Why Aren’t Fighting Games More Popular? – Tanner’s Corner
That Blasted Salami
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And read his blog “Them’s Fighting Words” here:
–
Intro 0:00
Breaking the loop 00:17
Fighters & Markets 02:12
So What? 03:15
Why don’t more people attend FG tournaments? 07:21
Keeping Perspective 10:39
Conclusion 12:44
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And read his blog “Them’s Fighting Words” here:
–
Intro 0:00
Breaking the loop 00:17
Fighters & Markets 02:12
So What? 03:15
Why don’t more people attend FG tournaments? 07:21
Keeping Perspective 10:39
Conclusion 12:44
–
💖Patreon:
👕Merchandise:
🕹️Livestream:
🎙️Podcasts:
🦜TBS Twitter:
🐦Arya’s Twitter:
🥳Discord:
📖Facebook:
📷Instagram:
16.06.2022
They used to be popular but going from my own history with them and my own small sample size of friends and family members I feel their popularity dies off due to a number of things such as they no longer provided amazing visuals sure some still look amazing artistically but it wasnt the same as being amazed at stuff like the huge sprites and animations in SF2 or the 3D graphics of early Tekkens and VF or spectacle of Soul Calibur or DOA2.
The lack of modes and decreased spectacle also turned some off especially with more casual players who didnt necessarily like facing off against each other but did enjoy stuff like Tekken ball in T3 or Weapon Master mode in Soul Calibur 1 and 2 or seeing stage transitions in DOA or cinematic moves like insta kill or finisher moves in stuff like KI or MK or GG.
Then there is the lack of innovation in the genre and tbf its not just fighters but the feeling of more of the same can be pretty high especially with people who just like button mashing for the most part and had fun that way.
Some of my friends now wont play fighters because of the way they are portrayed as they feel they need a baseline degree of aptitude with them to have fun whereas back in the day they did not have this feeling and could have fun at a fundamental level of just pushing buttons and figuring stuff out. Or to put it another way they are looking at them from a top down perspective rather than a bottom up one which is a much less fun way of learning and if you are only doing one approach a much worse one for anything that relies on any sort of snap execution and reaction. Its also completely different to how they learn most games such as FPS. Only other genre I can think of that has such a way of looking at it is strategy games especially RTS games which are also not doing great in comparison to the past.
Lastly tons of DLC with season passes and microtransactions just killed any interest of the few people I used to play with who were still interested in the genre past the PS2 era.
In short I feel fighters used to offer a more well rounded package that appealed to a wider pool of people but now only caters towards a narrow niche of more hardcore competitors who want to get good at the game as it were and milk them of as much money as they can. Stupid thing is I dont think devs/publishers even realise this and still think things like making execution easier will bring in a largely lapped audience. Im all for cutting back needless baggage that may have accrued over a franchises long years but the wider group of players I know of at least arent going to be enticed by this.
Most were never scared off by a games complexity in the first place because they never even got good enough to understand how deep it could go they just liked seeing kewl shit happen when they pressed buttons and being able to play around in silly modes.
As it stands I think fighetsr will get more niche and eventually almost die out unless they can find a way to bring back the interest of the wider audience. F2P may help but I dont think its the answer some may think it is but I would love to be proved wrong.
Fighters after RPGS have been my favourite genre since SF2 days in arcade and its sad they have fallen from favour so far. Got such good memories of getting my arse kicked 100-0 on SC and slowly by slowly asking questions and figuring stuff out so that I eventually only lost around 100-78 by the time we moved onto SC2 lol. Or thinking I was good with Blanka, Honda or Chunli because I could do button mash moves on my opponent in the corner and beat my friends only to be destroyed by people who could actually play the game.
fighting games are to linear
a moba has so much more knowledge demands but it is not as linear in its gameplay so you can learn while playing and not get frustrated
if you dont know a move or string property you just get deleted in fighting games
I wish people would talk about the good in fighting game instead of everybody harping on the negative all the time. If I didnt play fighting games and didnt know anything, I wouldnt even give them a chance, because how players in the Fighting game community complain soooooooooooooooooooooooo much. Like we barely have any fighting games left as is, I wish the FGC wouldnt kill a game just because a pro says its not good.
I think Brawlhalla is not successful because it's F2P, but because from the very beginning it hung a big fat carrot in front of anybody who wished to get gud at the game. Everybody who is hyped up for Project L, without really knowing anything about it, is expecting big prize money. Y'all can pretend you're not tryhards if you want, but if you're in it to win it (be it actual prize money or enough clout to attract a sizable streaming audience) then you shouldn't make illusions for yourself and others. It's the money, or rather, the opportunity to make a living out of having fun playing video games. OMG, if only the higher ups at Bandai Namco understood that.
Poor netcode/matchmaking, too bloated and/or complex for their own good, poor presentation, poor marketing, poor UI and UX, too lacking in content, and poor tutorials (or lack of).
I very much appreciate that you took a few steps back and looked at the metanarratives of how FG players perceive their games and kept things in perspective with comparisons to monolithic megacorps like ActiBlizz and Tencent (and kudos for even knowing that Tencent exists; I've had to explain them to people before and it's impossible to have a conversation with someone who doesn't know how aggressive and poisonous they are).
You have a good point about tutorials not being "fun" like other styles of learning mechanics, but I think using footage of Guilty Gear Xrd's tutorial was a bit off. I personally had a lot of fun with that tutorial, and it barely scratches the surface of all Xrd's mechanics. I can speak from personal experience that something like Under Night has one of the worst text dumps I've ever seen, but lots of people heralded it as a "great tutorial".
Technical issues are another bugbear. SFV's menus and interface are some of the worst I've ever seen for any video game, and they've somehow remained the same for the last six years. Man-years have been wasted watching post-game animations play, and it's still impossible for a battle lounge to be anything other than a queue of people fighting against a single person. I have to enter the same info on my network fight settings card every time I boot the game, and that's to say nothing of the loading times.
Meanwhile, in GGXXAC+R, I can boot up the game into a global quickplay lobby and find a game in under 30 seconds. GGStrive takes two and a half minutes to load even with a proxy server.
-covid killing offline
-people lack accountability
-people not understanding fighting games
-esports orgs and game companies not pushing their game hard enough
Example: rivals and brawlhala get dumb amounts of sponsors and money because of advertising and pushing it.
Cause most gamers wanna cut their brain off when playing g video games 😂😂😂 I love fighting games cause it’s a good brain workout and I don’t have to play for hours to get a decent game.
Only Project L can make fighting games more popular and mainstream.
I think people need to quit measuring success based on tournament numbers for a genre that mostly exists offline. You're asking people to take off work, catch flights, and get hotel rooms in order to most likely go 2-2 and drown in pools. Sure you get casual matches and the competitive experience is good for players trying to improve, but compared to just taking a vacation to the beach its a rough value proposition.
Because aside from the learning curve, & choosing what game to actually get dedicated to THEN which character, you need matchmaking & rollback to not stare at a GTA Onlinesce loading screen until lag starts. Also, since I haven't kept up on them, I didn't even know how damn expensive they are with all the character packs & costume stuff. I think MaxDood had a video on that recently. I'm actually stuck on emulators & going back to play all the stuff I never did. Like, WTF was an Asuka Burning 120%?
Lol FOMO. The second I learned of the concept, I turn away from whatever it is the second I sense it. I hate marketing techniques.
Honestly, I just think it isn't a very popular game genre .Why isn't Jazz as popular as Pop music? Because less people like it. . .
In a technical sense, FromSoft has made solid "Fighting Games" in the form of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. They are also quite popular and massively played.
I think fighting game devs could take note on things that makes the gaming experience of those games very good for the majority of people.
Free games are more appealing to the status quo these days. FG's are just costly (game, arcade, home equipment) and not worth it to them in terms of time, enjoyment, effort, and return. FG's cannot beat free mobile games. Also, lack of a proper cash prize pool may hurt it. FGC poverty, shady FG teams, etc.
1:40 imo, yes.
Ok just gotta say, I love the Flashdance cut Lol
I'm waiting for project L to come along and raise the bar, especially for onboarding. I know there are the simple inputs which people are worried about, but what they need to understand is that riot games is not going to develop a game that has a half baked competitive angle. They want project L to be a heavily supported E sport, and I'm sure preserving depth to keep the gameplay interesting is going to be a top priority. Not to mention with the cannon brothers and Seth Killian, it would take some serious cooperate blunders for it to be a failure.
Ahh this is probably why Tekken 7 has combo assist button 👎
Fighting game hard
This will offend a lot of people but the truth is fighting games arent popular because they are much harder, take more time to master and require deeper understanding. Most of all they take much more time to get even half decent at. The genre itself is competitive.
Its 1on1, no teammates to blame, no carry, just mano e mano. If you lose its always your fault.
Fighting games are much more a mental game than about raw execution. Its like high speed 3D on chess on drugs.
FPS of course take skill too. But aim and click at something is something anyone can pick up and understand from the get go. The learning curve is steeper in fighting games and the mechanics more profound. And especially nowadays kids are lazy and seek instant gratification. I dont blame them, its the meta and the industry now. So fighting games have no choice but casualize their games and make them more accessible by adding RNG, come back mechanics and other elements to close skill gap. Which is the wrong way. The thing that needs to be done is make fighting games more accessible by giving new players and casuals the tools to learn the genre in an engaging, fun way. Tutorials that are engaging, use stock footage from esports moments to explain footsies, neutral and mind games. A training mode that uses examples for shimmies, fuzzy guarding and okies. A tutorial mode that lets you actively control your character while in tutorial being explained the mechanics. voice acting, simplifying terms and explaining in layman terms. Theres tons of ways to use creative methods to interest new players. Having the player be on both ends of incredible eSports plays where the player plays the exact same final sequence of a combo or whiff punish to become champion while explaining what these terms mean and what they do.
FPS doesnt need this because its fun for any casual to just jump in and shoot things. If they are new and bad theres better players on their team they can learn directly from.
A fighting game is 1on1 like the real MMA combat sports. If you lose you need to improve and learn. And many dont want to lose over and over to get that incredibly rewarding experience. It takes too much time and quitting on a game is much more common now than before. Too many games that are instant fun to choose from.
The thing (for me) is that Fighting Games just aren't worth it anymore, why pay 100€/$ for GG Strive if you can have Rev2 for 6€/$? or 20 something like that, Tekken7 doesn't even has Mokujin, and Dragonball FighterZ after 4years still doesn't have Mr.Satan + the lack of Modes and the lie of simplicity as the key for accessability, quick back to Strive.. how come that Baiken in Strive doesn't have Himawari anymore that she had in Rev2? why was the GBA port of Street Fighter Alpha 3 more feature rich than SFV at Launch for the PS4? I rather wait for these games to get a massive discount after they revealed every character, there aren't hidden/unlockable characters anyway anymore.. though.. if I would roadmap a Fighting Game, I'd say do it like Overwatch, have Great Lore (but also a playable Story Mode), Loads of Costumizations and Seasonal or Weekly Event+ a ton of Modes, for a fixed price. that would sound reasonable for me. + They should stop to sell Question Mark Season Passes, I'm so tired of that. Funnily, SFV Season 3 did it right!
Great video. The moment I realised how much more time I would have to put into Tekken I peaced out. I have been having much more fun trawling through my steam backlog. Now playing games that require far less commitment/do not require me to engage with shitty online.
Fighting games aren't more popular for the same reason so many players fall off of other games that have a certain bar for skill like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Also the games tend to stay away from the major draw that most fighting games would benefit from like Guest Characters, spin off games in other genres, and well made adaptations.
They need some kind of in game progression. Monster hunter you can think of similarly. You main a weapon type, you fight a cast of monsters over and over again. However at the end of every fight you get materials to make cool looking gear and builds. Your moveset of your weapon is always the same but little perks you acquire let you fight the monsters in new ways (earplugs to block roars, charge boost to charge your attack faster). I think there's a stigma that fighting game players might not like putting in elements like that because it complicates the "even playing field" of competition (even though its never truly even to begin with)
That's like asking why don't more people play the guitar. It's hard.
Some points relating to accessibility. I think you way oversimplified this concept in your video. Difficulty in fighting games relates to a whole host of things. Not just the idea of inputs, which you depicted in your background art in your video. Some of which are the number of inputs to memorize for a character, combos to memorize, frame windows that need to be met or the combo drops, the whole idea of safe and unsafe options, general frame data, reading your opponent (which to me should be the main thing to master in a combat game, not learning how to punch and kick), realizing predictability in your own gameplay, flowcharts, and so on. So even if a developer made a fighting game we're all special moves either were single direction inputs or at the most complex of fireball motion, you would still have all those other elements of difficulty involved with being successful. Honestly I think the fgc is hypocritical on the subject of popularity of the genre. On one hand they want it to be more popular and on the other hand they say get good. When most people just leave.
one word ,Arcade! once that era passed so did fighting games ,there's glimmers of fighting resurgence but….
Fighting games are also not as popular because shooters manage to deceive countless people in to playing those Yearly COD's & Free to Play bullshit, is all a lie. No real satisfaction, each match is not fun enough and your only playing to get that high skill win which you'll never get.
And your tricked into thinking your skill matters but then receive bad scrutiny online. Shooters have a more toxic fan base too. & sadly people don't realize which environment is better. I've had more positive self esteem growth over the years on fighting games inspiring me to be better.
Tekken and Street Fighter inspired me to work out and stay healthy, the main characters on the front cover being that central point of motivation. Ryu, Kazuya, Jin.
Soulcalibur gave me an interest in medieval stories and was the start of my delving into literature. The main characters having that engaging short story in their arcade runs.
DOA teaches to practice till skill develops at apt capacity or perfect since you literally have the games teach you so much about its mechanics, characters, and styles of play and situational awareness.
Shooters have never given me those. Instead I'm force to run around maps with barely a strategy, die, run again, die again, any strategy is something to be ashamed of such as holding strategic positions, team work, or retreating from engagements that can't be won. Things that are viable in war.
The COD's encourage aggressive gameplay no matter what class/weapon you choose, stealth is nerfed to the ground, camping in a corner is literally something that can't be punished naturally either when someone else does it, kill streaks required barely any skill to get and they ruin the pace of a rewarding match by killing your opponents while your momentum subconsciously is killed and it may even be lost the moment someone shoots you outright.
Its not like Quake where knowledge of the maps and weapons makes a difference especially when the designs are more understandable. The fast pace of the arena shooters that encourages strategy in aggressive gameplay, and team work actually has benefits when two people can combine abilities or use of weapons and position value to win.
The COD's even lie to you with their campaigns. Sure your skill bleeds into the online but barely teach you the essentials for competitive environments or possibilities of gun fights, because COD stories go for spectacle which does nothing for online, certain perks and abilities do not exist, vehicle combat does not exist yet they put you in poorly controlling ones every story. Maps are not engaging either. Small, uncreative, or nerfed versions of a campaign map that looks cheap and often unpleasant to move around in.
Need I mention again the bad environment shooters create. Its not a competitive scene, its usually a lobby of people with mics yelling at each other, music boosted on mic, kids screaming, clans forming then disbanding over trivial drama that shouldn't even have happened.
Its an environment that turns people into almost autistic personalities and these people 9 times out of 10 are not diagnosed with autism. Its lunacy.
Compare that to fighting games where the opposite happens more then the other, not to say there is no bad online environment but its better.
Your learning, being disciplined, humbled, taught how to reply on your skills more, learn different situational battles, receive couching even from others when your struggling to learn a character or a match up against certain opponents. Your experimenting and having fun in a fighting game with every new thing you learn you can do.
There's depth in fighters that most shooters can't compare with because shooters as said before want you to be a headless chicken with a shotgun.
Its a shame people have fallen to lies from triple A companies and give their money to people who do not care about a fun product that will make the costumer have their time feel worth more then just run and gun repeat matches rather than put their money in something worth their time and effort.
And don't tell me YOUR JOB causes you stress. I don't know why you have that excuse when shooters are more stressful than fighters.
Nerfs and buffs
The biggest and clearest takeaway i have here, is in other genres people learn them by playing them. Fighting games dont work like that, they do require extra rn to learn. I learned dota through playing. Fighting games could single player content with an incredible story, and as you fight they teach concepts of whiff punishing, pressure, constantly measuring space, etc. one idea i had, is to have the A.I.’s best button have a ghost animation that constantly stays on screen, so the player knows wen they are about to be in range of that button. punishable moves need recovery animations like when you block a sweep in tekken. You can SEE that the character you blocked is in recovery.
I disagree that accessibility is a “dead end” and accept that every developer is gonna do what they are gonna do at the end of the day. Rn on steam strive is the most played traditional 2d/3d fighter. Strive’s player base number smokes mk and is constantly around sf/tekken. Pretty good for an IP no one knew. A couple points on this, idk what the ps4 playerbases are like. I know strive’s gameplay is not as rich as the previous entries, but id argue fighting games are tougher and for sure less intuitive than other genres in general, strive included. I dont play strive myself, but ppl must be aware there is a significant wave of ppl that are learning fighting games cuz of strive, and learned more about fighting games, by playing strive. Accessibility is a factor in sales and retention, we see it constantly across all gaming genres and types. Not saying its the biggest/only factor. Maybe accessibility is the wrong word, idk. Is making games easier misguided? Probably. Does it work? Yea thats math, games are entertainment not survival. Every developer has there own strategy for making their game. Whats “fun” is subjective, and for developers, sales does affect their survival
Another fighting game strat is, “ez to pick up, hard to master”. Melee did this, although accidentally, with ez to execute moves, one motion dashing, longer and less moves/animations, free air movement etc. If smash bros was designed to play like a traditional, slower fighter, it wouldnt have this big of a player base. Obviously we know melee is a hard game at high level. The number of buttons you have to press per minute is insane, all while reading your opponent and making decisions.
I have heard ppl saying they prefer tekken over sf, because of the simple inputs, they had fun mashing that over motions. We all know tekken as you get to high level is more about crunching out that movement and understanding the deep systems like waking-up, wen to parry, learning strings, alongside the fundamentals (poke, pressure, whiff punish)
A strat id love the most is making the learning process intuitive. Blasted salami uses the phrase “visual language”, that dude’s smart. I like how tekken’s replay system gives u punish tips, but it would be more fun for new players to block if all the punishable moves had a recovery animation, like the sweeps do. Finding ways to reward ppl for concentration and decision-making is the best way forward (along with f2p, rollback, crossplay, low input lag, etc)
Although id reiterate ppl who make the games make their own decisions, and will be more influenced by how project L does, and not necessarily by our discussions online. (I love talkin bout this shit, but we need to escape the mentality that just forcibly influencing fighting game players, will somehow make the games better or bigger. We gotta universally accept an idea, like rollback, and push together to the developers. It happened with rollback, id love if it happened with recovery/blockstun animations.)
Thats it. Fighting games are truly about the competition, about self improvement and about overcoming the challenge.
15 years ago in 2007 I was studying abroad in South Korea. I had a huge crew of friends from all over the world. Internationals but also native Koreans, one big family. One of those good friends was from the US. He was older and more mature as teenage me and became something like a bigger brother to me. Someone could absolutely trust, get advise from and just have a good time with. We partied, we chilled and hung with our big crew of international and Korean friends every weekend until the break of dawn. Lots of hangovers and crazy stories. But one day we found an arcade. Since its Korea they got a huge arcade scene even still in 2007. They had a classic Street Fighter 2 Turbo machine. He suggested we get some coins and play. He asked me if I know how to play? I grew up on SF2 in the 90s and was confident, even cocky and told him its on.
We both sat down, put in our coins and pressed our start buttons simultaneously.
And was in for a rude awakening.
He was a god. He was incredible with Ryu. I jump, perfectly timed anti air dp. I try to open him up, flawless footsies and not dropping a single combo. Consistent fireball pressure and dp in my face if I jump over.
He didnt know how to play 3rd Strike and SF4 wasnt even released yet. He was an OG who was older than me. And I grew up in the 90s which meant he grew up during the golden arcade age in the US. He only knew how to play SF2 but was unparalleled in it.
It was 2007 so just before SF4 came out and rebooted the age fighting games and completely resurrected the FGC. Funny how we were both two guys playing an old game in a Korean arcade to remember old times when we were just a year away from the biggest revival of fighting games and video games becoming total mainstream in general. Anyways, he was a beast. I couldnt take a single round of him. Got perfected half of the time. And had to get lucky to touch him. And I was a guy that knew fighting games growing up on SF2,3 Tekken3,4, Soul Calibur, Smash and many others. I was one of the best from where Im from. But compared to him I was a scrub. He beat me hundreds of times. I was stubborn. I was determined. I was passionate. I would not give up. would challenge him throughout a whole year over and over, it became a ritual and both of our thing. Every weekend we would hit up the arcade. Sometimes during the week when I run into him. I dont know how many coins I threw in that machine.
“Another one” “Ah! This time I got you!”
“One more time!” “This time I figured you out!” “Damn it!”
He’d beat me consistently. And I mean kicking my ass in all ways, shapes and forms.
Most of the weekends we would hang with our big international family of friends at our regular bars getting drunk and partying. Some nights him and me met some Korean cuties and sat down with them to drink, just having a good time.
But I shit you not then the challenge called me and I’d tell my bro “its time”. And we ditch the girls and would head to the arcade to play some STREET FIGHTER II! Trust me, many guys thought we were crazy. They saw me and my bro meeting some beautiful Korean girls who looked like idols. The girls were into us too. But no, the challenge has called. He loved my persistence and wanted to keep his titles as undefeated. So he didnt throw me any bones. Instead of being a dick and saying he wont play anymore because he is scared to get that one loss someday he accepted the challenge every time. One, whole, year. Day after day.
And me? I was just completely consumed with the desire to beat him. To get better at this game. To overcome this challenge. Get better. It was also a mirror Ryu vs Ryu. Then after 6 month or so I managed to take a round. My heart was pounding when I saw his life bar at just a pixel, every movement with surgical execution, observing his Ryu and see exactly what he is doing. I couldnt seal the deal and choked on the final round. Despair.
I never forget the moment after almost a year when I finally beat him. I didnt realize how I got better. Imagine playing the same better player for months. I studied all his style, his small nuances in his decision making progress, his habits, his signature combos and moves.
When I finally took two rounds from him I jumped across the arcade, stood on top of the stools and threw my fists in the air and screamed. Then I fell to the floor and rolled around like a lunatic. My bro whipped out his old phone (this was before smartphones) and filmed it all.
I felt like I achieved something incredible something seemingly impossible to overcome. My bro and his unfathomable skill at this game he mastered for decades, being able to beat this even just once felt like besting a towering giant with sheer will power.
What I realized years later is that I was basically labbing. Every time I player and I lost I learned something new. It made me better, gave me thick skin, developed my sense, my reaction, my execution. I learned the most important lesson for fighting games and frankly any sport or competition in life. You only get better if you lose. And if you keep losing you get better. As they say, the difference of a winner and a loser is the winner got back up on his feet one more time.
We both went back home to our home countries. I ended up returning to Korea after studies for work because I fell in love with the country. He went back to the US to work. He probably got married, settled down and never played SF2 again. Its been about 15 years since we hung out. My life is very different. Im not the teenage boy I was back then and but in my 30s now. Older than the age my big bro was when we met. Living my life. But Im still play fighting games in my free time. And Im happy how gaming has become the norm now, not the unusual. Its completely mainstream now and fighting games go through another renaissance as we speak.
This was a lengthy anecdote about my fighting game experiences.
But I wanna say I totally agree with you.
This same mentality of never giving up. It makes winners. When I play online fighting games now I have the same mentality. I make friends with players online and if they are better Im excited to try to beat them. Push myself. See how far I can go. This is how I become a better player and winning against someone finally after becoming better is one of the most rewarding experiences ever.
Fight on, brotha.
Simple. Lack of 1 player content. Normal people who dont compete need things to do and A LOT of modes to play. Most fighting games have poor replayability.
I think one aspect that would help is AIs that can actually compete with a decent player. In most fighting games, once you’ve beat the AI in the hardest difficulty, you’ll still be leagues away from being able to win in PvP. Especially if you start out late. I’d like AI that I actually feel accomplished for beating and that, in the hardest difficulty, actually give me an idea of what I’ll be facing in PvP
Simple. Fighting games are the sports equivalent of boxing/mma compared to mobas and shooters which are team games. You can play team games with friends, even the more casual ones since a social activity. For fighters, asking a casual friend to play with you is not so fun for them, as they’ll likely get their ass kicked. Also, you need to buy most AAA fighting games unlike mobas and competitive shooters that are free.
Not many people are interested in eSports. The majority are casual players. Fighting games lack content nowadays and are full of mindless dlc. Not to mention dead or alive.
The way I see it, fighting games are like those action games with huuuuuuuuuuuuge skill trees, like Nioh 2, but instead of learning each move as you progress the story and having your time to adapt and learn how to use it, they instantly give it all to you as soon as the match starts and ask you to know not only your skill tree, but the skill tree of every character in the game you're fighting against and how to deal with them. And this isn't even the game yet, this is just the pre-requisite, the game actually lies in the mind games you have using those things, but you gotta know everything before you're able to properly enjoy the experience. And this makes it a lot more stressful and requires dedicated training instead of learning as you play. It's NOT a coincidence that the most popular FG is the one that evades this the most and jumps straight into the meat of the game with a few hours of learning the rules (Smash).
I frankly don't know how to deal with this. I mean, obviously simplifying it all and leaving just the meat and potatoes worked for Smash, but I also like complex/deep Fighting Games as well. Maybe if the game was made trying to teach the player how to learn the game just by playing with things like stagger/stun animations, clear and consistent mechanics, sparks that indicate the properties and so on, it would be a lot better. Maybe a skill-tree online training mode with it's own ranking system that ranks you based on your punishment, movement, defense, mixups and so on + limits the amount of moves you can use by the rank you're at would help a lot as well.
Fundamentally people in the "FGC" need to realise that fighting games are a niche market. It's a lot to ask anyone to lab a game, over come technical barriers and the horrors of playing other people (especially online) with the loses you will suffer while trying to get better. So you got a job, a family and your free time is spend not relaxing or learning a new real work skill, but a computer game. I love fighting games, but lets save it, it's a big ask for a casual or newbie to fork out a lot of money, and then the time on a fighting game.
Fighting Games are just not for people that want to win while chilling. I pure stress and action. Not many people can handle this
I don’t go to my locals bc I’m shy and don’t want to go 2-0 and then going home immediately, it’s embarrassing
Sifu is the closest a modern fighting game has gotten to being new and different but suffers from terrible QoL features and an absurdly high difficulty floor for most gamers.
You have to buy the game like 3 times to have the entire roster, at this point fighting games should be f2p like the rest of pvp games with the option to buy extra chars inside the game like a MOBA and the chars should have a presentation like in a MOBA so the new player can have an idea of the gameplan and the execution that needs, im very new playing fighting games and honestly i just try the character I like More and I think if someone want try a fg for One specific character and buy the game, and then realize that have to buy a dlc to play that character, just feels unfair.
The same reason RTS and Arena shooters are "dead", it requires patience and learning. Yes, you can mash until intermediate level but it ends there.
Something i haven't seen many people inlcude is the above average internet connection required,for both you and your opponent to have a decent experience.Many people don't realise how bad internet can still get.Used to live in an appartment in London where I had 1gbps download with ethernet and enjoyed myself.Now,moved out for a better job opportunity,live in an appartment with shared wifi with 5 others,literally out of reach for any fighting game out there.
They're not more popular because a small minority of people play them religiously everyday for hours being the most sweaty neckbeards like it's their career. So they gatekeep anyone from being moderately into the game.
I work with a guy who's into gaming. He's an idiot, but the way that he'll get excited for and throw money at any overhyped game, is a good indicator of what a lot of undiscerning, casual gamers are like. His view on fighting games is : "Its just fighting – I want to do more than that. I want to explore the area where the fighting happens and do more than just fight ". Yeah he's missing the point of fighting games, but his view of fighting games as simplistic and limited , is a view that is shared by many people . Couple that with the fact that fighting games require a level of patience, practice, research and accountability for losing that you wont find in most other games and you get an idea of why fighting games don't expand beyond a relatively small hardcore audience. Personally i love fighters and i always will, but I get why its a tough sell for people don't normally play them.
I think the biggest issue with fighting games is that people see the genre either as a button mashing game or too hard to get into. Imo, devs making games easier for casuals just makes them leave faster. There’s nothing cool, flashy, or difficult to keep them interested on improving.
Servers
Can i ask what mic do you use?
I wonder how a FG that gradually gives you more moves throughout the match would work
so you only start with one button, then gradually you unlock more buttons to work with until you reach the full moveset