Triert wrote:
I mean to say that people with experience playing fighting game overwhelm people who want to get into them. Far be it from me to think something like that is an issue that needs to be solved I want to say before I continue.
I wasn't being sarcastic, I just literally couldn't understand what you were saying, it was phrased very weird.
Honestly, it's not that bad. I think it's more of an issue with games becoming much more online-focused than anything. I tried Skullgirls online once after playing story mode a few times, the first game I literally got infinite combo'd to death twice without even getting a hit in and immediately turned it off, yes, and that's a common experience, but at the same time, I have a group of friends that aren't competitive in the least bit and like playing games together, and even though I've literally never played Tekken before, I had a blast playing a few rounds with them. Online is all about winning, padding out imaginary numbers that mean nothing but Ego, against people you don't know and probably won't ever even interact with again, but hanging out with friends and playing a few rounds is always a good time, there's a much more casual (but also much more hype) air to the proceedings.
Triert wrote:Game comes out, new player buys it, they play online, they get pubstomped, interest rapidly declines from people who could be a new market, release an updated game with a new roster and repeat the process.
That's more money than anything. See Capcom's SFV for a good example. It's not enough to make the initial sale, DLC is basically guaranteed, and the way Capcom handles it is probably one of the poorest. SFV released with nothing but online play originally. No Arcade, no Story. It was like paying full retail price for Project M.
Triert wrote:"but fighting games becoming more popular and mainstream (see EVO which is getting very close to having more viewers than national sports every year) is a big part in why there are so many being released."
They're being viewed more, not played more. If I recall a certain imageboard made the observation that there are more people funposting about super smash bros melee than there are people who actually play it.
That's because Melee is in itself a fighting game community ****post. The Smash Bros series is a party game, and actual fighting game players don't take competitive melee players seriously anyways. I play Sm4sh competitively and have been to 3 tourneys, and the amount of imbalance, cheap tactics, and unfun that can result from the tourney bracket matches is eons ahead of actual communities like the FGC and speedrunners, but playing 5 or 10 friendlies with a person you just met is always fun. It doesn't help that competitive Smash players take themselves way too seriously.
Also, being viewed more in and of itself implies more interest and therefore more purchases in the longterm. We've got a shitload of new and good fighting games coming out after the drought of pure crap and Season Passes that was SFV and MK10. I think the FGC will be just fine, and I fully support it becoming a global phenomenon instead of a social stigma. Sure, the learning curve is pretty big, especially for the upcoming fighting game releases, but they can still be enjoyed by people of any age and will always be a LAN party/video game playing friends get-together mainstay