Tension Gauge Release: No Mercy!

Oh yeah, it's time for another Tension Gauge Release! I spent so much time alternating between CNN and BBC on the hotel room TV that I can now recognize the news story if you covered the headlines and made me watch just 1 second of footage. So I picked up one of those USB modems so I could have Internet access. Yay!



You may remember a post by Eisho a while back on this guy in the arcade who clobbered us in Super Street Fighter IV. I must admit though, that Street Fighter is not my forte, despite having played it for years now, but the appeal of the match still draws me in. The idea that you are pitting your skills, both mechanical and mental, against a peer in an effort to both measure and improve yourself is a very attractive appeal of competitive sports, and it works the same way in fighting games.

Although not many may share my view, what I always look for is a fair and clean match. A battle with an opponent of roughly equal skill. It doesn't matter to me whether I win or lose (although winning feels really good). The honour of a good match is all that matters. After all, the only way to get better is to fight someone better, right?

Which is why the concept of the mercy round gets my goat. The mercy round is granted by the winning player, usually employed when he or she has a very clear advantage over the other player, allowing the losing player to win at least 1 round before he seals the deal with a victory. Perhaps misinterpreted as allowing the loser some form of recompense for his trouble, this practice has been cultivated in Philippine arcades, so much that it's practically expected.

I see absolutely no point in this. Any idiot who knows fighting games (and I would presume someone who has the guts to challenge another person in the arcade knows enough) would know if they're outclassed in a match, and thus know if they are being thrown a bone by the other player. We can rationalise it as letting the other player get a few seconds more game time for their token, but it comes across as patronising.

Let's put it another way, it's like an NBA team throwing away Game 6 to force a Game 7. Do we really want that when it's clear who will end up as Champion? They're either giving the other guys false hopes, giving in to external pressure (e.g. advertising bucks), or just obviously stringing them around and rubbing in their superiority. Either way, it's very, very unsportsmanlike to me.

Down with mercy rounds!