EGM posted a long discussion with Capcom special adviser, Seth Killian. This mostly focuses on Capcom's past decisions with their fighting games, and how the scene has evolved, including that Seth feels the internet played a huge part in keeping things alive.EGM: It’s interesting that you talk about online, because I remember having my import Saturn, and having games like Groove on Fight and Asuka 120%, and as much as I loved those games, I knew almost nobody locally who played them. It was a lot of playing CPU opponents and never really getting the full enjoyment that I could be. The same was true when I picked up my NeoGeo AES. Online has really been the rebirth of fighting games—at least to me—because now I can get online and have that competition that’s so hard to find, especially with arcades dying out as much as they have here.
Seth Killian: I think you’re right. All of these things sort of wrap up in the birth of the internet, and the internet really saved fighting games. Even before arcades went away, you only ever had your local scene. That was enough for a lot of people, and that was an amazing place, but it took a lot to find competition beyond that. Traveling around to other locals was kind of weird.
The internet has now come along, and whether its online training videos, or its actually playing online against one another, it expands your world. You’re not trapped, and it’s a legitimate way to play. Some of the best players in the world—certainly in the country—basically got most of their training online. There’s analogies to things like poker, if you follow that professionally. It used to be all home games, and then you saw the birth of online poker—which, obviously, is in some trouble right now—which gave a lot of random players the chance to go out and play so many hands of poker that they were able to catch up with seasoned pros who had been playing for 30 years. Those guys were able to get that same kind of experience, and I think online for fighting games is a similar thing, where you can get that good experience online and then take it to a tournament. You’re ready for it, because you’ve been putting in the time.
Tip from Fawaz.
Seth, if you feel that the internet saved the fighting games. Help Spooky.
Didnt Seth say, "The internet is the worst thing that happenend to fighting games" - in regards to keeping company secrets and not learning on your own.
Side note: if just playing the full game at home wasnt enough to kill fighters in Arcades then online would have DEFINITELY done it!
You're right, unless you remember that if you live 3:30 hours from any major city pretty much guarantees zero green ping opponents.
I'm not saying online isn't great. In fact its the best thing for fighting games. Its just that online fighting games still have a LONG way to go for people that don't live in big city limits.
Don't forget the little guy.
The internet is good for promoting events, from big tourneys to mild get-togethers within a local city. thank goodness for forums and Facebook events lol
Thanks to everybody who heads over and ready the interview/conversation (it was kind of an interview, but kind of not). With the EGM site having just officially launched like a week or two ago, it's still in the early stages of getting traffic. I really enjoyed talking to Seth, so I hope people enjoy reading it!
Well Duh internet saved fighting games, but it is also killing it at the same time. They are making games easier because people keep whining about how hard the games are instead of learning how to play. And now when you buy capcom games the only sell you 30% of the game and make you buy the rest. And their excuse...."if people didnt want it they shouldnt buy it"
I agree that online play is the main reason fighters can sell these days. I know I personally would not have tried out SF4 if it did not have online play. Playing the computer is boring. I would rather play a bad human player than a computer player. At least the human player can get better.
Um, one note to a comment here: there's no need to "cheat" with 3D models. You just turn the model around when the character faces the other way.
The reason Spencer's arm mirrors when he turns is due to hitbox issues. He's an unbalanced character with a small arm and a huge arm. They stated a while back, that when he turned so that his bionic arm is towards the foreground, it screwed up his collision detection with the character facing him.
So he acts like an old school sprite, which happens to perform double duty as an OG in-joke.
Great interview, and I totally agree about the internet saving fighting games (the internet is a godsend for any relatively niche interest) and also the care Capcom put into SF4's 3D graphics.
I also agree about Seth being awesome. I met him at NYC's Spring Fighter event, and talking to him was just like talking to any other passionate fighting gamer. He's definitely genuine and truly living the dream at Capcom, to the benefit of anyone who plays these games.
Playing online definitely brought me back to playing video games. When I started playing video games you'd find arcade machines everywhere. The first place I saw Street Fighter 2 was in a Fish and Chip Shop. Arcade machines and Arcades were often situated near schools and in sweet shops. So playing with or in front of random people was normal.
As things moved on better home systems etc after 97 trips to the arcades became rarer and rarer. It became normal to play amongst your peers but you were limited by conflicting schedules etc. You can easily see how a game created with a social enviroment in mind would suffer from the death of the arcade.
When I started playing online it was the nearest general experience I'd had to playing arcades in my local sweet shop. Admittedly the whole tier, shoto,most people playing solely for the win is getting boring now. But it was fun while it lasted and playing online is still beter than playing the computer.
I'd say it's more to the Metavideos/Youtubes and the ability for us to do much faster and better research than just online play.
Online play is cool and all, but I like seeing techniques and combo technology. That really stepped a lot of stuff up.