Why do you think so few people enjoy fighting games?

[SpaceBat]

Great points but I fear your efforts will fall on deaf ears. Some people around here would rather have the story of "Alien" bastardized and retold to them x1000 times before they even begin to admit that there is more to your average fighting game than mashing fireballs. Some people just don't appreciate the joy that comes from the arcade mentality that many fighters keep alive today (including most of my IRL friends).

Thank you and after reading the comments that came after yours, it unfortunately appears you're right. Well whatever, if people want to cast their flawed judgement over a genre while knowing little of it, let them.

I never thought SSB should be considered a hardcore tournament game (nor does its creator), so the whole tripping thing doesn't really matter all that much to me. I just laugh at the people who discuss SSB tier lists

Yeah. I obviously still play to win, but I don't really care about the tournament, tier, pro stuff either. It's a bit too much of a party-game for that IMO. although I do still find it hilarious when ignorant people call it a completely random mash-fest, even though it's less mash-friendly than the current competitive games such as SSFIV and MvC3.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Getting into them is hard.
Playing online you'll face merely people that are 'that guy' =/

yes you know what I speak of.

I love fighting games but I know who you mean. Damn him.

Hey, what did I ever do to you!

 

[Belaam]

For me, a large chunk of it is player base.

In my early 20s, living in a college dorm, we played a lot of fighting games. We had at least 20 people that lived within 15 yards who would stop in and play a few rounds. Talk trash, laugh, and unwind from the day.

Now, in my mid 30s, there is a much smaller base. My wife and I will occasionally pop in the last Soul Caliber we bought, and if we have company, sometimes Smash Brothers Brawl, but that's about it. When my kids get a little older, they may start playing some, but right now, there's really just the two of us.

As mentioned above, almost the exact same thing happens with our racing games... oh, and Guitar Hero.

 

[Fappy]

Great points but I fear your efforts will fall on deaf ears. Some people around here would rather have the story of "Alien" bastardized and retold to them x1000 times before they even begin to admit that there is more to your average fighting game than mashing fireballs. Some people just don't appreciate the joy that comes from the arcade mentality that many fighters keep alive today (including most of my IRL friends).

Thank you and after reading the comments that came after yours, it unfortunately appears you're right. Well whatever, if people want to cast their flawed judgement over a genre while knowing little of it, let them.

I never thought SSB should be considered a hardcore tournament game (nor does its creator), so the whole tripping thing doesn't really matter all that much to me. I just laugh at the people who discuss SSB tier lists

Yeah. I obviously still play to win, but I don't really care about the tournament, tier, pro stuff either. It's a bit too much of a party-game for that IMO. although I do still find it hilarious when ignorant people call it a completely random mash-fest, even though it's less mash-friendly than the current competitive games such as SSFIV and MvC3.

I'm sure many people would argue for Street Fighter's sake (I'm not a huge fan though), but I certainly agree on MvC3. I like the game but people are kidding themselves if they think it will ever be even remotely balanced.

 

[krazykidd]

Getting into them is hard.
Playing online you'll face merely people that are 'that guy' =/

yes you know what I speak of.

I love fighting games but I know who you mean. Damn him.

Hey, what did I ever do to you!

Ha i think he wanted to quote the guy above you.

Although i would love to be that guy in a fighting game , then i could play in tournaments. I'm still to afraid to play ranked matches in UMvC3.

 

[Dandark]

Getting into them is hard.
Playing online you'll face merely people that are 'that guy' =/

yes you know what I speak of.

I know exactly who you mean.

I hate that guy.

 

[Eve Charm]

There are plenty of people that enjoy fighting games, The problem is there are so damn many of them that they are spread paper thin. When a new call of duty comes out, everyone flocks to that, when a new fighting game comes out how many people DON'T move on to the new one.

How many people are still saying MVC2 is better then MVC3 or U and still play 2 over 3, Super smash, soul calibur, tekken with tekken tag all fall under that to.

How many people are still playing street fighter 2, or old games that pretty much long ended already like guilty gear or virtual fighter. Then hell lets not forget all the neo geo games, and games like x-men child of the atom that haven't been rereleased yet but people still play them.

It'd be like MLG picking up goldeneye and perfect dark for the 64.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

My guess is that it's not very newbie friendly outside the cpu fights.

I couldn't beat the CPU in Mortal Kombat 3 and it took me weeks of my childhood to beat the novice CPU for MK2.

I think a big thing about the decline of fighting games is a decline in the arcade culture. It's true that you can always find games online but the most memorable matches I've ever had took place at movie theaters and arcades that had the full sized machines. I think another factor is when companies like Capcom re-release the same fighter over and over. It devalues the original release and discourages more casual players and, players on a budget (like me!).

What you said about dedication though, is a huge factor. A lot of fighting games require players to memorize move and combo sets for their character of choice. Some like Soul Caliber, can be easily broken though by throwing opponents offstage. Others, like Smash Brothers, are hard because of how damn hard it is to see your character in relation to the other four and all the crap going on in the level you're in.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I see too many people here mention things about fighters lacking in content or story and that's why they dislike them.


To those people, I say TRY BLAZBLUE!


It has enough story to fill a Jrpg and a half and a ton of modes to teach noobs everything, even how to walk and jump.

 

[l3o2828]

Personally i love them.
But i get the SNK boss that abuses of everything and has an A.I as forgiving as Julius Caesar, and the fact that as Yahtzee once said you could be a great player yet mechanics of standar fighting games makes for people mashing random buttons able to kill you pretty easily (Except on Dead or Alive games which have a counter mechanic, it's just that it's about as flimsy as fuck against A.I)
Those things DO turn me off fighting games, but otherwise i don't find much wrong with the concept...

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

My guess is that it's not very newbie friendly outside the cpu fights.

I couldn't beat the CPU in Mortal Kombat 3 and it took me weeks of my childhood to beat the novice CPU for MK2.

I think a big thing about the decline of fighting games is a decline in the arcade culture. It's true that you can always find games online but the most memorable matches I've ever had took place at movie theaters and arcades that had the full sized machines. I think another factor is when companies like Capcom re-release the same fighter over and over. It devalues the original release and discourages more casual players and, players on a budget (like me!).

What you said about dedication though, is a huge factor. A lot of fighting games require players to memorize move and combo sets for their character of choice. Some like Soul Caliber, can be easily broken though by throwing opponents offstage. Others, like Smash Brothers, are hard because of how damn hard it is to see your character in relation to the other four and all the crap going on in the level you're in.

The memorization isn't all that, through playing a lot you eventually end up just knowing the properties of every move every character has. The first few hundred hours should cover these issues instantly.


Actual issues as far as difficulty goes are more towards player reaction speeds and a type of thought that enables you to perceive your foe's actions before even he knows what he's going to do, and plan against them.

That, will take you a couple of months but once you achieve it then it's so beyond epic playing fighters with others who know how to read you like that. It's like mental chess on crack.

 

[Fappy]

I see too many people here mention things about fighters lacking in content or story and that's why they dislike them.


To those people, I say TRY BLAZBLUE!


It has enough story to fill a Jrpg and a half and a ton of modes to teach noobs everything, even how to walk and jump.

As much as I love the story of BlazBlue it is incredibly hard for me to recommend to people. The problem comes with the presentation, and while I can tolerate it the average gamer certainly could not

Also, is it weird that I am more excited to see what happens in BlazBlue 2(3?) than I am about the actually gameplay?

 

[esperandote]

1. They're often twitch-fests which require absurd amounts of memorization and then are just nothing but inputting button sequences really fast.

2. Not much variety, and not much innovation.

As opposed to fps.

1. Where's my plot?
2. Where's my character development?

Plot diagram for street fighter IV [http://www.eventhubs.com/images/2009/sep/01/street-fighter-4-plot-chart-diagram/]

Kinf of fighters XIII has an story mode that takes 16 videos in youtube.

Capcom vs series used to be my life, now it's The King of fighters. But yeah, fighting games aren't for everyone, they requiere certain talent (As any other genre).

 

[dimensional]

The only thing fighting games have is "Push buttons to attack." I feel no more inclined to pay ?60 for that than I would a "Press I to open your inventory" game.

Seeing as you took out a huge amount of content from fighting games such as SSFIV and merely dumbed them down to "push buttons to attack", I could say the same about nearly every game that has ever existed. If I would say "the only thing I have to do in skyrim is wall around and click on stuff with my mouse", it would be just as flawed as what you're saying.

Agreed I really dont see what they are getting at even in non computer games all you usually do is roll dice, move pieces or play cards etc.

I dont think that fighting games are unpopular as such its just that they take a great deal of time and effort to get a lot out of them compared to most other genres. That being said it rewards a lot more as well if you play a well balanced fighting game and you have put the time in you are highly unlikely to lose to a button masher.

A lot of people prefer party style fighting games or less serious fighting games such as SSBB or mortal kombat and these can be fun too and have a bigger intial market at the price of depth (although you can of course improve at them as well).

Most people I know who dont enjoy them is because they have tried one game and lost bad and they dont like it and to be fair it is a bit disheartening to lose 90 times in a row (this happened to me when I started playing Soul Calibur) but it is unlike most other games when you start being able to link moves together and read youre opponent.

But the main reason I think they are unpopular (in comparison to fps for instance)is also the main reason why they are almost sure to always be around and that is because they usually stay true to their routes they dont go for accessibility (few exceptions ofc) they go for what a nuanced fighting system and although a lot of people dont get it those that it does click with really get into it.

Ive been a fighting game fan since SF2 and am really looking forward to the 3d and 2d fighters coming up next year that being said some of the games did tire me out most specifically sf4 for every good match it seemed I had to face another fireball spammer and when I sat back and casually reflected all their fireballs in their face with rose to defeat them I would get called a noob and to learn some moves I just hope they could see the irony.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I see too many people here mention things about fighters lacking in content or story and that's why they dislike them.


To those people, I say TRY BLAZBLUE!


It has enough story to fill a Jrpg and a half and a ton of modes to teach noobs everything, even how to walk and jump.

As much as I love the story of BlazBlue it is incredibly hard for me to recommend to people. The problem comes with the presentation, and while I can tolerate it the average gamer certainly could not

Also, is it weird that I am more excited to see what happens in BlazBlue 2(3?) than I am about the actually gameplay?

I don't quite get what you mean. The presentation was epic visual novel style, it's basically a Jrpg's storymode all linked together.

The ending was a cliffhanger and that makes sense for sure (and if you've imported Extend you'll see the extra scene after the ending which will mess your brain up) but if you actually thought of the possible chars that could be in BB2 (Bloodedge, Nox-Bang, The Imperator, Swordless Jin, Rachel's Dad)then you'd be excited for the gameplay as well .

 

[GeorgW]

They're too hard. The difficulty curve is a wall and the only help most games give is a list of names of moves and a bunch of symbols. There's a market for it, and I've tried to get into them, but there's a reason the SSB series is the best selling, they're the simplest.

That and Super Smash Bros. has all the most famous Nintendo characters in the same title. I'm sure that has SOMETHING to do with it

Sure it matters, but I honestly don't think it makes that much of a difference. The games have always been good, and I often hear it mentioned as the only fighting game someone likes. I doubt that's just the characters' effort.

Okay yeah, I see what you mean. I think its safe to say that its popularity is generated by its cast, but its notoriety is created by its accessibility and fun-factor. I always considered it more of a party game than a proper fight, but then again I sometimes use overly rigid genre labels. What matters is that the game is fun and people like it. I'm not big into tournament scenes anyway, and while I would rather play a game of BlazBlue I would always boot up SSB before any other fighter when there's a big group of friends around. Smashing forward-A and B to win is a lot easier to grasp than quarter-circle punch.

Yeah, I play it with friends and there's a lot of depth there, just not in the controls, which I think more fighting games could do well to learn from.

I think it depends on the level of play though. As someone earlier mentioned, at high levels of play (a level of which I am not a part of) the complexity moves from combos to mind games. SSB definitely shares that quality and I agree that some fighters could learn from it, however developers are afraid to mess with the formula too much lest the game be branded "non-competitive". In Brawl they introduced a random tripping mechanic that in many people's eyes (mine included) completely tarnished any chance of a 100% legitimate/fair fight. I never thought SSB should be considered a hardcore tournament game (nor does its creator), so the whole tripping thing doesn't really matter all that much to me. I just laugh at the people who discuss SSB tier lists

Yeah, Brawl has lost any chance of being competitive, but Melee still has tournaments. They're not as big as other fighting games, but the game is competitive.
I heard MK had some sort of n00b option, with simpler combos, maybe that's a good compromise.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

2) Only Super Smash Bros. where skill matters AT ALL is Brawl

I'm kind of surprised no one called this out, unless everyone just collectively decided to not dignify it with a response. Heh.

 

[esin]

I've always had an issue with fighting controls. Specifically dpads. I've been playing them on and off casually over about 10 years and to this day I can't get a half-circle roll to register 30% of the time (though I think it depends on the game at times). And even when everything's going smoothly, my thumb gets brutally calloused.

I really should try out a joystick one of these days, but I can't expect newcomers to be initially drawn to the genre in needing to drop more cash on a new conrtoller.

 

[Zarkov]

The reason I don't like them is the lack of depth, mostly. If I pay $60 for a new game I want it to last a while.

I think I know what you mean. But depth is the wrong word for it I would say so prepare for people telling how much depth there is in them.

Fighting games are just hard to get into I've only recently got into fighting games myself and I don't know at some point it just clicked so I don't know...

Yeah, there is a lot of depth to be had in fighting games. Sadly this only applies to the game mechanics with little emphasis on story and the like.

Or new mechanics for that matter.

In an average fighting game, you have multiple characters (or you make your own) and you get a stage. You then have those characters fight battles for entirety of the game.

There really aren't new things to be had in a fighting game unless it encourages multiplayer, which most do. But I mean, seriously, this is the end all. Fighting. And that is why, my friend, there's a large portion of the public who don't really care for them.

What the genre needs is a genre changing game. Once you get that, something new and innovative in a fighter game, then you've got a new way to approach a genre.

But yeah, that's what I hope for anyway.