I started with Capcom fighters and learnt the notation and the old jab strong fierce short forward roundhouse abbreviations along with the LP MP HP/FP LK MK HK/FK
When I wanted to learn GG, I learnt number notation instead hoping someone would rewrite every characters combos for me.
Effort.
i just think it came out in a bad time when more people care about EVO games than playing a super solid game. i also think that its lack of an EVO place has made it so that the only people who want to play it are those who are already at the Majors playing other games. same with MK9. hardly see casuals for it outside East Coast on Twitch. but the entrants explode anytime its at a major tournament. i also think it would really help if it either had an “official” forum up or an SG dedicated fansite forum for casuals and pros to turn to instead of having to come to SRK. not that i dont like it here. but i dont think this is the proper place for our community.
Also you can spend like 15 minutes and turn movelists and combos for your character into any convenient form. Shocking, I know.
Games are entertainment, why do you think less and less people are reading novels now days?
As a person who bought Skullgirls to support Mike Z, thought I’d add some thoughts here.
I agree with people back on page 2 who said “by the way, the most important thing is to respect every game/scene”, but though many of you agreed I don’t really see it happening here. Lots of “other people are lazy” or “they don’t think about fighting games the right way” or whatnot. The Skullgirls way is not the only way to think about fighters, and when people disagree with a particular implementation, they may decide it’s not fun enough to play the game. That’s the reality, and calling them lazy or wrong is kind of silly.
I think the main reason most people I know aren’t playing Skullgirls is because it’s just too much of a time commitment. I spent years learning the intricacies of SF4, and my personality is such that I find it difficult to take intensely multiplayer games lightly. I would have to invest a substantial amount of time into Skullgirls before I could enjoy it, and I’m sure there are others who feel similarly to me. And it’s just that my incentive really isn’t there. If I was going to invest more time into a fighting game, I would feel better served practicing SF4 so I could be more consistent against my local scene. If I was going to invest time into an assist-style versus game, I would feel better served learning UMvC3, which has a strong tournament presence and will likely still draw big numbers 3 years from now.
And even not counting those factors, there’s just several things about Skullgirls in particular that could be considered turnoffs. The combos can be frustratingly long, so one mistake is painful to sit through. The art style/character appearance may not strike a chord with certain people. 8 characters for a versus game means that you stand a much smaller chance of resonating with someone in the cast. I didn’t know about the lack of lobbies until just now, but that seems like a serious detriment to the scene… it means there’s no YogaFlame style channel which just gathers lobby replays for people to learn (one of THE biggest strengths of SF4’s longevity imo).
As I said, I bought Skullgirls to support Mike Z, because I find his candid approach to the scene refreshing and I hope he succeeds in his ventures. You can call me lazy, uninformed, wrong-minded, or whatever you want, but the game just has a lot of hurdles against it, and in a society where a thousand things compete for your attention every second, it becomes more and more difficult to justify playing a game that doesn’t seem to have long-term benefits.
That’s my opinion, as a relative outsider to the Skullgirls scene, but as someone who has been invested in the FGC for 10 years.
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
They’d be able to do any character’s notation if they learn it.
Not even going to get into 9 numbers are easier to remember than the 12+ abbreviations Capcom notation uses that depend on if the reader knows English.
The question is, what incentive is there to learn it when they can just go fish in a lake they’re already familiar with?
I agree that number notation isn’t that hard to learn, but it does get irritating after a while if you’re familiar to the other way, and irritation is not a good way to enjoy a hobby. If you escalate this to something else that’s more substantial, like… trying to overcome a dislike for a particular design choice in a fighting game engine, most people just won’t bother. Are they lazy, or smart for being selective and maximizing the fun they have in their hobby?
The Game got boring. Simple as that. Ik many people who have dropped it here in NY. But ya the game just simply got boring 
What about helping us organize things so it’ll be easier for newer players then. What your suggestions will be?
And on the sidenote: I always thought that when person wants to became part of group (s)he need to learn rules of this group first. Of course he can expect that such rules will be explained to him first in nice and apprehensive manner but I don’t think that (s)he should demand the change of said rules just because (s)he think they’re bad =/
as someone who english is not my 1st language, the qcb notation was equally foreign the 1st time i saw it, specially because for all the spanish talkers qcb/236 is equal to 1/2U
and for the record, i have only seen complaints for the people who comes from the capcom fg background, the english speakers to be precise, anyone that i know from france, brazil, germany, and other places find it very intuitive since all the numbers represent one direction from the joystick
number notation takes the same amount of time as the qcb notation to learn, which is nothing, not to mention that is easier to use when your combos are longer than your average game
tbh all the complaints about the number notation are just excuses for me, if you are going to quit a game because the 1st “barrier” then you simply dont have the desire to invest time on the game are searching for excuses to justify it
exactly, if you want to learn a game you learn 1st how the community around it comunicates
this is true for any kind of activity that has some kind of jargon attached to it
the incentive is that you would learn how to play the game 
dunno what to tell you about this, since for me number notation was the 1st one that i learned, so qcb was the one that was annoying for me, because almost all the games that i play use number notation
vf5, gg, bb, sc, tekken, all of them use number notation, only capcom games covered on srk use the qcb notation
I hate to say it but I think it’s because it gets kind of…boring.
I can’t really explain it, it’s just missing some oomph factor. I’m sure many of you on this board know me or have played me as I religiously played SG the first couple of weeks. The only reason I haven’t played as much the last few weeks is: Other games, practicing other fighters for Evo, and sometimes just playing Marvel, Virtua Fighter or Soul Calibur is just more fun.
But yes, for whatever reason, I can’t put my finger on it, but SG gets a little humdrum rather quickly I noticed. I mean, perfect example is the recent majors SG was featured in. I watched the semis, finals and grand finals of them all. Usually, the ONLY time I’m bored watching a stream is when I DO NOT play the game, therefore I can’t appreciate anything high level or interesting going on. But wow, I feel I’m a rather competitive SG player and a good one at that, but damn if I couldn’t believe how little my interest sat with watching the matches. 
That’s really depressing! I haven’t played SFIV since the release of v2012…but damn, when I watched the S.E.A. grand finals set and it was ridiculously exciting and worth the watch.
Sorry to pick at your post specifically, but I really disagree with this statement that I see very many times about any fighter that’s “not Marvel.” Skullgirls is NOT THAT DEMANDING WHEN IT COMES TO EXECUTION! Period. Come on guys, I love this game too, but the combos, cancels, specials and DHCs are not crazy. KOF, GG, SFIV [links], etc are much more demanding. SG has two, maybe three combos I can think of off the top of my head that takes some training, like the omnom loop, tear drop loop (I assume?), and run stop jab with Cerebella. Hell, even Marvel, the game that gets laughed out of the house for it’s easy execution, has plenty of bnb’s and high damage combos that take more practice than most combos in SG. Raikousen loop, hypergrav loop, Astral Vision Soul Fist spam, MANY C. Viper SJ cancels, etc etc.
Honestly I question if there will ever be a day where people will say, “Marvel 3? Yeah, if you want to get into it you really have to put in a lot of time, and read up about the metagame/strategies etc.” On the surface it’s easy, shallow, what have you, but the pace of the game really gets ignored when people consider what fighter is “scrubby” or “noobs can play and win.” All the other fighters are a much slower, easier to work with pace, for easing someone into it.
Above all else let’s just not forget that more people are playing it because it is fun!! Like I said, SG is simply missing…something =/
Note: And of course this should go without saying, but this is just MY OPINION, but I felt like I wanted to get my view across since I’m so used to the other views, heh. I know Pali you said you even like the game, so I hope I don’t sound like I’m “attacking you” or whatnot for your statement! =D
I really really don’t see how people can’t figure out number notation. It feels like people have never stared at a calculator or other number pad.
I saw zero SG locally at the recent ranbats.
My local scene, Cincy/Dayton OH, are very fickle. Started off decent.
I havent played it online because matchmaking sucks. Fucking having to quit to menu after every single ranked match is stupid and every retard online only wants to play ranked. Not worth my time. If I they allow quick rematch as in player matches, then I’d be fine. Fuck the points, I want to fight.
Re: sidenote, you’re right, if there is a clear benefit to the way the rules are implemented, then outsiders coming in don’t really have a leg to stand on and demand they be changed. But in the case of a community wanting to grow and bring in new players, they have to be sensitive to these concerns, no matter how stupid they sound. Otherwise they’ll just go back to what they were doing and not care one way or the other, which is fine for them but not fine for the community seeking growth. For example, someone talked about reading sheet music before. LOTS of people give up on a musical hobby because reading sheet music is difficult. The difference here, though, is that there is no alternative to sheet music… you must learn it, or else you can’t read music. It’s not like “I know English, so can someone translate this Spanish page into a language I can understand?” There is one language in music, and you must learn it. And it’s challenging for many. With fighting games, some people already feel like they “learned a language” when it comes to move notation, so why should they learn another now? They may feel their way is perfectly fine, just translate it for me!
As for how to organize for newer players, I’m not sure I know Skullgirls as a game well enough to comment on that. I will say that the game is in a really difficult position, though. Fighting games are always competing against themselves and testing a player’s patience. I’m not sure presenting a wealth of information in an easier format will address that. Fighting game veterans will be quick to go back to a game they like/know how to play if they feel their patience is being tested too much, and beginners will give up before that.
I’m not so much harping on the number notation example specifically, because that type of thing wouldn’t (personally) stop me from learning a game I was dead set on learning anyway. I’m just explaining the general phenomenon as to why people get frustrated or impatient trying to learn/tolerate new ways of doing things they don’t agree with.
Like I say, take the notation example and magnify it to something more meaningful, like a particular design choice in a fighting game engine. The “incentive of learning to play the game” can vanish quickly when they realize they already have other fighting games they like and have fun with, if there is something about the game they disagree with. For some people it may be something small like the number notation, but larger issues may come into play too.
I abide to the “When in Rome” philosophy. Whatever it is, I learn the jargon and culture.
Sure. I get the sense part of the joy of learning a new game for you is exactly this learning process, which is totally cool. Not everyone has your patience or tolerance, though. And I don’t even really mean that as an insult to the other people… just some people aren’t well suited to deal with a bunch of new things when they feel their old things are working just fine. You may call them “lazy”, but others may call them “efficient”.
It does a good job of blending system elements from other games and was fun for awhile but the lack of something new made me drop it I think its one of those games for gg/mvc2 fans who miss this style of play
I have no idea what people look for in games if they can say something is boring but can’t explain why.
it goes both ways you know, what is new for them is our old way to comunicate that it has been efficient for us for more than 10 years now
what i find funny is that now there are some people saying that number notation is holding back the communities that use it
lol, im pretty sure that it wouldnt matter if we use the qcf notation, there would be another bs excuse instead of that