Long opinion.
A big problem with the MKC ,imo, is that its current foundation is built on a console community rather than an arcade community. The result of this is a community that is almost entirely devoted to a single game/series/franchise (3d MK/MK9/IGAU) in the fg genre and little to nothing else besides other 3d games and very few non MK 2d games. Instead of making an attempt to crush Capcom players at their own game, MKC fights with itself, and argues over hypothetical game scenarios like what if REO played Primal Rage or Samurai Showdown 3--he would be so gdlk.
When arcades were still around, you would go in, get bodied in the game you liked (unless you were good), and then do one of three things: watch and learn, play something else, or take your ass home. Those were your only options. You didn't get to keep playing fgs if you were ass like you can do on a console. This is why Floe called Japanese arcades DBZ hyperbolic time chambers; that's because arcades( not just the ones in Japan) did, and most likely still do separate the wheat from the chaff. Watching and learning upped your skills, and it helped you make friends to get tips from or discuss strategy. Taking your ass home speaks for itself. Playing something else....
Back then, nearly everyone played multiple games in the arcade--at least they did in the arcades I frequented. You had to because you couldn't always play or be good at the game you were most interested in, and because fg players played fgs. Good MK players also played SF (and vice versa); Samurai Showdown; Fatal Fury; and KI (this is pre/early 3d era). This Sunnyvale Golfland, socal, norcal, stuff that is part of the fgc lore, where SF is the master of all fgs, and they only devote themselves to SF, doesn't seem like it was the norm anywhere else. It certainly was the norm prior to the release of MK1, but after MK1, no one in my arcade took SF seriously, due to the cartoon graphics (but it still got played, less so when the vs series of games were released. Either way, I still love SF just as much as MK).
Everywhere else, the norm seems to have been that most people played MK (the most popular arcade game), SF, and everything else. And, if you wanted to decide who was better in a game, you got on the sticks and played. There was no theorizing that because my game does x and yours does y, my game is superior and thus, I am most likely a stronger player than you are.
In contrast to the MKC fgc, the Capcom fgc still retains its roots to the original arcade fgc (Valle/Daigo), and the most recent arcade fgc, which was built around MVC2 and Thirdstrike (Wong, Floe, Yipes). Furthermore, the actual games themselves have stayed more true to their roots than the MK games have to theirs. When Valle plays 90's era games and AE, he's not having to split his skills, relearn things, or drastically change what he needs to do to in order to try to win; However, the same is not so for arcade MK players.
Maintaining continuity in a franchise leads to a more cohesive scene, and better skill in the community overall, because it keeps the arcade mentality alive, and constantly breeds new people with that mentality. But, playing for $$$ instead of personal pride is threatening to undo all of it. Shame.
Lastly, yeah, MK2 is old and mostly irrelevant, but the underlying fundamentals of the game, fundamentals that are also in SF2, AE, and KOF, are all in MK2: zoning, yomi, matchup knowledge, non universal normals, neutral jump attacks, frame traps, corner "rape", and lame style. MK2 is the closest MK game to a SF game that has ever existed. SF4 is MK2 with ex roman cancels, overheads, meters, dashing and a focus attack. SF4 is what MK2 would have evolved toward in a perfect world, and what MK9 is closest to being save for , universal attacks, full screen attacks, full screen unblockables, 3d hitboxes, and frame data that is more 3d fg than 2d.
Anyway, stop arguing, play some fgs, different fgs, and keep supporting and pushing NRS to deliver quality 2d fighters. MK fgc scene would dominate every 2d fighter if it only behaved like a 2d fighter, because MK already dominates every other fg financially.
