What’s up fellas?
Man… it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here. I don’t know if many people even read this thread anymore, but since it’s the official H-Town thread, then this is probably still the most appropriate place to say all of this.
First thing, let me just say “wsup” to all of my old “boys”, and you all know who you are. I haven’t been around for many, many years now, so I haven’t seen or talked to most of you in a very long time. I probably saw a few of you guys at last years Texas Showdown when I dropped by for a little while. Before that, the last few times I may have seen some of you where probably at Planet Zero during their first few years of business.
It’s been over 10 years since the Stargate closed down, so I’m sure many guys have left the scene and become preoccupied with their own personal lives… which is inevitable for most players. Very few people are fortunate enough to remain heavily involved in the scene beyond their early competitive years. Guys like Seth Killian, James Chen, Mike Watson, Alex Valle, John Choi, the Cannon brothers, Mr. Wizard and the whole OG EVO crew, Jason Wilson, Combofiend, etc., etc., etc… including our very own Javi and Ranma… are just some of the guys who are lucky enough to still be involved in it after 15+ years.
Michael Jordan called it “The Love of the Game”, when referring to his relationship with basketball. Well I know that for me… it was, and is the same thing for me when it comes to Street Fighter. (especially the classic Street Fighter series games)
I read something from many years back that my man Dez wrote about me in another thread, he wrote, “You know what made Stargate so successful? C-mutt was a go outta town for tournys, get together having, skill smith video watching, practicing hardcore gamer! Our after work sharpstown mall New Generation battles were epic until he found out they had 2nd Impact at The Wizard Arcade. The Wizard was a 30-45 minute drive to play.”
Well, to be correct, it was SF3-NG at the Wizard, but more importantly… it was that I found out that they had guys that were serious, hardcore into playing SF. And yes, it was a 45 minute drive in both directions. And you know what, I drove there 3-4 days a week and I stayed until closing almost everytime. It was finding a place where there were other guys like me, who were addicted to Street Fighter, that attracted me to the Wizard. I mean, playing at the malls against mostly casual and a few semi-hardcore people was okay… but as most of you know and understand, when you’re hardcore into it, you just have to be around other hardcore players too. I remember one night it was just me and Mike Zavar left in the arcade, it was 2nd Impact and he and I played until the owner kicked us out. Mike beat me like 40 games to 2 or something, and you know what… I loved every minute of it. Not the losing of course, but the challenge and the competition was the “juice”, that’s what made it fun, and that’s what I loved most about it.
And I think that’s what Dez was getting at when he said that about me, and The Stargate. Our hardcore group of players were not only combatants, but we were also friends, and we all shared the common thing… we lived and breathed Street Fighter. So the Stargate was really just an extension of my personal relationship to the game of Street Fighter, and an extension of the group that we belonged to. That’s why I always referred to The Stargate as “Our Place”, because that’s exactly what it was… it was basically like a giant get together place for hardcore Fighting gamers. It was built for us, so it was like our own special club, and all that was required to become part of it was 2 things… to have that addiction to competitive fighting games… and to just show up and play.
If you showed up to The Stargate, that meant you had that extra desire to seek it out, and thus you were automatically a member of that special brotherhood of hardcore fighting gamers. When you walked through the door it was an unspoken acknowledgement from all of the other faces there as to why you were there, then it was simply get some quarters, find your game… and bring it on.
Aahh, I miss that shit.
Anyway, so why am I posting about all of this?
Well, it’s been long enough now to where the dust has settled on most of the problems that had been going on in the community throughout the past 7 or 8 years.
Even though I wasn’t around or kept up to date with all of the things happening within the community, I did hear and learn about some of the problems going on.
I want to talk about one thing in particular, mainly because I think this thing was the central and primary factor in a lot of the problems that took place.
After The Stargate was gone there wasn’t another arcade or gaming center that could fill the void and be a primary supporter for Texas Showdown Tournaments. As many of you may remember, Chris Chou (Ranma) had pretty much taken over the duties of planning and running Texas Showdowns after Javi left the scene for a while. I have always given props and credit to Ranma for handling such a monumental and thankless job for all those years. Even when he wanted so bad to just say “screw it” and quit so many times, he never did. He always put his love for the FGC first, and in the end, he always wanted to keep doing it… no matter the headaches.
Like I said, once Stargate was gone, Ranma had to resort to being resourceful again. He didn’t have a venue to host TS"s (Texas Showdowns), and he didn’t have direct access to arcade cabs anymore. Most importantly, he didn’t have the same strength of unity within the community that was there when The Stargate was the central meeting grounds for everyone. So he had less help and less support, to some degree.
Well a few years later here comes a new place… Planet Zero.
From the 1st impressions this looks like it could be a great place for the FGC. An owner with enough money to establish a good size gaming center, in a nice area of town. A business that wants to include an area for hardcore fighting games, and is open to hosting and supporting tournaments. A business that provides plenty of Japanese cabinets, tournament quality controls, and that purchases almost all of the latest and most expensive new games.
It looked like a great thing for the FGC, and Ranma saw both the quality and the potential for Planet Zero to become the next best thing for the continuation of the FGC and TS’s. And I don’t blame him, Planet Zero looked like it could be just what the doctor ordered, and it came at the nick of time. Because 1st and foremost, Ranma’s goals were always about doing whatever seemed like the best options for continuing the scene.
And now I’m gonna fill you guys in on a little story.
When PZ 1st opened, the owner John asked me to sit and talk to him a few times so that he could pick my brain and try to get some experienced feedback from me, a guy who had already run a fighting game center. My 1st impressions were that he seemed pretty genuine in wanting to hear my advice and my thoughts on what he was trying to accomplish. I basically told him that I couldn’t really give him too much advice business wise because The Stargate was a very small, one dimensional business, and that it was operated on a fraction of the budget that PZ was operating on.
What I did tell him though, was that IMHO, gaming was moving completely away from arcade machines, and would soon be almost all console based. So I told him he should really reconsider his ideas of wanting to bring Japan style arcade gaming here, if he wanted to sustain a thriving business.
Anyhow, a couple of times I was invited to stay and hang out with John and his group of people after they closed for the night. I figured John just wanted to be friendly and maybe wanted to continue our conversations about the business.
Now, what I had noticed was that John had seemed to act fairly normal and nice to all of the gamers during PZ’s open hours. But I noticed something very different when PZ closed for the night and shut it’s doors. Once John was around his own personal gang of friends (including his employees and the girls they kept around for eye candy), he loosened up and let some of his true colors show, and some of his real thoughts came out.
He started making fun of some of the FGC players by making cruel jokes and saying disrespectful and insensitive things about them, (and I won’t mention the names of who, although I don’t really remember anymore anyway), and he was doing it mainly to act like a big shot, and show off in front of his group.
Now keep in mind, this is Cmutt here… the ancient one, well into my mid 30’s and highly trained in the art of smelling bullshit and spotting a rat when I see one.
Well, my 1st thought was “this motherfucker here”, these are the guys who are supporting his business and spending money in his place… and he has the nerve to think about them like that. He should be thankful to them, and he should show them the respect of a fellow in the brotherhood. But he wasn’t, and I realized right then and there… that the owner of PZ wasn’t a gamer at all. Not only wasn’t he part of the brotherhood, but he wasn’t even a decent human being when it came down to respecting his responsibilities as a leader and an owner of a business.
I new right then and there that PZ would not be the next best thing for the FGC. With an owner like that, it was just a matter of time before he would ruin the place himself. I didn’t say anything, and I never really hung with them ever again. I was polite and cordial to John, mostly for the sake of Ranma and the FGC. PZ was all there was, and it was the only source of support for TS’s.
So here is where the crux of the matter is. PZ John was his own worst enemy, and his despicable attitude and behavior created a rift within the FGC. Why? Because like it or, the FGC kinda needed PZ at the time, and there just wasn’t any other better alternative. Ranma was forced to choose between the lesser of evils. He either broke off from PZ and then had almost no where to turn for support for the TS’s, or he could try “put up” with the problems caused by PZ John’s personality, and keep the easy and readily available luxury of PZ’s support. Either way, it was a tough call for Ranma, and like I said, I don’t blame him one bit for choosing to go that route. TS may have died if he had chosen to go it on his own.
Many of the arguments and battles within the FGC over the years have all stemmed from this one cause. Who supported PZ, and who supported Ranma, etc… All I know is this… Ranma has always supported the FGC, and whatever he chose to do, he did because he thought it was the best route. I know this, because I know him. And those others who may have have seemed like they were supporting PZ… they were supporting Ranma and FGC… whether it was ultimately the right direction or not is besides the point. Their hearts were in the right place.
PZ has been gone for a while now, so like I said, it seems far enough in history where saying all of this now won’t be any kind of issue. And more importantly, sometimes the dust has to settle before everyone can see clearly again, and process what happened during the storm.
I thinks most of those old issues have probably already been squashed and resolved, but I just wanted to say this for the sake of posterity, and perhaps just to clear my chest.
As for now, it made me very happy to see that Javi and Ranma are now doing TS’s together again. Stopping by TS last year was a great thrill for me, even though I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked. The sites and the sounds were all far too familiar, even though most of the faces were new to me. Seeing a few old friends was really cool and I hope that I’ll get a chance to spend more time there next year. I only wish that I could still be one of the lucky guys that still gets to be part of the FGC after all these years.
I’m very jealous of you all… cause even though I don’t get to be around it much anymore… SF still runs through my veins, and everytime I have a quarter in my hands, I get the urge to get it on.
Peace fellas,
Cmutt
