Let’s be honest, aside from big name fighters, many great fighting games are not getting a lot of new players. The fact of the matter is that no matter how great a tournament scene is, without new blood coming in, the scene will get smaller. So how can we fix this?
I can think of a couple of ways and I believe the scene can still grow. First and foremost, the communities need to be more welcoming. Toxicity among communities is regularly discussed and nothing has really been done yet. This is a major turnoff to potential new players, since they feel rejected. I am not saying we need to end the “get good” culture, but simply refine it. Instead of mocking people as noobs, we should offer to help them grow as players. Maybe have some event just for newcomers to learn more in a welcoming environment. Mocking players constantly when they are just starting out, only ends up chasing them away.
Related to the above, is the fact that many communities in the greater FGC, have an elitist attitude. Not all but most, and it needs to stop. Keeping newcomers out or just saying “git gud” without offering help only ends up hurting the scene by causing it to shrink gradually. New players help keep fighting games alive and without them, our favourite series ( whatever it may be) will not continue due to low sales.
The second major way is for developers to make games more tempting for casuals. I DO NOT mean to say things should be dumbed down, but rather more single player and offline content should be added. This is what gets many people interested into a game, and can lead them into playing online. Street Fighter V suffered badly because of this, and Arcade Edition seems like it will finally right the ship by addressing this issue.
NetherRealm Studios games sell well because they have so much offline content, that a casual player can player for hundreds of hours and never go online. This is not a bad thing, as its been seen that many players do eventually try online after playing the offline modes. 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. And we must fact the facts that if the games do not sell, they will not continue at all.
If we can bring in more players to the games, and make them want to stay, we can help the FGC grow and thrive. But this is 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. For now, all we can do is just not be jerks to the newcomers.
Disclaimer: The above was the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of Real Otaku gamer or its staff.