Pleasing the fans vs Creative freedom

With the 3rd update to SF4 coming up and Capcom still following the same inferior principals of pleasing the fans first before letting the developers minds run free I got pissed the F**K off and decided to create this thread.

The whole Idea of trying to please everyone so you can sell more copies should have stopped with the creation of SF4.
What they are doing now is sitting in one place, impairing progress. Would SF4 have sold more copies had it been made with a more creative mindset instead of rehashing old characters and playstyles? Probably not, although with the money they spent on marketing they would have made their money back and then some.

But more importantly would SF4 be a better fighting game three updates in if it had been made with a more creative mindset ? If history has anything to teach us I can say for sure it won’t be as balanced as it is now but more fun,thought provoking and deep? Definitely.

And no its not just the suits fault or Ono’s fault for wanting more money. The biggest fault lies with the fans, the fans who always want more, the fans who put unneeded pressure on developers and last but not least the female-minded fans who hate this game and proceed to the nearest store to buy it because Gootecks or Daigo said so.

that is a thing? that doesn’t sound like a real person…

Isn’t it a bit presumptive to assume the game would have been better if it were made with a “more creative mindset” ? Ignoring how vague that statement is, the risk of doing something new is no one liking it at all. Look at the reception 3s originally got.

But I do think SF4 is the least stylistically distinct (mostly old characters, no personalized stages, rehashed theme music, every mechanic is derivative of something from a previous SF game) of any SF game.

Yes I invented a new word. Maybe sheep-minded would have been better in getting my thought’s across but that’s beside the point. About 3s that’s what I mean, it’s better to take risks than to stay in the same place all the time. 3rd strike is still doing just fine, the simple fact that more than ten years later the game is still big in Japan and has a following speaks for itself.

MrRoboto, you got balls of steel.

I understand, but not everyone lives in Japan. I would’ve been very happy if my area had a great 3s Scene, but reality is harsh.

I meant, are there really people that exist who hate SF4, but buy it because of Goo and/or Daigo?

if people want to play a game because so and so plays it, I say let em. It’s a free country, although its laughable, but it’s a free country. It’s cool with me. as long as noone is getting hurt.

Of course there are, its like saying are there people buying this brand of jeans instead of that one because of the advertisement they saw on tv.

Those people you are describing are playing the game because it’s popular period, not just because of one celeb guy. If SF4 became stale then people should move to other games, but they don’t so it means they still want to play SF4 for years to come.

Riiiight. Because the fact that daigo played ggxx back when made everybody hop on that bandwagon.

Back then people didn’t care who was playing what they played what they liked and argued about it. But that’s in the past and this topic isn’t about Daigo read the thread title again.

Again read the thread title and my thread. By the way I all ready said it people who play this game for the sole reason because it’s popular are impairing progress.

There are people who play other games that you like for reasons that you dislike.

WHERE IS YOUR DOG NOW?!?!?

I gave up this fight a long time ago…I realized, everyone didn’t feel the same way about the games as I did, clearly.

Doesn’t matter how certain people feel about the games, enough people keep buying them to drown out any MAJOR constructive criticisms.
I just stopped buying Capcom games, made after 2009. I’ll buy the online editions of the old school fighters. But all the other stuff, “not in my house”! Its given me time to play other fighters, too. If more people do what I did, Capcom might actually be more in tune to the constructive criticisms out there.

Aren’t fighting games supposed to be played for fun and challenging your mind and reflexes against another player? If the game is fun, the execution and mind games challenging your concentration will be easier to obtain.

And again you are ignoring the main topic. Its not really fun or productive to argue for the sake of arguing.

I face this dilemma myself and it’s not even in the same genre.

I design lots of characters in my spare time, yet all the competitive players force every character to look like a large glowing green neon blob. Isn’t that just motivating?

I do wish SFIV did have more artistic freedom. I played vanilla and super but stopped only a few months after vanilla came out. I couldn’t stay into, but I got super and same thing happened again, never went back and never tried AE.

I was disappointed from the beginning. And I use that loosely. When I saw the roster (excluding the new characters) it was basically SF2CE. But I wasn’t surprised given CAPCOM’s track record in their character selection. I wanted more of the 3S cast, not all and more new characters. Then we got 3S and Alpha characters and just what the hell, it was like the CAPCOM equivalent of MK Trilogy or something it felt. So much of the old cast is back that when you say SFIV I think first the original 12 before I think of Viper or Rufus or something. And Abel - a mercenary with no memory of his past?! Really CAPCOM, going with that lazy 90’s character concept? Why not more new characters or characters we haven’t seen in a while? They brought in non-SF characters like with Guy etc. why not do that again? But I know character selection isn’t everything.

Next was the gameplay, which wasn’t bad or broken but sub-par in my opinion. EX moves, ok cool I guess I’m a huge 3S player. Then Focus Attack to cater to parriers but to the SF2 crowd who ain’t use to it, so a casual gamer’s parry in a sense. Again I say that loosely. Something didn’t feel right, it seemed to me they were trying to marry SF2 & 3S too much. Which seemed like a good idea, it should be fuckin awesome - cater to the hardcore players and the ones who grew up with SF2 but haven’t played a fighter in years. But in the end, the game felt like some bastardized concept. I cannot tell what SFIV is, what is wants to be.

But I give credit where it is due, SFIV is a success in re-invigorating fighting games. Had CAPCOM released some standard 3S sequel, it probably would of sold crap and done nothing. SFIV helped get us MVC3 in a sense. Marvel could look at the numbers and say Yeah there is an audience. If someone were to come over with a copy of SFIV and say let’s play, sure. But I don’t plan to stay up with it. It’s not a horrible game, just not my game.

  1. Capcom is a company
  2. A company’s primary goal is to turn a profit
  3. SF3 series did not do well, so and is largely unknown by non FGC people. Everyone knows SF2, and seeing how having an all new cast in SF3 worked out…they had to bring back all the SF2 cast. Then they brought back SF3 and alpha characters for fans of those games. There is only a handful of new characters (which is extremely disappointing), but fans are more interested in returning characters than new ones. They created a new fighting game system but not something that also felt familiar to SF2 (though still different).
  4. It reinvigorated interest in fighting games, allowing a new revolution, and Capcom maximized profits.

This is really whats going on here. People don’t branch out from Capcom games enough and I don’t know why.
A few months after UMVC3 came out I found that I really regretted buying it and it was every bit as awful as the 1st MVC3. I had quit SF4 some time ago. Luckily in 2012 a bunch really great fighters came out. I’ve been playing SG and 3D fighters since then and having a lot of fun. Fun is what’s important to me, even when comes to tournaments. Playing games just because they’re popular only makes since if your trying to somehow make a living from it.

or if you’d like offline comp but dont feel like building a scene? theres a lot of areas where there is no offline SG or 3D comp

Very true but people still refuse to accept the truth and remain butt hurt instead.