The Fighting Game Community Has a Financial Problem It Can't Ignore Anymore

The fighting game community has a problem with payouts that has become increasingly hard to ignore for players and tournament organizers.

[Lexreborn2]

There are just extremely toxic people in fgc that are also gate keepers. Not only do they follow flow charts but they generate groups and try to cheat their way to the top with their cliques.

And let’s not talk about the pedophillia that was going on in evo organizers. No way people that close didn’t know what was going on.

[Michiel1989]

as if gatekeeping and cheating only happens in fgc? It happens in almost every competitive environment. My experience with it has been very positive with it at least. If you cant stand some trashtalking it is probably better not to engage with it though.

and whats wrong with following flowcharts aka playing optimally?

[DarXyde]

Flowcharts piss me off. I really hate how stale and predictable play styles become. If you're for them, that's fine. I just don't like them and I don't study them because it strips away any element of individuality and creativity. I'm an avid fighter fan that doesn't do formal competitions, but the few times I've played against people who do, they use the same characters, same teams, and spam combo setups. It's just not fun to me.

But that said, if there's money on the line, I can see their value. I'm speaking purely from the perspective of someone who plays competitively in my own circles, so evaluate my take accordingly.

[Lexreborn2]

“ It happens in almost every competitive environment.”

Yet we are talking about the FGC, what does other competitive environments have to do with talking about this one and it’s problems? That’s called deflection.

“ and whats wrong with following flowcharts aka playing optimally?”

Flow charts isn’t just about “optimal” play. It’s about finding the easiest most spam able process and just repeating it. It’s as brain dead as it comes. That’s why people don’t praise the pro players that pic the cheapest character.

They praise the players that switch it up, that learn new things and improve their reactions. Flow charting just encourages clone matches and fighting the same characters over and over and over again.

Like how power rangers got Rita and all you saw was Rita and the SAME float attack flow chart. It’s lame

[Michiel1989]

@lex deflection? almost all games have a certain way thats optimal, has nothing to do with deflection mate, its just the way it is. You can play skyrim with a flowchart if u want to finish it as fast as u can and the same goes for almost every game.

thats also why i prefer smash bros over any fighting game, it has so much variables that flowcharts are not that useable. and why do u think flowcharts promote a certain move to counter another? because its optimal.

If you follow any of the big fgc tourneys you will see that mixing it up still gets rewarded a lot, because they expect a certain reaction to a move and when you mix it up it throws the opponent off.

that u dont like flowcharts is fine with me, i dont enjoy them either. just dont act like they arent needed to be competitive at the top. ofc u see the same characters from the same players, because people main characters.....

why would people need to be praised? some people play to be competitive, not to get a couple cheers from the crowd. youre viewing this from a spectator angle, not from a competitive one. from that angle ur right and i also enjoy that more, but from a competitive angle ur just shooting urself in the foot if u wanna entertain the crowd and only mix it up.

[Lexreborn2]

@michiel it’s deflection because you are using other genres to justify another. Not all competitive games have a financial or stage presence. Not all genres are on discussion just the fgc. Which is extremely toxic and probably the most stagnated genre comparatively if you want to compare.

Again, flowcharts and people trying to use the cheapest character combos to win is not interesting. Look at the top 10 of any fgc and you see the same characters almost half of the 10.

Soul Calibur 6 in which I have been extremely competitive in since soul blade. Was a huge issue where the top 10 for combo breaker were primarily Astaroth, Ivy, Siegfried and nightmare with Jesus.

That game has a pick of over 20 characters and consistently those were the top. It was surprising to see 1 mitsurugi player in the top 10 and he still was the exception.

Don’t try to come at my competitive resume in FGC saying it comes from spectator perspective. I’ve been playing fighting games for almost 25 years. Casual and competitively, and flow charts are boring.

That’s why even with flow charts capcom online is consistent with top characters. But in capcom cups they almost never take the crown. Obscure characters do, then EVERYONE is mocking that play style.

I remember when fei long was considered trash in SF4. Soon after he won evo everyone was mocking his style. Flow charts are just common and boring

[Michiel1989]

@lex im not sure if you realize that im agreeing with you from a spectator perspective.

I just really dont get how its deflecting, in 99.9% of all the games theres an optimal way to play. It's not only (a problem) in fighting games. Yes its optimizing the fun out of it, but when you compete i see no reason to do anything else besides whats optimal.

I love when a low/midtier character do well in a tourney, its hype. but to villanize the other competitors because they are trying to win is taking it too far. On the other hand i can also appreciate a match of toptier characters with players that mastered the character completely.

I havent played all the games that you mentioned competitively, so i cant really go in depth about that.

[ABizzel1]

I didn't know anything about this. After reading the first story to pop up I was like WTF.....and thought it was a gag blog post, but realized it wasn't. Just trifling.

[PurpHerbison]

I miss when people competed for the fun of it.

[_Decadent_Descent]

Haven't had those days since the first couple of Soul Caliburs.

[PapaBop]

While I won't defend things like lower prize pools but pretty much anyone with a good understanding of the FGC knows that you don't get into competitive fighting games for the money. The FGC is amazing, sure there are the bad apples but that can be said for any community but if money is the primary motivation, better off playing games like LoL.