Aside from a couple of exceptions such as Geras, Johnny Cage, and Kenshi, there is no diversity to speak of. Mortal Kombat 1 has essentially inherited Mortal Kombat 11's strike/throw/low poke meta but without the gameplay mechanics that most players despised (i.e., breakaways, the wake up system, krushing blows, and flawless block attacks). The kameo characters, 85% of whom are useless at a competitive level, promote the string/special move to kameo attack meta, which is monotonous to play and watch. By contrast, Street Fighter 6's and Tekken 8's meta is far more complex and enjoyable, which is why more players choose to participate.
You can accept mediocrity by blaming the community and its players or you can hold the game and its developers accountable, respectfully and constructively so. Until you decide to do the former, Mortal Kombat, no matter the game, will remain a failure, competitively speaking.
You and Bill(and your various podcast audiences) have been, "holding the developers accountable" for years and yet you're not happy with tournament turnouts. Clearly, your strategy isn't as bulletproof as you seem to think.
I can't imagine what it must be like to be as wrong as you consistently are. There are plenty of examples of different kinds of archetypes and character playstyles. Anytime I mention them, you move the goal post to tier talk. Which isn't the same conversation.
It's funny that you think that the game is just string/special/kameo attack, because that's not what I saw at Final Kombat.
I saw a Sindel player using Cyrax to create looping set ups that I had never seen any character do with Cyrax before.
The Kitana player got lots of damage off whiff punishes and good spacing. Not just string/special/kameo.
If you didn't see the reads, neutral, whiff punishes, tight movement, and match up knowledge on display, then you're either not as knowledgeable on what high level play looks like as you think or you're just lying. I think it's the latter, personally.
Nowhere did I blame the community for the turn outs. I said they're higher now than they've been in the past and that NRS games have never been super popular.
Let me illustrate an example:
Injustice 2 and MKX. Two games from NRS that had a lot of money floating around in their peaks that played nothing like each other.
If it was solely a gameplay issue, surely one of them would have been the game to make NRS fighters one of the major players. If it was money, those two games had very respectable prize pools.
And yet, never did they pull Tekken or Street Fighter numbers. I just think that the vast majority of FGC players prefer certain types of games over others.
I personally don't care if we pull Tekken numbers. MK1 has weekly online events, it's at every major, it's going to be at EVO this year and will likely be at EVO next year.
I think obsessively comparing your scene to others is deeply insecure behavior. The fact of the matter is that as long as people are willing to compete for it - at majors, locals, online events, etc - the game isn't going anywhere.
