Luthien I disagree slightly with what you've said.
You say you can't learn how to read patterns in your opponents playstyle, but I think the computer is much easier to read the patterns than any human..
That's the thing. The computer has a pattern, and although it is harder to read from Melee's, it is still just
a pattern. The computer will never try to do something unexpected, it will never be thinking "What can I do to throw my opponent off?" I'm not so much talking about pattern analysis as I am talking about predicting changes in patterns, and learning how to deal with them. Very rarely do I find myself surprised by a computer's actions, so if I only fight computers, how will I learn to adjust quickly?
If you can't read the computer, you'll never be able to read a person.. because the computer is much more transparent. So.. if you're not at the point where you can learn to read the computer, then you still have something you can learn by practicing against them.
That's exactly what I was talking about. Once you get to the stage where you are consistently four-stocking [3 stocking now, I suppose] computers, you will no longer learn from them. You need to move on. You can still get better, but at a very, very,
very slow rate. And once you do eventually face another human, you'll be in for a shock.
You'll never fight an Ike with a different playstyle, because all computer Ikes fight the same. Compare Spazn's Ike to Rykos. Very different. If I tried fighting Ryko's Ike like I fight Spazns, I would lose. Well, I usually lose anyway, but I would lose
very badly. You not only need to learn how to deal with certain character's movesets, but you need to learn how to deal with defensive/aggressive playstyles. And you can't learn that from a computer.
Sometimes I practice 1v2 against the computer, and sometimes I practice my spot dodging.. because my spot dodging is terrible. Even against the computer I get owned when I try to spot dodge frequently during a match.
I figure if I'm not at the point where I can rely on my spot dodging against the computer I'm just going to get smashed if I try to start spot dodging against a real player.
That's working on your basic moveset. And, again, once you manage to perfect your spot dodgeing against a computer, you can't really improve from that point. This is not the same against a human opponent, because a human can always toss things up, do something unexpected, etc. You take your predicting abilty to a whole new level against a human than against a computer. Eventually you will know what a computer is going to do, and be able to spotdodge. With humans, you can only estimate.
Computers don't use mindgames. Therefore, you can't practice dealing with mindgames against a computer. I agree with you that computers can help you improve, but once you can beat them on a consistant basis they can't really help you anymore.