How do I stay motivated to play Falco?

[copke]

First of all, this isn't to help people losing motivation, since I'm one of those people and I do not want to play the game anymore.

When I started off I was super enthusiastic about the game and was very happy, as I got into the game more and more I started to lose my love for it that I once had. It's gotten to the point where any time I go to Anther's ladder and lose one game, even 1-2, I'll want to just quit the game. It's not fun anymore and I just don't want to do it but at the same time I do. It's confusing, but I just don't know how to stay motivated to get better. All of my mistakes, even the ones I address and people that play me address, are never fixed. I always do the same stupid things and can never fix them. How do I get motivated to play the game and get better to the point where I can beat low level players and not get 4-stocked every match I try to play then reset the next one?

 

[Icyo]

Motivation comes from within. It's something you feel. Learning to recognize your goals and what you want out of the game may give a clear direction and help keep you motivated.

Here's a post by PPMD which might help:
http://smashboards.com/threads/falco-discussion-thread.256826/page-131#post-12321779

 

[flique]

It doesn't matter how many times you get 4 stocked. You're going to get better the more you get beaten and the more you practice basic techniques. You got to remember that the gods started out as you too.

 

[Flippy Flippersen]

Online is very hard to stay motivated for since it has some less than ideal moments. I would recommend going to an offline tournament somewhere or just grinding some tech and theorycrafting and see if that does anything for you.

 

[FE_Hector]

One thing that really keeps me going is competition. NCSU has a pretty active scene and weekly fests, so I'm able to go against people pretty often and just remain motivated to win. Salt helps even more...

 

[KムエN]

Once you git gud, you'll be so motivated to play just to **** people up that it's not even funny. One thing I love about this game besides punishing, learning, and winning, is knowing how beastly I am. I'm sure everyone who's decent or better feels that way. That attitude helps me fight better, which in turn produces even more motivation to play, which then helps fuel the attitude and keeps things going in a beautiful endless cycle, lol.
To me your problem sounds like you're probably autopiloting. If you're just throwing out hitboxes and focusing on tech while you struggle then yeah, that's the problem.
Motivation may or may not come right away, but if you want it and you stick around, you'll soon get it.

What you should do is practice offline more seriously, and focus on tech only while you're there. (During matches, you should consciously be focusing only on timing/spacing/decisions.. or fundamentals. Let your subconscious handle tech. Make that a habit). When you're practicing, focus hard and put your knowledge to immediate use. Try to produce consistent results from as little practice as possible, as quickly as possible- in other words, see just how fast you can learn everything. Set time goals. (I still do this, and it feels great to prove to yourself that you're a really quick learner.) Don't just apply that to practice though, do that when you fight. See how quickly you can make yourself adapt to better opponents.

Another thing to do is take breaks- when you play too much, you will get bored, and you will probably autopilot no matter how hard you try not to. When you do come back (anywhere between a day and 2 weeks) you should be more motivated, not just to play, but to learn and also put what you last learned into practice.

When you fight people, (for now) don't worry about combat. Just focus on dodging hits with your spacing, and observing their offense and how they react/adapt to things. Assuming you know how to punish (0-death or at least 0-D%), once you're able to keep up with anyone in neutral, the game becomes ridiculously easy, and you will be motivated to play more and more people who are better than you or at the least ppl who put up a good fight. And you won't even need as many breaks. You'll just want to keep playing more. Well, at least that's the case for me.. hopefully for you too some time soon. Good luck

 

[Klemes]

Do you play with friends IRL on a regular basis ? Playing friendlies, seeing OTHER people get better, just talking about the game etc. This is what keeps me on the Melee train personnaly.

I'm pretty sure I'd never have been this far in the game alone, or just online. Smashboards is awsome, but you need to make use of everything you learn vs an opponent in the same room from time to time.

 

[FriendGuy]

I watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkTRhkvSKOQ and be like ";_; Falco, noooooo I will never hurt you or leave you Falco ;_;"

 

[TeeJay308]

With Melee, a big part of what keeps me motivated to play the game is how much fun it can be to play with other people in an offline setting. Before I picked up Smash, I tried to become competitively good in Tekken, and because there was no offline scene nearby, I had to settle with online matchmaking. I lost motivation to play Tekken more than frequently because of this and had some periods where I wouldn't even touch the game for months.

Online can be such a ****ty environment for (fighting) games. Not only is there always some form of lag involved, but it can be very hostile as well. Rage quitting, lag switching, hate mails and all forms of bad sportsmanship can be kind of funny, but I really prefer a more positive environment for improvement. Also, I noticed that I rarely ever get salty when I play in offline settings. I would sometimes get extremely mad when playing online (SF4, Tekken, any shooter as well), and I've never even come close to legitemately getting mad playing smash offline. I get disappointed when I do poorly, but still manage to have fun.

So yeah, figure out if there is an active local scene in your neighbourhood and try to join in on the fun. If that doesn't help you stay motivated, I guess the game just isn't for you.

 

[Abaddun]

Don't get salty when you lose. Learn from your losses and don't expect your opponents to tell you what you did wrong. Play good players more and you'll get better. You didn't chose the Falco lyfe the Falco lyfe chose you.