The Fighting Game topic

As someone who religiously plays Guilty Gear I use the term "anime fighter" for it, Arcana Heart, and Melty Blood and its ilk all the time, in a non-derogatory manner. I've already posted what I feel distinguishes them from other fighting games, and I personally feel it has nothing to do with how outsiders see it.

Although I do feel that the way outsiders see them (complicated on the surface, very overtly Japanese in style) is a major reason they're more niche than other fighting games, because they actually have a good amount more single player content than, say, Street Fighter.

I really dislike it as a buzzword.

For me, it still means a fighting game using characters from anime series.

EDIT: It somehow signals to me that a lot of people in the FGC don't want to play something outside of SF, Marvel, or Tekken.

edited 2nd Oct '17 7:39:30 AM by powerpuffbats

that not what it means. Fighting games that use exiistign Characters are licensed games more then anything.

Anime fighters tend to be about Original characters made for the universe they were created in.

Dragonball Fighterz has become noticeable because it blurs the line between the two.

edited 2nd Oct '17 8:30:05 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Ok, so I confused the two up.

@1649

sorry man. i tend to associate "blithering idiots" with things like political and religious debates, and generally closed minded people. i already get enough of that in real life with a devoutly religious extended family who hates your guts for being atheist, i don't need closed minded people in video games too. it's an appropriately "disgusting" reaction to equally "disgusting" people.

large fanbases are generally not a good thing in my eyes. sure, they bring da monies, but at the expense of assholes being everywhere thanks to Law Of Fan Jackassery. i don't want any part of that, and the choice of games i prefer to play shows that. that probably explains why a lot of my online friends call me a hipster.

also, just to clarify. i don't go around calling people plebs or scrubs or anything for liking something i don't like. i'm just putting two and two together. when you get the type of casuals that are always assholes and call you a nerd just because you can rtfm and they can't (especially in games like Guilty Gear where the manual is basically thrown at your face repeatedly), of course i'm going to react with at least a little scorn.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:47:21 AM by Freecom

Leave the Fan Hater out.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:47:25 AM by RAlexa21th

The alternative to a fan base that can sometimes have Fan Dumb is a fan base that is so small it takes actual fans to make the materials after people have long since abandoned it.

Because you kicked everyone else out and built a wall to tell them they weren’t allowed in.

That goes beyond elitist and into self destructive, and the idea any company would think that’s a viable economy for anything except a private club that serves super rich clientele is absurd. One only needs to look at 4X games to see how that went. Or any sort of adventure game not made by Telltale, to say nothing of point and click games in the vein of Myst. What about Rail Shooters not named Time Crisis? Not even VR could bring that back. All dead because they never bothered to try to include new fans.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:49:25 AM by Beatman1

The way you're acting right now isn't helping smaller fighting games' cases.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:48:36 AM by Hashil

@1681 Beatman 1 has a point though. there's assholes on both sides of the fence. i don't like the "GIT GUD FUKIN SCRUB" guys as much as he does. i'm just trying to clarify that mainstream success isn't always a good thing in my eyes. especially having seen mainstream "success" bland-ify some genres like shooting games and outright killing them like music games.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:50:35 AM by Freecom

Beatman's point is that they don't like your attitude. By saying Beatman has a point you are admitting to being a jerk that is choking the genre.

@1682 like i said earlier. companies need to stick to one source of profit and milk them for all it's worth. companies can make do with an elitist fanbase that scares everyone else off, i've seen it happen to Runescape.

MK has managed to reach the good mind of mainstream though.

Also what the Hell is 4X games?

Ah.

edited 2nd Oct '17 11:56:11 AM by slimcoder

Civilization

They don't, though. You can totally appeal to both. Smash does, and to a lesser degree so does Mortal Kombat. Unethical DLC issues aside you can't fault a game for having crossover appeal even though a lot of games in the genre still don't, and being angry at the masses for buying a fighter you don't like isn't any more productive.

@1687 mhm. like i said earlier, MK had the gore controversy and the multiverse plot since MK 1 going for them. certainly helps that their publisher is WB Games to have an easier time making the story look more appealing with its cutscenes.

also, we apparently have a page on 4X games, so that's a thing.

Niche things don't stay niche for long. They either go mainstream or go extinct, well, extinct earlier than others.

@1691 i had something else considerably rambling with more hatred of anything corporate involved, but that's nice and short.

the fighting game genre is in a unique spot since they've managed to stay niche for... like, well basically the entire time the genre has existed. rhythm games are kind of like that too. well, besides Guitar Hero, which made the genre Deader Than Disco in the western world.

probably explains why i prefer games from those two genres over other ones.

My point is that milking a niche fanbase for all it’s worth is not a viable long term business strategy. Eventually they get fed up and leave and then they don’t get replaced. That’s an income deficit.

Street Fighter II sure as heck wasn't niche.

@1693 let's be honest here. when have you ever seen "long term" and "business" in the same sentence other than in the context of a joke on how short sighted businesses are?

also, i think you're underestimating rabid niche fanbases and their propensity for Conspicuous Consumption. best non-fighting game example i can think of is otaku (the Japanese kind, not the more mundane western otaku) and anime merch.

I'm a little offended that because I like MK more than most fighting games I'm apparently part of the LCD.

Actually I think the otaku fandom has been cannibalizing itself. Profits for anime/otaku merch in Japan has been steadily decreasing every year I heard.

edited 2nd Oct '17 12:20:34 PM by slimcoder

it's the only descriptor i can think of at the moment, but much like every other stereotype, it doesn't apply to everyone. there's nothing wrong with liking MK for its non-fighting game aspects. it's when people start getting real grating about their preferences that LCD starts getting some validity.

Soul Calibur V definitely had some of those types online. if it isn't elitist assholes holding onto the top of the tier list for dear life, it's the bad side of being casual that flips out and bans you from their lobby if you so much as attempt a grab, ring out, or low attack on their cosplay character. and then when you actually play by their house rules and manage to win anyway, they still ban you. (maybe less so if your own cosplay character is classy as fuck.)

to be honest, i don't really agree with that trope's page having a positive definition for half the page, because it's like lumping nice average Joes with the assholes LCD commonly refers to.

edited 2nd Oct '17 12:35:20 PM by Freecom

You know, mainstream franchises also inspire rabid consumption too.

edited 2nd Oct '17 12:38:06 PM by RAlexa21th

And profit.

Most people simply aren’t interested in investing a 40 hour workweek every week into the mechanics of a game. And that isn’t bad.

no doubt about that... but it's usually in a way that gets "true gamers" riled up. e.g. Shark Cards in GTA Online and lootboxes in just about every shooter that has come out in recent memory.

edited 2nd Oct '17 12:39:06 PM by Freecom