Fight Night Champion Online

So I finally signed up for the Playstation network and I've discovered the joy of online gaming for the first time. I know, I know, I'm a really late arrival but hey, better late than never. The first two games I tried online were Street Fighter IV and Fight Night Champion. Well, online gaming can tell you a thing or two about people's mentality. One of the first things that struck me about playing Fight Night online were the boxers people create. The middleweight and lightweight divisions weren't that bad but the heavyweight division was downright disgusting!

By far, the majority of boxers I fight in the heavyweight division online are the tallest boxers with a thick muscular build (usually the Tyson body type which looks ridiculously intimidating) and the biggest reach which is somewhere around 82 or 83 inches. There's hardly any variety to these user created heavyweights, especially in the lower ranks and it can be rare to fight someone that doesn't fit the biggest physical measurements. 

Does everyone have to be the biggest, baddest, most powerful and intimidating boxer?

Lucky for the more reasonable ones among us that our big bad opponents usually don't have the brain to match their muscles. When I created my heavyweight I was thinking of an average blue collar type guy. My first heavyweight was a brawler but I tried to make him well rounded by building up different punches both to the head and body. This has been frustrating for the tough guys in the online heavyweight division who choose to spend all their xp points making one punch (usually the straight to the head) as strong as possible while ignoring the rest of their boxer's attributes. These guys forget that it's a boxing game not Mortal Kombat and I've been using that to my advantage when they come into the fight thinking they'll win with an early KO.

I've come up with a scenario that often goes something like this: 

I'm the underdog who steps into a fight with a guy who's overall rating is a few points higher than mine. Less experienced fighters rarely challenge guys higher up the ladder so my opponent thinks I'm a fool for challenging them and they are over confident. They come out in the first round and immediately show me that they've spent xp points trying to make one punch as dangerous as possible. I know this because they come out swinging their one and only heavy punch and rarely throw jabs or other punches that would compliment and set up the big punch. My opponent usually has me stunned and in trouble a few times during the first half of the fight; this works to my advantage because once they've hurt me once they are over confident and think they will KO me very quickly. 

The tough guy keeps throwing power shots with the same punch while I pretend I'm more hurt than I really am. I throw jabs and power shots to the body and while these slowly wear the other guy down, they're not pretty flashy punches like a powerful hook to the head. I stay away from my opponent and try to conserve energy for the first half of the fight. My opponent thinks the fight is his because he has won every round on the judge's score cards and then BAM! I come out for the second half of the fight with most of my stamina against an opponent who is tired and slow. Once their stamina is gone their punches don't hurt as much. Counter punches and power shots are much easier to land because the opponent is slow and frustrated. It's only a matter of time before I knock them out with an even mix of brains, speed and power. When this happens some guys get so frustrated that they quit before the fight ends and they end up with a loss and a negative online record for disconnecting from the fight.

So there are a lot of dumb fighters out there but the higher climb up the ladder, the smarter the boxers become and then fighters do come along who know what they're doing and fights become a real challenge. I have to admit that I have been the victim of having too much confidence also and found myself paying the price late in the fight. I respect the players I come across who have a real knowledge of the sport. Unfortunately it feels like the majority of the gamers out there want to be the big bad tough guy that knocks you out in round 1 and don't seem to understand what Mike Tyson said in the promo trailers leading up to the release of Fight Night Champion, 

"This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is going to get hurt real bad in this sport."

That's right Mike, it's a thinking man's sport and that's how you win in boxing.