polarbair

you hear about Fightcade

BLM | Really into Pokemon | FGC TO and wiki editor | Small-time streamer



I tried to talk with someone about indie fighting games on twitter - about why people don't want to invest time and money into a game that won't be popular - and I was taken aback by how hard it is to put thoughts together in 280 characters. Damn, we put up with that?

Obviously I think it's kinda ridiculous to think of things that way. Like, unless you're a pro or content creator, this is all "a waste of time". So really, all that matters is that the game looks good and fun. Really, indie fighters have delivered on netplay more consistently than current games (SF6 looks to finally be changing that). All the things you need to actually play with people is there, and the games themselves are $10-20 without paid DLC instead of $60 with seasons on the way.

there's a poll here if you want to weigh in btw. Mr. MKL is one of the loudest advocates for indie fgs, and I think there's valid reasons for not fucking with indie games. Mainly that not all of them have good netcode or are in a testing stage, are inaccessible (patreon-only), etc.


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in reply to @polarbair's post:

I sympathize with people who don't want to be the only one to get into a game and then find out that, despite your best efforts, nobody gets as invested or even a little bit invested in what you care about.

Picking a mainstream or just more established title circumvents that, and it might make your practice and study seem more "valuable" because you get matches where that practice and study gives you results better than annoying friends.

But also like...I dunno how to get people to believe that playing in ultra small/niche scenes is still hella worth it; hell, there are some games I love to bits that have a playerbase of like...three

One of the benefits of me being a streamer with my own little community, is that I can usually pick up any niche title and have a couple off nerds willing to jump in with me. And I think that's the best way to enjoy any small indie fighting game. Fuck going pro. Give me FTdeaths against my buddies for honour and shits and giggles.

I buy indie fighters out of principle, even if I don't actively play most of them.

My issue most of the time is that being in a remote area of Europe makes most active hours inaccesible to me, since the interest of almost all indie fighters is US-based in my experience. I don't want to, nor do I like or am comfortable with, staying up to 5AM to play video games.

i don't really enjoy being social in real time online (offline is less stressful for some reason), so my problem with small games is that i can't just load it up and silently fight some rando.
the few times i've played a small fighting game online it's always been a sweaty, social situation... just basic stuff like "how long do we play, how do i excuse myself out of this session" is stressful. this is just my problem though, not a common one.