How to be a Good Fighting Game Community Member

The Fighting Game community has different social expectations than a lot of other areas of public life, and gaming. There is a different idea of what’s considered fair, what’s considered cheating, and what sort of behavior is expected. The FGC has its own social contract you could say. Admittedly, some of this article might just be projection on my part, of what I want to see in the community, or what I imagine the community is like, more than what is actually community norms. Some of these guidelines are going to partially restate each other.

1. No one is expected to play at your level. Nobody is obligated to go easy on you.
2. No one is expected to refrain from any particular tactic or character pick, especially a winning one.
3. You are responsible for your negative emotions, and it is your responsibility to not lash out at other people.Trash talk is expected to be in good fun, and not borne out of a personal grudge.
4. You are responsible for your character picks and your choices of tactics.
5. If you think something is broken or unfair, start using it. There is no honor in choosing to lose.
6. It’s okay to want the game to be different (whether it’s about balance or focus), but that should be separate from hating the game or players.
7. It is polite to acknowledge and celebrate your opponent’s successes, especially when they exploit your habits or knowledge. Especially when they win in a dirty or lame way.
8. Take responsibility for your mistakes or shortcomings, but don’t use them as excuses.
9. It’s up to you to take improvement seriously.
10. Don’t disrespect the other person’s skill level.
11. It’s not your job or anyone else’s job to haze newcomers.
12. Don’t be afraid to ask people for games. (and don’t apologize for being bad)
13. Don’t keep secrets about how your character works.
14. Keep a spirit of open collaboration.
15. You’ll get better advice if you ask specific actionable questions about game scenarios, and you might not get any advice if you ask too broadly.
16. Be willing to pick up new games. (corollary, don’t be that bitch that holds up brackets)
17. Welcome new players and 0-2ers.
18. You’re not the main character.
19. Exploit every advantage available to you, but keep it in the game. Don’t be rude outside the game.
20. Focus on self-improvement instead of results.
21. Play to win, especially in tournament.

Altogether, the spirit of the fighting game community is that this is a place to take the game seriously, but not personally. You have a responsibility to yourself and your opponents to play your best, and never hold it against anyone else playing their best, no matter what style they choose to play.

I feel like the community has forgotten some of these when I see saltiness over people picking top tier characters, or complaining about characters or tactics they don’t like. It’s okay to want the game to be different than it is, but remember that as a competitor, you should take advantage of even the things you think are unfair or boring. A lot of modern fighting game discussion has devolved into complaining over increasingly small and ineffable imbalances in the most balanced games in the history of the genre. It would probably serve us all to have some grace and to move on to games we enjoy more when we’re not happy. There are hundreds of amazing fighting games out there, we don’t have to stick with games that make us miserable just because they’re new and popular.

All in all, have a fun time and treat your community and your competitors right. What makes the scene magical is us.

Parries are the Mindkiller

Parrying is so cool that it short-circuits people’s higher brain function, leading them to slam it into everything, and allow it to beat absolutely everything. Parrying in single player games is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS thing to add to your game, and it should be done with utmost caution, at risk of destroying your entire game’s design.

So first up, what exactly is a parry? A parry is a timed button press with a narrow window that will completely nullify almost any attack headed at you, and sometimes will leave the opponent in a state to be punished, or sometimes outright deal a massive amount of damage to your opponent. A parry is different than a block, because blocking can be held continuously for a variable length of time, and there are frequently penalties to blocking, or blocking too many attacks. A parry is different than dodging, because your character will not move, and will absorb the incoming attack rather than ignoring it. This can mean playing a paired animation, or taking some hitstop and parry-stun. For the sake of this article, if the first few frames of blocking will nullify an attack and negate all damage you take, I’ll be including it as a parry.

No More than Mashing

Mashing is when a player rapidly presses a button or buttons as fast as they can. Mashing is one of the simplest video game skills. It’s worth recognizing that mashing is actually a skill. Some people are better at mashing than others. People devise techniques for mashing most effectively. Mashing can vary by game. Mashing isn’t always recognized as a skill, because many people do it in order to avoid learning how to play certain games, and other people deride some games as “button mashers”.

There are a lot of reasons to mash buttons in all sorts of games. If you want to perform an action at the soonest possible moment, then mashing is a good way to guarantee you’ll be close, especially if you don’t know exactly when to press the button. If you want to hit a tight window, then mashing similarly gives you a lot of chances to align a button press with that window. If you don’t know how to play an action game with a lot of similar attacking moves, then mashing all the buttons can be a way to of useful results. If a move has a short or no recovery time, then mashing can help you perform that move as many times as possible in a second. And of course, some games include minigames and special moves that rate how fast you can mash.

Roger Ebert was Right About Video Games and We Have Failed Him

Disclaimer: I know I’m dredging up a long dismissed argument from 10 years ago, and discussing it in all the same tone as people did back then, despite everyone having moved on. My core thesis is that the settlement to the argument was based on a miscommunication which solidified into apathy, without a real understanding of the form of the argument, and I think the topic deserves more consideration, because games are art, but the people arguing that ten years ago were right for the wrong reasons.

Over 10 years ago in the late 2000s, it was fiercely debated over whether or not games were art. Famous film critic Roger Ebert threw his hat into the ring by declaring that games are not art, and never will be art. Before he died in 2013, he half-heartedly recanted and admitted that some games were probably art, but more than anything, it feels like he kind of rolled over in response to a massive amount of backlash, rather than actually having a point made. Especially since a year before he died, he sent out this tweet:

The game that critic was talking about was DARK SOULS by the way. And you can read the article, it’s an incredibly uncharitable take on the game, but it’s also looking from the wrong perspective. Ebert, and everyone who argued against Ebert, were all looking from the wrong perspective. They weren’t arguing over whether or not games (interactive systems of play) were art, they were arguing over whether the software products we call games happened to have art packaged alongside the interactive systems of play. They were arguing over whether these interactive systems were art-adjacent, not whether they themselves were art. In other words, “Yeah, the game isn’t art, but look at all this art we included alongside it!”

Game “Loops” are an Illusion

Game Loop has become an industry-standard piece of terminology for video games. It’s taken as a default, a forgone conclusion, or necessary for a game to function. It has a role in game development similar to 3-act structure or the Hero’s Journey in storytelling. These structures are presented as inevitable, ever-present throughout history and culture, and essential to good storytelling or game-making, but many stories and games don’t follow these structures and are still successful and well-regarded.

Some people argue you cannot make a game without loops, or tell a story without 3-acts, or say that the Hero’s Journey is the monomyth from which all other stories derive, but there is nothing definitionally inherent to games or stories that necessitates these things.

Yellow Paint is Fine, Actually

Recently footage of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was released, and it contained a shot of The Yellow Paint that we keep seeing to denote objects in the environment that can be climbed or otherwise interacted with. Kayin wrote an article on this, and it inspired me to write my own take.

What’s wrong with Yellow Paint?

So, why do people kneejerk hate the yellow paint? People hate the yellow paint because it “breaks their immersion”, since there’s no diegetic reason why every single ladder, cliff face, or vaultable cover would be splattered in the same yellow or white paint and because it makes them feel like they’re being treated like a child, needing to have the interactable part of the environment highlighted so they can progress.

Cost Granularity in Card Games

In Charmed Chains, I chose some early restrictions to emulate some of how Yugioh plays, and over time I’ve been shifting towards different ideas of what I want to do with the game. I chose these restrictions because there are a lot of indie and industry collectible card games that emulate Magic The Gathering (Force of Will, Hearthstone, Lorcana, Final Fantasy, Digimon, etc) in whole or part, and very few that emulate Yugioh (Dual Spirits). When I started making this game, I was really into Yugioh (I’ve recently been swallowed whole by MtG Commander), and I was very much inspired by different facets of Yugioh’s design that I felt could be pushed further (having a defined grid and effects that are based on columns), as well as some aspects of Magic The Gathering (blockers getting a choice in whether to take damage with their creatures, or let it hit them directly).

However, these limitations have lead to some issues with granularity, which I’ve previously discussed. I’m worried that low granularity in creature costs will lead to homogenization in people’s decks, unless I either adopt a resource system more similar to most card games, or start to enforce more strict archetypal synergies, like Yugioh did.

To understand the issues I’m facing, first I’ll need to explain how the resources in Yugioh and Magic The Gathering work.

Celia’s Tips for Clear Writing

A lot of what I’ve ended up critiquing video essayists and other games writers about is the clarity of their writing. I feel like many people are trying to create “Good Writing” rather than communicate effectively. Many video essays are written more like political speeches than they are trying to be direct and informative. It feels like they are informed by what makes good fictional writing more than good technical writing, and try to carry a vibe to the detriment of their message.

Here are the principles I follow to make my writing direct and effective:

Pseudoregalia Review

Pseudoregalia is an indie 3d platformer metroidvania, a rare combination. And it has the best movement I’ve ever seen outside of a Mario game. It starts off a little slow, but quickly ramps up as you get the slide and wallkick powerups. The game is very short, I was able to beat it in only 5 hours.

Movement & Powerups

There are a number of optional collectibles throughout the game, augmenting your health, regeneration, or giving small buffs, but obviously the movement powerups are the only thing that really matters. Each of the movement powerups allows you to access new areas, but also just enhances the way you move through the game in general. Slide initially lets you slide under small gaps, but eventually gets upgraded into a slide jump that lets you jump across massive gaps, and even bunnyhop to maintain momentum.

Another powerup gives you 3 wall kicks, which push you away from walls if you kick into them directly, requiring you to use them carefully to scale walls. Eventually you get a ground pound, which lets you jump extra high by jumping as you hit the ground, like Mario in Odyssey, and if you jump at the start of the groundpound, you’ll do a backflip, which helps counter the momentum of a wall kick, raising you neatly onto a platform after kicking off of it. This is like the missing link in the movement that really helps it all fit together. Finally, there is a wall run, which is obtained last. It snaps onto walls reliably and generally feels pretty good to use.

How to Pick a Fighting Game Character

The first step in picking up any fighting game is picking a character. Character crisis is a familiar experience for any fighting game player, from beginner to veteran. Even seasoned professionals with decades of experience go through character crisis.

If you’re completely new to fighting games, there are 3 basic mindsets to how you should pick a character:

1. Eat your peas and carrots, pick a shoto.
2. Pick a character you think is fun or cool!
3.