Tournament Announcing & The Focus on Fighting Styles

The purpose of this post is not to belittle those brave and hard working persons who do the announcing for FG tournaments. But to ask the question of what impact has announcing had on de-emphasis of fighting styles and character back stories in Fighting Games? If you listen to the announcing in real life MMA fighting tournaments, you'll hear the announcer refer to the fighter's back story, history, reputation, the fighting style or training gym a fighter is from, you'll hear the fight described in MMA , BJJ, Muay Thai, etc. fighting style terms like iron triangle, kimura, side control, full mount, muay thai clinch, spinning back fist, rear naked choke, butterfly guard, crucifix, etc. If you listen to the announcing in Boxing, you'll hear the announcer refer to the fighter's back story, interesting aspects of the fighter's styles, the announcer will refer to standard boxing terms, right hook, head movement, left hook, upper cut, right cross, jab, etc.

But when we listen to most fighting game announcers, the video game character's backstory is rarely mentioned and we hear terms like, 2PK, Wall Splat, safe on wake up, 8K, Dropped Combo, Wiffed attack, he's got full meter, back turned situation, fuzzy guard, he's got a 3 frame advantage, low-mid reversal, and so on. Of course this type of terminology is valid for a fighting game, and it does absolutely and accurately describe scenarios, and mechanics of the match underway. But why don't fighting game announcers call the fights like their counterparts IRL
Upon quick inspection, Virtua Fighter, Tekken and DOA have the following fighting styles
These Martial Art styles have names for moves, techniques, attacks, and defenses. There are common terms used like round house kick, suplex, knee strike, front kick, foot stomp, elbow strike, dragon palm, body slam, shin kick, etc. How come FG announcers rarely refer to the character's Martial Art? Using the fighting styles and the related terminology to a given fighting style by the announcer might be more entertaining and informative to the general audience and casual player. Of course the hard core would prefer the fight to be called using move list mechanics, instead of martial art styles. perhaps the announcing team could have both kinds of announcers, the mechanics, frame data person, and the fight style/technique person. This would allow for the announcing to appeal to a much broader audience.

But I can't help but wonder if the way announcers call fights for public fighting game tournaments have influence on what Namco, Team Ninja, etc think is important relative to emphasizing fighting style in the game and in the marketing Maybe the niche FG community only talks about move list mechanics because that's the way tourneys are called Maybe the niche FG community doesn't seem to put an emphasis on the character's martial arts style, because the announcers only refer to the characters poking range, tracking attacks, interruptible strings, unblockable attacks, pressure combos, wall attacks, mix up game, frame advantage, etc. To the hard core gamer that terminology sounds like music to the ears, but to the uninitiated, or the martial arts fan hmmm.....

If the announcer called fights based on martial art styles e.g. Shaolin Kung Fu vs Muay Thai, and used terms like Player one just performed a "Dragon Palm" attack out of a "Crane Stance", and Player 2 responds with a "Muay Thai Clinch" followed by a "Flying Knee". The FG community might talk about the matches in those kinds of terms instead of in move-list mechanic, game-engine mechanics terminology. And the fact of the matter is most of characters in VF, Tekken, and DOA supposedly have a martial art style. So why don't the martial arts styles get any love during the announcing?

What I've noticed is over time the Fighting games have started to de-emphasize martial art styles and character back stories and design new fighters totally based on fighting engine mechanics. i.e long rang fighter with moderate mix up game, and high damage, vs close range fighter with strong mix up game and low damage per attack, vs mid-range poking character with a few high damage attacks but lots of holds and reversals. Sure these kind of mechanics have always been beneath the Martial Arts styles, but once upon a time..... The Martial Arts Styles were a big part of the selling and marketing of a fighting game. Now the only concern is a stream lined, easy to learn move list that is readily comprehensible in the context of the e-sports scene, that makes the games easier to announce, and characters easier to learn and move lists that are easily translatable from character to character. Therefore backstory and particular martial arts have zero real impact on character fighting styles.

Does FG announcing have any impact whatsoever on how the game is perceived by the casual player or uninitiated or on how the next version of the game is marketed, advertised or developed? I know this is potentially an unfair or heavy burden to put on the volunteers, fans, and players who do the announcing at FG tourneys. I'm only asking if there is any cause/effect relationship here. Perhaps FG announcing is done the way that its always been done and the announcers have never thought of announcing the games any other way

IMO the fighter's martial art styles and backstories have always been a fundamental part of the fighting game. No, they are not more important than the fighting engine, character balance, or game AI, but they are a critical part of the of the game play immersion. If the game publishers and developers started to emphasize the fighter's martial art and back story along with fighting game engine enhancements, I think FG sales would be dramatically positively impacted and would begin going in the right direction again.

I can't help but wonder if Tournament Announcers Focused the announcing more on Martial Art terminology vs Move List Mechanic terminology, that game publishers would re-emphasize Martial Art styles and perhaps the niche community would embrace their inner martial artist more

Should Martial Arts Fighting Styles matter to the FG Announcers?
Would FG Announcing using Martial Art Terminology appeal to a broader audience?
Did the publishers de-emphasize Martial Arts Styles because of the indifference of the Hardcore Players (who tend to be the announcers)

What if with each new release of VF, Tekken, or DOA there was a concerted effort by the game developer to not only enhance the fighting game engine and balance, but also improve the quality of the Martial Art style that each character has. e.g better Muay Thai animations, more believable karate/kung fu animations etc? Would this prompt the announcers to call the games based on Martial Arts styles vs Move list mechanics

 

You're an idiot

 

Yo Mama is an idiot

 

Sure, you want to tell her yourself? I'll gave you her #.

 

Master Po vs Kung Fu Smurf first to 10, go! Smurf teach this cultural appropriating Gui Lo some manners! True Kung Fu vs a role-playing jackass! Make it happen!

 

kungfusmurf I apologize. I should not have made remarks about your mom. I'm sure she's a nice person. I'm sure she raised a nice son. You also are entitled to your opinion about my post. Its all good

But along the lines I posted about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7LMYGdKV1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydnixRcikc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW-DDssssIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Rf_KGlpU0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXwBpZc9SE0