Let's Get REAL! Current State of FGC.

[JBeezYBabY]

A topic of discussion ladies and gentlemen!

Being here for a short amount of time, I've been getting very mixed reactions of the current state of the community. I've seen some dislike the fact of what this scene has become, and others see no issue with it. What are you thoughts on this scene in general. The people, pricing of video games, commercialization, etc.. Granted, this is NOT a platform for blatant bashing by any means, but let's have an honest discussion.

How do you feel about the current state of the FGC and why ?Question mark?

 

[EntropicByDesign]

Hmm.

I think the current state is.. incredible.

If you look at things objectively I don't know what other conclusions you can draw. Now, there's always going to be an old guard, the "back in my day" crowd that will lament the way things used to be and swear themselves cross-eyed that it's only ever gone down hill, having peaked at some hazy point in the distant past. They usually have a few good points, but on the whole? The FGC is thriving in ways it never dreamt of before.

Look at the FGC at it's most basic, the pillar of what it actually is.. a Fighting Game Community. The internet, forums, Discord, YouTube, Twitch, etc have made the community aspect world-wide, instantaneous and available to people it never would have been available to otherwise. The simple ability to communicate like that means j can discuss character specifics with a guy from Uganda and Scotland at the same time, in real time, any time. It means opinions - gold, pyrite or literal excrement - can move across the globe and effect discussion and generate feedback at practically light speed. The FGC has moved away from being hyper-concentrated pockets around a few keys places (No/SoCal, NY, etc) and become global.

It's global width and breadth isn't without some issue though. It's now super easy to be an asshole. People can unanimously run thier mouths and troll and cause trouble without the usual check that communities tend to have for that sort of thing - which is a swift smack in the mouth - but that's up to us as the FGC to stop tolerating and start inter-policing.more aggressively. I think the internet/global communities and communications are going to have to become more aggressively non-tolerant of trolls and filth as a whole actually, and this really weird "oh he's just a troll it's online bro" mentality needs some looking in to. I know the internet at large has a vested interest in maintaining a consequence free environment, so they can keep on showing how pathetic our race can be without any risk, but it's ballooning in to a huge issue across dozens of platforms and it's a bad look for any number of communities across the world, certainly not just the FGC

TIRED OF TYPING END PART ONE

 

[JBeezYBabY]

Hmm.

I think the current state is.. incredible.

If you look at things objectively I don't know what other conclusions you can draw. Now, there's always going to be an old guard, the "back in my day" crowd that will lament the way things used to be and swear themselves cross-eyed that it's only ever gone down hill, having peaked at some hazy point in the distant past. They usually have a few good points, but on the whole? The FGC is thriving in ways it never dreamt of before.

Look at the FGC at it's most basic, the pillar of what it actually is.. a Fighting Game Community. The internet, forums, Discord, YouTube, Twitch, etc have made the community aspect world-wide, instantaneous and available to people it never would have been available to otherwise. The simple ability to communicate like that means j can discuss character specifics with a guy from Uganda and Scotland at the same time, in real time, any time. It means opinions - gold, pyrite or literal excrement - can move across the globe and effect discussion and generate feedback at practically light speed. The FGC has moved away from being hyper-concentrated pockets around a few keys places (No/SoCal, NY, etc) and become global.

It's global width and breadth isn't without some issue though. It's now super easy to be an asshole. People can unanimously run thier mouths and troll and cause trouble without the usual check that communities tend to have for that sort of thing - which is a swift smack in the mouth - but that's up to us as the FGC to stop tolerating and start inter-policing.more aggressively. I think the internet/global communities and communications are going to have to become more aggressively non-tolerant of trolls and filth as a whole actually, and this really weird "oh he's just a troll it's online bro" mentality needs some looking in to. I know the internet at large has a vested interest in maintaining a consequence free environment, so they can keep on showing how pathetic our race can be without any risk, but it's ballooning in to a huge issue across dozens of platforms and it's a bad look for any number of communities across the world, certainly not just the FGC

TIRED OF TYPING END PART ONE

Beautifully said, sir

 

[Juggs]

As far as eSports is concerned, I agree with every single thing @Pig Of The Hut has said. It could be so much bigger than it is with proper planning and execution. Even VERY SMALL things like a tournament tracker IN GAME that comes up to notify players of upcoming tournaments.

As far as our community, we keep getting stronger but we need more exposure. Only getting 10k views or so on our biggest tournaments is a big problem and isn't sustainable. And that ties in with NRS promoting the events. They also need a better social media presence in regards to tournaments. I believe they need to hire someone to run their social media on the tournament side, such as KP or DMS or someone who can help promote these events.

The best part is that NRS is treating us well as far as pot bonuses are concerned. We get way more money in our prize pool than we deserve, and most players take that for granted. There definitely is a large sense of entitlement that plagues our scene.

 

[JBeezYBabY]

As far as eSports is concerned, I agree with every single thing @Pig Of The Hut has said. It could be so much bigger than it is with proper planning and execution. Even VERY SMALL things like a tournament tracker IN GAME that comes up to notify players of upcoming tournaments.

As far as our community, we keep getting stronger but we need more exposure. Only getting 10k views or so on our biggest tournaments is a big problem and isn't sustainable. And that ties in with NRS promoting the events. They also need a better social media presence in regards to tournaments. I believe they need to hire someone to run their social media on the tournament side, such as KP or DMS or someone who can help promote these events.

The best part is that NRS is treating us well as far as pot bonuses are concerned. We get way more money in our prize pool than we deserve, and most players take that for granted. There definitely is a large sense of entitlement that plagues our scene.

So a bit more of commercialization would most definitely help. I mean, I've played video games ALL my life and I'm just NOW seeing how the FGC scene. Hell, I didn't even know there was a FGC scene.

 

[Linkuei82]

I haven't seen a boom of fighting games coming out of the woodworks since the early to mid 90's. So I think the good in that aspect for the FGC. I do agree with Pig that the overall esport side could be much bigger if they promote more.

 

[Gooberking]

I'm not really a part of it, but as a stream monster it comes across as a loose grouping of small communities getting to interact with one another and few barriers between high and low level players, and everyone is pretty much able to make runs at the recent uptick in price money.

That level of accessibility and ease of participation seems like something that would be very attractive to people and beneficial to letting everyone involved feel like a part of something. And that something is likely in about as good a place as it can get in it's current form.

The future and trajectory of it all makes me wonder though. 25,000k pot bonuses and SonicFox having made a few hundred thousand dollars in a few years seems like a big deal until you start looking at mature competitive groups where you have teams of players making millions per year. The more popular the competitions becomes and the more money starts forming in the sector as an entertainment source then the more you are going to see things like fewer unoffical streamers allowed (NRS now controls NRS streaming now), services like Twitch being monetized in ways where you can't do it for free, and barriers in between pro's and regulars increasing (Does anyone get to run casuals with Lebron James?), and people entering the scene that only care that their talent may get them paid.

If the scene hits anything near big time status, it will probably be radically different than it is now. At that point playing with a local group may leave you feeling about as connected to the tournament scene as playing local baseball connects players to the MLB. Don't know if that's bad or good, but it could be so different that what attracts half the people now just doesn't exist in that future. There would be a lot more money and people able to live off of it. Lord knows there is money in entertainment. We'll see what it does over time.

 

[RoboCop]

pricing of video games

People need to remember that game prices have gone down when inflation is considered. An NES game cost $50 in 1990, which would have been $89 in 2013. An N64 game in 1998 would cost $100 today!

So people should remember that when they complain about the cost of DLC. Inflation has continued while game prices have remained relatively stagnant for over a decade. I'm not saying there aren't scammy tactics out there (goddamn fuckin crystals and microtransactions), but overall developers have to think of a way to keep up with inflation, and one of those ways is through DLC.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/the-real-cost-of-gaming-inflation-time-and-purchasing-power

 

[Linkuei82]

People need to remember that game prices have gone down when inflation is considered. An NES game cost $50 in 1990, which would have been $89 in 2013. An N64 game in 1998 would cost $100 today!

So people should remember that when they complain about the cost of DLC. Inflation has continued while game prices have remained relatively stagnant for over a decade. I'm not saying there aren't scammy tactics out there (goddamn fuckin crystals and microtransactions), but overall developers have to think of a way to keep up with inflation, and one of those ways is through DLC.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/the-real-cost-of-gaming-inflation-time-and-purchasing-power

This is so true. I remember when PS1 and N64 games out, the cartridge games were like $40 dollars back then and the CD where $10 more. And this was back in the mid 90's. With the cost of living back then, we actually pay more compared to now.

 

[honeybooboo]

People need to remember that game prices have gone down when inflation is considered. An NES game cost $50 in 1990, which would have been $89 in 2013. An N64 game in 1998 would cost $100 today!

So people should remember that when they complain about the cost of DLC. Inflation has continued while game prices have remained relatively stagnant for over a decade. I'm not saying there aren't scammy tactics out there (goddamn fuckin crystals and microtransactions), but overall developers have to think of a way to keep up with inflation, and one of those ways is through DLC.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/the-real-cost-of-gaming-inflation-time-and-purchasing-power

Off topic, but wasn't the switch from cartridges to cd's a reason why game prices are what they are

 

[ILuvFightGames]

I think the fgc is getting bigger. Years ago it had way less exposure if any, now with twitch and lots of companies investing and promoting stuff like e-league etc. I believe we're moving forward. Evo's sfv had almost a million viewers and that's not counting ESPN viewers. Nrs numbers might be low, but hopefully that will change because they're investing good money on the events. I think numbers for injustice 2 and the next mk's and injustices should be healthy, and with more exposure hopefully we get an increase of fans, seems like that to me honestly. The thing about fighters is that there's a game for everyone, you don't "pass" a fighting game so hopefully love for fighters only grows.

 

[KHTC Takgillo]

People need to remember that game prices have gone down when inflation is considered. An NES game cost $50 in 1990, which would have been $89 in 2013. An N64 game in 1998 would cost $100 today!

So people should remember that when they complain about the cost of DLC. Inflation has continued while game prices have remained relatively stagnant for over a decade. I'm not saying there aren't scammy tactics out there (goddamn fuckin crystals and microtransactions), but overall developers have to think of a way to keep up with inflation, and one of those ways is through DLC.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/the-real-cost-of-gaming-inflation-time-and-purchasing-power

Games only have come down If you don't buy them with all the content when you add the DLC they cost the same for a complete game If not more and when you add microtransaction the publisher are making more money than before.
EDIT: I also forgot to mention that compared to the 90s the cost of manufacturing the means to play the games have gone down(CDs are cheaper than cartridge and digital medias don't cost the publisher anything but is still 60$)

 

[P3irce]

FGC state as whole has been fantastic, one thing that I noticed with the rise in popularity of fighting games specifically in NRS, as i'm not sure if this is a trend in others, is that players are thinking that they can be tourney players as a sole way of providing for themselves. I've personally encountered players who come out to tourneys /locals without having enough $ for transportation, food, shelter, etc with the intention that all of this would work out assuming they win the event.

Even out of our top 10 players, only maybe 2-3 (?) of them actually are making enough to sustain themselves via tournament placings.

My question is when did this mindset start emerging and is this something that needs to be addressed? Imo I think its odd that people don't just play for the fun of the game / competition. I think NRS has done a ton for the tournament scene but don't believe it's their responsibility to make this a viable job for the top 10 players, let alone any prospective players who want to be professional, there isn't enough player-base that sticks with the game post 1st year for this to be a thing yet. There is definitely things NRS could do such as making payouts less top heavy but even that isn't going to make competitive NRS games a viable option as a profession bar the 1% who are guys like fox or streamers, which is fine imo. Thoughts?

 

[CrimsonShadow]

The scene is awesome right now.

I'm not the oldest FGC-hand around here.. And even for me, when I joined in 2011, it was complete poverty compared to how it is now.

There are more opportunities, much bigger tournaments, a lot more money, tons more money, better media and TV coverage, way more awesome games (Injustice, DBZ, MVCI, BlazBlue, KI, etc. all will be out at the same time).

Online netcode is MUCH better. So much easier to play people all over the country, easier to level up.

Developers communicate *way* more with the community than they did even 4 years ago. Games are more actively balanced due to increased communication. Livestreams where tournament players get shouted out.. This wasn't a thing. Half the time in 2012, we didn't even have pools streams.

Players are also able to travel more than ever. This thing about players constantly going to other countries didn't exist a few years back, short of a few Capcom dudes that were Hollywood enough to be able to come to the States or go from the States to Europe/Japan. So tournaments are constantly stacked. Matches you used to have to wait half the year for, you can now see every month.

So many great sets, so much great tournament play. Anyway, yeah -- it's pretty cool

 

[Blade4693]

Idk about the esports side of things but in terms of just the games themselves I would argue we are pretty much in a second golden age of fighters. Look at all we have gotten in the last ten or so years...

SF4, SFXT, UMVC3, MK9, IGAU, KI, Skullgirls, GG, BB, MKX, SFV, T7, KOF14, I2, MVCI, DBZF coming up, MK11 is probably in the works, Smash community is thriving etc. and I probably forgot some stuff

We have gotten a lot of awesome games and we are getting them consistently, I feel like it's a good time to be a fighting game fan tbh.

 

[AZ MotherBrain]

It's in a weird state in my opinion. It's the most popular it's ever been and growing, but has alot of inner turmoil as well.