That’s true, online can only take you so far…but what that means is different in the context of the game. That statement sounds like something someone would say about a game that has [playable] online, in the case of the ‘community’ sitting home and playing online in lieu of organizing or participating in live events. For example, if this statement was made about ST, the intention would be something like this:
“God damn it! Stop playing ST on GGPO and play offline! I know that GGPO is awesome, but to take it to the next level, you need to play in real offline tournaments!”
Perfectly reasonable. GGPO helps the players gain experience, but it’s the tournaments that help the scene manifest itself.
But that is not the context in which you are using the statement; you are using it in the context of KOF2002UM, a game without [playable] online; a game which no one plays online. In this case, the intention of the statement would go something like this:
“Yes, the online sucks, but that’s okay! Online sucks anyway, right? You should just play offline and you won’t miss it.”
Completely different situation. This is like trying to make a competitive scene for a fighting game in 1994 without an arcade release. Online is where people learn games in the year 2010. If people have no place to learn the game, they will never play it, and they sure as fuck won’t spend money to lose in a game they don’t know how to play. Why, when they can play SSFIV online, against thousands of players every day, AND play in offline tournaments as well, and actually be able to do something, since they leveled up online, in a game that is supported by its publisher.
i think digimon is only talking about seeing the game at tournaments just for it to be there for people to play, not for it to have it be played competitively… which is what everyone else is talking about.
also i don’t know why emil is always brought up because he doesn’t go to tournaments. that is his business. plenty of the online regulars still go to tournaments. though i guess it might be because he stands out more since he is such a great player.
Also i’d pick online kof (ggpo) over my local scene for getting better even though i’d prefer to play offline. Just like I wouldn’t have gotten as good at HDR if I had only played offline.
rukawa_kaede : there is no sense in saying anything about the state of the offline community if you haven’t taken the initiative to do anything yourself. How many gatherings have you been to in chicago to play kof? How many tournaments in chicago have you run for KOF?
i meant both. for the sake of the game being there at tournaments, and for people to see the game played at a decent —> pro level (the select few pros we have in this country that is lol).
i mean the exposure and fame has to start somewhere…right?
The dominance of SSF4 has made it harder for other games to go the old route of gaining notoriety. SSF4 isn’t the most popular game because it’s the best game ever made by human hand – but on top of being embraced just because it’s a Capcom fighter it’s also one of the easiest to sit around and play with friends and was one of the first console games to really make that push.
When you think about the games that are now gaining a fair amount of anticipation (MK9 and MVC3) what will help those games grow quickly if they are good is the online play.
Offline is still important to actually have a scene. But the online makes way more people compete that would never actually show up in the first place.
I remember finding out about Garou and getting the p2p kaillera client and playing in my first couple of online tournaments. I went two and out in my first tournament and it was a really big learning experience but I met people for a game that only one person in my state really played! It made me feel comfortable getting in some casuals at Final Round (forget which year, but it was my first one) because I had already had a chance to play with people and get to know the “scene” a little bit.
Consider that there are now 24/7 online streams of fighting games being played online that have more interest than what SNK games get at majors.
So I don’t think online and offline can be viewed as separate entities for game scenes anymore – not if they are going to have to compete for floor space and player interest with games that utilize both.
If playing online so much ensures that a game in this day and age is an indicator of it getting attention and community, than why after all this time of playing KOF on GGPO/Supercade/whatever, the game is still niche?
The truth of the matter that playing online is just that, playing online. It doesn’t really expand the people that play offline to any extent I can see. I don’t say SSF4 is popular because of its online function, but it contributes to it. I’d say the more significant factors are namebrand familiarity, hype, advertising, nostalgia. The online component brought it home and gave it staying power.
Let’s say KOFXIII gets excellent netcode, but otherwise its release is similar to other KOFs in the NTSC-U format. You know what I think going to happen? The game is still going to be niche. I’m betting more than half of the people that posted in the KOFXIII thread from FGD that swear up and down the game will be a first day purchase and will dedicate unparralled amounts of time to it are full of shit. I’m positive they will drop the game in a few months.
We have another example, Melty Blood. That started bringing pockets together with its online play and even got a spot at EVO. But guess what? Despite even that, the game and community are still relatively small and many people barely even noticed Melty at EVO this year. Why, in fact was it, Fucking Smash Brother Melee, a game that didn’t even have online (unless you want to count kaillera) showed up at ONE EVO and yet was noticed by everyone? Even the people that didn’t WANT to notice it? What about Virtua Fighter 5? A bunch of idiots on this site talk about it all day and how deep it is, without knowing shit. It has excellent netcode and is even at budget price. Where’s the massive community for that?
Continue to keep playing online and saying that “well if we just receive good netcode, it’ll turn around” and you’ll be in for a rude awakening.
To be honest, there isn’t a lot of USA KOF players on GGPO/Supercade/Arclive PERIOD. A majority of those players are either from Latin America, Asia, Middle East, etc.
I go on GGPO to play KOF98 anytime of the day, I see Korea, China, Japan, Brazil, UK, France, Tunisa, Morocco, while I see maybe just 2 to 4 USA flags.
In KOF2002 I see a shitload of Mexico flags while I can be the only USA player to be accompanied by another USA player or 2.
I go on Arclive, I just see mainly all Chinese players.
So, all of those other countries that play the game online heavily at the same time have good offline communities. Spots in Asia have arcades with KOF, they tear the game up in Mexico, while we don’t seem to really play it at all.
As far as the Smash community, they have their shit together and are more dedicated and serious about their game than KOF community here. Same with Melty. Plus they are really helpful toward a lot of their fellow players here and are always willing to contribute to help their scene while KOF players here just either patronize each other, create beef/drama, shit on peoples hard work and efforts and simply just don’t play the damn game enough.
I still get on when I have time in the afternoon but my connection is extremely horrible cause i have to use wireless. But yeah i understand, cause for the most part i rarely see any US players.
80 or 90% of the people i see/play in KOF98 & KOF2002 are NOT in the US. Plus my connection is already bad, but still get a few 90 - 120 ms players that run smooth
By the way KOF 2k2um causals and a tourney is gonna be at NEC philly and i hope that turns out good and can bring some new players or attract a good crowd. I wish i could show up with my mediocre skills lol. But im broke.
*Found the info thanks to rogue from the Other Thread*
This is a difficult fighter to learn. Honestly I’m not surprised that Americans don’t really get into it. Even if we did get a decent scene going we’re still far behind other countries in terms of skill.
I think I rather do that than play online seriously, I find it really hard to devote so many hours to a game locked up in your house for so much time. I guess it’s just me being old school.
and I’m not saying ggpo is bad or anything of the online communities like #snkplaymore, these are a god send for us people that aren’t that great at the game, but what I think of people like emil he shouldn’t be complaining about the online players really, he has to understand that many of the online players don’t really play the game that much. if he really wants to step up his game he needs to take it offline but we all know that ain’t gonna happen.
none because there are none
none, nada because I don’t want to get into any administrative jobs, it’s to much work. I just want to play, get better and compete. Besides I’m new to the area
You’re right I haven’t done anything but my critique was aiming to emil exclusively
