60 seconds or infinite timer? Which is preferred by players?

[affinity]

I like infinite timer because it allows players to fight to the finish without a timer stopping fight and just handing the win to the one with more health at that moment. 

Timers were originally established due to fighting games originating in arcades and the money factor in the time equation plus the potential amount of people waiting their turn.   

So timers were placed to minimize the amount of time a round can last, and therefore get more matches happening and more money the machine fills up with in less amount of time.

But with consoles and stuff, timers really aren't necessarily in KOF,  in a sense, they kind of interfere with players being able to fully deliver their complete effort in winning the round.   

Timers also diminish the possibility of skillful comebacks from occuring, and players aren't able to savor the round to their fullest. 

Yes one can argue that rounds typically finish before the timer runs out, but that still narrows down the nature of the fights instead of allowing the battle to naturally continue until one is left standing.    A round ending by timer is pretty anticlimactic, if you ask me. 

[desmond_kof]

If you take the game serious, a tournament player and you are trying to learn: 60 sec
If you don't care about learning the game or trying to improve: infinite

[affinity]

I think people can still take it seriously and improve without timer, and still be good at 60 sec tournament play.   

[nilcam]

Considering that life is awarded to the winner at the end of the round, the infinite timer is pretty useless.

[bigvador]

60 secs

if i had 2 keep playing a joe knowin hes gonna get chunk of his life back i would break ma own copy of da game and then go buy another 1

[affinity]

but if the fight lasts longer, there are more chances the winner of the round will have less energy than if the timer finished the round before that, that would lead to different possible results for the next round. 

There is even a good chance if there wasn't a timer, the "winner" of a timed situation could have ended up being the one that would be K.O.ed and defeated that round instead.   

Well I guess most people prefer timer, but it's really no more serious and professional than time not being a factor.

60 secs

if i had 2 keep playing a joe knowin hes gonna get chunk of his life back i would break ma own copy of da game and then go buy another 1

But what if you had enough time to beat Joe?   You would win completely from your own efforts, not the timer making the call.     With infinite timer, the round isn't over until a player earns their victory through K.O.   That's a complete fight between 2 fighters.  Sure, the winner gets some health back, but it's always been that way in KOF.   That doesn't change the fact the next in line will have more health than the previous winner and still have a good chance to turn the tide to their team's favor.   At least they would fight knowing it isn't over until someone's knocked out.   

Unlike timer where a lot of cheap victories can be handed over to someone that just keeps away when they have more health and a few seconds left on the clock.    Winning by time in many cases is a really cheap exploit. 

[nilcam]

There's no such thing as a cheap win. The goal of the game to win and time is one of the many factors that play into that goal. This conversation was had when the first STA used 99 second rounds, so the discussion is over.

[Kane317]

I'd like to add, in case it wasn't clear the top posts, that you get more life back depending on how much time is left on the clock which does make a significant difference in a 99 sec scenario.

Furthermore, in mid to high level game play, time out rarely occur and especially with the stock&drive gauge changes to console, time outs should be a none-issue as we'll be seeing a lot of high damage combos.