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[Mush]

I've always sucked at fighting games (and by extension, action games like DMC, Bayonetta etc etc) so I've never really given them a fair shake. But I will leave you with this.

A year or two back when some of my best friends were living together I used to crash on their couch on a Friday night as I lived out of town and wanted to do stuff during the weekend with them or other people. Anywho, one of them often finished work late and would immediately come home and hop on TTT2 (and the occasional other game, but mostly just Tekken) with my other friend who also lived there and played each other late into the night. I'd just chill on the couch in my sleeping bag and watch and listen to the snippets of 'Plucking Tulips' I could make out in-between all the trash talking and hilarious banter. One of my good buddies even composed this song based on the stage music and those amazing nights we had.

So, in summary; I suck at fighting games, and would much prefer to watch other people play them instead.

I hope you enjoyed reading my short story.

Until next time,

Mush.

 

[Anne]

Yes, that's exactly the big problem here. They should cut the middle man (the arbitrary execution barrier) right to the mind game and quick thinking level.

Many other genres do that fine, why not any of the good fighting game?

Some games already do this. It's next to impossible to make a game like SFV any easier than it actually is without fucking with the core mechanics. Links are going to exist the way Street Fighter handles moves/pressure/etc, and you can't make too big a buffer without that affecting other aspects of the game. Special moves are as easy as ever and they also have a huge buffer. It really comes down to at some point, you have to have execution in a game if you want it to play a certain way. You can make it easier, but at some point changing how the game handles inputs messes with the mechanics too much.

Rising Thunder simplified inputs, but it lost buttons in order to so. It also had issues that people don't talk about very often where that input system created different types of dynamics with moves at a high level that had to be balanced for. Things like mixed input option selects and bullshit like that.

I'll admit there are some games out there that make some things hard for the sake of making them more challenging and rewarding for people that want that, but generally that's not common anymore. The execution comes as a result of mechanics, and if games want to have certain mechanics they are just going to have to have those inputs in while trying to at least make them as easy as reasonably possible.

Idk, I get execution is hard for some people, but there are serious misconceptions as to how inputs interact with mechanics. You can't just make quarter circle and DP motions disappear or get rid of long combos without giving something up in most well designed fighting games.

 

[Karsticles]

I do like fighters, but I do not get overly competitive with them. I hit a certain skill level, and then I just can't be bothered to spend the effort to break that barrier.

Is it just not fun for you anymore?

Have you ever tried a dedicated sparring partner?

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Fighting games are not for everyone and that is why the are generally considered niche. They require an immense amount of patience, skill sets, reflexes and commitment which most casual gamers do not have. Most casual players play online to win and if they cannot win with minimal or an adequate amount of effort, they move on to the next thing. That is why most of them choose something like multiplayer shooters or group based games where the win for the team is not entirely dependent on their particular skill set. In a fighting game, it's generally all about the player's skill level. Not to mention, that most people who regularly play fighting games online range from very solid to professional level which is very intimidating to casual players who just want to jump on and have a few "fun" and casual matches.

I love me some fighting games, but admittedly sometimes they even test my patience and commitment level especially with me having less time to play them now.

 

[J_Macgrady]

As someone who loves DMC, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden I naturally like games with fun combat systems so fighting games are my thing. I agree with that one poster though that said there's too much over analyzing everything these days with the genre. With SFV and KOF14 I've stayed away from SRK and other sites to try and get this big advantage over someone and I just play the games and its much more fun this way. I just want to press buttons watch cool stuff happen on screen and learn from my mistakes. I'll pick up a combo or two online but that's about it. I don't even keep up with the scene anymore outside of Evo.

I find myself enjoying the trial mode in these games a lot now. It's a good way to improve execution and you may pick up a thing or two about a character that you wouldn't have found out without forums.

My advice to people who feel intimidated by this genre is to treat this like any other game: just press buttons and enjoy yourself. You'll improve naturally over time.

 

[shinjimimura]

Too much focus on multiplayer and too many systems/characters/variations and constant rebalancing.

To me the golden era of fighting games will always be 1991-1995, when Capcom put out a SF2 refinement every year and SNK responded with the likes of Fatal Fury 1-3, AOF 1-2, WH 1-2jet and Samurai Shodown 1-2. Each and every one of them felt way more refined and polished than the soulless tech fests that are fighting games nowadays. Every character got his own stage, sometimes with a different variation for each single round, his own music theme, his own ending...

Those were the days

 

[Zissou]

I'm bad at remembering long strings of button presses required to perform combos.

So I just end up randomly button mashing instead, and that's just not fun.

This is why Smash Bros is the only fighting game I enjoy and am good at. No memorization required. If you want to perform a move, it's always only one or two buttons away.

I don't think smash is all that different. Instead of something like street fighter where you have a lot of buttons (6 attack buttons) and you're performing normal attacks discrete button presses, you're doing attacks with a single button in Smash, but the direction of the analog stick and whether or not it's partially or entirely pressed to the left/right in conjunction with the attack button to get the attack you want. As somebody who plays fighting games a lot but dabbles in smash, getting tilts and things consistently is difficult for me. It also takes a while to get used to being able to short hop and such when you want to (though similar ideas are present in fighters like KoF).

Well, the smash system also has it's own drawbacks when applied to a traditional game or controller. The most obvious reason why it isn't adopted is that it requires two analog sticks to function, which is not a concession most fighting games can make. The second is that the smash system has it's own limited drawbacks mechanically. Using moves on the ground that are mapped to up is finicky enough to require a dedicated jump button. On top of that, the limited way the controls are mapped has made it so that performing basic movement tech along with attacks is extremely difficult. Smash is not without a high execution barrier because of stuff like that, hell Melee is known to be one of the highest APM competitive games on the planet.

So like, yeah the smash style of controls is something that works for that game, but with a base set of mechanics similar to something more like Street Fighter you give up more. There's some tradition involved because the input methods we know of are established to work with those mechanics, but again that's more because we know it works with what we got rather than, "we want things to be kept hard!"

It's actually pretty interesting when you dig into all the control methods that existed in fighting games you've probably never even heard of that either failed or died with other poor aspects of the game. Could honestly make a pretty huge and interesting thread on it.

I would like to see this.

I don't want to put in the time and dedication to git gud. I use video games as a mindless escape from the day. I don't like trying or doing things like paying attention to what I did wrong and attempting to fix it (well, on a basic level I will so I can beat simple games like uncharted, but not on the level of stuff like fighters)

You are probably the most honest person in this thread as far as responses to the OP's question go. Fighting games are fun, but you have to put in effort to get that fun. If you're looking for escapism or narrative or whatever, fighting games aren't going to give you that.

This. What you see with a fighting game is what you get, there's no progression or depth.

This is pretty crazy. I mean, if there was no depth, how could the skill ceiling be such that a veteran player destroy a new player match after match?

-FG require you to be constantly in touch. Leave it for few months and you have to start all over again.

-Gamepads and keyboards are a disgrace to fighting games. Only reason I play, even casually, is due to a quality but expensive arcade stick.

-Wasted 20 years playing fighting games the wrong and uninformed way. Its too late to teach an old dog new tricks. With even worse concentration,eye sight, hearing and reflexes for competitive video games.

-Online timings require separate training.


-I feel as if I waste people's time. Cant improve anymore. These last 5 years I made huge strides, from not knowing what a shoryuken is to be able to perform special moves from KOF to Vampire Savior. With keyboard, stick and pad. It will take 5-10 years more to be able to compete. When I am in my mid-40s...

-Players worse than me do the right thing and leave after 2-3 games if I win. While I stay to lose 10-0 against better players, unless they leave first due to boredom.

I think you can take a break and come back and be fine. I quit playing SF4 and and several years and several revisions of the game later, I entered the game in EVO and didn't go 0-2. If the game was patched since you last played, sure, you'll have to learn the changes to have the best chance of winning though. I'm happy that fighting game devs (NRS aside, maybe?) aren't nearly as patch-happy as somebody like Riot with League of Legends, where after I took a break and came back, there had been so many changes and character reworks that I didn't feel like putting the time in to relearn everything.

I think you can get better at fighting games at any age (short of being old to the point where senility or something puts a damper on things).

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

I kinda gave up on them because even though I played them hardcore since SFII I still got beat more often than not, and I got sick of fighting Ryukenakuma. I tried switching to Tekken but I realized the time investment was insane.

Yes, that's exactly the big problem here. They should cut the middle man (the arbitrary execution barrier) right to the mind game and quick thinking level.

And they could call it "Smash Bros."

 

[Success]

Smash Bros was the only fighter series where I was semi-pro. Won two tournaments in the UK in SSBB at major gaming conventions.

 

[Possumowner]

I'm just no good at fighting games,never have been,the wife's brilliant at them.Me,awful so I don't enjoy them much.I even have a fantastic Arcade stick,i guess I just don't practice enough

 

[Patrick Young]

Good, cause its wrong. I'd like to see what cheat codes people use that resemble fighting game inputs.

Cheat codes in magazines had real buttons. In fighting games you have to call your local hacking group to figure out what "PK" and "picture of a foot" is supposed to translate to, then the code entry begins.

Don't they realise there aren't controller button overlays anymore? We aren't using Intellivision controllers.

 

[FSLink]

I don't think smash is all that different. Instead of something like street fighter where you have a lot of buttons (6 attack buttons) and you're performing normal attacks discrete button presses, you're doing attacks with a single button in Smash, but the direction of the analog stick and whether or not it's partially or entirely pressed to the left/right in conjunction with the attack button to get the attack you want. As somebody who plays fighting games a lot but dabbles in smash, getting tilts and things consistently is difficult for me. It also takes a while to get used to being able to short hop and such when you want to (though similar ideas are present in fighters like KoF).

Agreed. I consider myself to have pretty good execution overall and I come from Marvel but moving to Smash 4 (and dabbling into Project M and Melee), there's a lot of subtle movement you have to do that isn't incredibly obvious to learn until higher level. Combos are generally easier but getting yourself into position is a lot harder.

 

[J.D]

I think that games which require a considerate amount of effort and don't give you the option of being carried by someone else will never be popular in the mainstream.

 

[RedSwirl]

How online took over is a big deal too.

Multiplayer shooters got popular with online play. You had an early local multiplayer era on consoles with GoldenEye and Halo Combat Evolved, but as far back as Halo people wanted to play it online, and further back on PC you had Quake 1. Much was gained and very little was lost by playing shooters online. Fighting games developed a significant culture long before online console gaming came onto the scene. Not just for pro players, but for average people messing around with Street Fighter at home or in dorms. FGs took much longer to fully adopt online too. That original arcade/home competitive culture isn't really there unless you live close enough to a major community. Whenever I see my brother playing SF with him or his kid is a blast. It's totally different from online.

 

[FACE]

because c roa and f hime need to be removed from history

Shush, F-Hime is perfection.

 

[gelf]

They used to be my favorite genre and I was really good at them. After arcades died and they went online, I lost interest. It's just not the same playing someone anonymous.

I also hated how they become overly analyzed. It became all about studying hit boxes, frames of animation, etc to try to find the best combos and strategies rather than just playing the game.

Fighting games to me just feel like throw away experiences these days. I'm sure it's different competitively but that side of me died along with the arcades.

This is a big deal to me as well. On some games I can win a few matches just watching and countering my opponent with the right move at the right time and not worrying too much about the other stuff. But I know if I ever wanted to really improve I'd have to study the game in more detail and learning the combos, links, frame data and hitboxs would be time consuming and frustrating for me with my terrible memory.

My weird exception is Virtua Fighter. I get that series systems more then any other so I'm happy to spend more time learning it. Having only two attack buttons really helps my memory problem too even though the game has huge move lists.

 

[Vicetrailia]

I used to really like Virtua Fighter, but I don't have time to learn it anymore.

 

[FSLink]

How online took over is a big deal too.

Multiplayer shooters got popular with online play. You had an early local multiplayer era on consoles with GoldenEye and Halo Combat Evolved, but as far back as Halo people wanted to play it online, and further back on PC you had Quake 1. Much was gained and very little was lost by playing shooters online. Fighting games developed a significant culture long before online console gaming came onto the scene. Not just for pro players, but for average people messing around with Street Fighter at home or in dorms. FGs took much longer to fully adopt online too. That original arcade/home competitive culture isn't really there unless you live close enough to a major community. Whenever I see my brother playing SF with him or his kid is a blast. It's totally different from online.

Netcode in fighting games also have to be done well too. Approximate guessing that most FPS's or racing games online do won't cut it for fighting games. Most current fighting games have good netcode for the most part nowadays but the features in the majority of them are still catching up and very few capture the Arcade/Community like feel.

I'm still baffled no company has yet to do a real hub for a fighting game in-game. Allow people to have a community to post clips and share videos/tech and highlight well made community tutorials/videos/whatever. People shouldn't HAVE to go through pages of SRK/Dustloop/etc for new tech or have to figure out what their local community's Facebook group is. This would also help solve the issue of bad tutorials since the community already has the talent to showcase how to play the game, and have the ability to keep up with patches/new discoveries.

This is a big deal to me as well. On some games I can win a few matches just watching and countering my opponent with the right move at the right time and not worrying too much about the other stuff. But I know if I ever wanted to really improve I'd have to study the game in more detail and learning the combos, links, frame data and hitboxs would be time consuming and frustrating for me with my terrible memory.

My weird exception is Virtua Fighter. I get that series systems more then any other so I'm happy to spend more time learning it. Having only two attack buttons really helps my memory problem too even though the game has huge move lists.

To each their own, most top players don't even read frame data and just go by "feel". Testing out in training room and grinding out what they can punish but they don't necessarily memorize numbers or look up frame data.
It does make it easier to look certain situations up, and there's even apps (At least I've seen one for SFV) that can calculate it for you nowadays.

 

[Dipper145]

Mostly because theres a lack of any real thorough single player content to most fighting games other than a fight everyone for no reason and then the boss character. Which is kind of sad. Playing online fighting games is just not my scene at all.. yeah.

 

[PrinnyBomb]

I sunk about 15 hours into skull girls, and then went back to smash

Pokken was pretty cool, though, at least for the weekend my friend loaned it to me

 

[BHK3]

Nobody plays anything that isn't street fighter, tekken has had horrid online since tekken 5 and the anime fighters are too complex for me. I really wanted to get into KoF XIII but again a huge barrier of entry and the onlines bad/no community whatsoever.

Killer Instinct I used to play but theres no real guides to the game that isn't just text vomited onto a blank page, I'm decent with jago but every other character feels like a whole new video game. MKXL I tried but there's no characters that I really like.

I also bought Guilty Gear Xrd twice on PC and PS4 but my backlogs massive and they made a new version since then. I really loved playing GGAC whatever a few years back online, it's what got me into the series but I just have no will to play my games, I buy them and they sit there :'(

 

[draetenth]

I only play single player games. I've found that fighting games are very boring when played alone.

 

[Greddleok]

Don't have the time to invest to be good. Don't like getting my ass kicked for 3 months.

 

[Niro]

Not fun to play and repetitive imo

 

[SomedayTheFire]

I enjoy playing them but I'm not very good at them. I get really confused when trying to pull off combo's and other moves, I can never remember any of the button combinations in the heat of the moment. I just kinda button mash with a purpose.

 

[DrunkShogun]

Not very good unfortunatley. Enjoy the design and characters but just not competent enough to have a good match. Find it a nuisance trying to pull combos and three button inputs with a game controller.

 

[Alx]

I think the competitive scene is giving fighting games a bad light. Sure it can get extremely deep, skill-based and elitist, but when most fighters were popular, people enjoyed them without knowing all the combos, 1-frame thingies or advanced techniques. The good thing about them is that you can enjoy them at any level, from button mashing to tournament competition with all the stages in-between.
I personally love fighting games but don't really like combos or complicated stuff. I can still play through most of them just having fun pulling off basic moves and making my own combinations, more often "because they look cool" rather than "because they're more safe and have a high frame priority" or whatever.
My favourite fighter IP is Virtua Fighter, which many people claim to be "hardcore and difficult". My go-to attack is still PPPK.

 

[jedezel]

I like fighting games as a casual player : select a random character against friends and just do what we can.

My issue is when you want to play seriously: you have to stick with one character - at the beginning at least (which is boring), you have to spend a lot of time to perfect each move, to learn strategy against others characters, and so on...
Working so hard (and alone, as the training with one charcater is mostly alone at first) to just play the game is not my definition of gaming. I have no fun doing the same things again and again until I perfect it.

 

[petran79]

I think you can take a break and come back and be fine. I quit playing SF4 and and several years and several revisions of the game later, I entered the game in EVO and didn't go 0-2. If the game was patched since you last played, sure, you'll have to learn the changes to have the best chance of winning though. I'm happy that fighting game devs (NRS aside, maybe?) aren't nearly as patch-happy as somebody like Riot with League of Legends, where after I took a break and came back, there had been so many changes and character reworks that I didn't feel like putting the time in to relearn everything.

I think you can get better at fighting games at any age (short of being old to the point where senility or something puts a damper on things).

Gameplay and mechanics changes are certainly a factor too. What I meant was more severe. If I dont play a fighting game for a while I forget everything. From strategies to special moves. Back to noob stage.

Also have issues with ground dashing, which I find even more difficult and exquisite than special moves. Except on keyboard, but I want to feel the gameplay and the tiny keyboard buttons dont help.
One reason I prefer dashless fighting games like SF2 and Samurai Spirits 2. KOF games are even more difficult since they include short jumps.
If you press the gamepad one hair off, move will not come out

Games that require precision, both in miliseconds but also milimeters need constant play from a young age.

I liked to pick Remy in SF3. One player on GGPO suggested to learn his machine gun projectile technique.

I also wanted to learn some DI combos with Morrigan.

To be able to do this consistently would take months of constant training. Even one hour of training drives me crazy. Dont have it in me to be that precise, not just in video games.

Under Night, Skullgirls, AH3, GG and BB are even worse

While I also greatly prefer an arcade stick, lol at the bolded. In the meantime of it being a disgrace, we have professional tourney players who dominate with a Dualshock controller.

Give them a Dreamcast controller and see how they fare!

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

On the point about execution- I've always found "Quarter/Half Circling" to be an unreliable form of input.

To be fair, I also feel the same way about "Back-Forward" inputs from Character Action.

Basically anything that requires the analog stick to make two motions.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

It's hard genre to master, and you'll be severely punished if you don't master it online.

I do enjoy fighting games, but mostly in casual local co-op sessions involving good friends and lots of beer

 

[FACE]

Gameplay and mechanics changes are certainly a factor too. What I meant was more severe. If I dont play a fighting game for a while I forget everything. From strategies to special moves. Back to noob stage.

Also have issues with ground dashing, which I find even more difficult and exquisite than special moves. Except on keyboard, but I want to feel the gameplay and the tiny keyboard buttons dont help.
One reason I prefer dashless fighting games like SF2 and Samurai Spirits 2. KOF games are even more difficult since they include short jumps.
If you press the gamepad one hair off, move will not come out

Games that require precision, both in miliseconds but also milimeters need constant play from a young age.

I liked to pick Remy in SF3. One player on GGPO suggested to learn his machine gun projectile technique.

I also wanted to learn some DI combos with Morrigan.

To be able to do this consistently would take months of constant training. Even one hour of training drives me crazy. Dont have it in me to be that precise, not just in video games.

Under Night, Skullgirls, AH3, GG and BB are even worse




Give them a Dreamcast controller and see how they fare!

DI Combos with Morrigan aren't that important, the best Morrigan player in Japan(Nishiken) doesn't even use them all that much.

 

[Zafir]

I think the competitive scene is giving fighting games a bad light. Sure it can get extremely deep, skill-based and elitist, but when most fighters were popular, people enjoyed them without knowing all the combos, 1-frame thingies or advanced techniques. The good thing about them is that you can enjoy them at any level, from button mashing to tournament competition with all the stages in-between.
I personally love fighting games but don't really like combos or complicated stuff. I can still play through most of them just having fun pulling off basic moves and making my own combinations, more often "because they look cool" rather than "because they're more safe and have a high frame priority" or whatever.
My favourite fighter IP is Virtua Fighter, which many people claim to be "hardcore and difficult". My go-to attack is still PPPK.

Well I mean if you have friends, sure, but I don't think you'll have fun just button mashing if you jumped online. The player base just isn't there. Take SFV which is honestly probably one of the easiest to get into due to having a larger more varied player base, when you go online you're met with people who, aren't very good in the grand scheme of things, but still know some of the basics, like for example being able to execute specials, or some basic fundamentals of blocking/punishing. The only recent fighting game I can think of which you can button mash and still do okayish at the very lower levels is Killer Instinct to a certain extent due to the fact they allow you to use the combo assist online(basically makes any of your button presses chain into a combo).

The problem is fighting games are in this niche where very few new people are actually trying them, so online most people end up knowing how to play at least a bit be it from a previous game in the series or even just another fighting game which they can pull some knowledge from. Cyclic issue because the small amount of new people that do try it, get bodied and probably just turn the game off because they can't be bothered.

 

[Jarnet87]

I don't have the patience to get in the lab and practice.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Fighting games became too complex for me to fully enjoy. Plus I'm not a young guy anymore and can't even complete training modes as I can't successfully pull all of the required moves off.

I simply play them for pleasure. To be dazzled by the effects, stages, and characters. At least for a good ten minutes before I'm bored and ready to play something else.

 

[Tobor]

Fighting games aren't fun. Why would I spend my time learning how to play games I don't enjoy?

 

[zoobzone]

Because most people are cowards that's afraid to lose in a 1v1 situation or they some how have this mentality that they'll never be good at it without even trying.

They rather play simple mindless grinding games that have random items that improve their character strength.

There, I just summed up my battle.net friend list.

 

[Zissou]

Agreed. I consider myself to have pretty good execution overall and I come from Marvel but moving to Smash 4 (and dabbling into Project M and Melee), there's a lot of subtle movement you have to do that isn't incredibly obvious to learn until higher level. Combos are generally easier but getting yourself into position is a lot harder.

Yeah- which fighting games have a reputation for being easy or difficult seems not at all related to the actual complexities of a game. I think smash has a reputation for approachability because 1) it has legit single player stuff so non-competitive people just enjoy that and 2) the hard things are non-obvious, i.e., a new smash player doesn't realize they aren't consistently doing short hop into neutral air in the same way that they realize they can't consistently input an SRK motion in street fighter.

Gameplay and mechanics changes are certainly a factor too. What I meant was more severe. If I dont play a fighting game for a while I forget everything. From strategies to special moves. Back to noob stage.

Also have issues with ground dashing, which I find even more difficult and exquisite than special moves. Except on keyboard, but I want to feel the gameplay and the tiny keyboard buttons dont help.
One reason I prefer dashless fighting games like SF2 and Samurai Spirits 2. KOF games are even more difficult since they include short jumps.
If you press the gamepad one hair off, move will not come out

Games that require precision, both in miliseconds but also milimeters need constant play from a young age.

I liked to pick Remy in SF3. One player on GGPO suggested to learn his machine gun projectile technique.

I also wanted to learn some DI combos with Morrigan.

To be able to do this consistently would take months of constant training. Even one hour of training drives me crazy. Dont have it in me to be that precise, not just in video games.

Under Night, Skullgirls, AH3, GG and BB are even worse




Give them a Dreamcast controller and see how they fare!

I think you overestimate the execution requirements for modern fighters- things have been made more accessible than ever, though people don't talk too much about it. How long did you play a given fighting game before taking a break and forgetting stuff?

Fighting games aren't fun. Why would I spend my time learning how to play games I don't enjoy?

The real joy of fighting games is personal growth and improvement. They become more fun as you get better and spend more time with them. I realize this is kind of crazy-sounding- why should you in blind faith assume after you invest time the games will eventually become fun for you? To be fair though, you can get relatively decent at a given fighter quickly if the game has a decent online, enough people still play it, and the game in question has internet resources available to help you learn the game.

 

[Tobor]

Yeah- which fighting games have a reputation for being easy or difficult seems not at all related to the actual complexities of a game. I think smash has a reputation for approachability because 1) it has legit single player stuff so non-competitive people just enjoy that and 2) the hard things are non-obvious, i.e., a new smash player doesn't realize they aren't consistently doing short hop into neutral air in the same way that they realize they can't consistently input an SRK motion in street fighter.



I think you overestimate the execution requirements for modern fighters- things have been made more accessible than ever, though people don't talk too much about it. How long did you play a given fighting game before taking a break and forgetting stuff?



The real joy of fighting games is personal growth and improvement. They become more fun as you get better and spend more time with them. I realize this is kind of crazy-sounding- why should you in blind faith assume after you invest time the games will eventually become fun for you? To be fair though, you can get relatively decent at a given fighter quickly if the game has a decent online, enough people still play it, and the game in question has internet resources available to help you learn the game.

The real joy is learning to avoid genres you aren't interested in. I have more than enough games to play and don't want to play fighting games.

I spent the time to learn fighting games in my youth when they were the craze. I still didn't enjoy them. I played street fighter and mortal kombat and virtual fighter and tekken and others. It does nothing for me. It's not fun. I've been happier ever since I came to that realization and stopped buying fighting games.

 

[donfonzie]

I don't have friends and playing online sucks.

Same here. Playing against the AI gets tiresome after a while.

 

[Shadowhaxor]

Grew up in arcades and always had local friends to fight against. Then I used to be great at them, especially Tekken and SF. As I got older, those friends disappeared and I tried playing online. Too many lag filled sessions that eventually put me off of it completely.

Sure, I'll play some Tekken 5/6 or SF4 if a friend stops by or if my kids wanna play, but neither are any challenge. It's partly a mental thing. I need to see them, I need to be next to them. I wanna see their facial expressions and I wanna be able to talk "sensible" trash to them. Not yelling profanties or bitching on every mistake or whiff.

 

[Skilletor]

Nobody plays anything that isn't street fighter, tekken has had horrid online since tekken 5 and the anime fighters are too complex for me. I really wanted to get into KoF XIII but again a huge barrier of entry and the onlines bad/no community whatsoever.

Killer Instinct I used to play but theres no real guides to the game that isn't just text vomited onto a blank page, I'm decent with jago but every other character feels like a whole new video game. MKXL I tried but there's no characters that I really like.

I also bought Guilty Gear Xrd twice on PC and PS4 but my backlogs massive and they made a new version since then. I really loved playing GGAC whatever a few years back online, it's what got me into the series but I just have no will to play my games, I buy them and they sit there :'(

TTT2 has some of the best netcode ever.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Same reason I don't play games like Overwatch. They emphasize competitive PvP play, and I don't have the time to git gud enough to compete.

 

[petran79]

I think you overestimate the execution requirements for modern fighters- things have been made more accessible than ever, though people don't talk too much about it. How long did you play a given fighting game before taking a break and forgetting stuff?

More accessible does not make them easier. You just have more info on how to do things.

I think this made things worse.
For decades people had the delusion fighting games were easy and accessible due to the lack of information. You played them how you wanted to. No one was there to correct you. Few knew what it really meant to be good at SF2. Even today new things are discovered in that game. Till we saw gameplay of competitive players getting popular. Those were the tiny minority that figured things out. That type of gameplay was not accessible for years

Despite playing fg since their inception, I had no idea about those players and tournaments. Hadnt heard about Daigo or J. Wong. Did not know fg were made with contribution by such players.

Games like Guilty Gear still require a human opponent to explain things. Game is too difficult even with online guides.

Fighting games suffer from the arcade syndrome. In contrast to online computer games that are based on data and stats that are easy to analyze, fg rely on arcade experience with Japan in the forefront.

Game is released on arcades, then on Japanese consoles, then on Western consoles. By the time it arrives on the West, good players have figured things out. In the pre-internet days this wouldnt be such an issue. But at the age of online competition, such model is outdated and does not help the genre.



I should probably stick just to one character, one game and one company to remember things,either by Capcom, SNK, Arcsys or Sega. I tried playing all at once.

 

[vg260]

I'm seeing a lot of dismissive opinions of the genre. It's largely the fault of the game developers for not making it easier for people to learn and play against people closer to their own skill level. But I also blame modern game design in other genres. The joy of improving a skill and the satisfaction of conquering a challenge (especially a human challenge) has been replaced with watching numbers go up and unlocking skill trees and skinner-box feedback loops. The illusion of progression is more appealing than earning a victory.

This really sums up my take on why they aren't as popular as other genres.

What's interesting to me is the rise in popularity of the Dark Souls series, when that genre seems similar in terms of difficulty and learning curve, just not versus a real person.

I'd also add when fighting game first came out, there was absolutely nothing close in terms of how much control you had over a character in a game. They were unmatched in terms of character detail, animation, and movesets. That was a huge draw. Now, characters in others genres move and control much more elaborately, so that aspect doesn't stand out as much.

Also, just the sheer number of games out means if you play a lot of games, you have less time to develop your skills, which goes back to the last part of the quote above.

 

[Nirolak]

The OP addresses this explicitly. Unless you're playing a crazy anime fighter, in-depth combos are the last thing you need to learn. Combos don't win you matches. The extremely simple stuff like blocking and poking win you matches.

Plus, every game has characters that are less reliant on combos than others.

I don't think you understand. Most people can't do even do things like quarter circles.

There's a reason Smash Bros controls the way it does.

 

[outunderthestars]

I don't like multiplayer games and find the fgc to be too toxic.

 

[Tobor]

Same reason I don't play games like Overwatch. They emphasize competitive PvP play, and I don't have the time to git gud enough to compete.

Yeah, it's beyond fighting games. I don't like competitive shooters either. It's too stressful, and I like to relax after work, not get stressed.

 

[Glitter and Gold]

I don't think you understand. Most people can't do even do things like quarter circles.

There's a reason Smash Bros controls the way it does.

Is this true though? I mean SF2 was one of the most popular games on the planet at some point, and things have only gotten easier since then. Is a simple QCF really outside the ability of most people?

I honestly can't believe that a joystick motions are any more beyond the capabilities of a normal person than dual analog controls are.

and even if that is the case, most modern games offer many automatic mode and options that make them even easier to control than smash.

 

[Eridani]

I really wish there was a fighting game that actually put some real effort into online play. Playing versus an AI quickly gets boring and will never be able to provide the "real" fighting game experience. But in every single fighting game I've played multiplayer felt like a complete afterthought. From the bad netcode and horrible matchmaking to the incredibly clunky menus and a very bare set of surrounding features (where are the unlockables, or daily quests, or tournaments - all features easily found in other genres). And what makes it so frustrating is that those things have already been solved for years now. Games like DOTA 2, LoL, Counterstrike, Hearthstone all solved this. Why is it so hard to have a fighting game where you just press a button and are quickly matched with an opponent of even skill and are then rewarded depending on your success?

Instead, the online process of the last few fighters I've played looked like this:

Street Fighter V
This one sucks the most, because it actually looked like they were trying - simple matchmaking, a reward system with which you could buy new characters and costumes and a promise of daily quests. Sadly, none of it worked. The matchmaking took ages and then randomly failed to connect. The netcode was awful, rarely providing matches that worked. And worst of all, a majority of the features wasn't even implemented.

Maybe this is fixed now, although with how Capcom responded to it (hey, lets just install rootkits to our users instead of fixing our fundamentally broken handling of premium currency) I kind of doubt it.

Guilty Gear Xrd
No usable matchmaking. The only way to play online was going into a lobby and hoping to find someone that wouldn't immediately destroy you. Which rarely happened, because there was only about 20 people online at a time and they were all hardcore Guilty Gear veterans.

Blazblue Chronophantasma
See Guilty Gear.

Brawlhalla
Now this one is interesting. It's proof that actually good online play in fighting games is possible, and possibly not even all that hard. A sort of smash clone that actually does online right. This is what I want from online play in fighting games. Matchmaking takes seconds and matches you with evenly skilled opponents. There's unlockable skins and the netcode is great.

I don't get it. How can a small indie game like this be the one to get it right while behemoths like Street Fighter and ArcSys fighters struggle? Every time I see competitive fighting games play I think to myself "wow, this is cool, maybe I should go play this". And then I remember that I can't, because the developers apparently think that playing fighting games against other people is not really all that important.

And no, local play or dedicated sparring partners is not the solution. I just want to play fighting games without having to follow a schedule.

So, that's why I don't play fighting games. Because the process of actually trying to play them just plain sucks.