This is probably not something everyone in the FGC is aware of, but I've seen post like this one https://twitter.com/FGC_Daily/status/1659277850854273024?s=20
I don't think OP is a bad poster or anything, but I take a bit of umbrage with this claiming that now is the Golden age for a few reasons
- We still don't even know what MK plays like> All we've seen is pretty cinematics and a story reboot
- We don't really know what Tekken is offering as a game besides nice visuals. t's confirmed Arika will help with their netcode, but I'm still holding my breath.
- Probably my biggest reason, this is just AAA games being released. We honestly would've expected any of these games to be released at some point. They're very popular, SF6 is the only game in this lineup that has demonstrated to its audience that it's going to have something of quality to offer.
To expand a bit on reason number 3 If there was a "golden age" of fighting games, we passed it by about two years when Fightcade 2 released and the Japanese devs finally realized rollback was no joke. Since 2020 not only did we have a major improvement to one of the biggest retro online fgc platforms, but we also got....
- Guilty Gear +R rollback
- Blazblue/Persona 4 Arena Rollback
- Lot's of older games like KOF98 and 02UM getting rollback retroactively implemented.
- Flycast development letiing us play titles like Virtua Fighter and CvS2 with rollback.
- a deluge of indie and F2P fighting games like Idol Showdown, Mega Knockdown, Your Only Move is Hustle, etc.
- Shoryuken coming back to life as Supercombo.
These are all SUPER important achievements that I couldn't even begin to explain how impressive these all are. some of the items on this list were thought to be nearly impossible up until they happened.
I understand that big AAA releases may bring more normal folks into the scene, but I care more about quality than quantity when it comes to the FGC. I'd rather we have 5 new players that are nice to play with rather than have a thousand assholes. I feel I understand how non capcom players felt when people like to remember the early 2000s as the "Dark Ages" when it was just Capcom stopped releasing new games.
I can be a bit kind to this mindset since i used to have a similar one long ago, but I don't care how many people are playing fighting games or in the FGC, I don't care how much money someone can win from pots or vape sponsorships for pressing buttons good. All I care about is that my hobby is a fun time and place for everyone involved. I want us to have spaces where we can either grind or goof off with good vibes. I want us to have solid resources like wikis and character guides to implement better learning. I want more people to laugh and cry as I jump around doing funny left/right mixies with Botan in Idol showdown. Everything else is extra.
In summary, the FGC has seen so many more impressive things happen other than "Big franchise gets new sequel". Our community is SO much bigger than whatever a corporation is putting out.
