Kustom Variation Math: Refuting Popular Claims

[Xelz]

The point that I was making about MK9 was that we actually don't have that mentality any longer. And that it's actually far more rare nowdays in the FGC as a whole. People on the whole have become far more entitled than they used to be.

In the mid 2000s you were happy just to have a game. There was no guarantee of continued support, balance, or anything like that. The plus side is that developers are now communicating more than they ever have, and supporting games more than they ever have. The downside is that it leads to people using their opinion of developer support as an excuse to conditionally support their community.

Aside from that, I don't think you can ignore the boosters these games have. Like, even if Fighting EX Layer is super fun to play, it's just never going to become a Marvel or a Smash Bros. Fun is a necessary ingredient, but most of these games become huge and stayed huge because of the companies and communities that back them.

There are various other games that are super fun to play, and will never break 1000 players at a tournament because they're not aligned with the big-name scenes.

I generally agree with everything you said here, but I have a different interpretation. Every genre is dealing with more “entitled” customers, yet many are thriving.

And I’m not sure “entitled” is the right term, rather consumers have learned to think more critically about their purchases. It reminds me of the time my Italian cousin visited me back in the early 2000's and kept talking about how American consumers just accepted whatever was being sold at face value. Meanwhile, I drove her to four different grocery stores to find a bag of flour she could be satisfied buying.

The new consumer culture feels more and more like my cousin these days, and not just when it comes to video games, but also beer, spirits, groceries, table top games, etc.

Anyway, to bring it back on topic, developers need to recognize that buyer expectations are shifting (as they always have) and learn to adapt. The old fighting game model could get outdated quickly and replaced by whoever innovates first, the way that LoL rendered the traditional RTS genre obsolete. Custom loadouts feel like a logical step that would move the FGC forward.