Fighters are the original character-based games, a design trait that is becoming more and more common in recent PvP games of other genres.
Fighting games have a bad reputation in terms of accessibility that doesn’t exactly reflect reality. With this video, I’m hoping to dispel some of the misconceptions and get more people to give this fantastic genre a try.
00:00 Intro
00:45 Once upon a time
03:42 The fighting game experience
05:29 On difficulty
08:50 Skill floor in fighting games
12:09 “It’s too fast for me”
13:02 “I don’t like losing”
15:15 Conclusion
Themes used (in order of appearance):
Actor’s Anteroom – Melty Blood AACC – Character select screen
The Path of Duty – GBVS – Katalina’s Theme
Elegant Summer – Melty Blood AACC – Akiha’s Theme
Licht – GBVS – Ferry’s Theme
Moonsiders 1st – Tekken 7 – Infinite Azure Stage Theme
Severe person – Melty Blood AACC – Miyako’s theme
Spunky – Street Fighter III 3rd Strike – Makoto’s theme
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Rubbish’s video:
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Playlist with all the video essays I’ve watched
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Channels you should check out (in order of appearance in the video (which is no particular order)):
Core-A Gaming:
Gekko Squirrel:
Seldom Sad Sam:
Leon Massey:
TheoryFighter:
Stumblebee:
Rubbish:
HazzaHazzaHazza:
Massive Zug:
Press Button Win:
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Discord Servers you can join
– Hearts are Blazing: for finding GBVS players:
– Often Happy Game Club: Seldom Sad Sam’s Discord, where I hang out most of the time:
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Creative Commons Attributions
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Local Forecast – Slower by Kevin MacLeod
Free download:
License (CC BY 4.0):
Artist website:
“CRT TV” () by Timothy Ahene is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ().
“Super nintendo” () by quick_loop is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ().
siloPIRATE
20.04.20237:49 why do people stop at the door with fighting games not not with other things?
Two words:
You lose
Multiplied by a million times. Depending on game/opponent, you may have done virtually nothing in a fight and lost. Or you genuinely tried your hardest and still lost. Add to that, fighting games are not forthcoming with information you can in have no idea why you lost whereas in other genres cause and effect are more obvious. Then there’s ranked where you will lose rank if you lose enough which drives up frustration and reduces the desire to play. In the you lose situations, you get, nothing. You could try another fighting game that you’re completely new to but if you’re anything like me you’ll realise you’ll be at square one and have to learn the fighting system from scratch (add to that obtuse controls where games often don’t call the buttons their actual names, don’t tell you the button timings etc) if you’re anything like me you’ll go nope, not worth the time or the effort.
Tekken Tag 2 killed the genre for me. I did get Tekken 7 and got pretty far on ranked, but my interest in the genre has pretty much been killed off.
Elly Jockey
20.04.2023I'd play fighting games and other competitive genres, but I don't like hyper-competitive environments because of, you know, toxic players. Those kinds. It feels cutthroat… I'd rather just say GG and move on.
Is it possible to find a good group of people to play with?
yan
19.04.202314:51 Fighting game skill ceilings aren't particularly higher in general than other games. The skill floor may be, but the biggest problem in my eyes is conveyance – learning basic fighting game skills often requires someone to tell you what to do. It's not immediately obvious how to anti air or why that's important, when you should block, attack or throw a hadouken. In contrast, if you're new to an FPS, you'll still intuitively point at bad guys and click to shoot. You're already on the right track. The initial period where you're playing without intentionality is much shorter, even though you're horrible at the game.
Kroqh
19.04.2023I like Tekken. I fucking hate juggling enough for me not to play the game however.
warangelcp gamebreak
19.04.2023I think fighting games are just as hard as old school platformers. They take reaction time and pattern recognition. The only thing about fighting games is that now everybody wants to be Daigo. I have always loved Street Fighter 3 before I knew what Evo 37 was. The point of fighting games was something my cousins played together when we got together. And once fighting games went online, I could play more. There was no need to wait for me to have to wait for my cousins to play.
Huzzy
19.04.2023Also price….because the 6 arcsys fighting games out at once each with their own multiple season passes, and each costing $60 for only the base game. There isnt any way normal people are going to buy that unless you're at the competitive level to be good enough or a big fan of the series in the first place.
Ilyak1986
19.04.2023The thing that made me put down fighting games is simply executing my moves. Too often, I've just been unable to control my character properly. E.G. in super smash brothers melee? Forget it–I could not get the proper "be able to flick the jump button just right on command in order to short hop", let alone then have the perfect timing to air dash diagonally in order to wavedash. With Guilty Gear? Was using Playstation controller DPad, so forget about being able to do all the pretzel motions and other "much easier on the stick" commands.
I want to do something like Sol's tyrant rave, screw up, and get 6H.
Simply, I can't play the real game (play against an opponent) if I can't even get my character to properly move and attack a training dummy. I can't get into the various real-time chess matches and such that fighting games are supposed to be about (which input do I use at which range, what options does my opp have and how do I bait them, etc.) if, well, I can't get past that entry level barrier of "be able to do the exact move you want on command".
It's the same reason I'm such a proponent of AI in art–art is supposed to be about manifesting the vision in your head into the real world, not "omg have you studied light theory for three years in order to properly render this circle to turn it into a sphere, so now you can graduate to a sphere on top of a block, and keep practicing for five more years until you can draw people, and then learn three different pieces of image editing software on a tablet device specifically tailored for a stylus". It's like "shit, I just want to make a freaking picture, screw off with an endless field of prerequisites before I can do that!"
Similar issue in fighting games (albeit nowhere near as absurd). Smash melee would have been the perfect game if one of the jump buttons was mapped to a guaranteed short-hop, and L-canceling applied automatically, and maybe some other button mapped to wavedashing. But instead, in order to *play the real game*, you must first put in hundreds if not thousands of hours labbing in order to…be able to play the game?
In 40 or so hours, a person can go through an entire single-player timeless RPG experience like Chrono Trigger.
In those same 40 hours, they…might barely be able to control their character to the standard of a beginner?
Tear those dexterity barriers down!
xTheReapersSpawn
19.04.2023Like I always say the FGC think they have it rough… try finding games in a classic arena fps. GG NO RE.
(Love the FGC and the Melee community, just wish high skill games were bigger)
Pedro Augusto Costa
19.04.2023I don't like fighting games because I like the sensation of the journey and seeing myself evolving is one of my favorite sensations, I just don't have the patience to do it with fighting games, and doing something without improving is something I don't like, spend days, weeks at a hobby to see little to no improvement is one of the things I hate the most, so fighting games lives in a limbo for me, it's good enough that I want to play but not enough that I want to devolve a ton of time on it, and play for long stretches of time and not improving makes me mad.
Absint
19.04.2023Man, INSTANTLY subscribed. This channel looks SO promising. Thanks for putting this content out there!
I loved fighting games since my first attempts at Tekken 2, 3, Super Smash Bros Melee, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and the likes. Never been constant in playing them (as I play a LOT of different games), so always stayed definitely on the "casual side" of things, but more and more I'm enjoying their gamedesign, and feeling the appeal of devoting more time to them.
I think your channel (together with other stuff I'm finding around youtube) will be a good propeller for this. Thanks!
Vince Heng
19.04.2023I've only seriously committed myself to injustice 2 and mained Red Hood. I've tried Mortal Kombat 11 but I've got to say it get repetitive real fast. I've figured out that Injustice 2 had a more elaborate progression and upgrade function that made the game like a hybrid of RPG and fighting game that held my interest with tonnes of unlockables – in which it was done way better than MK11. Where that was not the focus of MK 11. Either that or the Fighting Game's backstory and lore are always hammy and contrived. The story's conflict always find a way to push fighters to face off each other. After awhile that because stale.
The other fighting game that had surprising level of depth at play was Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. I've played this while in University and had a bunch of friends to play with. It was real good fun and had a trashtalking friend that made things interesting.
Nowadays being a family man, my list of fighting playing friends in down to nil. There are so many titles and genres out there that provides incredible dopamine drip that demands much less than the commitment needed from these fighting games. I still find myself wanting the challenge, but it always comes down to…who the hell would I be playing with? The ones that are online are probably god-tier. The casuals probably played for a bit and put them down after facing a little heat online.
So fighting games might end up being in a niche market and novice players like me would be hardpressed to find out that the time invested might have very little payoff.
Hikari Tsumi
19.04.2023"I don't like losing" is true for any 1v1 pvp game.
I know that fighting game isn't for everyone byt the presence of online community within a NICHE genre usually means there's only loyal fanbase for it which usually translate to higher skill level.
RTS game actually have this problem too since it became more niche as each year pass by.
Haruhiro Grimgar
17.04.2023The skill floor for fighting games is just astronomical compared to most genres. And personally fighting games (even smash) tend to bring the rage out of me.
Similar to FPS games I never developed the skillset for them as a kid. So why would I bother banging my head against the wall for 100 hours as an adult just to be worse than everyone else playing and have nothing to show for it except a lot of nights raging? I can just play some cool new indie game or an interesting spin on a genre I already like.
Kekkai_
17.04.202314:40 As someone who plays a ton of both fighting games and fps games, fps games have a much higher skill ceiling than fighting games and fighting games have a much lower skill floor than fps. Fortnite, once the most popular fps, had a skill ceiling to the stars with it's building, editing, etc on top of the non-hitscan gunplay while also being a BR. It's hard for a pure beginner to even connect with a single bullet in an fps while in a fighting game you can very easily attack your opponent successfully.
Watch a true beginner try an fps and they literally have a hard time moving the camera and their character at the same time much less even attempting to shoot someone. I've seen people who are literally only able to move their camera while standing still. Staring at the floor while moving etc. In a fighting game, you literally move left or right and press button to hit which is just objectively much simpler. It's a myth that "Skill" is part of the barrier to entry for fighting games. Beginners in fps games get shit on for way longer and way harder than beginners in fighting games in my experience. It's just more bearable since they usually get to play with friends who can carry.
Imo it's mainly related the 1v1 nature of fighting games that people don't like.
Leo the Virgo
17.04.2023Outside of those people you are talking about with a general interest in fighting games but are too afraid to jump in to them, most people just like shooting games or mainstream fads like among us. They look at fighting games as either having bad graphics because they can't grasp anything that doesn't look like a moving gun with super realistic graphics, they'll say there's no skill involved because they are just " button mashers", they just have boring gameplay cause it's too "hard" to do cool stuff which can go back to the button masher mentality, and also in one case I actually met someone who said to me they don't get how someone can look at a screen with just two characters hitting each other for long periods of time and enjoy themselves which just shows how ignorant most people are because you know more people have to feel this way. Fighting games are the most niche genre in gaming…the interest just isn't there for most people sadly.
Its Rin
17.04.20237:43
it stops people unlike league of legends or other pvp only games, because fighting games aren't fun if you suck at them. and what are you gonna do at that point? play a different nonexistent or half baked game mode? dropped. next game
Obito Senju
17.04.2023Honestly this video helped me come to terms I will never be able to trully enjoy and love fighting games.
I know it sounds dramatic but I always wanted to get into them. I trully did but meaybe it is time for me to come to terms they genuently are not for me
Alphafroggy TUD
17.04.2023Everything was changed for me when i realized i should not go for perfection and just play. Don't go for the combos, flawless blocks, recovery etc. Try to have fun. If you are beaten consistently against humans try to play against computers and if computer beats you, try to lower difficulty. When you start winning against your opponent you will want to up the difficulty anyway.
jakmakjak
17.04.2023My dislike about fighting games is more so the lack of content
Revalence123
17.04.2023Will say as someone who moved from Sc2 and brood war to fighting games I disagree with that skill gap differential, but still great video
Rachit Gupta
17.04.2023i agree with most points to some extent even though i am getting better 1 thing that is a major barrier is the loading screens, they are excruciating to sit through
other than that yes i did believe it was all about reaction and timing it perfectly which annoyed me and made me delete games, then i would miss those characters and their moves so i would download and try again
Rachit Gupta
17.04.2023also whats that chess game?
Al Malone
15.04.2023I want to like fighting games but learning them is like a full time job
Nesser
15.04.2023The reason I don't like fighting games is, I suck at doing combos, I don't find enjoyment out of doing combos and I find winning in a fighting game just not rewarding enough.
I like Mortal Kombat because of the fatalities make me feel like I actually really beat my opponent as I am currently doing something to their character that wouldn't allow them to simply get up for another round.
And even then I never played much MK. I got good enough to beat the story mode, done a few towers and got bored of it.
Brutality can only make me enjoy a series so much especially if I can just look up all fatalities, brutalities etc.
Zeus 28 Frenzy
15.04.2023I dislike them because im working 40 hours a week. 5 days a week. I dont have the time or energy to just in front of a screen in a training mode or getting shit stomped every day off just in the offchance i learn. I dont want instant gratification. Its just not my game series. I prefer monster hunter. Because yes early fights are relatively easy but then G rank gets a bit ridiculous. And its fun as hell.
OscarLove
15.04.2023"There is however something strange about this when it comes to gaming. In other activies, like playing a musical instrument, or drawing, or picking up a new sport. You wouldn't spend that much time thinking about how far you are from skill ceiling wouldn't you? Sure you may end up quitting if the impression you're not getting any better. But that hasn't stopped you from giving it a try right? So i ask you, when it comes to fighting games, why does this stop people at the door?"
IMO its the impersonal and deeply competitive nature of fighting games.
a musical instrument or drawing are not competitive environments. You can be competitive about it, but they are not by default or naturally competitive. You only really compete with yourself. You dont feel intensely bad, like you 'lost', because you can't play a solo or shade an eyebrow.
In a sport you typically play with real living people, if you're new others will see that and go easy on you, they might give you advice. "work on X, but you're doing Y very well for a beginner" and that can keep you going and make your improvement more 'visible' even if you go a long time before you get even a single 'win'.
Not so with fighing game, the typical fighting game experience is that you get stomped by a few names on a screen for about 10 rounds, then you quit and refund before you ever really learn anything.
Elijah Bowers
15.04.2023I like fighting games a lot. They require a lot of time to be one somewhat competent in and the FGC isn't quite big enough that the people who actively play these games tend to be very involved amd have spent a lot of time playing these games. They're good. I'm not and don't have the time to get good.
HOOVY POTTER
15.04.2023I started playing guilty gear strive 3 weeks ago and ive been having a blast. I never rly played fighting games much idk why. just got to floor 10 and ive never had more fun that beating happy chaos players or players that just spam supers.
Shad
15.04.2023nobody talks about the level of intensity in fighting games. If I die in a shooter I get 10 seconds to sip my drink, think about what just happened and catch my breath. In a fighter its round 2 go go go, game ends and opponent already wants to rematch. Like holy crap man I don't want to break sweat every time I play a fighter
THE DEED
15.04.2023I love fighting games
I’m trash at them tho so it makes me like em less 💀
Cdr.Frostbite
15.04.2023I think the only reason people are stopped at the door because fighting games are "Hard" is because difficult things are only fun if you enjoy doing them and a lot of people don't really know how to enjoy/don't have the capacity to enjoy labbing things for hours in order to have a CHANCE to see improvement. They can be fun but I don't those people like them for the "wrong reason" it's just that most people don't have the intrinsic want to be good or see the fruits of their labor as much as others.
Анна Либерт
15.04.2023I absolutely loved your analogy with martial arts. I'm really into HEMA, and it helps me quite a bit with basic stuff. Spacing and timing can be somewhat translated from one to another.
However, I cannot agee on the "execution requirement" part. In martial arts there is no clear barrier, like you just can't do some technique. You can do it better, you can do it worse. You can and you will make mistakes, but but you don't need to think about execution itself that much. Not like in fighting games, anyway. Or is it just me?
I'm not that much into fighting games in general, but I love guilty gear in particular. However, I completely s*ck at it. As I said, my neutral was actually somewhat decent for a beginner. I could consistently "win" more interactions agains most other newbies, but in the end it means nothing when almost everyone can kill me with 2-3 combos when I need like 10. And it's fine, combos are an important part of this game. But I couldn't do them even if my life depended on it. No way. Can't even toch that stuff, and HEMA background is absolutely of no use here. It's even harmful to a degree. For some reason my brain just overloads when I try to go like "this button then this button…". Even in training. Even more so in training, actually. Unresisting opponent for some reason shuts my brain down. FRCs are another pain, and, unfortunately, they are absolutely necessary. Without them you simply have no proper tools. Etc, etc.
Tl;dr: while HEMA background helped me with learning neutral, it's actually detrimental for any execution-based stuff I try.
Bhelliom
14.04.2023I love fighting games, im just more horrible at them than any other genre, i just dont have the cognitive speeds to deal with them, 200ms is an exceedingly small window for me, i have too much going on in my head to be able to play such games to any sort of reasonable degree, infact, anything pvp and i cant really keep up and im not really sure if i can fix that without dedicating hours to some twitch reflex trainer
Buick Debaron
14.04.2023I think you make a good point about the game being as hard as the distance between the skill of you and your opponent and discussing the skill floors and ceilings in relation to that, but I think you also maybe are leaving out something crucial, which is the learning curve – how much time and cognitive effort it takes to progress along the steps from the floor to the ceiling. (This is intended as more of a critique than a criticism if that makes sense.)
This is not always execution related either. For example although a game like BlazBlue is seen as technically intricate and therefore having a higher learning curve, Tekken and Street Fighter are both games where legacy players have a pretty big advantage as even though superficial mechanics might change, the core gameplay has been pretty much the same for years or decades.
This bends the learning curve a little bit in that fighting game newcomers are coming into them not just new to the genre but even once they’ve gotten the basics of the genre there’s still a big foundation of legacy knowledge that can make it tough to keep up with the conversation about the game itself. I think there is some valuable discussion to be had about whether newcomers would be better off coming into fighting games with something like, let’s say, Injustice, where no matter how much experience one has with the fighting game genre, pretty much everyone is coming into the game itself with a similar lack of understanding of the game’s mechanics – or if they’re better off with a game like Street Fighter where they’re not shielded from the depth and complexity that comes with games that reward legacy knowledge. Of course there are also games like DBFZ where the game’s mechanics are on the newer side but in the team/tag aspect there is a lot of legacy knowledge from the 3v3 fighters that inspired it.
Dis SAILO
14.04.202312:58 what is that game????
Jack
14.04.2023The biggest issue is the fact that they were made for 2 players to enjoy but the online in most of them are trash and not a lot of people play locally
Ruby Zkarlet
14.04.2023Why do fighting game lovers keep insisting in thinking that people who dislike fighting games do it partially for things like not being there for the journey? Or for getting better? Or having a high skill ceiling or having to learn tons of imputs and why the heck they keep doing that damn comparison with learning an instrument when, as a person who got started on BOTH, despised ALL fighters I tried yet I would be open to master every instrument in the planet given the chance? One single reason called FRUSTRATION and its many ways fighting games bring those to your face. Learning an instrument is a self taught experience, step by step, speeding up slowly by always at your rhythm. You dont have a constant "YOU LOSE" reminder that youre still underperforming, you dont have to see an avatar projection of yourself being brutally beat up while attempting to hold your own, seen that shit a bizillion of times and being brainsick enough to go back for more cause that's exactly how ANY toxic relationship is systematically based. The FGC should really stop the whole "journey of perfection" BS to justify why some people dont like their games cause that's by far not true there's a lot of people who live by getting better at anything specially games as long as it doesnt turn them in bloody pseudopsychopaths out of frustration sometimes which fighters tend to do A LOT. it's the many MANY ways that fighters are DESIGNED to frustrate you that makes them dislike them and using frustration as a toxic fuel to keep you going is also another BIG reason why they dislike it as well. And that folks is perfectly fine cause you should not want to play a game fueled by frustration. Or at least try to bring me a medic that can prove me otherwise.
Giraffe NECK
14.04.2023Should try Tekken
Jasomega
14.04.20234:13 Well Said.
Jasomega
14.04.2023THANK YOU! I did not know that I needed to watch this video (let alone, Hear this 5:12).
Thomas Wolsey
14.04.2023Fighting games are a outdated theme.
Back in the 90s it was popular because it was what the hardware could provide.
Nowadays that the hardware can create open world games the is no point in play a 2D game limited to a screen size cenario.
Autumn Woodham
14.04.2023"Fighting games are niche" Dude, we are in a fighting game boom. So many big names have been coming out in just the last few years. Guilty Gear Strive, Soul Calibur 6, KOF 15, Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Shodown, Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Injustice 2, Multiversus, Skullgirls, Smash Ultimate. And most of these have been peak hype and reaction video gold mines. How can you say that is niche?
CronoZ-sensei
13.04.2023Great video honestly, I hope to see your channel grow even more. I want to see more of a grounded attitude in the FGC honestly, I feel like right now it will truly help people find if and what fighting games are for them. I feel like that alone is something Ive not seen on the FGC YT scene.
Jackal Reeves
13.04.2023You just made it SO much easier to play ggst. I'm getting really pressed over lab combos yet still having fun while playing. It's fine, I'll get there later, juet enjoy the game now
BidderGick
13.04.2023I like fighting games fear people. I game alone, I don't know to enjoy playing with others without anxiety reaching critical levels. It's lonely I want to play fighting games without my heart feeling like it's being pressed on by a 50 pound weight
Eksno
13.04.202313:25 HEMA!!!
Very relatable example yes
NotTheWheel
13.04.2023I like fighting games like Tekken and Soulcalibur which have deceptively easy control schemes that are easy to pick up and play but mastering them and unlocking knowledge of your character improves over time. Because that's what FPS games are like or RTS games. They have easy to use controls but the more you master them the better you become. Where as with games like Street Fighter with all the weird joystick movements and button configurations take me out of the game and I can never get attached to the characters. Inspite of this I love seeing high level street fighter. I just know I'm not ever gonna be good at it.
Roger Smith
13.04.2023I don't like fighting games because they're turn-based, and if you're bad you don't get a turn.
Colemak
13.04.2023I recently bought strive and have already sunk like 20 hours into it and Jesus Christ does it make me so tilted, I normally play melee and it does somewhat tilt me but I can cope and I understand my faults that made me lose, then I go to strive and there's so many things I still don't understand like wtf half the cast does since I haven't even played one of every character yet and it makes me feel helpless to some options like stuff that I genuinely just don't understand like whatever the fuck Faust does which gets incredibly frustrating but atleast when I picked up melee I could understand almost everything happening and could see that I just sucked unlike strive, ok sorry for the rant
Natsu
13.04.2023As someone who has played tons of games across many genres, I honestly think RTS has a higher skill ceiling than fighting games. I tend to hit a wall in RTS games that pros seem to be able to push much further past, but when I inch closer towards my wall in fighting games, it still feels like there are ways I can improve subtly.