In a new article for Ars Technica UK, Ryan Hart of Falcon Arena spends time discussing the topic on everyone’s tongues: the good Street Fighter V is doing–and will continue to do–for the community, in spite of the game’s shortcomings. As a long-time competitive player, Hart has a real stake in the success of Street Fighter V, and has more than enough experience with the series to discuss this topic at length.
He begins with a breakdown of the Street Fighter franchise’s evolution since it first hit arcades equipped with pressure-sensing pads up through Capcom’s current offering. On top of discussing why Street Fighter V’s vast differences from its predecessor are a good thing, Hart also brings up the fact that this new game offers an excellent opportunity for those looking to take an active role in the fighting game community outside of direct tournament participation. Hart notes that “[t]here are the YouTubers, website creators, moderators, book publishers, cosplayers, and mobile app creators who all also contribute to the Street Fighter community.”
This line of thought resonates when bumped up against something like our Street Fighter V roundups. The goals of any given roundup are fairly simple: provide veteran players with high-level tricks they may not have seen, help new players ease into the game with some basics, and draw in as many new content makers as possible to share their work with the wider community.
The first two goals beg little explanation. We want to provide our readers with the best, most current information to help the community grow as a whole, but consider that content creators, as Hart mentions, have been given a time to shine in this early period of the game’s existence as well.
Back in 2012, directly following Street Fighter x Tekken’s release, I set up a five foot pile of books, grabbed a roll of scotch tape, dangled my cell phone from the stack with its camera facing the TV, and used it to record some hilariously low-quality footage of what I thought at the time to be completely and totally revolutionary Ibuki anti-air combos. To my surprise, that footage made its way into an EventHubs roundup. Looking back at the video now, I see that anyone with any experience with the genre could have figured out those tactics in about five grueling minutes. My video didn’t save any experienced players any time, nor did it revolutionize the protection of Japanese skies. Did it help some Ibuki players less experienced than myself? Maybe. But it being featured in a roundup did something for me personally that the video itself couldn’t have done for anyone: made me feel like a part of the fighting game community, small though my role obviously was.
With that in mind, those creating today’s basic Street Fighter V combo videos may need little more than the acknowledgement that, yes, we do want more content creators to get them to make that second video. The next UltraChen TV, Maximilian, Cross Counter, or something new altogether could get its start from something so simple as footage revealing the secrets behind landing Ryu’s Critical Art.
And it’s not that we need to get rid of those mainstays–far from it–but, if things go to plan, Street Fighter V will continue to expand the fighting game community’s spotlight for years to come, and such an expansion leaves plenty of room for new folks to come in and show us their talent, be it in tournament rankings or YouTube channel views.
If you’d like to check out Ryan Hart’s opinions in full, be sure to head over to Ars Technica UK by following the link below.
Source: Ars Technica UK
