Year under reviewLet’s look back at the highs, lows, surprises and highlights in video games and around this year.2020 sucked. You know, I know. It was in the midst of this chaotic year that the fighting gaming community was pushed out of the parks, hotels and convention centers to which competitors had become accustomed in the unpredictable world of online gaming. At first, the organizers weren’t sure if the community could survive, but now it’s clear that their competitive spirit continues. It’s just a matter of whether the developers of fighting games can put together their own acts.
In the months leading up to the outbreak of covid-19, the fighting game community functioned virtually normally. Regional tournaments are provided exciting moments on a regular basis, the Tekken 7 world finals he concluded with a new villain, and the prestigious Evolution Championship Series was announced its 2020 training.
The first sign of trouble did not arrive until February 20, when it was done weekly Granblue Fantasy Versus tournament in Japan was canceled out of concern for what was then a new outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus. Wrestling tournaments around the world quickly realized the dangers that covid-19 posed to their events, with some organizers openly concerned about the future of their events following the strong financial success of the cancellation of venue contracts. and the return of possible attendees.
“Unfortunately, right now it doesn’t look right to us,” NorCal Regionals organizer and veteran said street fighter competitor John Choi he said Kotaku at the time. “We are able to cope with a few thousand dollars lost in sunken materials, labor and miscellaneous expenses, but we cannot cope with the cancellation rate of the place that the hotel holds us responsible for. This success in NorCal Regionals is about $ 50,000, which we are not able to manage and which will make us fail instantly. “
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From there, the community saw a cascade of canceled and condensed events. SNK postponed indefinitely her King of Fighter XIV i Samurai Shodown championships. A high profile Tekken 7 Exposure between teams representing Japan and South Korea was reduced after two Korean players opted to stay home instead of traveling. Final Kombat, a year-end Mortal Kombat 11 competition, called off a last-minute qualifier and reduced the expectation in person. Capcom canceled the first half of the Capcom Pro Tour and finally Evo he stopped smoking for 2020.
While some organizers, with Rick Thiher of Combo Breaker, hoped that offline events would still be on the cards for 2021, which still left players wondering what to do the rest of the year. This gap was soon filled by both existing and newly created online competitions, but it was not the same. Because fighting games often require split-second decision-making and the ability to execute strategies in simple frames, the inherent latency of online gaming has been a constant obstacle to high-level competition in many games. . Without the way to play in person without risking infection, the demand for competent network code began to grow.
This reason for support, especially with regard to a technology known as “rollback” network code, did not fall on deaf ears. After a unofficial mod get well Street Fighter Vproprietary (and defective) recovery code, Capcom tried similar improvements at home, although this did not stop outstanding players to leave the official competitions. Bandai Namco did the same Tekken 7, with slightly better results. Classic games like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R i Garou: brand of wolves has received the net kickback code using patches and post-release saw massive peaks to their online player bases. Guilty Gear The Arc System Works developer has since promised than the next Guilty Gear Strive will use the net backspace code.
Unfortunately, not all fighting game developers are so attuned to the community. When a group of Super Smash Bros. Melee fans created Slippi, a third party program who added a clean recovery code to the old school platform fighter through the Dolphin emulator, seemed the hardest To break the community finally had a light at the end of the tunnel. But the first big online tournament that used the mod, The Big House, Nintendo was forced to cancel its competition after the corporation learned it would emulate the 19-year-old GameCube game.
“I am very disappointed for that year [where] our only option is to play online during the pandemic, also when we are told the road is closed, ”Big House organizer Robin“ Juggleguy ”Harn said of Nintendo’s decision at the time. “I do not have all the answers, but I still believe Hand to hand you will find a way. We always have it and we will do it again ”.
Nintendo ‘s dominant policies sparked a firestorm in the United States To break community that continues to this day, with many high-profile players and personalities demanding that the Japanese company work with the community to resolve these issues instead of closing the event completely. Nintendo claimed it was within its rights to shed its weight, as The Big House’s use of “illegally copied versions” of Hand to hand posed a threat to their “intellectual property and trademarks,” which, as I said before, is absurd nonsense.
That’s not to say that fighting game developers have given up on official tournaments. After canceling the first half of the Capcom Pro Tour, Capcom resumed Street Fighter V play with any online variant will end offline in the Dominican Republic next February. street fighter League, with company team Street Fighter V competition has also continued in earnest, although it has been forced to delay its start for several months and replace a handful of players who were unable to travel due to restrictions in their home countries or abandoned prudence. Bandai Namco has just finished a series of national championships online Dragon Ball FighterZ in four countries. But none of these events have been able to keep up with the grassroots tournaments the community lost in 2020.
Fighting games have long since disappeared due to the lack of stable online gaming. When the only way to get a good core experience is to travel to an offline location, add another entry barrier for newcomers. Several developers, included Killer InstinctIron Galaxy Studios i mortal KombatNetherRealm Studios, made significant progress towards the implementation of clean quality recovery codes before 2020.
But that is no longer enough; the larger fighting game scene is truly a complex ecosystem of numerous smaller communities and requiring depth and variety to survive. All companies that make fighting games should have a serious internal debate about how their games are played and how to make the online experience feel as close as possible to what players enjoy offline.
If players cannot return to face-to-face competition soon, it is imperative that the next generation of fighting games have a correct online game. I don’t see much in the future of the growth of the competitive community in case players, newcomers and veterans, are forced to struggle with the current limitations and frequent and predictable frustrations of the current online game. The strength of this community has always been tied to a consistent, grassroots organization, and that means competition is viable for as large a group of people as possible.
When a virus has everyone trapped at home for an entire year (and it counts), state-of-the-art network code is hugely important to achieve that goal. The community knows this and publishers need to hear if the continuity of the competitive scene is a priority.