Listen up. The only way to get lots and lots and lots of more people into the fighting game community is to stage a match. Remember when the infamous diago parry video came out and how many people got into third strike? That’s what you need to do but for SF4. You would get so many people joining and wanting to play and wanting to learn. How to do something so hyped and crazy in SF4? No idea lol. Valle vs Daigo in sf4 huge turn around? 1 mil. hits on youtube easy.
Also get out to the white community more. Let’s face it, the best players in the US are of asian, black, and latino descent. The statistics are against the community. Most white boys are playing Halo and shooting games, but I’m sure they can easily be turned around once they understand the depth and uniqueness of fighting games; and how rewarding it is when you win.
staging matches feels hella scummy to me. at least keep them out of tournaments. tournaments are the heart of competitive SF, and if you start compromising them to get more people interested, then what is the real point anymore? i know crappy mid tier players (like myself) who could set up a daigo parry.
Sometimes the best way to play and learn is to be somewhere that is aurally pleasing, and can help someone immensely with their game when in the right ‘environment’. It’s not a stone cold fact or anything, but it couldn’t do anything but help.
hardwork turns people off, and that’s exactly what fighting games are. The only way I could see them being pulled in would be by showing the flashy moments of the games. Like 3rd strike full super parries, Custom combos, or FADC ultra.
. Also, who the fuck cares if white people are in the majority or not as top players? Btw, this is coming from a white dude. That whole “diversity” thing is frankly annoying as hell. Yah, blacks/asians are usually the majority in the fighting game community, but you see your fair share of everything. Shit, walk into a offline FPS tournament and all you see are pale european dudes.
Yes, flashy things pull people in, which is exactly why I was saying some famous players need to get into a flashy situation and let it explode.
And about the lazy comment… fighting games are not just “need hard work”. Fighting games are incredibly technical. In a FPS the only thing you REALLY need to know to win is to aim for the head. Fighting games are SO MUCH MORE TECHNICAL. I used to play people daily at the local college and newbies would come along and be like how do you play this game and it usual takes around 1 min+ to explain any fighting game. With a FPS you say “this is the shooting button, this is the grenade button, aim for the head.” That’s all you fucking need to play a FPS. Do you know how much you need to know to play even SF4? Theres 3 punch buttons, 3 kick buttons, press lp and lk to throw, to do a special you have to do a quarter circle, to do a super you have to do 2 quarter circles, to do an ultra you have to press all three punch or kick buttons with a 2 quarter circles, theres standing, low, and mid attacks, when theres a jump attack you cant block low, when theres low attack you cant block high, when theres a mid attack it looks like a jump attack but you have to block it standing, press mp and mk to focus attack which sometimes is only blockable when your ultra bar is full, to charge you do this, etc. etc… Holy shit… sit back and think about how fucking technical SF4 is, LET ALONE any other fighting game. The games are TOO TECHNICAL for everyday players and it is just a cold hard fact. It turns people off completely. People have jobs, go to college, have a family, etc. They don’t want to sit and practice for months and months just to be decent. They see video games as a form of entertainment and not a form of training that needs to be rigorous to get anywhere. People have lives and don’t just dedicate themselves to video games and that’s 2 big reasons why fighting games are not as huge as FPS.
About the diversity thing, yeah, the statistics speak for themselves. It is a valid reason lol.
IMO, it is not the environment, but the ‘player(s)’ surrounding that particular environment. Whether it is playing in a garage, a godly living room setup, an arcade, or at someone’s apartment. I guess what I’m saying is, it isn’t the quality of the location or environment, but the quality of the players that are there. I believe this is covered in Sirlin’s book ‘Playing to Win’.
Any scrub can own a nice arcade or setup, but it’ll only take you so far. Just because you own a pair of Reebok Pumps doesn’t mean it’ll improve your jump shot.
I think that you’re onto an idea there but shooting off in the wrong direction.
Public spaces is what would be more usefull imo, people tend to feel more welcome and less like they are intruding if you are in a public building rather then a stranger’s home, regardless of how nice their setup may be.
And on the diversity thing, I don’t see the need really, nor the method to actualy pull it off, if someone is really interested in fighting games, he or she will get into them regardless of race, we don’t just think “That looks pretty cool, but since I’m white I better not bother.” lol.
Although maybe just having people hold back on the raicist comments here would help a little and not take too much effort. (Which is probably more likely since a certain type of meatball which is synonymous with offensive slang for homosexual was censored here recently)
I think as a top player I would make guides. You know, one of my ancient problems with street fighter is how hard it is to get knowledge. There’s always this…secrecy about the game.
There’s a billion techniques, a billion different things about the game…complex and advanced. But they don’t get taught anymore. The basic players don’t understand them…don’t know what they are.
There once was a young up and coming player named Justin Wong who made it to the top. Since then…well, you always see the same names.
Me, I’d try to lead a new generation of players. Mayhaps the top players should do like the ultimate fighter. West coast top player trains a team to take on another team trained by someone on the east coast.
If the game wants to grow bigger, it needs new blood. New competition. A way to get the casual player to understand how to actually “play” the game.
Because without new blood, Street Fighter will go the way of Arcades.
Offtopic: I always wanted to personally ask you, Calipower, why you stopped playing Marvel. I remember Soomighty saying a lot of the stuff he uses you taught him. Why’d you walk away? I felt like you handed the baton to Justin all those years ago, and I would have liked to see you take it back.
Actually, the racial issue is an interesting point. I see the personalities in our scene as both a blessing and a curse…
It’s a good thing in that this community is far more diverse and charismatic than, for example, poker or any kind of pro-gaming. We have funnymen (Yipes), great analysts (Seth, Ski), intense personalities (Valle, Sanford), camera-friendly spokesmen (Gootecks, Mike Ross), whatever the hell Chris Hu is, you name it. And because of our arcade history, we have a much wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds than your typical console games. All of this is great for getting people interested in who we are and what we do.
That said, the harsh reality is that being perceived as “too black” (or maybe just “not white enough”) can hurt you. There’s a reason the NBA has had more PR problems than any other sports league (anyone remember the dress code?). Just recently, Harry Reid got in big trouble for saying Obama was electable because he was light-skinned and didn’t talk black…but was he wrong? Could you honestly see someone saying “nigga” or even “y’all be…” being elected president right now?
I guess what I’m saying is that, as the FGC gains recognition, we’ll have to strike a delicate balance in this regard. We don’t want to make ourselves sterile like the rest of pro-gaming, but things like Dark Prince bringing a knife to a tournament can kill us in a hurry…
^ truth, but the fact of the matter is, the fighting game community has no idea what it wants. there is a small few that wanna make a career of it, a vast majority that just wants to play and could care less about being the best, and a few that float between, but are most likely like the vast majority. the fighting game community, and no offense, doesnt seem to be filled with so many hardcore individuals. a lot of the hardcores are getting older, and could give two shits, or theyre getting older, and wanna have something to occupy them from their wife and kids. the general m.o about the fg community in my opinion, is a lot of casual gamers, and not a lot of people that are really gonna break their back to get all bent out of shape over sf, tekken, vf, hnk, mb, ect… we have our moments, but it doesnt seem to be the fighting game communities swag. we just do what we do, when we do, for whatever reason we do.
While it would be a lot of work, what would be interesting is showing a real match, and then for the commentary, pausing it and drawing out (with separately recorded snippets) various points in the match: showing things like what possibilities a player could’ve had in one situation, what each could’ve led to, and then back to what the player actually did. In that way, the analyst can really break down the combination of thought process and actual action.
That incredible assortment of possibilities needs to be explicitly shown so that people who don’t yet appreciate the game can start to realize how deep it is, and how it isn’t just who can press buttons fastest or do the biggest combos. Fact is, most rounds move along too fast for talking commentary alongside it to keep up beyond mentioning a few general things, and a lot of “tutorial” vids are just collections of individual tactics and combos. Showing how all those little tactics and subtleties are brought in during a real match, how the players are able to put themselves into positions where they can use them (or avoid getting put into those positions) would definitely be a step up.
Japan’s biggest name is a showman and interesting to watch. America’s top player does the same boring Rufus stuff every tournament, who the hell wants to come into a game like that? Wait for SSIV, hopefully we’ll get a bunch of new players.
