I Don't Understand

[ToxiCrow]

So I've seen a lot of complaints in various forums from here to reddit and the steam discussions(don't go there) about a few topics and I don't fully understand the problems a lot of people have.

1: Female Designs
The females in this game are in my opinion the best looking they have ever been. Kitana actually looks like a fighter and not a stripper. Sheeva looks like a badass warrior queen instead of a stripper and I really hope she is in Kombat Pack 1 but I have avoided spoilers for it as best I can. The designs here are vast improvements to how these characters looked in MK9 and earlier. They feel like they actually have personality that is expressed by how they look on top of how they act. Again this is a matter of opinion but I just don't get why all the hate. Also I don't hate strippers or anything I just don't like that design for a fighter. Maybe Mileena is ok since it reflects insecurities she could have with her face so it is used to draw attention away.

2: The Story WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

Spoiler

So the biggest thing I've seen in hate with the story is Kitana taking out Shao and Jacqui beating Cetrion. For Kitana I would like to think it is because it wasn't just her. Shao had been fighting Kotal when she entered and finished the fight plus she probably had a surge of rage due to his comments about her and her mother and father. I think her beating him is both believable and how it should have gone down. As for Jacqui she was wearing a magical maguffin that gave her the power needed. She was on par because she had the power of the soul well behind her. Shinnok was an elder god too and was taken out by a human who had bloodline powers so this isn't that big of a stretch.

3: The $6440 Thing
So someone did the math and if you bought all the outfits and whatnot from the time store it would cost $6440. I can understand that as it would be simple math but there are a few big problems. Only 5 items appear, they change only every 24 hours, and some items will not appear there. Taking those into account makes the $6440 thing seem more like click-bait as the time it would take far exceeds the cost. With that in mind I don't fully get why people use it to argue when it's honestly a moot point in that sense.

So those are the things I don't fully understand. I get that the first is opinion and I don't fault anyone for having a preference. Perhaps someone can help me fully get why these are so used as the big points of hate.

 

[Swindle]

I agree with you. The game has a couple of problems, but these aren’t them.
Aside from a few nit pick gripes, I really enjoyed the story mode, and feel it is the best story they’ve done as far as giving the characters real personality and drive.
Wasn’t too keen on Kronika as a villain, but just like most of the Superhero movies, it’s more about the characters journey than the big bad.

 

[mn_tercercine]

the mk reddit and steam communities are dumpster fires.

New game comes out and there's 0 discussion about combos/strategy. It's all whining about unlocking cosmetics and ronda rousey.

I'm not trying to sound "gatekeepy" but these people likely aren't from the FGC and they will taper off away from the game.

 

[Vslayer]

From a psychological point of view, here is what's happening: people are tired of politics in games, and that's fine, but now they're ONLY focusing on that, hence they're focusing on the negatives for them. So they purposefully, without maybe realizing it, not letting themselves enjoy what they want to enjoy just for things that in the end, doesn't even matter or change the gameplay or the story. Essentially, they're saying other people are taking the enjoyment from this game, and other games, away from them, when they are themselves the biggest culprit.

I know this because I've seen this behavior in myself and I am working hard to get away from that mentality. There comes a time in our lives where we have to grow out of negativity and stop trying to let everyone else tell us what to like and not like just because of a few insignificant details.

I've had people tell me "You should spend your money elsewhere," when referring to MK11. Or straight up saying my opinion sucks, even though it's my personal opinion. Isn't that extremely arrogant to say to someone? Yeah, and it's also childish, which is why people need to grow out of that selfish mentality, become mature adults. But instead of seeing that, and fixing it, they are swirling in a sea of negativity and letting it ruin their own lives.

 

[mikeraskol]

The way people talk you'd think this is a loot collecting game and not a fucking fighting game. I'm in the lab working on my Cassie and Kitana right now - the core gameplay is so damn good and nobody appears to be talking about that.

 

[MalevolentFix]

From a psychological point of view, here is what's happening: people are tired of politics in games, and that's fine, but now they're ONLY focusing on that, hence they're focusing on the negatives for them. So they purposefully, without maybe realizing it, not letting themselves enjoy what they want to enjoy just for things that in the end, doesn't even matter or change the gameplay or the story. Essentially, they're saying other people are taking the enjoyment from this game, and other games, away from them, when they are themselves the biggest culprit.

I know this because I've seen this behavior in myself and I am working hard to get away from that mentality. There comes a time in our lives where we have to grow out of negativity and stop trying to let everyone else tell us what to like and not like just because of a few insignificant details.

I've had people tell me "You should spend your money elsewhere," when referring to MK11. Or straight up saying my opinion sucks, even though it's my personal opinion. Isn't that extremely arrogant to say to someone? Yeah, and it's also childish, which is why people need to grow out of that selfish mentality, become mature adults. But instead of seeing that, and fixing it, they are swirling in a sea of negativity and letting it ruin their own lives.

 

[Alex95]

That's right bro u don't understand

 

[NothingPersonal]

1. As you said, it's your opinion. There's nothing wrong with that. But many people have expectations from a 25 year franchise, and when it doesn't deliver fans riot. And it is their opinion and taste they are accustomed to. It's every fan's right.
2. I agree with you. Plot holes are plot holes it's on the writers end to make things clear. Kitana should've never be nearly as strong as an Emperor who conquered worlds. I'm pretty sure Shao Kahn won over way more powerful opponents than a princess. But meh. They could've just make kotal kill Shao, get crippled in the process and give away his throne to Kitana.
3. I personally have no problem with this. It could cost 1mln I wouldn't care. Except the issue is it'll take a lot more time to unlock all this content without paying, which people can not afford, but it is in the game. Also the problem is the devs are willing to give all this content away, but they make it very difficult without paying. A lot of people said they'd gladly pay for the unlockable content. So imagine when they found out this price. Maximillian said he'd gladly pay 20-30$ to unlock all the Krypt items. Little did he know

 

[mikeraskol]

1. Kitana should've never be nearly as strong as an Emperor who conquered worlds. I'm pretty sure Shao Kahn won over way more powerful opponents than a princess. But meh.

Why? She's a 10,000 year old Edenian princess who's spent a significant chunk of that time training to be the best assassin possible. Shao Khan is basically just the same - a powerful fighter who knows some magic from being alive for a long time. But it's not like he conquered realms solo, he's just the leader. Hell, Goro won most of those tournaments. Shao Khan can and does die just like every other good fighter in this game does.

This is some nitpicky stuff.

 

[NothingPersonal]

From a psychological point of view, here is what's happening: people are tired of politics in games, and that's fine, but now they're ONLY focusing on that, hence they're focusing on the negatives for them. So they purposefully, without maybe realizing it, not letting themselves enjoy what they want to enjoy just for things that in the end, doesn't even matter or change the gameplay or the story. Essentially, they're saying other people are taking the enjoyment from this game, and other games, away from them, when they are themselves the biggest culprit.

I know this because I've seen this behavior in myself and I am working hard to get away from that mentality. There comes a time in our lives where we have to grow out of negativity and stop trying to let everyone else tell us what to like and not like just because of a few insignificant details.

I've had people tell me "You should spend your money elsewhere," when referring to MK11. Or straight up saying my opinion sucks, even though it's my personal opinion. Isn't that extremely arrogant to say to someone? Yeah, and it's also childish, which is why people need to grow out of that selfish mentality, become mature adults. But instead of seeing that, and fixing it, they are swirling in a sea of negativity and letting it ruin their own lives.

Because politics always ruins everything

 

[VSC_Supreme]

I agree with you as I don't understand why people hate these things either. The female designs are fantastic, and the women are also incredibly good looking, them not have incredibly revealing outfits doesn't take away from that.

I though the story was great, the character motivations felt more clear and a lot of the dialogue made sense and brought attention to things that typically wouldn't be acknowledged in previous stories.

Spoiler: Story spoiler

And the part you mentioned about Kitana kill Shao i think was fine in story as well. Maybe a bit more detail should have been given that showed Shao weakened by Kotal. But this Shao was cocky MK2 shao, and we already know Shao conquered most realms through devious tactics and over bearing war. Also Kitana was raised by Shao and at his side for 10,000 years, if anyone would know his weaknesses and how to kill him, it would be her.

What I don't understand is how the game is fun and feels great to play, but people are hung up on their own personal bias and agenda that they completely ignore it.

 

[DDutchguy]

On female character designs being hated:

Again this is a matter of opinion but I just don't get why all the hate.

For some people it comes down to two things:

1. They enjoy having sexy character designs and the silliness that comes with it. Mortal Kombat has always been a franchise of excess violence so the excessively sexy designs fit with that.
2. They dislike the double standard that comes from a number of male characters exposing a lot of skin (Liu Kang, Kano, Kotal Kahn) with most if not all female character designs not coming close to this amount of skin exposure.
3. They feel like NRS only did it for people to give them props on not having overly sexualised designs.

I disagree with all of these but can still see where people come from. The bottom line to me seems to be that most people just like sexy character designs because they're attractive and do not objectify women by doing so. They just like these designs. MK11 female character designs to me still seem pretty sexy though sonthere's some discussion to be had here as to why some dislike the MK11 designs specifically.


The $6640 thing:

Only 5 items appear, they change only every 24 hours, and some items will not appear there. Taking those into account makes the $6440 thing seem more like click-bait as the time it would take far exceeds the cost. With that in mind I don't fully get why people use it to argue when it's honestly a moot point in that sense.

I think for a lot of people it's the principle. Companies wish to make profit and therefore want you to buy whatever they're selling, which in this case is $6640 on microtransactions. How realistic this is is debatable.

 

[Clark L.]

I like strippers more than sjw’s.

Also biggest complaint should be this fucked up variation system. I shouldn’t need a YouTube guide to know how to pick my character.

 

[NothingPersonal]

Why? She's a 10,000 year old Edenian princess who's spent a significant chunk of that time training to be the best assassin possible. Shao Khan is basically just the same - a powerful fighter who knows some magic from being alive for a long time. But it's not like he conquered realms solo, he's just the leader. Hell, Goro won most of those tournaments. Shao Khan can and does die just like every other good fighter in this game does.

This is some nitpicky stuff.

Shao Kahn is not "just a powerful fighter who knows some magic", he is an emperor. No one becomes emperor just for being some guy. I'm pretty sure he'd have to beat a lot of people through the eons to maintain his place. Kitana wouldn't compete with that imo.

 

[Syd Barrett Lives]

1. I agree completely. Personally I don't care that much about how much skin characters in a video game shows so I'm fine with it. I think it has become more of a political discussion about the "woke" influence over media than a problem in itself and that frankly doesn't interest me not one bit. I'm italian, there's not even a "woke" or "SJW" culture here so guess how much I care about this discussion. It's an artistic choice, characters look cool, no problem with me.

2. There's a lot to discuss about the story and there's topics about that. I honestly think it's a mess of plotholes, rectons and stuff that doesn't make sense.

3. That is just a number, maybe it's wrong and it's less but it's the principle that's wrong. Buying a fighting game (not even a looter shooter) marketed heavily on customization and finding out that it's a mess of various currencies, insane grinding, RNG mechanics all designed to push microtransactions is bound to raise criticism. It's obvious that some will say "well, it's optional" as usual, but most gamers are tired of this bullshit pratices in every game, especially a series we love so much as MK.

 

[mikeraskol]

I didn't say he's "some guy." He's a powerful person and a very strong fighter. But so is Kitana - again, you know, the 10,000 year old Edenian princess assassin.

Liu Kang beat Shao Khan, why is it so difficult to process that Kitana could?

 

[ZeroSymbolic]

The girls faces are a lot better and more expressive without a doubt but the body shapes are very samey, I agree with you about Sheeva she looks amazing and I wanted her before the game came out. The Gear thing doesn’t bother me because I am competitive 100%. The fact that the default variations are not the tournament variations is my biggest gripe by far.

 

[NothingPersonal]

I didn't buy it.

 

[lionheart21]

When it comes to the female character designs being hated, my initial (and current) mindset hears it as: "How dare they turn down the sexuality in my murder game?"

Seriously, there are way better and more constructive things to complain about than how much skin is being shown in a video game. I wish I had that much time in my life to complain about such minute and trivial things. I've barely even been able to play this game due to my schedule.

 

[LeAntMan]

So I've seen a lot of complaints in various forums from here to reddit and the steam discussions(don't go there) about a few topics and I don't fully understand the problems a lot of people have.

1: Female Designs
The females in this game are in my opinion the best looking they have ever been. Kitana actually looks like a fighter and not a stripper. Sheeva looks like a badass warrior queen instead of a stripper and I really hope she is in Kombat Pack 1 but I have avoided spoilers for it as best I can. The designs here are vast improvements to how these characters looked in MK9 and earlier. They feel like they actually have personality that is expressed by how they look on top of how they act. Again this is a matter of opinion but I just don't get why all the hate. Also I don't hate strippers or anything I just don't like that design for a fighter. Maybe Mileena is ok since it reflects insecurities she could have with her face so it is used to draw attention away.

2: The Story WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

Spoiler

So the biggest thing I've seen in hate with the story is Kitana taking out Shao and Jacqui beating Cetrion. For Kitana I would like to think it is because it wasn't just her. Shao had been fighting Kotal when she entered and finished the fight plus she probably had a surge of rage due to his comments about her and her mother and father. I think her beating him is both believable and how it should have gone down. As for Jacqui she was wearing a magical maguffin that gave her the power needed. She was on par because she had the power of the soul well behind her. Shinnok was an elder god too and was taken out by a human who had bloodline powers so this isn't that big of a stretch.

3: The $6440 Thing
So someone did the math and if you bought all the outfits and whatnot from the time store it would cost $6440. I can understand that as it would be simple math but there are a few big problems. Only 5 items appear, they change only every 24 hours, and some items will not appear there. Taking those into account makes the $6440 thing seem more like click-bait as the time it would take far exceeds the cost. With that in mind I don't fully get why people use it to argue when it's honestly a moot point in that sense.

So those are the things I don't fully understand. I get that the first is opinion and I don't fault anyone for having a preference. Perhaps someone can help me fully get why these are so used as the big points of hate.

1. This is purely subjective. Me, personally, I don't dislike the female designs. I dislike the majority of all character designs in this game. Even though the original MK games used real humans for the designs, the props and costumes gave them a comic book-esque feel. MK9's art style also had that comic book-like design for characters that I much prefer over the photo-realism in MK11. But again, that's just me. Others might prefer the art style of this game.

The one female design that sticks out and bothers me a lot is Kitana. Since the 3D games, she's always appeared like a middle eastern, hispanic mix (which Jade is in this game, btw), but all of a sudden she's Chinese now? Imagine if they revealed Jax to be a white guy. This is beyond jarring.

2. I haven't finished the story, so I can't comment yet.

3. Case in point, no game that you pay full price for should have a monetization model like this. It's disgusting. If I pay full price, I expect to be able to unlock all in-game content with reasonable difficulty and without a grind that's blatantly designed to encourage you to spend money. Forget $6440. I shouldn't be expected to pay an extra $10 unless it's for additional content not already in the game. These guys are so scummy, they have an option to buy Frost in the store without warning players that you can unlock her by playing a bit of the story. wtf is that?

 

[JBeezYBabY]

People fail to realize ITS ONLY BEEN 2 FUCKING DAYS!! But people love to get outraged by the negative instead of looking at the BIG positives.

This is the best fucking netcode in ANY fighting game currently out now. I'm a major online player that played damn near all of the FGs so this is HUGE that this company got something all of the other devs could not do. Which is have Godlike, almost lil to no lag matches.

Female design, i get it. Less tits. Less skin. But thats not a big deal at all considering these faces are THE BEST models of ANY MK game. People who are outraged by female characters showing less skin and small tits are exposing themselves as virgn weeb pervs. Now I know what you really do playing these games. Thanks....

The Krypt, i dont think this is much of the issue. Its more of the Towers Of Time grind than anything that effects your experience with the Krypt. Its clear NRS wanted people to have an incentive to play this game for a very long time, but making Towers unfun is an issue thats been addressed.

Give it time to let this game marinate and have faith they will do right.