-
You can make inputs easier or less strict (like SF4 is already) but the more lenient you make it the less precise it is and the less control you have over your character.
-
An in depth tutorial with different lesson plans for different levels would go a long way. Completing a lesson could net you a new color or something.
Needs better graphics.
These games sell better to casuals no matter how much you hate them:
Or this:
The ‘casuals’ AKA the people with the money play games that look like this:
You figure it out.
There isnt really much the genre itself can do , it doesnt have a REAL sp mode like other genres. I always felt the equivalent SP for a fighting game should be a Beat em up style game like the Yakuza games.
There is only so much an MP focused game can sell , cant compare with licensed sports games. And even then traditional Fighters dont really appeal much to the UFC/Boxing fans.
Cant compare it with the likes of LoL or Dota , since even minor online lag kills fighting games.
No not really, League of Legends is the most popular PC game right now, DotA2 looks a lot better and yet LoL is beating out DotA2 by a looooooong shot in terms of playerbase.
and CoD’s graphics are pretty outdated. It’s still the same shit as CoD4 except they put on a few new coats of paint. The texture resolution is still garbage.
A win button.
SF4 already has a strong tutorial, in a lot of fighters the cancel system is not even explained and players have to discover combos and advanced techniques on their own. There are tutorials everywhere on youtube, trials demonstration, tutorials from A to Z on how the gameplay works. Gamers are so spoiled nowadays, if you have a desire to get better you will find the info, otherwise you won’t amount to shit.
Haha this . A team game helps with the learning curve. You can throw in a noob with a bunch of decent players , and he can learn while still playing. Casuals just wanna win.
Small incremental rewards is the reason by Chanpionship Node was so widely loved; it didn’t require one to grind out dozens of matches to advance slowly piece by piece in terms of points, and it didn’t cut you off at the knees for losing one random match because your one framer dropped and that dumbass Ken decided to make you stare at his shit eating grin for 15 seconds on the KO screen for your trouble. Giving players a sense of progression (even if they aren’t really improving all that much) is paramount to maintaining interest.
SF4 doesn’t really teach you how to play the game.
I forgot who it was but a few months back had an idea for a tutorial mode that I liked a lot. Basically you teach one step at a time. First you have a robot that only walks forward and you learn to limit horizontal movement with zoning. Then you get a robot that only jumps and you anti air it consistently. Then you combine both and play a basic level zoning game against a computer programmed to test only those two skills. You break this down to every category.
For footsies it would look something like
- computer that only walks forward, you sweep him.
- computer that doesn’t hit buttons but waits for your button so he can counterpoke it. you walk forward throw him
- computer that hits buttons, you whiff punish them
then it would get more complex after, like “computer that doesn’t hit buttons but starts mashing crouch tech or reversal as you approach and you have to bait and punish that.”
You would just do these simple building blocks for every facet of SF you can think of. It wouldn’t teach you everything of course but it would prepare people way better for starting out than what they are getting now.
Yes there is content out there but most people will learn better by interacting with a computer on these concepts. It’s one thing to see someone post a video or guide about footsies, it’s another to see that whiff sweep and figure out how you’re gonna punish it.
Also people need not to exagerate on the difficulty of FADC and links. A buddy of mine had no experience with traditional fighters, he had only played anime fighters and COD. He learned FADC and Ryu’s basic bnbs in just a week, also his inputs were good and he was aware of Ryu’s key normals.
Tutorials arent the problem. its not like people dont have access to youtube.
A fundamental problem with the learning curve for fighters is that doing scrubby shit nets you wins (especially online) , at early stages of playing( am talking about people who have never played fighters before).
You teach a player that constantly jumping in and mashing uppercuts is bad , but in reality doing this actually gives them wins.
Sure you can explain to him how this dude at a tournament would body you if he only did that , but honestly who cares?
When you look at other games , doing scrubby shit gets you killed at low level and high level of play.
I dunno about that…you can get away with some pretty scrubby shit in COD. Remember Akimbo FMGs in MW3?
If you drop links it’s your own damn fault honestly, I like it when scrubs complain about mashing through links, it wouldn’t happen if your links were tight in the first place.
Online I often fight Blanka players who just do random shit and mash electricity on wakeup and through blockstrings and combos despite EX upball being blanka’s reversal and they dont know basic mechanics like teching throws. Same with Ryu players who just do random special moves and keep jumping in at me with absolutely no logic behind what they are doing (save for the obvious DPmash on wakeup and when being combod or frame trapped)
I find it funny how they actually sometimes manage to take rounds or even a whole match off me simply due to the sheer randomness these guys are, paired up with the lag you get from their 256kbps wifi connection
Thats the problem though , you buddy might be new to fighters. But I dont think hes new to video games (considering hes willing to dedicate a week to learn a game). Most of these COD/Madden dude bros , barely spend time on games . They just wanna get in on the action , maybe get a few wins and have fun. This is why SF2 was so popular , graphics being amazing also helped it.
I dont think revamping the tutorial would make SF go from 3-4m sales to 9-10m mainstream. That would need either a complete change in controls (something that will piss off the existing fanbase) . Or perhaps a completely new financial model ( a risk capcom wont take )
Only time I tend to drop links is when I know I will have my opponent fly up high in the sky ready to eat a level 3 focus attack just as he lands LOL
Yeah that’s community content, not Capcom. The problem with this is you have to sit down and watch all these videos which isn’t as fun as learning it on your own or be given small hints while playing some sort of singleplayer or tutorial mode. Then you gotta put it all into use and spend hours in training mode learning combos before you’re ready to even play.
If you gotta spend hours in training mode learning combos to have a fighting chance then you are doing it wrong. One hitconfirm and one high damage punish combo is all you need, which with most characters can be practiced in 5 minutes, with a 5 minute warm up before each session. Maybe Im just blessed when it comes to execution though, every 1 and 2 frame link feels the same to me and tend to be able to do them relatively consistently after 2 minutes of getting a ‘feel’ for it lol
Your asking the wrong question. The real question is how can fighting games attract more white people. The FGC needs more white people. Think about how much money is being missed out on.
SF4 sold around 6 millions copies, and it is one of the most successfull games ever for Capcom (if I’m not mistaken, only SF2 performed better). Most of those 6 millions copies were bought by casual players, so tons of casuals bought this game.
The apparent lack of casual players is because casual players play the game…casually - for 2 weeks and then stop or take a break. Those who play it constantly are not casuals anymore.
Anyway, SF4 is obscenelly popular, you don’t need to dumb it down in order to attract more people.