frivolous

frivolous

Isn't it entirely ironic how some PS2-oriented gaming sites are now proclaiming in bold capitals the coming of VF4? One could see in the very same places, only a few months ago, bold-lettered hailings to Tekken Tag Tournament, and in the ensuing numb-brained review, some half-witted attempts to justify the appeal of that game series over VF (a tired subject, even more so because of the lack of understanding by the people that most often fire up the argument, i.e. people that have never played any of the VF games to any great length);

In any case, I'm not an optimistic person, I don't think any sort of mainstream spotlight will do VF any great good - it could, but in my opinion, it simply won't - extremely frivolous media fuels extremely frivolous audience, and VF isn't a frivolous game - these same people will likely be complaining a few months from now from the lack of "secrets" in the game, or about the fact that you don't have to "unlock" certain characters, etc. We've seen it all before with Dead or Alive, a game that I consider to be much more frivolous than VF - those same childish complaints were targeted at it, and no serious mention about gameplay was made at all - now it all died out in a fizz.

It would be absolutely hysterical to see people complaining about a lack of "C4" costume for Pai, but then again, it wouldn't - I think it would be a sad, unlaughable thing.

Anyway, however, people who love to play VF will play VF, and that's all that really matters. If only there could be a widespread arcade distribution to fuel up some old-fashioned competitive play... I don't think it will happen at all. Even less so in light of these recent events - if the space between the arcade and home releases is too sparse, then it's even more difficult to convince people (and I mean people at large, the laymen - even those who are remotely interested in the game) to spend tokens to play, when they can scrub against the computer at home, without having to pay by play - it's a sad thing, but I see it everyday here; competitive arcade play simply seems to be dying down (except for the people who've done it since when they can remember, me for one - or for some eastern countries, from what I hear ... near-simultaneous console releases only contribute to make it dead for good.

Anyway, blah. I'm glad that I'll have access to the game, in some form or another, since having a Naomi2-based machine down here is well-nigh impossible - but I'd do all I could to get one to the arcade.

 

Re: frivolous

Hmm..as much as I bitch about no good competition down here I kinda like the fact that so few people play VF because the difficulty of mastering the game tends to weed out the players that aren't dedicated enough to persevere,they may play once or twice but eventually quit leaving only us to laugh hysterically at their ignorence.

It's my hope that VF4 will bring a few new players to the table (in my area if my memory serves me correctly VF games are usually popular the first few weeks of release) so the scene will continue to expand but in a few months time the scrubs will have given up and only the truly strong will survive and provide healthy competition for years to come or at least that's my fantasy,survival of the fittest baby!! take advantage of the VF scrubs while you can they'll be an endangered species a few months after release.

 

Re: frivolous

I wholeheartedly agree that VF tends to weed out scrubs from people that are dedicated to learning the game system as a whole, and not only particular movelists - that's an incredible thing, and I love it.

My point, however, is that people seem less and less inclined to learn a game system for what it is, a complex system full of variables - being more receptive to immediate feedback and superficial satisfaction (i.e. flashy explosion-type uppercuts, that sort of thing); VF is a beautiful game, and not least of all beneath the glossy surface (and each and every VF has been an enormously impressive visual accomplishment as well, obviously, and the next one should be no different) - it's a pity that most people don't or won't care about it.

Anyway, as I said, the important thing is that people who love VF will continue playing VF like crazy - I really couldn't care less about mass acceptance However, I would definitely like to see some new skilled players come up...

 

Re: frivolous

Of course this aspect I'm about to bring in is probably regional/cultural... But if you notice... Seems that VF does attract quite a few high schoolers, but most of all attracts the college and older demographic. At least this is mostly applied to VF3. Seems VF2 attracted everybody. But then, that leaves at least what seems like the US VF scene (or at least online scene) left with a different generation all the time.

Kinda funny how the universal age at NYG2 was pretty much 22 years old. Some older, myself being one of probably the only younger ones (20 years old at the time). Looking back into what I understand of the community it seems like the trend was this:

Interested High Schoolers
Active Undergrads and 18-22 age range
Then comes along something called priorities, grad school, or marriage. For which it seems like 60-80% that "grow up" stop playing the game if not games in general, entirely. Well, they'll play it casually of course. Understandable and most reasonable imo.

I guess that's life... Of course this is based on word of mouth and what I hear/read. I wasn't a part of those earlier communities. Nor is there an official study that I'm aware of.

However, the point is... Yes, VF tends to have a crowd more devout to it than most other fighting games (this seems to be a highly region-specific thing though... Chinese influenced Pacific countries seem to have a thing for SNK fighters. US has a thing for Street Fighter. And VF seems to go along the lines of Hockey as far as I can tell, in terms of North American followings and demographics... East Coast, Canada, California--for awhile anyways, and some in the Mid-West). Despite these devout crowds, the more active members tend to be at an age where responsibilities or at least society dictates them to "move on," again reasonably so, and so... they can't stick to VF forever or for as long a period as others.

-Chanchai

 

Re: frivolous

I wouldn't expect people to go on playing VF religiously all their lives - I'm 21 now, and perhaps close to the end of your "cycle"; I certainly don't expect myself to allow for the same dedication to a game as I did a couple of years ago - I've bills to pay, a mouth to feed, etc. I still consider myself much more than a casual player, though - and perhaps that should change, but that's not the point.

It seems that the renovation of the gaming public for all of the other games you mentioned (SNK fighters, SF, or Tekken) is much more frequent than the VF audience - i.e. more people that are new to the game playing (or trying to play) seriously. It doesn't mean much of anything, but people are drawn to a more immediate feeling of satisfaction that they get from playing such games, which they can't get out of VF without proper time investment.

Of course, I sympathize with your placing of gaming appreciation under a cultural light - it is, in many ways, a cultural phenomenon that goes way beyond the mechanical act of gaming itself, in many countries. In that sense of gaming "demographics", as you put it, Brazil has a lot in common with Singapore and Korea, for instance (i.e. SNK fighters are really popular here, no matter which, but especailly KOF - so is Tekken, all of them), but there's also quite a SF following here. It's difficult to gauge, however, because there's a distinct lack of organized competitive play throughout the country, so my view is essentially limited to my region, which can't really be representative of the whole.

I like the fact, however, that VF can be entirely appreciated without the gimmicks of other games (i.e. such and such characters dress cool, look at how cute that girl character is, I like this character because there's a cute cosplayer for it, etc.); I like to believe that it's solely the efficiency of the game system and its rewarding of skill that binds people who play the game together.

cheers,
M.

 

Re: frivolous

"I think it would be a sad, unlaughable thing. "
well, the whole industry has been like that, hasnt it?
i think the gamers out there just plain suck.
the japanese gamers buy crap, have no taste. jetsetradio didnt do good. none of the games, incl. shemue got the popularity they should. sega was desparately trying to target their games for them and they still didnt care.
from now on i think sega should focus on usa, euorpe
but anyway, usa gamers suck too, they are so affected by hype and dumb ass marketing.
and the store room clerks that dont know anything and tell the dumbass public what to buy

everyone needs to be shot

the market worldwide right now is not right for really good deep games.

in a sense vf4 going to ps2 will be good. i think tekken fans/ps fans/thus the majority just didnt care about vf/put it down because they had no way of having it so might as well put it down. now that they have a chance to have it, they might appreciate it. i think a HUGE HUGE REASON vf got a bad wrap in amercia atleast is JUST BECAUSE IT WASNT ON PLAYSTATION.

blah. thats enough writing