Oh Yahtzee, there is a lot more to it then that. Once you really understand fighting games, there is a lot of potential that really goes unnoticed by most other gamers, including you. The best of this genre play out like real time chess except everyone has there own unique pieces. Understanding game mechanics, good strategy, knowing key points in a match, character strengths and weaknesses, and understanding your opponent are your keys to victory and it takes skill, dedication, and effortful practice to get there. It is sort of annoying being a fighting game tournament pro and having the genre I have dedicated myself to being trashed for almost all of the wrong reasons. It was inevitable that I would write this, but i was hoping to defend a much better game (like Guilty Gear XX AC, or Street fighter 2). But it's the genre that is on defense so here we go.
One: Treat it as a game only, something based on rules and how it is played not as a medium to deliver a story. a Ludologist stand point if you will. Criticizing a fighting game for havening a bad story or having poor character development is like criticizing chess, Go, or Scrabble for the same reason. I have still to find anyone that still plays chess or fighting games (on my level) because of a moving story or the chemistry between certain characters. There are some fighting games that don't even have a story, and are still really good as a game (Marvel vs Capcom 2 comes to mind).
Two: Play it strategically instead of button mashing. This might throw you off first generally because you have mentioned the futility of learning how to play the game because mashing the buttons works just as well. But button mashers can be put at a quick end by simple planning. Knowing how the game works, knowing character strengths and weaknesses, and adapting and anticipating what to your opponent will help you more then simply pressing the buttons more then your opponent does. I can say with great confidence that I haven't lost to a button masher for about 10 years, and I have only been truly serious (going to tournaments and such) for about 4 so the likelihood of me loosing to a button masher is about as likely as me catching madcow from drinking Dr. Pepper. With the right idea about how the game should work, button mashers will eternally be your *****.
Three: Play against people. People are a lot more creative in this genre then most others (if they use their brain more then their fingers), and the only way to get good at fighting games is to play people that are good as well. People (over a long enough time) tend to find all the strange, and borderline broken tactics then can, and then exploit them like 5 year old Chinese sweatshop workers. Whereas Computers are set to two modes. Lose or win. Computers in all fighting games are horrendously flawed in one way or another and they only real way to get the feel for the game is to play another person. Either they are too easy for the wrong reason (never countering obvious throw attempts in your case), or too hard for the wrong reason (getting every poke dragon punched because the computer can read the inputs before the 4 frames that it will come out in after the buttons is pressed, so you will be hit out of it before a move is even executed). Playing a computer is much more likely cause you to develop bad habits in the game then teaching you how to play. For example, you simply go for the throw since it decimates the computerized opponent, even though there is a whiff animation if miss. An adaptive player can just keep constantly side stepping with the 8-way run and hit you when you miss and punish you for being predictable. Or just zone you with a character with long reach and get widdled down by pokes. You wouldn't have learned the counters to your strategy because it didn't matter at the time. And when you play against people, play to win, not just to simply waste time.
Four: Play a good fighting game for God's sake! Soul Calibur 4 is shit, buggy, annoying and is selling out to whatever franchise it can get its hands on (Spawn, Tekken, Zelda now Star Wars!). Play something Like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Street Fighter 3: 3rd strike, Virtual Fighter 5, Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Capcom vs snk 2. Games with great fighting engines, a wealth of unique characters (except VF5), in depth strategies and endless ways to play that complement any playing style. Aggressives, turtles, obsessives, planners, adapters, or how ever you want to play. Just play to your own style and play to win and improve yourself and you might actually like fighting games (most likely you will never read this or care to take in anything said). But for this game, you choose the winning move, and that was not to play.
