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.

To the extent they do in my opinion.

You learn maps, you set bots on harder difficulty and you practice.

As for A.I. - that depends on a game, when it comes to sports game that really depends on how good you're controlling the game itself. Fighting games will teach you basics and sometimes intermediate approach to the opponent - however online folks are very competitive and go beyond what you learn and know.

I thought I was decent in Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection... lets just say I'm pretty bad VS pro's. ;)

Depends on a game, you will learn what you need to know and be aware of with A.I. - however mastering and being competitive online is most of time obtained with lots and lots of practice and many online matches.

no, actually it is quite the opposite..

not at all. you can beat the game on the most difficult levels and still won't do anything for online

fighting games- a.i. doesn't adapt. they block certain attacks more than they do others. its a matter of finding the right move to exploit. plus it doesn't teach you anything about defense.

sports games= the a.i. play realisticly...but human players do some unnatural things that a.i. wont

shooters-all bots have is aim...but anyone that plays fps know that there are things that human players do like jump and shoot, prone and shoot, no scoping, camp in weird places etc....

In my experiences, no.

For example, practicing Soul Calibur IV solely on the AI will cause you to form bad habits that can cost you a match. (Like how I can't help but do Seong Mina's 44A a foot in front of my opponent)

There are certain things that human players will do that AI just won't take into account in certain situations.

It really, really depends on the game for me. When it came to Rainbow Six Vegas the singleplayer actually helped me forge online tactics. Now in the game Burnout Revenge it was the opposite, I was stuck really bad in the singleplayer but playing multiplayer for a good while helped me breeze through the game.

Looks like I'm the only guy who's actually benifited from playing games on their most difficult mode. For FPS it helps me get headshots much quicker and get to cover. It also helps me with pineapple explosions and throwing them. Although the single player modes feel a lot different than the multiplayer in most games, I just notice my style is smoother once i've beaten the single player.

For other games, I think it helps you build a strategy, getting comfortable knowing the basics. Knowing what to do isn't enough to win though, you gotta know what your opponent is going to do, and how you can get past that. A.I. just won't prepare you for that.

Unlikely. The AI are there to challenge you in the single player. Not to set you up for a tougher challenge online.

A.I. is good so that you can learn the basics but it isn't the best kind of competition. Human players will play very differently then their A.I. counterparts and will usually be better then them.