I quit fighting games just before street fighter 4 came out, due to real life. And I’ve only recently just started to get back in to them, and I’m not very happy. I feel the genre and in some ways the scene is still stuck in the same place from where I left it. No one is doing anything different. Every new competitive fighting game is just a refinement of something that came before it. This is why old games don’t die. Other genres don’t look back, they are constantly moving forward.
Nearly all games are designed to be played with the standard control method of the platform the games are released on. PC’s use a mouse and keyboard, so naturally the games are designed to be played with them. Games released on console are designed to be played the controller that comes with the console. And this is the same for arcade games, tablet/phone games, etc.
And since arcades are still a thing in Japan where most fighting games are developed, and is the platform where most are released first. It is only natural that the games are designed to be played with an arcade stick and with as many buttons as needed. The problem comes when these games are ported to console/PC. They aren’t redesigned to be played at their best. Take first person shooters. Played best with a mouse and keyboard, but over the years companies have learned how to adapt them to be played with a controller on console. And now games like COD on console outsell their PC counterparts.
This is not say that no one has ever attempted to design a fighting game specifically for console. There are plenty of examples. Smash being the best. If I’m not mistaken brawl is the best selling fighting game ever. Others too like the long running DBZ Budokai and Naruto ultimate ninja series. Unfortunately these games aren’t taken seriously among the larger part of the FGC and even the developers themselves. Games like MVC3 and Blazblue do have an easier mode of control, but these are just diluted experiences.
Any kind of special motion has no place in today’s age of gaming. Games should be easy to play, with the lowest possible barrier of entry requirements. People seem to get upset at the suggestion of 1 button specials, but that’s how it should be. Obviously you just can’t insert them into the current games without changing too much, but the games should be designed with them in mind from the beginning. What makes fighting games great for me is not seeing people execute hard moves but by the application and the way those moves are used.
Most fighting games come with a training mode, and the deeper those training modes are the more praise a fighting game seems to get. The very fact that a game even needs a training mode should be setting off alarm bells. If a game needs to separate learning and playing into different modes then the game is overly complex. Games should be pick and play and learn as you go, with nothing more than a tutorial to get you started.
Furthermore fighting games have seemed to go down a very narrow path. For some games there seems to be very little difference between a match and combo exhibition. It’s gotten so bad you have a game like Killer Instinct come out, the first new fighter out on the next gen and the whole game is based around combos. The zoning, footsies and general strategy should be the focus points of fighters.
Fighting games aren’t like other games. They aren’t these big huge experiences like mainstream games are. You can’t release a new version of the same game every year and expect people to keep buying it. It only took Capcom 13 years since they released SF2:WW to realise this, so Ultra Street Fighter IV is now a DLC. Not all other developers are guilty of the same mistake, but enough of them do it.
To be honest though more fighting games should go Free to Play. It’s the perfect genre for it. The biggest hurdle fighting games have is getting new players in that aren’t familiar with them. Having free fighters to play will certainly help. I know a few non fighting game people who have an Xbox One and all of them have at least downloaded and played a bit of Killer Instinct. None of them would have bought it though, if it was a paid title.
Lastly there needs to be good netcode. Online is where competitive gaming is. If you don’t have good online play you might as well not release your game at all. If you can’t give them a decent online experience, there are plenty of other games out there that will. People can moan all they want about the inherent lag of online, but the developers have to adapt. If your game has 2 frames of lag minimum when played online then offline the game has got to 2 frames of lag as well, keeping the whole thing consistence.
I feel if fighting games are to ever again achieve mainstream prominence, then they are going to have to change, and by a big amount. Maybe even becoming something which isn’t truly a fighting game anymore. A whole new genre perhaps. MOBA’s are the biggest competitive games in the world, with DOTA2 and LOL leading the way. The genre was born out of RTS, a genre like fighting games which had grown rather stale.
This leads me onto my next subject. The fighting game scene and this struggle with esports.
In my opinion I think fighting games are extremely lucky to be where they are right now, however many people have expressed disappointment that fighters are not up there with the other big esports titles. But you should all really be thankful that fighting games even register at all in the pro gaming scene. This is all thanks to the TO’s. Those who take time and money out of their lives to keeping the competitive fighting game scene alive. Without these dedicated few then there would be nothing.
People out there hoping that fighting games will generate the number of stream viewers and prize money that SC2, DOTA2 and LOL do then I’m sorry to tell you. Never going to happen. Not unless drastic changes take place, not only from the actual games being played but also with the way the developers and publishers support the tournament scene.
I just checked Steam and the amount of people playing DOTA2 today peaked at 600k, which is the same number of people who bought SF4AE according to VGchartz. Granted Street Fighter 4 overall sold millions across all it’s versions, but it’s still way behind the race. Number of sales get fewer with each version, not more. People have lost interest. Ultra is made for the people who already own Street Fighter 4, it’s not going to bring many new players. And if thats the biggest competitive fighting game right now then it’s got a lot of catching up to do.
But it’s not all about the numbers. Tekken and MK have always sold comparatively well for fighting games, but their tournament attendance always pale in comparison to capcom fighters. I get the feeling that all other scenes would not be able to survive in their current form without the capcom fighters. This probably attritubes to the fact that capcom fighters are just better competitive games, better supported by the developer and have a stronger and more vibrant offline and online community. Yes Smash has done well by itself, but it still took EVO to see their biggest tournament ever.
What I’m getting at is that Street fighter does not really need these other games, their scenes are just big enough independently to warrant them tagging along for the ride. Evo had over $100k in prize money spread across 7 games in 2012 and $62k across 9 games in 2013. Wouldn’t people rather see that money all go into street fighter and marvel paying out to the top 16 or even top 32? Esports is an exclusive club and there is not enough room for everyone.
I’ve heard all this talk about how esports doesn’t understand the FGC and this and that, blah blah blah. Well of course they don’t, their games and our games are a world apart, and the FGC is the one that has to adapt, not the other way round. But this all starts with the games. The games are stuck in the past and if things are going to change then at the tournament level then the games will need to change.
Esports is played on PC for the obvious reason many more companies can and want to get involved in sponsoring. Console gaming does not have anywhere near as many opportunities for sponsorships. There needs to be a transition to PC in the future for fighters to get noticed. But it’s not as simple as just getting fighting games ported over. They need to be designed from the ground up to be played on PC.
That means throwing away sticks and pads and utilising the keyboard and mouse as the method of control. It also means being Free 2 play, online tournaments, huge developer support, and a huge player base. The games themselves would be need to be vastly different from what we now to achieve this. But it is what needs to happen if a fighting game is ever to become an esports title.
If all this sounds horrible and scary to you, then don’t worry it will most likely never happen.
Thanks for reading.
