It’s Still Important to Support the New Games
If you’re having fun, keep playing it
The late 2017 launch, and subsequent lifespan, of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite is infamous for a variety of reasons. From the preorder bonus debacle, the graphics and UI not retaining the same stylish comic book flair as the past entries, to most of the classic roster being cut due to the Marvel IP rights being acquired by Disney, it was no surprise that initial faith in the game’s quality was mixed. Combine that with the release of Blazblue Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, as well as both of those games receiving Evo slots instead, and it seemed as though MvCI was dead in the water. If you were to take the backlash and the Evo roster announcement at face value, it would seem as if no one was interested in the game at all- no one playing it, no one finding anything fun with the game.
I’ve been going back through old Top 8 footage of a bunch of games lately, due to a combination of passing interests, genuine studying, and a longing for the return of offline majors. I couldn’t find the VODs for Combo Breaker 2019’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 side tournament, so I pulled up the result that did come up- the VOD for MvCI Top 8- on a whim. My interest in tag fighters is almost purely spectator-motivated, because I don’t have the brain to play more than one character at once. What I discovered while watching was not only a game that absolutely retained the flashy long combos and team tactics of past Marvel games, but a game that the crowd absolutely loved. The Midwest MvCI scene was constantly popping off with Happy Birthday and Somebody’s Getting’ Fucked chants every time some pour soul got blown up, and the players put on a hell of a show. People loved this game.
Guilty Gear Strive is not in the exact same position that MvCI was four years ago, but I’m reminded of it anyway. Longtime fans of the series’ older titles were disappointed with the new game for various reasons, and they were vocal about it in such a way that onlookers would believe that everyone was grumpy about it. Of course, this isn’t a new phenomenon- I’ve been playing Smash Bros. long enough to know better, and people who play Street Fighter also remember when their favorite version of the game was also trashed by the community too. Every new fighting game is raw on launch, whether due to pre-patch balance, a new and unrefined engine, or even the netcode (yeah, yeah.) What matters more than anything- even the developer support for a title- is whether a game has a community to keep it alive, and if it has something compelling to keep that community around. People still play newer, controversial games like MvCI, BBTAG, and Granblue Fantasy Versus because those games are fun to them even though the pervasive narrative is that they’re bad for whatever reason.
What is important, however, is to not straight-up lie about a game or pretend that [x game] will be way better or save the FGC. To put it bluntly, the meme about GGST being the Melty Blood waiting room drives me up the wall. I haven’t played enough of Actress Again Current Code to make any major judgement calls, but I have a passing familiarity with it, I’ve played a lot of Under Night, and I’m also just familiar with FGC history. From what we’ve seen of Type Lumina, there will absolutely be major differences to how the game plays compared to MBAACC. Characters seem to not have Moon groove systems, alongside the new Moon Gauge and simpler special moves. We also know that crossplay is deconfirmed and that most of the quintessential Melty characters like Eltnam aren’t coming back- in fact, the roster is only going to be “10+” characters. Furthermore, unlike GGST, we haven’t played MBTL yet. Type Moon and French Bread have been showing off gameplay regularly, but it’s only in minute-long snippets and we haven’t touched the game at all. There will, inevitably, be something about Type Lumina that makes old French Bread fans balk at the prospect of playing it. Expect the same Twitter and YouTube content that we got about GGST and all these other games to happen again come September 30th.
Of course, if MBTL comes out and you do like it, then keep playing it! If people turn on the game for whatever reason, just ignore them and keep playing it. You don’t have to let other people decide what games you enjoy- there will be a different community to play with instead. It’s the same with GGST. You don’t have to let one SonicFox tweet convince you that your game was bad all along. The time you spend looking up posts dogpiling on your game, or creating those posts, or responding to those posts, is much better spent playing the game and getting better at it. Up until now, I’ve been able to avoid most of the discussion surrounding the value of GGST as a game just because I’ve been playing it and having a blast. I’m also used to people treating my favorite game as though it’s garbage- I played Pokkén for a long time after all. And if old Melty Blood fans don’t like MBTL, that’s fine too. The old game isn’t going anywhere and you’ve probably been playing it for a decade or more.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had fun just messing around in training mode with my character, and I-No in GGST has been incredibly satisfying to explore, so I plan to keep playing this game for a long time after this so-called honeymoon period ends. I say this as someone who played Rev2 for three years and is still playing +R. I found something I like doing in this game, and I’m going to keep doing that thing because I can’t do it the same way in any other game. If the game stops being fun for whatever reason, I’m under no obligation to keep playing- that’s why I dropped Rev2 and Pokkén. I’m a big Under Night fan and I’m excited about a French Bread game that doesn’t doxx me whenever I try to play its rollback implementation, so I’m looking forward to MBTL. If it doesn’t grab me like I expect it to, though, I probably won’t play it with the same fervor I’m playing GGST with. This is also true the other way around- if MBTL is godlike then I might not play GGST as much anymore come this fall. I enjoy playing new games just as much as I do old ones, so I want to support the new games if I like them.
Of course, with all these new games coming out with rollback, you’re never going to catch me dead playing the ones that don’t have it.
