I really do love how often I see the fighting game player to shmup player pipeline in action. It’s a real thing
in my experience there's a hard generational line that determines who goes to other arcade genres and who completely divests and goes full degenerate MMO player
inevitably, all roads lead to poker/chess/mahjong
if mahjong is the last stop on the road to FGC Retirement then Yumeiro Yuram's like, FGC Assisted Living
I hit the FGC -> Shmup line fairly early on in 2009ish, took a jaunt in MMO when FFXIV ARR came out in 2013 (which continues on and off to this day)...and then decided to learn mahjong during the initial covid waves of 2020...so I've been down all these roads lol
I def dabbled in shmups when I got into arcade games in general, but I've come to terms with the fact that I'm basically just not that great at the fundamental genre skills. Maybe I just can't stay still. I was able to 1CC Mushi Futari on Original and good old Cho Ren Sha 68K before realizing this
I learned mahjong specifically because FG input lag was so bad at the time and esp lately I have really had a lot of fun and success applying competitive skills I learned in FGs to something where I don't have to block Nagoriyuki
