On playing what you love in the FGC
Especially when it gets harder to play
Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed from its April 9th 2021 release date to June 11th, in the wake of feedback regarding the Open Beta Test’s iteration of online lobbies. The game itself is fun and the online play feels fantastic due to Arc System Works’ in-house rollback netcode. Furthermore, King of Fighters XV has finally been confirmed by SNK to feature an in-development rollback implementation. This means that both of 2021’s high-profile fighting game releases will have the fully functional online play that has been so highly demanded by players for nearly a decade. Players of other games are finding it hard to return to their main titles after having tried the GGST OBT for themselves, knowing that a better experience in a modern title awaits them in three months. This is especially true as games like DBFZ seem to approach the end of their development cycle and fans look towards what could be next.
On the other hand, players who weren’t impressed with what they played of GGST- or even people who were merely watching the OBT from the outside- remain skeptical. Diehard Xrd fans whose characters are missing wholesale or otherwise lacking certain tools may wish that ASW had instead released a Rev3 with rollback in it. Still others believe that rollback is simply a shiny buzzword that will attract people to play in the beginning of the game’s lifespan, but eventually those same new players will quit and go back to their old games within a month. Players will also insist that the netcode in their preferred game ‘isn’t even that bad’ and that there’s still value in playing their game. All this discourse is really just what happens inevitably whenever a new game comes out, but since we live in an era where we can’t always play what we love with our friends or local communities, the argument has intensified.
To start, the value of gameplay is subjective, and what makes one game appealing for one player might make it off-putting for another. We know this because there’s a wide variety of fighting games on the market that all appeal to different types of players. Gameplay itself can be objectively bad, if such a game is buggy, clunky, unresponsive, or doesn’t work as intended. However, when a game is well made, what you like or don’t like about a game becomes opinion or personal taste. When someone says that Street Fighter V is a bad game, if it’s because they don’t like some element of the way it plays, they’re just saying that they don’t like SFV. Someone else may be fond of that same SFV mechanic and it may even be what makes SFV a good game for them.
To wit: I’ve been trying to get newbie friends to play Guilty Gear for a while. I’ve spoken before about how Gear tends to inundate its players with a multitude of options that can overwhelm them and make it difficult to figure out where to start in a match. I’ve also elaborated on different learning processes that can help new players digest the deeper mechanics in games like Gear. Of course, sorting everything in Gear from the ground up and ignoring the deeper mechanics is easier said than done. These same new players that have been struggling to play XX and Xrd really enjoy what they played of GGST. The fat from many characters’ kits has been trimmed, making their gameplans easier to understand; the hitstop and big COUNTER text makes it easier for them to learn combos despite the reduced Gatlings; the damage makes winning neutral feel rewarding while also making it clear that longer combos will be better in the long run; the unified defensive mechanics and Roman Cancel systems still provide the depth from previous Gears. Despite my- and other veteran players’- problems with the game, GGST has done its job of appealing to new players and has gotten them invested in the series. Simply put, to these newbies, GGST is a ‘good game.’
If any players still doubt whether or not a game having rollback can keep that game alive: +R and Rev2, at the time of writing, literally have the same amount of people playing them on Steam. The fact that the older game can compete with the newer one in terms of popularity is 100% attributable to the fact that +R is finally playable online. As far as fighting games with delay-based netcode are concerned, you can feel the difference for yourself. I recently played against a friend from the UK at a 10+ frame delay in Xrd, and another friend who lives in my own state at a randomly fluctuating three-to-six frame delay in both Xrd and Under Night. Rollback netcode being better than delay-based netcode is objective, and it’s frustrating going back to games that have objectively bad online play after knowing there’s better experiences out there. Games that I used to love have become almost impossible for me to touch.
Having said all of that- there’s nothing, realistically, stopping you from continuing to play your game, even if the online is bad. It’s not like the developer is going to wrestle the game from your hands to force to you play something else. The biggest example of a community refusing to put down their old game years after the new rollback title had been released is probably Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. While Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite had (subjectively) appealing gameplay and (objectively) better netcode, the massive engine changes, ugly graphics, and controversial roster were enough to deny the game an Evo roster slot the year it debuted. Players decided that they would rather learn how to optimize Parsec to play Marvel 3 with marginally better input delay, than play a game they didn’t like that still had better online.
Rev2 players are probably going to be in the same boat once GGST drops. If they really don’t like the game for whatever reason, they have a handful of options. They can play GGST anyway because it’s the new hotness with a better overall online experience than what they’re playing now; they can play +R for similar reasons; or they can continue playing their game and persevere through the terrible input delay. Maybe ASW will revisit the game eventually, either with a Rev3 version or a rollback retrofit or both. In the meantime, these specific Rev2 players will have to confront the fact that they only really like playing Rev2, and it’ll be up to them to figure out what that entails in a world where online events with rollback are dominating the FGC landscape.
Of course, whether your game receives mainstream competition isn’t the end-all be-all, but it certainly helps grow your community. What’s more important is how these diehard Rev2 and DBFZ players will continue to support their games after the development cycle has ended. In fact, it’s often easier to stick with a game once it stops receiving constant patches and the meta can finally solidify- again, look at the community surrounding games like Marvel. Once offline events return, the netcode will be less of an issue (although it certainly still matters if you want to keep a game alive for most of your audience, who will never attend an in-person tournament.) If you love a game, you probably love it despite everything you find wrong with it. Continuing to play that game online while knowing that every time you match against someone, you must contend with a hidden third opponent within the game’s network, is certainly admirable.
But if you’ve finally gotten fed up with your game not respecting the time you’ve put into practicing precise inputs or long touch-of-death combos, there’s nothing wrong with dropping it for something else that feels better to play online. In fact, if you’re unhappy with what you’re playing for any reason at all, it won’t hurt for you to experiment with something new. It doesn’t have to be the upcoming GGST or KOFXV, nor does it have to be some random kusoge that has better netcode than whatever you might be playing right now. Gameplay is subjective, after all, and these other games that other people are trying to heap onto your plate might not be appetizing to you at first. But if you sink your teeth deep enough into something new on a whim, you might just find something delicious.
