind of can and everytime I've suggested it it's always a resounding and hard no. I've had similar levels of skill in other games that I actively tone down around my friends because I want to be able to play against them and not just play with them. I don't give a shit if I win or lose. I give a shit that I'm hanging out with people who I like and playing games I enjoy.
It has a perfect handicap system, and the game sucks if you don’t use the correct handicap, but I simply can’t get people to play me with a handicap because they think it’s shameful. They want to play me without a handicap, then I mop the floor with them.
But we can have a really good game that’s really engaging if we use a handicap.
I'm not big on fighting games, don't they usually have a handicap setting? How do they work? I'm guessing good ones do stuff like break guard easier and do more damage, right?
Generally it'll do something like make one person do more damage and take less, but if the skill gap is too big it really won't make a difference if they can never land a hit. Personally I'm a fan of "I can't use X" or "I will only use Y." It allows everyone to still have a challenging and fair feeling time, instead of pounding away at a punching bag that one hits you which just doesn't feel great for anyone.
Back in the day me and my friends played SSB64 and I was by far the best out of them. They banned me from using pikachu because I was unstoppable with him. I just used the characters I was bad with when I played with them so it would be challenging for everyone.
I would do this when I was still playing Elden Ring. Signal a fair fight, trade blows a bit, make a few "mistakes" that made it seem like I was playing bad. Then score a "lucky hit" that'd finish them off. That way, they hopefully come out of it feeling like it was a fair fight. If I actually mess up and die, that's fine too. It's all in good fun. My goal was just to draw the fight out into something amusing and satisfying for both of us, compared to the 10 second hack and slash, Rivers of Blood/magic spam tryhards you'd get all the time. Those I didn't hesitate to flex on.
It's also like this for many hobbies. I can run further and cycle faster than almost everyone I know, but would probably barely even be mid-pack in a local race for either.
I relate with this one. I cycle further and faster than my friends, so it feels like I have to slow down when I cycle with them, however I'm nowhere near professional level.
There's a VR version of Quake 3 Arena and I played that against a friend recently. We never played against each other on flatscreen, but each of us played the game a fair bit back in the day. I absolutely demolished him. Then some more people joined the server and wiped the floor with both of us. I managed to score a few frags but I was still totally outclassed. There's always a bigger fish.
Actually, you can do multi-player games. On real machines you pay for credits, and then you have to use one credit per player. But, the first player plays their first ball, and after the first player drains (loses) their ball, the second player plays their first ball until they drain it, then the third player, etc. Once everyone has played their first balls, then Player One returns with their second ball, and play continues like that through all three balls.
The amount of trash talking during play varies depending on who you're playing, but as with most things, trash talking your buddies while they're playing is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game.
This is me in racing games. This is why I like to play games like Forza. I can play a private lobby where I can take less powerful cars and race my heart out against friends in more powerful ones.
Spent most of my time making liveries and tuning my cars to make them ridiculous to drive.
Love me some Forza. Been playing 5 lately for the first time. Feels lonely not having friends to play with anymore but I gotta start messing with this Horizon Open shit.
This was probably me with Smash Bros in college: Nobody in the dorms would play me after a certain point, but I'm sure I would've gotten my ass whooped by professionals.
I went to school with the number one melee player in my state. I played him a ton over the years and never beat him once. The skill disparity between "serious tournament competitor" and "best in the neighborhood" is boggling.
I have this problem playing smash bros with my kids. Solution? Pump up my handicap to >100% and play Kirby. Basic hits knock Kirby out, so it actually becomes a challenge for me, and they love beating me up. Win win!
Right? I watch the videos and they're pulling off moves in times I don't understand.
But wiping the floor with my friends isn't fun. I've settled on not using Roy/Ike, Captain Flacon/Ganondorf, Mewtwo/Locario, Donkey Kong and Samus. Actually I haven't used them in so long I've probably handicapped myself with at least some of them
But when the game's mechanic is beating a singular person who's sitting right beside you, skill matchups dictate the fun. But this is probably why I play Third Strike alone lmao
me in tetris.
none of my friends will fight me anymore after i kept beating them even when drunk and high.
but i am nothing compared to professional players
Reminds me of the one time I played 4 online. I played maxi as I always do, even though he got gimped hard. This guy played Asteroth and he let me win for 2 rounds. Then he schooled me. Hard.
He let me win the first 2 rounds to give himself the handicap. 5th round came, and I tried. Harder than ever. Sidestepped at the right moments, blocked, the whole shebang. We both had a sliver of health left, and I jabbed him. Simple little doosh. And I won.
I've never sweat harder from a game in my life. It was a waterfall coming from my armpits. My heart rate was so high that I felt it in my arms.
I will always remember and relish that victory, and I will never play soul calibur online ever again.
Me with Speedrunners. Got hooked on it for a little while and got pretty good, but put it down for a few years and don't stand a chance against anyone still playing it, especially with any custom map.
Playing random characters can help. Picking someone I'm not familiar with for casual play gives me exposure to other styles and helps me become more rounded, while tipping the less experienced player a balanced playing field.
The average smash bros player. I'm one of them lol. At least going to local fighting game tournies are hella fun. I got bodied really hard at a tournament we had at a bar and it was still super fun, entrance pool feed is usually like $5 or less and they're pretty chill.
You can always just find a game club with more skilled players, teach your friends how to stomp face or just watch them play if it's that serious.
If your friends know you are skilled and bitch about you playing at your level instead of catering to them, they're not good people to hang around anyway.