Martial Arts and WoW

[deadmanfred]

Just wanted to share my story/thoughts... Before reading this keep in mind the #1 best martial art technique is simply not fighting or running away.

So I started playing MMO's a few years ago and had never really played similar games in the past, used to be a Nintendo fanboy. I also have 8 years of Tae Kwon Do training and reached 1st Dan, like 2nd level black belt. One of my friends, after an angry night of League of Legends, decided to ask if I wanted to try WoW with him. Turned out my friend was an experienced vet healer with years of xp dating back to Everquest. So he wants me to tank, I of course realize now he wanted his own personal pocket tank, and I'm like that sounds cool. We get into the thick of leveling and its time to start dungeons. After a rough start dealing with overzealous dps etc I start to learn more and more. By the time we hit ~lvl 50 he wants to kick things up a noch and he starts to pull groups onto himself expecting me to pick them up and get used to the incoming massive damage. Keep in mind neither of us had on hierlooms so there were several rough patches in doing this. He starts teaching me the finer points, crowd control, line of sight, and kiting... KITING, wait I've got training to fight against groups that involves.. KITING!

So this brings me to some weird correlation with Real fighting and rpg combat style gameplay. So basically in real life when your fighting groups of people at a time the biggest thing to keep in mind is that they have to deal with collision, i.e. a person cant kick/punch you through another person. Unless you get jumped your probably going to start a fight with your opponents lined up. So the idea is to run around in circles only fighting one end of this line at a time, and thus 1 person at a time. As the others enemies come in closer they will go left or right and that is when you have to make a split decision on which way to go as to make them line up again, rinse and repeat until you can find a way out or win. Obviously in WoW there is no collision detection but when slows are applied to mobs you can use practically the same style group fighting. This probably why I fell in love with a warrior tank, through the use of Shockwave I could line a group up, stun them, rotate around the side that had the least amount of mobs and continue tanking.

I think about this a ton when playing video games, clearly the idea is to try and make combat as close to real as they can but we are just pressing buttons at the moment. I've started playing Dark Souls 1 recently and the advanced combat comes extremely close real life tactics. What I'd like to see is the opinions of other gamer martial artists as well as games anyone thinks represents realistic martial combat.

[Strakha]

Bas Rutten: He has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Stephen Quadros: Yes, well many of the fighters have a black belt.

Bas Rutten: Yes, but in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you cant buy your belt like in say, Tae Kwon Do.

Stephen Quadros: Do you have any belts?

Bas Rutten: I have a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do.

[deadmanfred]

Bas Rutten: He has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Stephen Quadros: Yes, well many of the fighters have a black belt.

Bas Rutten: Yes, but in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you cant buy your belt like in say, Tae Kwon Do.

Stephen Quadros: Do you have any belts?

Bas Rutten: I have a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do.

I'm not sure what the point of this reply was. Bas Rutten has a black belt idk where this quote even comes form, also I wouldn't listen to anyone about martial "arts" that's in MMA, there is a whole can of worms involved there with the philosophic and technical differences between MMA style Tae kwon do and its traditional counterpart. Also the reference to buying your belt probably refers to the "Mcdojo's" that are clearly there for money and not to spread the teaching, i.e. the American Tae Kwon Do Federation. My old school was a World Tae Kwon Do Federation school that thought BOTH traditional and modern Tae Kwon Do, as well as a variety of other Korean martial arts. An ATF school for example won't even teach you a back swing kick until you've reached a near Blackbelt level while it is taught to WTF students rather early.

[brimdog]

I would say that it isn't so much the focus on any aspect of martial arts, in that there are balanced and coordinated vertical and horizontal movements, in as much as there is the philosophy involved in existing within the same sphere as another person(s). Everything is a chain of action(s) and reaction(s), so that there is a three dimensional flow of offense and defense. Video games, certainly the Dark Souls type - where there is anticipation of and reaction to attacks - are only one of the many stepping stones that encompass the Martial Arts.

I recommend any Ip Man movie, as a way to further understand the mentality spoken of in the OP.