Fighting games have an issue, and that issue is the audience. No matter how good the tournament scene is, the scene will die without new blood coming in, and the scenes are indeed getting smaller due to a number of issues.
The communities have an issue where they need to be more welcoming to newcomers. There is a problem with toxicity among communities, and to the FGC’s credit, this is regularly discussed as a problem but nothing has really been done yet. This unwelcome attitude is a major turnoff to potential new players, since they feel rejected by the community at large. This is not a call to the end idea of “get good” culture, but to change the meaning of it. Instead of mocking people as noobs, we should help them grow as players, perhaps even having some events just for newcomers to learn more in a welcoming environment. Mocking players constantly when they are just getting interested will only end up driving them away.
Connected to the last point is the problem that many communities in the FGC have elitist attitudes, Just saying “git gud” without offering help only ends up hurting the scene by causing it to shrink gradually. New players are needed tp help keep fighting games alive and without them, our favourite games will not continue due to low sales.
A second major way to improve the scene is for developers to make games more inviting for casuals. This does not have to be the developers dumbing the games down but instead adding more single player and offline content. This content will gets many people interested into a game, and can lead them into playing online.
An example of this succeeding is NetherRealm Studios, whose games sell well because they have so much offline content. There is so much available in their games, that a casual player can play for hundreds of hours and never have to go online. This isn’t a bad thing because many players do eventually try online after playing the offline modes, due to increased interest. Having a great amount of offline content brings in players, and that means sales increase. Increased sales in turn mean that a series can continue on.
We need to bring in more players to the games and make them want to stay so we can help the FGC grow and thrive. But these are just my two cents on the matter. These don’t need to be major changes to the FGC, and they don’t need to be intrusive but can be done organically. Right now though, we just need to stop being jerks to others and stop attacking each other over petty reasons.
Disclaimer: The above is the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of ROG or its staff.