As popular as they are, fighting games are still pretty much a niche genre when it comes to people playing them competitively, and not for, well, fun. Part of that might be becase of steep learning curves, because missing just one subtle input can result in your combo going off the rails quicker than a forum thread that rhymes with Llamas.Capcom is looking to increase the amount of people taking part in their games however, with friendlier teaching systems.
Talking on the US Capcom forums, Svensson explained that the developer want to take into account non-competitive level players so that they can enjoy these games too.”
“I’d say we have varying levels of success in making sure there’s enough content and fun in the mechanics even if you don’t know how to plink, FADC or DHC. SFxT was intended to be a bit more casual friendly and frankly, I think with the introduction of so many new systems, we probably overcomplicated things and it worked against that objective,” Svensson said.
I strongly agree that we have not done a good job of truly teaching new players about the basics of fighting game strategy in our current crop of titles. This has been a hot button conversation with the producers in the past and some have embraced it.
In the case of SF3: Online Edition, we tried to put in challenges and trials that would have explained a bit more of the “why” as opposed to just the “how” in traditional training modes but we probably didn’t go as far as we could have.
In future titles, this is an area that I hope that our teams will take more time with as I view them as critical to the expansion of the fighting game audience. I know some competitive players will scoff, but the vitality of the scene is linked to how successful we all are in these efforts. I say all because the community needs to be accepting of new players too.
Scrubs are just players who don’t yet have the same experience or knowledge that you do. And remember, once upon a time, you were a scrub too.
Or, for just several payments of R99.95, you could enrol in my button-mashing workshop, which teaches you all kinds of neat tricks, which will put you on par with any South Korean. Heck, I’ll even add in some free dirty tricks, such as making your hand sweaty, shaking your opponents one, thus leaving him disabled and riddled with germs before the match. Bargain!
Last Updated: August 1, 2012
