The Matrix Online/Aikido

Not sure where else to put this, but something that some may find of interest... of the three martial art styles available for characters to use on The Matrix Online (still in development), aikido will be one of them. The other two are 'karate' and 'kung fu'. I'm surprised, given they could have chosen a vague 'jujitsu' or somesuch. I'm wondering if they've got staff there who train in the three.

Really is a possibility.

Christian Freitag (TomanGaidin) wrote: Not sure where else to put this,

Know the feeling. I may have put this on Aikiweb, may not have...

http://mlug.missouri.edu/~iscott/pingpong.wmv

Funny!

The inclusion of aikido in The Matrix Online really surprises me. Because it's not an offensive art, aikido doesn't really have a presence in gaming - the closest it comes is Aoi in Virtua Fighter 4, who practices aiki-jiujitsu. I suppose the designers were able to include it because MO will be an RPG instead of an action game.

The game is slated to come out this November and Beta testing just started at the beginning of this month. Here's a link to the official site mentioning Aikido as one of the three martial arts styles given to those with the "soldier ability":
http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/web/soldier.jsp

I applied to be a Beta-tester (having done it before for other online RPGs and lucky me, my computer meets the requirements)...cross your fingers for me --- I hope I get accepted! I'm excited enough just to see what techniques they let you do

Roger Fingas wrote: The inclusion of aikido in The Matrix Online really surprises me. Because it's not an offensive art, aikido doesn't really have a presence in gaming - the closest it comes is Aoi in Virtua Fighter 4, who practices aiki-jiujitsu. I suppose the designers were able to include it because MO will be an RPG instead of an action game.

The page describes Aikido as a defensive art with lots of grabs and throws.

Sounds like Judo to me.

I don't know about you but there are some incredibly offensive moves in my Aikido - let's hope the character has some sen sen no sen timing. Great if they included some whole body atemi-waza - I'll die if they include Ki balls.

Suitable matrix-like quote The only limit to our Aikido is ourselves.

"Matrix Online" has "FAILURE" written all over it.

"City of Heroes" has done a much better job of "Matrix Online" concept than "Matrix Online" ever will.
IMO, "Matrix Online" is a game that shows all the signs of superficial mediocrity; it will either get canceled before launch or shortly after launch, and as such it is really not worth a prolonged discussion.

Roger Fingas wrote: ... aikido doesn't really have a presence in gaming - the closest it comes is Aoi in Virtua Fighter 4, who practices aiki-jiujitsu.

Most of Aoi's throws and reversals are aikido techniques: a lot aigamaeate variations (her basic P+G throw, low punch and standing mid kick reversals), udegaeshi, a few wakigatamae, kotegaeshi, tenkai kotegaeshi, maeotoshi (I think: her f, b+P+G... it's kinda hard to tell what she's going), and hikitaoshi. Throw in a few taisabaki commands, and that's not too bad of a representation for a game. Mind you, those hard kicks to the ribs after kotegaeshi are not in any aiki syllabus I've seen....

Peter Rehse wrote: The page describes Aikido as a defensive art with lots of grabs and throws. Sounds like Judo to me.

Throws and grabs... yes, it sounds like judo.

Defensive? C'mon Peter, you practice judo... you know judo is anything but defensive!

R. Haruo Hori wrote: Defensive? C'mon Peter, you practice judo... you know judo is anything but defensive!

Defensive? C'mon Rob, you practice aikido... you know aikido is anything but defensive!



When you making another visit. I promise we wont be so hard on you this time.

Peter Rehse wrote: Defensive? C'mon Rob, you practice aikido... you know aikido is anything but defensive!

Hey, I never said aikido was defensive, just that judo wasn't either!

Peter Rehse wrote: When you making another visit. I promise we wont be so hard on you this time.

Ahem. Who tapped out to whom, Mr. Rehse?

And I was dehydrated. Yeah... that's it. Not enough water was why I was wheezing like an old man. Either than or I'm just getting old.

R. Haruo Hori wrote: Hey, I never said aikido was defensive, just that judo wasn't either!

That was for the peanut gallery.

Ahem. Who tapped out to whom, Mr. Rehse?

Whistles while looking off in another direction.

And I was dehydrated. Yeah... that's it. Not enough water was why I was wheezing like an old man. Either than or I'm just getting old.

It was hot. No doubt about that.

I recall that the oldest of the UFC games (Dreamcast) provided the option of using aikido.

Aoi, is sweet...

The character Kano in Mortal Kombat V also used some manner of slightly dodgy Game/Movie Fu aikido, along with (IIRC) judo, and plain old stabbing people. Haven't played it for a long time, so I can't comment on technique, though! :-)

Richard Cardwell wrote: The character Kano in Mortal Kombat V also used some manner of slightly dodgy Game/Movie Fu aikido, along with (IIRC) judo, and plain old stabbing people. Haven't played it for a long time, so I can't comment on technique, though! :-)

Good lord! Who knew Ueshiba was such a shady character...

Mortal Kombat V wrote: Aikido is a Japanese martial art developed in the first half of the 20th century by the founder of the Black Dragon clan, Morihei Uyeshiba.

Involved with criminal cartels and making deals with other dimensional creatures... no wonder he had to learn to fight!

R. Haruo Hori wrote: Good lord! Who knew Ueshiba was such a shady character... Involved with criminal cartels and making deals with other dimensional creatures... no wonder he had to learn to fight!

Haha, that's priceless.

Just saw a trailer for the game. While the game didn't look the best, I'm pretty sure I did see someone do a kotegaishi in the background, and someone else do a kokyunage-like throw. And the rest is people doing huge big jumping spinning kicks. ;P

Well the tekkan 5 video (as seen on gametrailers.com) clearly has a chick doing iriminage. Nice flowing circle... And wapp feet in the air in everything.

I was already going to buy the game. Now that I know Aikido will be in it, I wounder if your character can wear Hakamas? That would add a nice look to things.

Aikido is featured in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. I find it funny because it is the character Kano that uses this style and he is also an evil character...not very aiki like, lol. Anywho, they have a tenchi nage variation and some Judo like sacrifice throw. Havent explored it any further than that...honestly, the Mortal Kombat team's research on the martial arts seems to be about as thorough as two 12 year old kids claiming to be ninjas.

Christian Freitag wrote: Not sure where else to put this, but something that some may find of interest... of the three martial art styles available for characters to use on The Matrix Online (still in development), aikido will be one of them. The other two are 'karate' and 'kung fu'. I'm surprised, given they could have chosen a vague 'jujitsu' or somesuch. I'm wondering if they've got staff there who train in the three.

One of my students is an animator who I am pretty sure is working on this project. He had some input I believe although he is just a beginner in Aikido (I guess he is pretty much a shihan in animation). He's been telling me about this for quite a while, it sounds like it should be outstanding from a technical standpoint.

George S. Ledyard wrote: One of my students is an animator who I am pretty sure is working on this project. He had some input I believe although he is just a beginner in Aikido (I guess he is pretty much a shihan in animation). He's been telling me about this for quite a while, it sounds like it should be outstanding from a technical standpoint.

So the question to ask him is are they using motion capture and who and how quailified is the person they are using for the capture? . On an interesting note, I just remembered an old book about an old game called Queen (yes after the band).

In the game you play a cop who is an expert in Aikido. Everything about Aikido is supposed to play a major role with in the game. Unforuntaly it was an old game and I was never able to find it.

I have been playing The Matrix Online for a little over 3 weeks now. It has very realistic Aikido animations, including, but not limited to:

kote gaeshi
irimi nage
ikkyo
shihonage

I would have thought aikido would not be included, purely due to continuity. When Neo is "learning" combat, you see a variety of arts flash up on the screen, Ju Jitsu, Tai Kwon Do, even Drunken Boxing. Aikido was not included in this list, and throughout the Matrix trilogy do you notice any aikido techniques?
Personally I think the Matrix is more about killing/severely injuring your enemies than non-harmful neutralisation.
However, I think the idea of ki comes into play with a lot of Neo's abilities.

But saying all this I'd love to see Neo perform Yonkyo on Agent smith.

(please forgive any errors in the above text, being due to the author being rather tired at the time of going to "print" )

Okay, here is my movie imagination. I think the Matrix movies were fine. But if I had to pick movies to get aikido into them and keep it interesting, the 2nd and 3rd matrix would have worked well.

At the end of the 1st Matrix when Neo got SO MUCH faster than everyone else, I thought they might have to stop doing so much chambatta (sp? like kids hitting sticks against each other)-type fighting, and start getting into the one-cut one kill thing, or in Neo's case, maybe 1 cut resulting in multiple kills. Iwas suprised the "upgrades" thing to get everyone at the same speed again was a fighting scene cop out if you ask me. There were more than enough Agent Smiths to kill in 1 cut!!! I was expecting Neo to start flying around holding swords and moving a bunch of them down. I was hoping he'd be moving so fast that he would just decide to avoid the attacks for a while, and maybe throw a few attacking smiths into others in a more aikido-like way. I fully conceed that the kamikazi-type attacks that the Agent Smith's could do wouldn't allow many aikido techniques other than kokyu, irimi-tenkan, and atemi - which is basically what happened, except that the Smiths (and everyone the heck else) were too fast.

They could have had Neo all tied up fighting multiple Smith's who were out of the matrix (instead of just one) - where he would be a lot more limited to speed - and again he might not want to hurt the "host" bodies so there would be more aikido in there.

Also, it would have been awesome to see some training sessions where Neo trained his friends in better, faster, and stronger movement. He wouldn't want to be hurting them too badly, and they would have an interest in surviving their attacks - which would have been much more fertile ground for aikido-type situations.

As an aside, I would have loved to see that kid who could bend the spoon and his friends from the oracle's house actually get involved in warping some weapons or stopping some bullets to save some of the the heros.

Also, I would have loved to see the other characters use that key-master's key ring (and go back for all of those other keys he left behind) so that they could still manage to get around the matrix given the sheer number of Smiths.

Hey, what can I say. They should take the animation stuff they do for these fighting games, and make that available as a make/re-make your own movie type of game/software. You could use characters from all other movies, it would be great to see Neo fighting Darth Maul! Heck I would love to have a cartoon movie of Darth Maul cutting Jar Jar binks in half!

Rob