The Vague Future of Fighting Games and the FGC

What does the future of fighting games and its community hold?

Fighting games have been with us since the birth of the video game industry as a whole and yet, it still is a staple of every household may it be for casual gaming or competitive play. Indeed, fighting games have been evolving over the years, from one iteration to the other, the games are gradually becoming more modern and easier to comprehend as various materials are already here in order to lower the skill gap between players but is still innovative as it was originally meant to be? 

Since the very first game of the Street Fighter series released in 1987, it has paved the way for dozens of new titles in the genre which are now considered as the staples of fighting games including Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, King Of Fighters, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Dead Or Alive, Marvel Vs Capcom and Smash Bros.

Fighting Games gained more traction over the years because of the deep love and support of thriving and persevering group of people known as the Fighting Game Community or FGC which has its own clusters no matter where you are in the world. As the FGC continues to grow in numbers primarily because of E-Sports as a whole, more fighting games are now being considered to be competitive enough to hold its own league of events, thus gaining popularity and hype that entices people that are originally not members of the FGC. 

One event that is considered as the biggest FGC event is EVO Las Vegas, it is the culmination and also a celebration of fighting games held in one venue, every member of the FGC dreams in competing, heck even just attending to become a spectator, inside EVO’s wonderful event. However, recent events struck controversy into the whole FGC as one of the Co-Founder of EVO named Joey Cuellar, is found guilty of sexual misconduct against minors way back the late 90’s to the early 2000s which are just recently exposed by the same people who supports the community all these years. Adding more fuel to the fire, the pandemic stopped all major events and tournaments including EVO, and each game’s respective tournaments such as Tekken and Soul Calibur’s World Tour, this resulted into a major hit in the FGC since all of the events and tournaments that serves as a cash cow to the developers in funding their future games and updates on their current ones.

Fighting games over the years have always been complicated, and that’s the beauty of it. Skill gaps are what separate good players from the best but FGs often reward legacy players or players who are playing since the previous iterations since fundamentals of a certain game go a long way before being fully able to master it. Muscle memory also helps as majority of moves from previous games are carried over to the newest game however, the issue with the fighting games nowadays start with the inevitable outcome of it being easier. Legacy players are against this as it would seemingly ruin the fun factor and the satisfaction of the players who worked so hard in practicing advanced techniques and unique setups to just be invalidated due to the games being made easier. 

Players are asking for better tutorial modes instead of spoonfeeding new players in the way of having combo shortcuts, easier inputs to movement such as the famous Korean backdash in Tekken and meter combos in Street Fighter, personally I think fighting games being execution and commitment heavy are the reason it feels very rewarding. As what Arya, a famous FGC figure and ambassador who runs the YouTube Channel “That Blasted Salami”, has said: “Make Fighting Games Easier to Comprehend” means having a really immersive tutorial mode and offline modes in general. Players are thankful that they have various platforms and sources in order to learn a specific game however as it should be, it is also the job of the developers to make certain that their consumers, no matter how casual or competitive they may be, should be able to learn the game the way they should be played.

Issues will always exist no matter what video game that we have, it is inevitable as it is part of the process of improving one’s final product. The lackluster acclaim and low quality of the base games of most staple fighting games today are what alarms the FGC on to what the future is in store for their community and their beloved genre. As far as we know, titles such as Soul Calibur VI, Street Fighter V, and KOF XIV are not doing so well and take note that these are STAPLE games with their latest iterations, don’t even get me started with Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite, this game generated a lot of hate for obvious various reasons, so what are the reasons on why such fighting games are not being held the same acclaim as it once were? QUALITY is mediocre compared to the previous games such as higher input lags and also lackluster offline modes, ideas and innovations which didn’t click with the community, and finally, paid DLCs. 

People are just not used to buying extra content like characters and stages because unlike the old days where characters are unlocked through offline modes such as story mode, money is what gets the job done in this era. To give light to what’s happening, some fighting games are still thriving in making the genre alive, recent titles such as Tekken 7, Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mortal Kombat 11 and Dragon Ball Fighter Z are among the top fighting games today. The player base is steadily increasing because of the extended hype and exposure to tournaments and E-Sport events, but a really redeemable quality of these games is the innovations when it comes to its gameplay. 

Fighting games’ formula are somewhat to be proven as a trial and error, some of the top fighting games today are the bottom ones in previous years, it’s just a matter of time before the other titles will be revived again and at best, be able to redeem their franchises to the new age with improvements on newest iterations. Everybody is still optimistic on what can happen in the FGC world as some of the classic titles are now on the verge of obtaining a clean slate such as Virtua Fighter with their latest reveal and also SNK’s newest iteration of KOF number 15. As vague as the future seems, with the support of its loving fanbase, the future may be as brighter as it could be. 

As long as there are people willing to strive, internet personalities in the FGC voicing out concerns to the developers, professional players continuing to enter the scene, and gamers buying titles which they loved since they started playing, fighting games will continue to innovate and live in the hearts of many and the FGC will continue to grow in numbers. 

Images are from their respective websites/publishers.