The Girl Fighters Workshop is aimed towards female gamers who have little or no experience in the fighting genre and/or long neglected by male gamers. The purpose is to simply educate female gamers with the 101 on fighting games. Workshop made by AWYN (Emi) (c) 2009.

2. Welcome to the first ever Girl Fighters Workshop.

This workshop’s simple objective is to make female
players conscious about fighting games. This
workshop is aimed at female players with little or no
experience at the genre and/or neglected by their
male counterparts. Hopefully you girl players will
benefit from this “self-help” workshop to gain new
perspective as well as to increase your competitive
ability. Fighting games are seen as male thing and
my biggest hope from this objective is to have you
girls open your eyes; that you must take this genre
seriously as you would with a platform or RPG.

3. Topics

› Myth: “Girls can’t play fighting games.”
› Debunking each myth with facts.
› Fighting game glossary.
› Typical fighting game layout.
› Overview of well known titles.
› The command button issue.
› Reasons why girls don’t play fighting games.

4. “Girls find them too complicated.”
1.
“Girls just button mash away to victory.”
2.
“Girls just stick to female characters.”
3.
“Girls think fighting games make no sense.”
4.
“Girls expect things to happen too fast.”
5.
“Girls just want to pair pretty characters.”
6.
“Girls don’t understand command issues.”
7.
“Female players are too easy to beat.”
8.
“Girls think fighting games are too violent.”
9.
“Girls are offended by female characters.”
10.

5. “Girls find them too complicated.”
1.
No game is ever easy whether it’s platform, RPG, or in
this case, fighting games. It takes practice to
master them and a whole lot of patience since
they’re required to master moves for each
character.
“Girls just button smash away to victory.”
2.
Not true. With patience (and strategy), they can
succeed without button smashing away besides,
button smashing gets old fast.

6. “Girls just stick to female characters.”
3.
Only at the beginning. If they master all the game’s
females attacks, chances are they’ll try out with
the game’s men (and they’ll master them too).
“Girls think fighting games make no sense.”
4.
Only if they detest fighting games (and video games
in general). Any female player should appreciate
the genre as they would for RPG and platformers.
“Girls expect things to happen too fast.”
5.
Only if they button smash helplessly. When female
players want to take their fighting game seriously,
they’ll find a way to strategize to victory.

7. 6. “Girls just want to pair pretty characters.”
This is especially true if they’re anime fans with yaoi
preferences. It’s nice to fan girl a male character
but they must know his background before
attempting anything for their fan works.
“Girls don’t understand command issues.”
7.
And so do some males. Like I said, it takes time to
master the basic controls. Therefore, master each
character’s movements.
8. “Female players are too easy too beat.”
Sadly, female players aren’t seen as competitors but
rather as a distraction. There are still female players
who are equally good in fighting games as men.

8. 9. ”Girls think fighting games are too violent.”
Any video game, regardless of subject matter, is
violent in some way. Fighting games are no
exception. Girls who think that way have their
minds too narrowed.
“Girls are offended by female characters.”
10.
Sadly, most of these games are done to grab male
attention therefore, those games have highly
proportioned females to attract male players (like
they say “Sex sells”) while alienating many female
players. Luckily some female players don’t pay
too much attention to this and continue playing
anyway. After all, the point of these games is to
have fun. There are feminine looking males too.

9. The following are the basic words from each fighting game.
Each game has its own vocabulary.
Punch

Done by using fists on a low, medium and/or strong range.
 Kick
Done by using legs on a low, medium and/or strong range.
 Block
Guarding against any type of attack. Some are unblockable.
 Special Move
An individual character’s special move.
 Super Move
A more powerful version of character’s special move.
 Charge
Holding itself for a brief period before executing an attack.

10. 2D
A typical 2D layout consists of health bars, super bars (for super attacks),
timer, points, and victory badge count for both player and opponent.
The key to victory is to successfully drain the opponents health until it
reaches zero. The above example is from Street Fighter Alpha 3.

11. 3D
A typical 3D layout consists of health bars, timer and victory counts. Super
bars don’t exist because it obstructs the 3D point of view but characters still
do super attacks. The objective of 3D fighting is the same as 2D fighting to
drain opponent’s bar to zero. The above example is from Soul Calibur IV.

12. Street Fighter (Capcom)

Many games prior to Street Fighter
used to be beat-them-up
scrolling type adventures. The
debut of Street Fighter II in 1991
defines the fighting genre we
know today. Since then, the
Street Fighter series has
spawned over 15
sequels, prequels, crossovers, spi
n offs and updates. The series is
known for its fast paced 2D
game play its famous 6-button
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
layout. Its latest release, Street
Fighter IV, continues that
tradition.

13. The King of Fighters (SNK)

The King of Fighters is actually a
crossover of SNK’s earlier titles
such as Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting
and Psycho Soldier. The debut
of KOF in 1994 creates path way
for a series known for its plot
driven stories released on a
yearly basis until 2003 (98 and
2002 are dream matches). KOF
is famous for its fighters being
teams of three and its simple 4-
button layout. Its latest release,
KOF XII, continues the 2D The King of Fighters 98
tradition the series is known for.

14. Mortal Kombat (Midway)

This US-made fighting game
debuted in 1992 inspired by the
popularity of Street Fighter II. The
game caused huge controversy
because it used blood and gore
(known as Fatalities that involves
cutting a person’s head off or
burning someone to death). Its
violent nature lead to the
creation of the ESRB in 1994 to
inform concerned parents
about video game titles.
Nevertheless, Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat
continues its unique tradition
because it spawns numerous
sequels and spin offs.

15. Soul Calibur (Namco)

Soul Calibur debuted in 1996 as the
fighting genre’s first 3D weapons
based combat series. Soul
Calibur is popular along with
Namco’s other fighting game,
Tekken. Its characters fight in
rounded arenas so that a ring
knock out is possible. As of Soul
Calibur III, players can make
their own character with custom
weapons and stories. There are
four sequels as of its latest
release of Soul Calibur IV. The Soul Calibur II
series is widely played at
arcades all over the world.

16. Lack of interest

 Inability complex
 Offended by female character traits
 Repetitiveness
 Lack of competitive need
 Intimidation
 View video games as “childish”
 Painful sore thumb after effects

17. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Customize your selection at the options menu.

Keep your collection small unless you want to be a collector.

Stick to a selected few characters. 5 or 6 is recommended.

Cut the button smashing and the thumb wriggle.

Never back off when a male gamer tells you so.

Know every title’s characters. Always.

Training mode is your best friend.

Be patient. Don’t expect instant miracles. Never panic.

Start small. Pass the game with them and experiment more.

Try to find real life human opponents if you can.

Practice, practice, practice!!

HAVE FUN!!


18. Many girls find fighting games complicated is because of the
command buttons. With practice, they can achieve victory
with ease.
 “Quarter Circle Crisis”
Quarter circle commands are the easiest to perform by simply
imputing the require motion followed by the punch or kick
button. The super version is simply repeat the same motion
twice followed by the punch or kick button.

19. “Undercharged”

Charge moves are tricky to do but some characters depend
entirely on them so it’s important to learn them. The required
command is simply charge backwards or downwards for a
few seconds before pressing the opposite direction followed
by the punch or kick button. The time required for charge
moves depends on the title.

20. “The Infamous 360 Degree Spin”

This command move is the hardest to perform because it
requires circling the entire control pad 360 degrees. The
super version requires 720 degrees (circle D-pad twice).
This kind of command is used by large characters and
they usually required to be close to the opponent. There
are many ways of doing 360 moves. Some people start
upwards while some prefer downwards.
Thankfully, there’re not as important to learn as charge
moves.

21. This is it. The end of the workshop. I wish I

could cover more but this workshop only
covers fighting game basics. There are
many websites that cover the similar
subject but doesn’t explain fighting games
in simple terms for female gamers who
doesn’t understand the genre. I’m a female
gamer and fighting game enthusiast. I’m
not an expert myself but I have more than
enough knowledge to help other female
gamers in need. I’ve been playing fighting
games since high school and I continue to
do so and constantly improving my moves.

22. GameSpot

http://www.gamespot.com
 GameFAQs
http://www.gamefaqs.com
 Fighters Generation
http://www.fightersgeneration.com
 All female gamers for reading this. Spread the word.
Workshop made by Ask What You Need (Emi), 2009.

Do not take without permission.