does anyone believe the A.I in a game prepare anyone for online competitions?

In games like sports, fighting, and any competitive gaming does anyone believe the A.I. can prepare you for anything online. When I play games like Virtua Fighter 5 or Street Fighter IV the A.I works on timing and chaining combo, but even on the most diffcult settings these games A.I aren't enough to give u any remote training for online competitiion. Same could be said for games like Madden or NBA 2k9, Im wondering if UFC's A.I. well prep anyone for the online battles to come. Its almost as if now gaming A.I is in a flux, consumers ask for it to be smarter and harder, but it really serves no purpose to anyone to get better.

I think it can help, but only to a point. You'll become a better player when you start to ramp up the difficulty, but at the same time, you can only get real experience against other people in doing just that.

A.I for fighting games? Forget about it. They are completely different from people as they just charge in mindlessly.

A.I in shooters on the other hand... some of them are quite competent enough to train you for other human players.

It depends on the game, as you and others have said.

In a fighting game; no. The A.I. doesn't come close to even a remotely competent human.

In a Sports game; maybe. I don't play many Sports games, but those games on Hard mode are HARD. (Once again, this might be just because I don't play).

Shooters; it depends. I don't see how the Single Player campaign could possibly prepare for Online, since they are completely different formats. If there are bots in Multiplayer mode, however, it is a good place to practice strategies and memorize map layout and item spawning/placement.

It depends on the game, as you and others have said.

In a fighting game; no. The A.I. doesn't come close to even a remotely competent human.

In a Sports game; maybe. I don't play many Sports games, but those games on Hard mode are HARD. (Once again, this might be just because I don't play).

Shooters; it depends. I don't see how the Single Player campaign could possibly prepare for Online, since they are completely different formats. If there are bots in Multiplayer mode, however, it is a good place to practice strategies and memorize map layout and item spawning/placement.

MicWazowski

Unless it's arcade sports game (like NBA Jam or something) then it doesn't really do good job training you.

Because people play sports sims like they would be a game. A.I tends to try to play the game as if they are trying to simulate the sport.

Well, maybe baseball might be realistic.

Think of it as an active training dummy,like an animated wing chun dummy if You will.Even if You dont agree theyre choices of strategy are very good,the cpu can still pull off the moves and react faster than You.You can use that to train Your reflexes,then when You play a human opponent as fast as they can pull off anything,You can be faster(unless they are just as quick obviously).After that pressure is the deciding factor,and 9 times out of 10,players who count on pressure to win,cant even react fast,thereforeYou can simply be careful and fast and win.Like i said,as fast as You or any human will get,is still going to be slower than the cpu,and that gives validation to training against the cpu.Obviously playing human opponents is the only way to train for that,but it seems alot of people want to skip that,or not admit thats what theyre doing,and just compete....hmmm...i wonder if i can spot some....

It could help in getting you better at the game mechanics themselves, but online players are a different breed of cat. Very unpredictable.