[RealNeatoDude]

It's funny how much SF slang hints at you and your opponent being lackluster AI scripts:

- Downloaded: when you've identified your opponents patterns and know what they're going to do next. Ex. they always jump after they jab.

- Conditioning: when you've trained your opponent to react the same way consistently to something you do. Ex. they always jump when you throw a fireball because you've let them do it successfully.

- "time to guess": situations where, if executed correctly, your opponent must choose one defense from many defenses randomly. Ex. your jump trajectory is such that whether you end up on the left or right side of your opponent is determined by a pixel.

A phrase that novice players say a lot is "HOW DID HE KNOW?" because they're in shock that their opponent is "guessing" right every time when really their opponent just knows what the novice is going to do in every situation. What's impressive is that "every situation" is really the more skilled player abstracting over similar situations. Ex. they recognize kick->jump = punch->jump for their particular opponent. I don't think an AI will be able to make complicated abstractions like that on an offline game console for a while.

[vvanders]

Yeah, Sirlin covers that really well in his Layers of Yomi on Playing to Win:

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/7-spies-of-the-mind