Alright. It's time to bury this hatchet once and for all. After seeing discussion after discussion in thread after thread, it's time to get down to real talk about a few issues. If you want to sort them out, please do it here so that we don't have to have this same conversation in every single thread.
I realize that we have new members of the community, along with people coming back who haven't been as active, and various other people who don't know the entire story. So I want to take a trip down memory lane and also get us ready for the future.
Some points I wanted to make:
1) MK9 died of natural causes. The writing was on the wall long before Injustice was even a complete product. The reasons are the things which players complained about for months, begged Ed for patches for ("the last patch"), fought about, and left the community over.
This doesn't mean that MK9 wasn't a good game or wasn't exciting (I personally really loved it, and I still do). But after the golden period when MLG was new and everything was exciting, and the fun of EVO 2012, our forum here was full of nonstop complaining, fearmongering, worry over the state of the game and its future. There were a lot of futile efforts to beg for one last bit of love to keep the game alive. A lot of people quit the game, quit going to to tournaments etc. because they were fed up with the way things turned out. There was endless discussion of Kabal, inescapable resets, OP zoning, etc.
Luckily, MK9 was announced for a 3rd year at EVO -- and because our tournament scene is so swayed by what happens with EVO selection, that gave us just enough of a shot of energy to make it to EVO 2013. But if you weren't here, don't be confused; we had our struggles and the people who stayed with the game definitely weathered the storm. Hearing Ed talk at UFGT, it's clear that he is well aware of what happend, and hopefully he won't let MKX go down the same path.
2) If the tournament community eventually moves on from Injustice, it will also happen naturally. While I'm all for encouraging people to support all the games in our scene, if IGAU develops similar problems to MK9, it will fall by the wayside for the very same reasons.
As of now, we've been lucky, and with a bit of help from Paulo and crew, the game is in a better state balance-wise than MK9 was in June 2012. But there are still some threats on the horizon (like MMH), and while you often hear admonishments against making complaints, know that much the same things will happen to IGAU should MMH or other characters reach some kind of breakaway dominance over the Injustice tournament scene.
Because of this, I encourage people to really think carefully before they try to stop others from talking about any real issues the game has. If it comes down to it, the chance of a hotfix might one day be the difference between saving the Injustice scene and having people drop the game en masse for other pursuits. "Just deal with it" isn't always effective when there's a brand new game on the horizon like MKX.
3) MKX will be judged on its own merit. Don't expect it to magically solve all of the community's problems, re-unite players who refuse to work together, or put an end to any sort of complaining. Moreover, MKX will be held to a higher standard than any of the previous games. Expect people to be highly critical and vocal about what they don't like.
Personally, I have really high hopes for this game, and I think that it's in good hands. But to everyone, this isn't the time to be complacent -- if we want our community to shine, we need to WORK for it. Stop thinking that MKX is going to give us magical tournament numbers and powers forever, and start working to expand your scene and bring more people into it. Think about what you can do to help reach people who've never thought about playing competitive MK before.
We will have to fight through some of the same issues and struggle with some of the same struggles we had before. If we don't come together with a strong voice, we will eventually be thrown into ballroom corners, denied stream time and treated as a second-tier stepchild of the FGC. I ask you to join me in refusing to let this happen.
----------
The moral of the story is, if we are going to really be everything we can be as a community, it starts here; with us. We need to put aside some of the petty stuff, drop some of these divisions we've had over ego and start remembering what it means to be a true community. We need to work together to keep spreading the word and never feel like a new game will do all of the work for us.
I have a lot of things planned; but I need your help to make them happen, and each one of you has a part to play. Let's be remembered by how strong we were together and not by how we fall apart when the going gets rough. Let's be remembered for the way we support each other and not for the way we bash each other on Twitter.
I'd love to see us become more self-sufficient (Smash is a great example), but no one is going to hand that to us; we have to work for it. And it's not going to happen if people are busy tearing each other down because of where they live in the USA or the fact that they play The Other Game.
So please.. Think about the future -- let's build it together. Let's be more cohesive, more unified, more organized, and smarter than we've ever been. What's coming next is ours for the taking. Do not wait for April 2015; START TODAY.
TLDR I know; but the short of it is, I love you guys, I love these games, love this community, and I think it'd be awesome if we can be the best we can be.
@CD jr @Tom Brady @EMPEROR_THEO @FOREVER KING @GGA 16 Bit @GGA Dizzy
I realize that we have new members of the community, along with people coming back who haven't been as active, and various other people who don't know the entire story. So I want to take a trip down memory lane and also get us ready for the future.
Some points I wanted to make:
1) MK9 died of natural causes. The writing was on the wall long before Injustice was even a complete product. The reasons are the things which players complained about for months, begged Ed for patches for ("the last patch"), fought about, and left the community over.
This doesn't mean that MK9 wasn't a good game or wasn't exciting (I personally really loved it, and I still do). But after the golden period when MLG was new and everything was exciting, and the fun of EVO 2012, our forum here was full of nonstop complaining, fearmongering, worry over the state of the game and its future. There were a lot of futile efforts to beg for one last bit of love to keep the game alive. A lot of people quit the game, quit going to to tournaments etc. because they were fed up with the way things turned out. There was endless discussion of Kabal, inescapable resets, OP zoning, etc.
Luckily, MK9 was announced for a 3rd year at EVO -- and because our tournament scene is so swayed by what happens with EVO selection, that gave us just enough of a shot of energy to make it to EVO 2013. But if you weren't here, don't be confused; we had our struggles and the people who stayed with the game definitely weathered the storm. Hearing Ed talk at UFGT, it's clear that he is well aware of what happend, and hopefully he won't let MKX go down the same path.
2) If the tournament community eventually moves on from Injustice, it will also happen naturally. While I'm all for encouraging people to support all the games in our scene, if IGAU develops similar problems to MK9, it will fall by the wayside for the very same reasons.
As of now, we've been lucky, and with a bit of help from Paulo and crew, the game is in a better state balance-wise than MK9 was in June 2012. But there are still some threats on the horizon (like MMH), and while you often hear admonishments against making complaints, know that much the same things will happen to IGAU should MMH or other characters reach some kind of breakaway dominance over the Injustice tournament scene.
Because of this, I encourage people to really think carefully before they try to stop others from talking about any real issues the game has. If it comes down to it, the chance of a hotfix might one day be the difference between saving the Injustice scene and having people drop the game en masse for other pursuits. "Just deal with it" isn't always effective when there's a brand new game on the horizon like MKX.
3) MKX will be judged on its own merit. Don't expect it to magically solve all of the community's problems, re-unite players who refuse to work together, or put an end to any sort of complaining. Moreover, MKX will be held to a higher standard than any of the previous games. Expect people to be highly critical and vocal about what they don't like.
Personally, I have really high hopes for this game, and I think that it's in good hands. But to everyone, this isn't the time to be complacent -- if we want our community to shine, we need to WORK for it. Stop thinking that MKX is going to give us magical tournament numbers and powers forever, and start working to expand your scene and bring more people into it. Think about what you can do to help reach people who've never thought about playing competitive MK before.
We will have to fight through some of the same issues and struggle with some of the same struggles we had before. If we don't come together with a strong voice, we will eventually be thrown into ballroom corners, denied stream time and treated as a second-tier stepchild of the FGC. I ask you to join me in refusing to let this happen.
----------
The moral of the story is, if we are going to really be everything we can be as a community, it starts here; with us. We need to put aside some of the petty stuff, drop some of these divisions we've had over ego and start remembering what it means to be a true community. We need to work together to keep spreading the word and never feel like a new game will do all of the work for us.
I have a lot of things planned; but I need your help to make them happen, and each one of you has a part to play. Let's be remembered by how strong we were together and not by how we fall apart when the going gets rough. Let's be remembered for the way we support each other and not for the way we bash each other on Twitter.
I'd love to see us become more self-sufficient (Smash is a great example), but no one is going to hand that to us; we have to work for it. And it's not going to happen if people are busy tearing each other down because of where they live in the USA or the fact that they play The Other Game.
So please.. Think about the future -- let's build it together. Let's be more cohesive, more unified, more organized, and smarter than we've ever been. What's coming next is ours for the taking. Do not wait for April 2015; START TODAY.
TLDR I know; but the short of it is, I love you guys, I love these games, love this community, and I think it'd be awesome if we can be the best we can be.
@CD jr @Tom Brady @EMPEROR_THEO @FOREVER KING @GGA 16 Bit @GGA Dizzy
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