The future of competitve fighting game

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

What does the community feel about the future of Fighting Game Competition?

Since Evolution, there hasnt been much news or hype for future games or even current games for that matter.

MvC2 - seems to finally have died down

CvS2 - still seems to get some play but not as much recently

ST - the community cant decide which version to use except an arcade cabinet

3s - has always been exciting to watch when the Japanese plays, it but is usually dead all year round in the states

KOF XI - while I think the game has tremendous potential I dont think very many places in the states will carry the game and therefore not make it competitive enough to get people to play it

SC3 - the game that everyone was expecting and hoped to be a great success because of all the accolades SC2 received in the states, turned out to be filled with bugs and glitches

T5:DR - while I hope it will be the game to carry the fighting game community through next year, Tekken 5 didnt seem to last very long. It did have its spike but died as well when 5.1 and T5:DR was announced

GGXX #R or Slash honestly the only promising game for next year but who knows when it will come on console, hopefully it wont be like #r and take forever before the game can actually be playable in the states.

So now what?

This past week CPL had its grand final and Fatal1ty won the biggest purse for competitive gaming $150,000, and Im questioning could the fighting game community match or at least come close to CPL success.

CPL has been around for 8 years and in its time it has gotten tremendous success and notoriety, sponsors from some of the biggest company in the computer industry and has joined the $1Million dollar prize that so many reality TV shows and contests have promoted. With its success, the public and the media are now paying attention to CPL and competitive gaming; this might be the right time for other competitive gaming genre to branch out

SRK this year joined MLG to sponsor Evolution but with many problems faced by the 3D gaming community, MLG seems to have lost credibility amongst fighting gamers.

I once again look at this past year CPL announcement and see what SRK can do to really bring competitive fighting games to the main stream. One of the boldest move CPL did was announced a game that wasnt popular with the FPS masses and announced PainKiller as its one v. one FPS game. With a large sum of money on the line gamers were pretty much forced to learn the game if they wanted to compete for the large purse. While many didnt care much for the game, it was successful and with its $1Million purse it got the media attention to legitimize competitive gaming and really push the industry within to produce better games.

While I am just a fan of competitive fighting game I wonder if SRK should do something similar. One of the major drawbacks is the lack of major sponsors that are willing to support SRK and the community. Capcom seems to careless about the gaming scene and many of the other gaming company with the exception of Namco have not really taken an interest in competitive fighting game. I wonder if SRK can take a page out of CPLs book and try to get Microsoft and TECMO to sponsor this coming Evolution by making DOA4 as the main game at this years Evolution. Promote it with a large enough purse to persuade gamers that if they want to win decent money at Evolution they would need to play DOA4 regardless of how the community currently feels about the game.

Even though I personally am not a fan of DOA or with Xbox for that matter, Microsoft is a major player in the industry and has shown some interest in giving away large purses when it comes to competitive gaming. TECMO had its producer record a clip to announce DOA4 at Evolution this year might suggest that TECMO is actually looking at Evolution as a legitimate stick to measure its popularity in the American market. I think SRK should take advantage of this opportunity and make the most out of it.

While I know this seems to be a bold move and something I dont know if SRK or the community can accept, I do feel something this drastic needs to take place or else the fighting game community might be on its last legs. While I may be over reacting, such bold moves and if Microsoft and/or TECMO are willing to give SRK major sponsorship it might shake the industry within and send notice that fighting gamers can be as competitive as those competing at FPS and that there is a market in the console genre that may be able to compete with FPS that isnt an FPS on console. With this move SRK might also be able to shake the market and put notice that if you want gamers to be serious about your game and be promoted at future Evolution or other regionals then you need to produce better games with fewer bugs and actually find ways to evolve this genre.

So whats your opinion?

2

Capcom could probably push Microsoft to get them to write some form of elite way of making the games run almost lag-free…

3

We should make SRK arcades. Have everyone get together and in the big areas around the country make some arcades!!!

Sounds good but will never happen.

4

Personally, I’m amazed at your lack of misspellings and sheer professionalism in this post. It makes a nekoz proud.

5

http://shoryuken.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103674

6

While I read the first page and the last page of that thread, there wasnt a solution to the problem or at least an attempt to find a solution. Many of the people that post were just complaining about the scene and what is wrong with it, but no one explained a possible solution.

My thread is to post a solution to the problem.

I want people who post to comment about this solution. Is it feasible? Can it work? I would like to hear Mr. Wizard and the staff of SRK to give their input to this situation. Is this something they can look into? I’m sure they do not want to see the scene end like this or have competitive fighting game be a low level just for fun where bunch of gamers meet up once a year type of thing. I’m sure they are trying to find ways to make it big and make it mainstream. Why else would like continuously try to improve Evolution and promote the newest game.

The fighting game scene is still small even though fighting games have been around almost as long as FPS (I count DOOM as the first real competitive fps, at least that when Doom LAN parties really started), it can grow and should grow, and instead of the community complaining about what is wrong with the community and what is wrong with the gamers within the community we should look at possible solution to promote the fighting game genre into mainstream.

This is the best time and opportunity to really try and make the scene noticeable since the media seems to have really taken an interest in competitive gaming, and many corporation have also seem to understand that sponsoring competitive gaming can be a worthwhile venture.

I want others who post here to really consider the option I stated above critique it and if you dont like it come up with a better solution rather than say “this idea won’t work”

7

You read the first and last page of the thread?

The hell do you think you’re doing, studying for the SAT’s?

8

HAHA :xeye: :badboy:

9

The arcade scene in the USA would probably improve if more arcades began to expand and began to incorporate different things. One of the most popular arcades in Cancun was a bowling arena, decent cafeteria / chocklit shoppe, arcade and LAN center, all in one, and they even had a kid center so the kids could go and do their own thing. Maybe someone should start creating ‘entertainment centers’ like this…

10

Well lets not focus this discussion just about arcades.

I realize that while Fighting Games made its mark in the arcades and as much as I wish it could continue, as a community we must accept that console is the future and must find solutions to bring it mainstream at least enough to get those around us (ie. the media, companies within the industry) to notice there are other forms of competitve gaming that are as fun to watch and worthwhile sponsoring these events.

11

There have been threads before on this subject. I want to either open something like a console cafe here in Atlanta, or a game association or co-op type of thing for Atlanta. I have heard of people doing it in other cities that did well. If it is a co-op, probably something where we have dues each month. Actually me and another member working on this now. The arcades here are pretty much dead, the employees don’t really work on machines or some don’t even know how too. So if you want to further the scene in your area I suggest trying to do so as well. There is one console gaming center here in the suburbs of atlanta but it is kind of far out of here too. http://www.xplayground.biz/ He charges like $5 membership/month and $5 per hour.

I found this guys’ console gaming center on www.meetup.com I suggest any people looking to further gaming scene register on this site as there are many people looking to meetup with other gamers here.

mlgpro.com is a site where you should make your voice heard too, I know they were here in Atlanta this weekend doing Halo 50k and as Smash Melee tourney. I ended up finding out about it yesterday so I couldn’t make it. But peepz are trying to get some 2D gaming in there, make your voices heard there too.

12

That’s very cool, and good luck on your ventures hopefully it will be very successful.

My point main point is not to just revive the “arcade” or start a “console cafe” more so than to revive the fighting game community as a whole.

I agree “console cafe” should definitely be considered and I think can definitely be successful much like a lot of internet cafes… this definitely sound like a step in the right direction and hopefully be picked up.

As I pointed out on the very first post, MLG has already had problems with the competitive fighting game community and has already lost a lot of its credibility. Unless MLG can somehow legitimize and regain the respect in the fighting game community it would seem to be a lost cause unfortunately.

In my opinion while MLG still host SSBM, it is pretty much a console FPS league and has legitimize themselves as that.

SRK and TZ are the two largest fighting game community on the net and have gone a long ways in bringing the community this far. The next step is to make it big and well known within the gaming industry, much like CPL has done with the computer gaming industry.

Thank you for your suggestions, hopefully more gamers are willing to venture in console caf to keep console gaming as popular as computer gaming

13

unlike fps, fighters are not a dime a dozen.

no future for competitive fighting games

14

The only way for the scene to expand is if:

1: More fighting games are produced that are worth playing, appeal to the hardcore and casual alike(which never happens, it’s always one or the other)

2: Fighting games become the “in” thing again(which it won’t since there’s been an overall decline of the “kung-fu” flicks that saturated the mainstream back in the 70s/80s)

And I doubt this thread will stay civilized. Let’s find out.

15

Gotta make them “accessible” to the fighter n00b. After all, there are a lot of people that bitch about fighting games having a huge learning curve. Its neither hard no difficult to get into fighters. I started at the age of six and sucked at it. Then after I met some friends in junior high who were into it, I started practicing and found myself to get better at them fast. I finally understood Street Fighter. It just takes time and a lot of devotion which todays gamer lacks. Almost like the RPG scene. A game like FF Tactics doesn’t take a few hours to complete like the normal FF game of todays era. But since the attention spans of most is very short then theres no real enthusiasm to continue playing.

And then theres online gaming which really just killed the scene just about. Why travel to an arcade to meet some average Joe to play a few rounds of SF? Of course WE as a whole are into doing that, but to most people its an inconvenience. It also costs money for travel. Of course those console cafe’s are starting to become the new ‘it’ thing amongst gamers. Which we have a few of in NYC. Its not that bad, but sometimes it just feels right to be in an arcade playing SF because thats how we did it back then and want to continue doing it.

No matter how much people say that SF is dead, it is Capcom’s very own SF that keeps hope alive. Just look at when a new SF game came out, it was the most heaviest played fighting game of the year. Tekken just dies too quick. Tekken was tiered in mere weeks. For some reason in SF games the tiers don’t stay the same forever. Just look at CvS2. If not for RC, Sagat and Blanka would be the dominators of that game forever. But RC brought balance to the game and made it justifiable to use other characters. Also, SF doesn’t have the same dominant characters 2 sequels running. Just look at Bryan and Steve Fox. They were high up there in Tekken 4 and still are in Tekken 5. Of course Jin owned T4 for free, but he got nerfed pretty bad for T5.

To some I may not know what I’m talking about, but thats how I feel after being in the scene since SF2. Back then it was cool to spend 5 dollars at an arcade. Nowadays it just feels awkward.

16

Thank you for your amazing input and great help for the community…

There are only two games on the market at any given time that CPL makes as their official tournament game, Counterstrke and Quake 4 (now that grand finals of Painkiller is done). So I disagree FPS is not a dime a dozen, and those that argue that FPS is more accessible is only half true. In order to play most competitive FPS now a days, you need a decent computer with a decent video card, along with a decent internet connection. While anyone can play anyone at any given time online, I believe there are enough PS2 and Xbox owners out there to keep the scene alive, and the console caf mentioned earlier is a great way to keep the scene alive.

While I agree with your first statement, I dont think it needs to be the case. I think developers believe that they need to find the next greatest gimmick to sell a great fighting game. Personally, I think those gimmicks are actually what hurt the game more than help them. A great game can be simple and have a lot of depth without being incredibly complex that it would take weeks just to get through the movelist.

And I really hope it stays civilized, I really want to hear the main players of SRK to comment on this idea.

17

The companies that I assume actually fund these FPS tourneys have the resources in the first place to throw around. For a new FPS nowadays, you’re gonna need a new graphics card(ATI, etc), sufficient RAM, good display, etc. The financial network is there to support the FPS community; some newbie watches the tourney, decides he wants in, buys game+upgrades his PC rig, then everyone involved wins. All you need for console fighting games are sticks. No other accessories required(converters imported from outside the country, maybe). Stickmakers aren’t exactly bursting at the seams with $$$.

18

Although the scene in the states have come and gone like elevators, it is very hard to determine the outcome of the future of competitive fighting games. I live in Alabama and there’s not much going on here. But I do plan to change that. In the next year I expect to create a Southeast Fighting game tournament in B’ham. It’s the best I can do to rekindle the dwindling fire of fighting games in the Southeast States.

Yes I do know about Final Round 9, the biggest southeast tournament in U.S. but I do try my best to increase the fighting scene in my city and state, and worry of these later. As of now, as the U.S begin to decrease their love for not only fighting tournaments but for fighting games as a whole. I think that’s where the main problem is. No one has met that boundary yet. Two of the best franchises that have broken that barrier has been Street Fighter and King of Fighters. Now they have been weakened. ST haven’t come out nothing since the Anniversary Collection but now this has been died down because of Evo’s rampage of the Jap’s. But it hasn’t died yet. King of Fighters is a different story. KOF is a good franchise but XI hasn’t come to states(not to my own extent)and has lost fans in the process.

I think its time for us to shape up. We got to get the ball rolling now. I say “we” because we are a dwindling population that only we can increase. If it is possible, these tournaments need to be publicised. MTV True Life, G4, the works. As ya’ll should know everything revolves around TV. If there was a way to advertise Evo and FR9 I guarantee there will be a significant rise in fighting gamers in the states and also beginners who want to play. It can happen. It will happen.

It’s my opinion. Hate it or Love it…

19

I think that’s the main reason. 3rd Strike is about 5 years old now. Also new games probably wouldn’t save the community either, beacuse there are still people who only play 2-D fighters and the chance of seeing 2-D on Next Gen seems to be very slim.

20

The scene in general needs to be more publicized. I have a lot of friends who just play fighting games casually and don’t even know that there’s a competitive fighting scene. For comparison, almost everyone who plays CS knows what CPL is. Something as simple as increasing our numbers could very well save the fighting game scene from a future that looks like its gonna suck (but actually getting our numbers to increase is the hard part). More numbers mean more recognition from from outside companies, more potential for sponsorship, more prize money, etc.

That’s why an MTV True Life on JUST the fighting game scene could be very entertaining and be the spark this community needs to bring more people. And if a show like this were to happen (I know that chances of something like this going down are slim to none, but it doesn’t have to just be MTV, but i think MTV would reach the most people), just show the good stuff. I’ve shown many friends who could really give a lesser damn about fighting games the Daigo full parry on Wong video and the Soomighty EC vs WC match with Wong and without fail, it always makes them curious about the fighting games scene. Hell, we could just do a show on the final 8 of Marvel this year with all hype and drama (Ortiz forfeits cuz he has to give a liver transplant to some kid who’s dying, Wong lost his match cuz he was on crack, etc) and make it real good.

So all in all, aside from arcades dying, consoles being the wave of the future, no good fighting games coming out recently stuff, more publicity would make the fighting game future not seem so bleak. Damn, if ESPN can show 8 hours straight of Texas Hold’ em (borefest), I’m sure we can show some Marvel clips that are equally as entertaining.