The BB Community, EVO, Netplay, and the FGC.

[Ctrlaltwtf]

The BB community was fine until I came along.

Sorry.

[Skye]

To be honest the BB community is pretty awful. We kill all the hype for the game. Commentary, people never get excited because I can tell how 90% of the commentary goes for BB. Hell even NEC had the same shit go on. Oh this game sucks, this game is so stupid fills up 90% of the commentary. Look at marvel and street fighter, they get people engaged, thinking and most importantly they get excited. What do we do when something cool happens, oh that character is dumb. Dacid Bro was a welcome addition because he is the only commentator that doesn't do this. How are we suppose to grow as a community and attract potential people when our own commentary spends more time shitting on the game than talking about the intricacies of the match. Its the communities fault its not at Evo. Ever iteration of BB has been better than the last, the game is making great progress into a great game. Stop shitting on it, if you dont like the game get the fuck off the mic and let someone else do the talking.

Also /agree with main post.To give about myself. As a student, when I first got into the BB, I was getting my Registered Nursing license. I had no job just school which was very time consuming. I made it to all the monthlies I could and even made it out to evo for support BB. I've organized a few trips, helped run many a tournaments, and to be honest its very frustrating. And the one thing I've noticed time and time again is the community destroys itself. Start participating, get out of your shell and go places when you can. From my observation is that people want to travel but are too lazy to work logistics. Step up your game and be that leader.

You should see BBCS2 at Michigan Masters. Shit was hype.

[KayEff]

From my observation is that people want to travel but are too lazy to work logistics.

if only i had a steady job.

or a source of steady income.

or no debt to worry about.

or if i wasn't so serious about my career.

maybe then i'd go to more events.

[Chibi-Nya]

So what has changed in this year? EVO will be essentially the same (Whoo, SFxT again! <.<) I haven't seen any new BB tournament- Perhaps there have even been LESS than before. We got BBCP coming out but the community for this game has pretty much been set in stone for years now... Are we just supposed to wait until we grow up and start really hyping and making the game known?

Referring back to the original post now a year ago... I believe we should actually strive to make it into EVO, having BB with it's own super tournament is going to keep the community closed as always... It's just not the same effect as being showcased to the entire world in the biggest FG tournament worldwide. What I'm saying is... I think we should try to get BBCP into EVO, there's still a lot of time (2014!) and even the most humble of players should be able to contribute in a way to achieve it, whether it's just by voting, attending their tournaments or helping in organizing their scene.

[Tong]

We got BBCP coming out but the community for this game has pretty much been set in stone for years now... Are we just supposed to wait until we grow up and start really hyping and making the game known?

That's not necessarialy true.

A new game is The Chance to welcome and attract new players.

[BlackYakuzu94]

I read that article and it was pretty legit. I can't do much to support this series, but I'll do whatever I can.

[RubixGroove]

I read the whole thread... took a little bit. :D

It has been said that BB won't really get the attention of any new/fresh players but I'll say that I recently started playing. Completely fresh to anime/air-dasher/"poverty" games but have been playing 2D fighters pretty regularly since 1994. What I'm saying is that, even though I'm a huge SF fan and have been damn near my whole life, it only took a single moment of proper Blazblue exposure to get me hooked! It happened randomly at one of the local gatherings, maybe only for about 7-8 minutes then my friend had to take off. I went back to playing SF and drinking... the resonance of the silky animations and the announcer's "COUNTER!" lingered the rest of the night. Woke up the next day, went out and grabbed a copy of BB:CSE.

Now... I've managed to turn on quite a few of my friends who are not "typically" fighting gamers. Mind you, none of these are folks that would ever go to a tournament for anything. I have had some success in taking it out to gatherings, being one of maybe four-five people that play locally... we get loud and excited and start playing for drinks (instead of money matches). I've managed to get a few of our more "hardcore" UMvC3 players to sit down and play several times and MOST OF THEM REALLY DIG IT. Now, the ONE THING that seems to be the main killer from WITHIN the FGC is the knowledge that there is some slack between updates/releases. Quite a few people told me that they'd actually buy their own copy if the I.P. settled down enough to let them purchase without fear of the next version coming out and everyone (locally) quitting until then. Unfortunately, that is the ebb & flow of games that aren't "the big two" + Tekken.

Point of this post was to say "...in your face, I am a brand new BB player! See?! New people DO pop up every so often." and "even though I might be a total scrub at the game, I'm still trying to turn more people on to it".

Here's to hoping that Chrono Phantasma will be the last update the game gets for a while, maybe people wouldn't be afraid to buy-in and enjoy a game other than SF/MvC3/Tekken...!

Peace

[YukiBlue]

if only i had a steady job.

or a source of steady income.

or no debt to worry about.

or if i wasn't so serious about my career.

maybe then i'd go to more events.

You say that as if the FGC isn't made up of debt-riddled students. I know I can't compare our situations, but everything you typed is more or less the situation I'm in now, and it doesn't stop me from going once or twice a year, or just making a 1 hour trip to play casuals for a day.

[Ctrlaltwtf]

1 hour trip to play casuals for a day.

1 hour trips? Hell yeah I'd do that. Closest scenes to me would probably be in California and that's like a 16 hour drive for me

Edited January 17, 2013 by Ctrlaltwtf

[Linear04]

why do people care about off line so much stop crying and play online

wait what who thought it was a good idea to res this almost year dead thread -_-

like comon you have to have gone to 2nd page and known that it was like a year old damn

Edited January 17, 2013 by Linear04

[Tong]

It has been said that BB won't really get the attention of any new/fresh players but I'll say that I recently started playing. Completely fresh to anime/air-dasher/"poverty" games but have been playing 2D fighters pretty regularly since 1994. What I'm saying is that, even though I'm a huge SF fan and have been damn near my whole life, it only took a single moment of proper Blazblue exposure to get me hooked! It happened randomly at one of the local gatherings, maybe only for about 7-8 minutes then my friend had to take off. I went back to playing SF and drinking... the resonance of the silky animations and the announcer's "COUNTER!" lingered the rest of the night. Woke up the next day, went out and grabbed a copy of BB:CSE.

Now... I've managed to turn on quite a few of my friends who are not "typically" fighting gamers. Mind you, none of these are folks that would ever go to a tournament for anything. I have had some success in taking it out to gatherings, being one of maybe four-five people that play locally... we get loud and excited and start playing for drinks (instead of money matches). I've managed to get a few of our more "hardcore" UMvC3 players to sit down and play several times and MOST OF THEM REALLY DIG IT. Now, the ONE THING that seems to be the main killer from WITHIN the FGC is the knowledge that there is some slack between updates/releases. Quite a few people told me that they'd actually buy their own copy if the I.P. settled down enough to let them purchase without fear of the next version coming out and everyone (locally) quitting until then. Unfortunately, that is the ebb & flow of games that aren't "the big two" + Tekken.

Point of this post was to say "...in your face, I am a brand new BB player! See?! New people DO pop up every so often." and "even though I might be a total scrub at the game, I'm still trying to turn more people on to it".

Hey thanks for the insight, and really what most people think is that no marver/sf player would ever ever ever take a peek and try Blazblue.

But hey, newer versions (rebalanced) usually cost less than the new game and it's rather nice to have something new to play every year.

[Airk]

I read the whole thread... took a little bit. :D

It has been said that BB won't really get the attention of any new/fresh players but I'll say that I recently started playing. Completely fresh to anime/air-dasher/"poverty" games but have been playing 2D fighters pretty regularly since 1994. What I'm saying is that, even though I'm a huge SF fan and have been damn near my whole life, it only took a single moment of proper Blazblue exposure to get me hooked! It happened randomly at one of the local gatherings, maybe only for about 7-8 minutes then my friend had to take off. I went back to playing SF and drinking... the resonance of the silky animations and the announcer's "COUNTER!" lingered the rest of the night. Woke up the next day, went out and grabbed a copy of BB:CSE.

Now... I've managed to turn on quite a few of my friends who are not "typically" fighting gamers. Mind you, none of these are folks that would ever go to a tournament for anything. I have had some success in taking it out to gatherings, being one of maybe four-five people that play locally... we get loud and excited and start playing for drinks (instead of money matches). I've managed to get a few of our more "hardcore" UMvC3 players to sit down and play several times and MOST OF THEM REALLY DIG IT. Now, the ONE THING that seems to be the main killer from WITHIN the FGC is the knowledge that there is some slack between updates/releases. Quite a few people told me that they'd actually buy their own copy if the I.P. settled down enough to let them purchase without fear of the next version coming out and everyone (locally) quitting until then. Unfortunately, that is the ebb & flow of games that aren't "the big two" + Tekken.

Point of this post was to say "...in your face, I am a brand new BB player! See?! New people DO pop up every so often." and "even though I might be a total scrub at the game, I'm still trying to turn more people on to it".

Here's to hoping that Chrono Phantasma will be the last update the game gets for a while, maybe people wouldn't be afraid to buy-in and enjoy a game other than SF/MvC3/Tekken...!

Peace

Welcome aboard!

The release cycle is...yeah. A mixed blessing to some extent. On the one hand, "Don't like something? Wait a year." on the other hand, another $40 every 12 months isn't very exciting to a lot of people. Curiosity check though - is it the "game changes every year" aspect that bothers them, or the "have to buy a new game every year" thing? (i.e. do they not like having the "relearn" stuff, or do they not like having to "rebuy" stuff?). 'cause we did get that one glorious free update. Ah, CS2.

Another interesting thing is that it's sometimes a lot easier for an enthusiastic newbie to rope in other people than it is for an (often bitter) oldster, especially because the feeling of "Well, maybe I suck at this game, but everyone else here sucks at this game too, so woooo!" is much easier when you don't have one guy who is like "I crush you all! crush crush!" so uh, I guess the moral of the story is that it's easier to introduce a bunch of people at once.

[Daisy-Fan]

Can they build new combos by a new patch or they really need to keep milk the same game all over for new things? I dont have problem, but they it come to 2 no by 3 its pretty enough too. Yet am still fresh to the game, but in general i do buy some others type of games not only fighting's and Shooters.

[Star-Demon]

When I talk to a lot of people I want to get into the game hey really do not like having to keep current with versions. I have one player who bought CS2 early this semester and was starting to learn on his own for the first time playing lambda then try to play vs my Extend Litchi when I would bring my PS3 to campus.

For those of us who are big fans or committed players of this game this isn't as big of a problem, but for people that are just getting into it - it really is a pain when entry costs are so high for a game you really are just trying.

[mAc Chaos]

Same with most of my friends. They liked CT but they didn't want to relearn combos and everything all over again. They felt like everything they learned was for nothing. (False, but it's hard to make them see that.)

[Ryu334]

I hope bbcp gets released sometime after evo is over,I mostly play umvc3 an sfxt but I love watching bb it looks really smooth, I want bb to be bigger, there are tons of players online but they never show up to support the game, hopefully once bbcp rolls around you guys can get 20-30 man weeklies an 100+ at majors, people will take notice, also bb needs some hype commentary, I don't wanna compare games but kof13 has one of the worst netcodes an they go out hard to rep there game an hype it up that's what I want to see show these sf an marvel guys why bb is hype an fun to watch.

[Nemesis]

Same with most of my friends. They liked CT but they didn't want to relearn combos and everything all over again. They felt like everything they learned was for nothing. (False, but it's hard to make them see that.)

thats like... 50% of the fun for me... if everything stayed very much the same between iterations -- where would the challenge be? relearning creates new methodology and tactics and can easily open your mind to concepts previously unrealizable (is that a word?) feats -- part of the fun of fighting games (me) is the threat another player can create... The greater the threat the greater my gain will be from the fight (.... sigh DBZ..) ... When the threat of other players diminishes .. so does my interest in the game

[TransientFaith]

thats like... 50% of the fun for me... if everything stayed very much the same between iterations -- where would the challenge be? relearning creates new methodology and tactics and can easily open your mind to concepts previously unrealizable (is that a word?) feats -- part of the fun of fighting games (me) is the threat another player can create... The greater the threat the greater my gain will be from the fight (.... sigh DBZ..) ... When the threat of other players diminishes .. so does my interest in the game

There is a fine line between "fun because I get to use new tools and experiment with new options" and "sucks because I have to learn a whole new character who is really the same character but the developers are gay"

I totally agree with the last part though. Fighting game communities really thrive when there is local competition and everyone learns/improves

[Airk]

thats like... 50% of the fun for me... if everything stayed very much the same between iterations -- where would the challenge be?

I've never quite understood this mindset; What do you mean "where would the challenge be?" It's not in learning new combos, I'll tell you that.

The challenge in fighting games is and always will be fighting against others. An unchanged toolset should allow people to continue to hone their game to higher levels rather than having to start fresh and figure out the basic/intermediate stuff all over again. People are still playing Super Turbo/MvC2/Chess, and clearly, they continue to find challenge in it.

Now if you just want to say "well, fine, but I like to mix it up" that's fine, but implying that somehow the challenge DECLINES when people have more time to explore the game seems counter intuitive.

[Saeor12]

Being generally new to DL, and the FGC entirely, I would love to have the opportunity for a localized major for BB. BB was the first ever fighter that I played after my friend went out and bought CT. The next day I bought a copy of it just so i could practice and get better. Now i still consider myself a noob at the game primarily since i do not play online much due to connections being in Oklahoma but i would love to be able to meet other people and play offline.

So if anyone around the OK/TX area wants to hit me up for either some online matches or just with information on their local scene it would be appreciated.

[00Bubbles00]

I welcome BB iterations for new story content.

For FGs in general, I think there are 2 camps.

1. People who get bored and want to try new games. These people will want a newer version, often playing some other games between the time too. It also gives a reason to try to main a new character.

2. People who will only play what they are good at, and refuse to try new things. They care greatly for winning. These people are those that refused abandon Starcraft 1 when Starcraft 2 came out, even though the first game had been around rotting for 10 years because they didn't want to lose.

[Airk]

I welcome BB iterations for new story content.

For FGs in general, I think there are 2 camps.

1. People who get bored and want to try new games. These people will want a newer version, often playing some other games between the time too. It also gives a reason to try to main a new character.

2. People who will only play what they are good at, and refuse to try new things. They care greatly for winning. These people are those that refused abandon Starcraft 1 when Starcraft 2 came out, even though the first game had been around rotting for 10 years because they didn't want to lose.

What about those of us who aren't bored but who feel like we still have a lot to learn and therefore don't want all of our practice reset to near zero by having to pick up a new game. (Yes, fine, it's not really "near zero" but it's a fairly significant setback).

I don't really enjoy learning combos. It's a necessary cost to me for playing these games, but I'd far rather be playing against people than grinding in training mode to try to keep from dropping my IAD combo. Even little changes to timing take a good chunk of time for me to adapt to. I don't "care greatly for winning" but I like being able to put up a fight and have a "good game". I tend to regret version updates because they feel like work, but you don't -really- have a choice about whether you want to buy them if you want to continue to play the game, because the majority of the community WILL move on without you if you don't. And what do I get out of it, really? A different "rule set". Which is often only debatably better than the old one.

I don't think it's necessary to tell those of us who don't like having the rules changed every year that we're only doing it because we "don't like to lose."

[Ctrlaltwtf]

What about those of us who aren't bored but who feel like we still have a lot to learn and therefore don't want all of our practice reset to near zero by having to pick up a new game. (Yes, fine, it's not really "near zero" but it's a fairly significant setback).

I don't really enjoy learning combos. It's a necessary cost to me for playing these games, but I'd far rather be playing against people than grinding in training mode to try to keep from dropping my IAD combo. Even little changes to timing take a good chunk of time for me to adapt to. I don't "care greatly for winning" but I like being able to put up a fight and have a "good game". I tend to regret version updates because they feel like work, but you don't -really- have a choice about whether you want to buy them if you want to continue to play the game, because the majority of the community WILL move on without you if you don't. And what do I get out of it, really? A different "rule set". Which is often only debatably better than the old one.

I don't think it's necessary to tell those of us who don't like having the rules changed every year that we're only doing it because we "don't like to lose."

I suppose this is where I raise my Option1MasterRace flag.

I personally really enjoy finding the optimal combos in Training mode, probably a habit brought on by writing those guides. I usually end up finding a bunch of neat stuff on accident as well (wondering if Ronilo remembers that Hungry Coils cross-up tech trap I did to him yesterday >_>)

I'd hate it if the character stayed exactly the same on each game, just defies the point of a "new" game in my opinion. It's not like the characters are hugely different and none of your skills will carry over to the next iteration. Most FG developers are smart enough to keep each character in the same mindset and making bullshit excuses to keep every character in the cast regardless of the story.

[00Bubbles00]

Airk:

Unless you only played 1 fighting game all of 2012, i would say you are in category 1. I have some friends who still strictly play SSF4AE nothing else, and the updates to that game are hardly substantial enough to reset you to "zero". They fit under category 2.

If you are learning the "fundamentals" (myself included), I don't think a version change hurts that. They are transferable skills. Why else are the pro's already doing crazy stuff after a game has just been out for a week or 2?

[Airk]

I'd hate it if the character stayed exactly the same on each game, just defies the point of a "new" game in my opinion. It's not like the characters are hugely different and none of your skills will carry over to the next iteration. Most FG developers are smart enough to keep each character in the same mindset and making bullshit excuses to keep every character in the cast regardless of the story.

Well, my point is sortof that I don't want/need a "new" game every year. Especially when those "new" games are like Extend, but anyway, dead horse, thoroughly beaten.

Unless you only played 1 fighting game all of 2012, i would say you are in category 1. I have some friends who still strictly play SSF4AE nothing else, and the updates to that game are hardly substantial enough to reset you to "zero". They fit under category 2.

Technically, I did play P4A, and I think I bought VF5S, though I think I have yet to actually play it. x.x Then I went back to BB because I didn't feel like grinding combos in P4A. =/