Have we entered the Dark Era of The FGC?

[NightwingDayZero]

As much as I used 2 love ki
And I still kinda like this new ki but I won't call it ki aswell
Nothing special in it

Only 6 characters
And on the surface all of them appear well balanced
A bit sf4 in theretoo
Which means the game features a nuetral game. What's so bad about this?
No finishing
Has nothing to do with the meat and potatoes gameplay
Yes that's not ki for me
I remember KI as well, but No Mercy combos and a larger character roster weren't what made it so entertaining

But its not bad its good

Killer Instinct has a neutral game that can't be gimmicked out. That's what I love most about it. It forces players to play honestly.

 

[Nathan Frost]

It seems to me that at this point people are being lured away from the fighting game genre to the MOBA and RTS games. Simply because these games have great support from the developers/publishers right from the gate, and are specifically made for a tournament environment along with great sponsors, and an instant audience due to the fact that most of those games are free to play from the get go.

I feel fighting game company's should start promoting tournaments as a marketing campaign to not only sell their games, but to also create awareness of the tournament scene. I personally did not know there was a FGC until Mortal Kombat 9 came out, and I have been playing fighters since sf2. I think that as soon as you pop open your game case there should be a sheet announcing tournaments for the year, or at the very least a message of the day in-game listing upcoming events, to really motivate people to come out and meet new people, compete, and just have a great time.

Until then though, I feel things are gonna drop a bit unless there is some sort of big draw toward the fighting game genre in my opinion.

 

[PLAYING TO WIN]

lol you should probably not have mentioned vxg...

vxg still has NOT paid out the winners... see chris g's twitter

 

[BDMao88]

Serious post...

Tournaments are ran very poorly. It's partly the organizers fault because they allow top players to come as late as they want or they allow people to sign in very late just so they can collect more money. The FGC has the most grimy people possible that will stay up all night, eat at a gas station without showering, and show up at a tournament 2 hours late without a care because that's the standard.

Pig remember when you made a post about the FGC being irresponsible like college students waiting until the last minute to sign up for classes? Yeah, this community lacks the consideration of others. So many people travel just as far as everyone else and make sure to arrive early while others just show up as if they are "fashionably" late.

Do you think people want to travel 4+ hours to arrive on time, and then have to wait several hours standing around before things start rolling???

On top of things people need to just let the tournament flow, people are there to compete...why do organizers feel the need to put the tournament on pause so everyone can watch a match/MO that only a handful of people care about?

Tournaments need to be ran very strict otherwise it's just a giant cesspool.

 

[TotteryManx]

The number of people who own KI are limited since the Xbone is sold out the majority of places. Not many people can even play it yet. I do think the FGC is in a slump for two reasons. The online play keeps improving and there isn't a SFV.

 

[Chakk dizzle]

I do not think this is across the board. Also USF4 is coming and that will certainly give it a jolt.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

'Real rap' though.. I think if you ask the guys like Valle and Shock that were going strong in the real Dark Age for fighting games, they'd probably want to slap you a bit for calling this a Dark Age. I think numbers will go up or down from year to year, but overall the FCG is going strong and there's plenty of room for it to expand as more people find out that it exists.

Twitch on consoles is probably one of the best developments for the FGC since SF4.

 

[Indecisive]

I think one of the reasons for decline is lack of new players coming into the scene. Locals dieing also is a problem. If i didnt have such a good time at the Break that one time then i would have never continued to play the game as much as i do.

 

[Glass Sword]

The problem is not the games really. It is a community issue. We are an informal group of people competing in informal events. There is just problems at all levels.
Heck in the southeast our regional tournaments can't schedule together. It's anarchy really we need some sort of leading organization that can get people to sit at the same table and at least talk to each other about scheduleing and do it instead of having three tournaments on the same day. It is quite obvious we can't wait on some official source to come down and create official tournaments with proper structures. We do have the blessing of some of the bigger companies at least. The poor Smash community will never be able to say that much.
Beyond that there is no sense of responsibility to the community. We all need to conduct ourselves as representatives. I'm not the best, but I try not to stir up trouble and bad mouth other fighting games. We should think about total numbers at tournaments just not particular games. We should support the 17 or so Guilty Gear players at regionals or majors as we do the 50 or so street fighter players. The only way we can become something legitamate is by coming together.
That means we need some way of keeping track of even small locals keeping of track of who plays and get the word out they are happening and people are having fun.

 

[RM Jonnitti]

all these problems are true but the biggest problem i feel is everyone saying "this game is going to die soon" or "this game is dead". everyones tired of playing sf4 and marvel and all they hear is that these other games are dead when there are still communities playing it.

 

[Protagonist_1]

Spoiler

Everything, no matter what it is has it's high and low points. The FGC had its big boom during 2008, you have to expect it to slow down somewhere. Although I wouldn't necessarily call it a "dark age". [\Spoiler]

 

[AcidGlow]

From my perspective since 2012 I've noticed the following:


Tournament money has been lowered

When was it ever big? Kappa

 

[HellblazerHawkman]

To be fair, when was the last solid release? KI came out a week ago and is console exclusive and the Injustice charm seems to have worn off now that the next gen is rolling out. I love UMVC3 and MK 9 and SF4, but they lose hype after a while (audience and "casual players" alike). Oh, ChrisG won Marvel? I'm shocked. Reo took Injustice? I'm so fucking shocked. If KI wasn't exclusive, it'd be hype as fuck

 

[HellblazerHawkman]

And to add to my point, look at the Fighting Game GOTY awards for the past few years. It's whatever Capcom rerelease in the running, followed by generic fighter A B or C, with an occasional newbie in there. What, this year we got Injustice, Killer Instinct, Girl Fight and Divekick?

 

[Mikemetroid]

The roman civilization just fell... we are now heading to the dark ages...

before you know it we will have a huge industrial revolution in which we will be playing top tier MLG circuits for everything... til then we have deal with the feudal system.

 

[AK Stormthegates]

FGC is about to go through the cycle it had when 3S came out. Oversaturation of fighting games caused the scene to be really jaded towards anything new. I don't think we hit the cycle again but I give it towards the end of Ultra for it to kick in.

Honestly what really causes this is the entire community on a whole be it Capcom, Tekken/Soul Calibur, Anime fighters(Which never really died it was just really quiet), and the 3rd parties. Esports is good for the scene though yet people, namely the capcom scene refuse to accept it, being incredibly biased towards the old Arcade Upbringing style.

 

[TylorJockin]

I believe this is just temporary.

We need some fresh games for the people to enjoy. As of right now its all the same games with not much diversity.

We do have KI coming, and perhaps itll just take awhile for people to hop on that game considering its next gen with a $500 price tag.
But eventually the whole "next gen" deal will settle and we'll have more games to play. One of those being Mk10

 

[Colonel-Gilgamesh]

From my perspective since 2012 I've noticed the following:

Tournament entrants for all games have been lowered

Tournament money has been lowered

A few yearly majors no longer exist (I believe 3)

Believe it or not stream numbers have lowered for all games in FGC

Is this just a temporary situation or are we in the middle of the beginning of something?

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or am I just taking crazy pills?

2 things.

1) We are spoiled. We have a crap ton of viable games to play nowadays. Melee, Injustice, KI, Brawl(And it's mods), SFIV, Marvel, Skullgirls, Persona, TTT2, KOF, MK9(?) and the myriad of anime fighters that I have no idea how to spell. This is just the stuff I see streamed from Next Level and WNF. We have so much to watch and enjoy that we're becoming adjusted to it. This goes for streaming too. I used to dash to my couch when I started watching the streams, now I only tune in every once in a while. We simply are simply oversaturated. Too many games, too many streams, too many majors

2) This one is more of an opinion, but I believe that the decline in tournament stuff may be because of a decrease in contenders, as in I hear all the time about people dropping this game or that game, or the whole FGC. I can't cite anything specific, but it could be we are just losing some of our hardcore players to IRL. I know I am overexaggerating but this might tie in with lower tournament numbers and tournament pots: less people willing to travel.

 

[shaowebb]

• Theres only so much enjoyment to be had when you keep playing Street Fighter for a decade.
• Injustice doesn't really promote strong rushdown in comparison to other games so it alienates fans of certain gameflows.
• King of Fighters XIII while the best out IMO is way to damn execution heavy to draw newcomers.
• People who dont care for anime wont even try Blazblue, Arcana Heart, Aquapazza, Under Night in Birth, or P4A.
• Skullgirls while great is divisive with players due to its cartoonish style and limited roster (folks admit its good but they never stick with it because the silly wears thin for them apparently.)
• MK9 and Marvel have both reached points where the tier list is so heavily drawn that folks get bored going to tournies and watching its streams.
• Tekken Tag is amazing but its combat is slower and less flashy even if its deep and the same can largely be said for DOAU5.
• Soul Calibur V has a lot of complaints in its roster even from its players so its hard to draw folks into its scene. Also Ringout victories dont thrill some folks.
• Virtual Fighter 5 is great, its deep, and again see Tekken Tag for why its not high on players...folks just dont find it exciting to watch.

Honestly I think what is needed at this point is a tag based game that emphasizes rushdown with approachable execution (another vs or whatever from Capcom would work) alongside of a proper sequel to both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat to pull things out of this.

 

[M2Dave]

• Injustice doesn't really promote strong rushdown in comparison to other games so it alienates fans of certain gameflows.

You are a fool.

 

[testyourpatience]

it will probably get worse when evo goes to xbox one.

 

[Eji1700]

I think dark age is a strong term for a slump, and I think the next big step for the FGC is getting better online support. If we can start having legit monthly online tournaments it would do wonders to bring in a larger playerbase

 

[Sasarix]

"Dark Ages"...... thats a joke right. Why anyone would expect KI to have a good turnout for NEC is beyond me unless you think the Xbone fairy came down and brought everyone that wanted one a system. Wait till after the holidays and tax time when most ppl will have the money to fork out for a new system then the numbers for KI will matter till then it's no point expecting it to have a really high turnout. I think things will start looking up after Ultra SF IV comes out cause I mean let's be serious Marvel and SF carry the FGC tournament scene on their backs anyway.

 

[Relaxedstate]

Yes.
This is why:

MvC3 and SF4 brought a revival of modern fighters. Those games are now getting very old and people are getting bored. 75% of the FGC is people that play those 2 games. When they die, it will be very dark times indeed. It will be better than MK4 days, for sure since our community is stronger because of MK9. But overall, unless those capcom players find a new love in the next generation, it's all downhill until SF5 or MvC4 (USF4 doesn't count and those games could be a decade away). EVO and many majors would cease to exist (and will unless they find a replacement game) if SF4 and MvC3 didn't exist. People simply won't play these games forever. Something will eventually have to replace them, and so far, nothing has really impressed the community as a whole.

Here is hoping that MK10 on next gen will be the guiding light that reinvigoates the community as a whole. It'd be awesome of it was that game that everyone picked up and played.

KI has potential, but I'll give it 6 months first. Injustice, SFxT, and TTT2 obviously did not get the world turning just yet. Animes fighters will always be played in the dark (never mainstream). Just really depends on if developes make something that FG players can click with.

 

[Chuckychuck]

From my perspective since 2012 I've noticed the following:

Tournament entrants for all games have been lowered

Tournament money has been lowered

A few yearly majors no longer exist (I believe 3)

Believe it or not stream numbers have lowered for all games in FGC

Is this just a temporary situation or are we in the middle of the beginning of something?

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or am I just taking crazy pills?

I think the main issue is gaming is an online thing and the FGC still lives in the offline mindset.