Thank you so much for your kind words and your prayers. I’ve still got a bit of a road ahead of me, with a little vacation home in the meantime, so I may just take you up on that. This thread just keeps showing me over and over again that KI is less about community and more like a family, and I keep saying it, but I love you guys (& gals) for it. Thank you for being there for me.
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LMAO! “WALL SPAT!” into “Grab!”
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Dammit, I ran out of “Likes” again!!!
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I remember a point on YouTube a while back (I think it was in 2012 or 2013) where a lot of my favorite content providers, and even myself, were bemoaning how the site had gone “downhill” in recent months though nobody could quite put their finger on why.
Finally, my favorite user, Richard Coughlan (https://m.youtube.com/#/user/DickDynasty666), in a video whose title I cannot recall nor am I sure could be linked to even if I did (his videos and channels got false flagged and taken down a lot so I can’t even remember which channel he was on at the time either), gave his theory on the decline of YouTube and I found it the most compelling.
A bit of backstory: Pre-2012, in order to monetize one’s videos, you had to apply for a partnership or be approached by YouTube and offered one, as far as I was aware. But one day, YouTube simply decided to open up their partnership program to pretty much everyone and allow all users to collect ad sense revenue if they wanted.
In Coughlan’s opinion, this invited and encouraged more people with less passion to make videos with the sole motivation of financial gain, whereas, before, most people who uploaded to YouTube did so for the love/fun of it - and even if their goal was to eventually be made into a partner, they still had to consistently create content up to a certain standard to attract enough followers in order to not get rejected for partnership when they applied.
Does opening up the partnership program also give extra encouragement to start making videos to just as many if not more people who actually do enjoy video creation and genuinely do want to build their own community? Probably.
Was everyone or even most users before they opened up the program back then of “pure intent”? In my memory, hell no - but (for a while) I did believe there was a tighter sense of community back then.
You know, some people have taken issue with how little MS has advertised KI in its life cycle and how much of KI’s promotion comes from word-of-mouth. While I can tentatively agree that this game is a bit “under the radar” as far as many fighting games’ notoriety goes (let alone current-gen software in general), another part of me enjoys the borderline-elitism of being a fan for such a “niche” product.
KI is not the biggest hit at major fighting game events and does not appear to be anywhere near as popular across the world in places like Japan as a game like Tekken. Though shareholders may justifiably find that disheartening, to me, what it means is that most everyone who is still here and/or pays to spectate/participate in tournaments is someone that likely stumbled upon KI by chance and decided to continue following it, not because it’s “mainstream” and thus “popular”, but because they truly care about the game.
Though this may hurt the game’s success in the long run (maybe), to me, I prefer it as I feel it results in a more tight-knit community of people who do indeed end up feeling more like a family than bigger communities for more “mainstream” titles.
So, yeah…KI for life.
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I’m unsure what to add as everyone has been so wonderfully eloquent here already (I’m glad I myself am trying to be more involved with this community despite my own shortcomings, this community is most definitely a fighting game community to be envied!) but know that I wish you all the best, keep on fighting, keep trucking, you’ve done so well with everything you’ve been through so far, and know that things will get better!
Hearing what a fighter you are in reality, it makes sense that you’re part of this community, I think everyone here is equally scrappy as they are friendly, which is quite rare to find, if I were you I’d definitely stick around, I plan to, I’m afraid you’re all stuck with me.
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This was a beautiful, engaging & most of all inspiring post, I appreciate you having the courage to share and be as candid as you were. I was so taken back after reading this I was tempted to share my own story which also contains a medical-related battle, but that is for another time.
I know your journey is just beginning, despite the fact that you have been thru hell already. Jot my name down on a list of people you can call on if you ever need someone to talk to, I am just a PM, tweet, or Xbox msg away. Please keep us abreast of your status, when you are feeling better, I’d be honored to play a set with you.
Take care & God Bless.
@franciscapra aka SE1Z3
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You’re a great story teller man; I mean you’re really good at telling the story what what’s happened to you over the last year. This was very interesting and I just want to say that I hope everything goes well, and I wish you all the best!
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@Itllkillyou
That is definitely something I’ve learned over the last few days, that KI is way more a family than a community. If our small numbers attribute to that, then I can only hope we can remain as close knit as our numbers grow. This family has been a huge source of positivity and support for me over the last year, and I can only hope we can continue to help people in the same ways as time goes on. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, it means a lot.
@SE1Z3
Thanks for the kind words and prayers, man. They really mean a lot. I’ll definitely jot you down on the list that’s growing into something of a support group. I hate to admit it (I’ve always been a bullish ‘nah, I got this’ type), but in the coming days I’ll probably need you guys, and it’s great you’ve been forthcoming with such offers. Just last night my wife was asking about maybe finding a support group for after the surgery, and I was like ‘are you kidding? I’ve got a great support group just waiting to happen!’. Thanks again, man.
@NitricZenith
You made me tear up! Nobody has ever called me a ‘fighter’ before, but yeah, I guess it’s just sorta in my nature. Makes sense that I was drawn to KI in tough times, eh? And, nah, I’m not stuck w/ you, I’m glad to know you! Thanks for the kind words and well wishes. Keep being you, always.
@DiGiJUL3S
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Your well wishing means a lot. I know at this point it sounds redundant, but I don’t know how else to phrase it (I’m not a great wordsmith, afterall 
). Thank you, sincerely. All this support has me watery eyed.
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Thanks, let’s beat the living daylights out of each other some time in the future maybe. 
(Or if you ever just want a chin wag, I can do that, too.)
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Sounds good! I’m working on getting my hands on an XBone, so it won’t be quite so difficult getting lobbies to work (online has been such a hassle w/ my fossil rig!) - you live across the pond, yeah?
Yeah in merry old England, playing on pc, which is mostly fine, except when it randomly decides my pc fails the online test, then suddenly is fine again because reasons. There may be very slight lag, but it’s reasonably ok…ish.
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That sounds more annoying than ‘never ever actually even passing the online test’ - at least I know what to expect! I mostly just hope I find good random matches in exhibition by keeping my parameters Killer-Killer. I don’t know if I’m even worth being Killer tier, so maybe I’m wasting these folks’ time, but I’d rather get mopped by someone way better than mop someone way worse, if that makes sense. I’ve had some really close matches, and some stomps either way, so I think my method works overall. shrug
Really appreciate you sharing your story here man, and it’s also pretty amazing to see so many wonderful people, far away in miles, but close in the passion which brings us here, support a friend and fellow fan in such a way.
While the struggle to get to this point sounds arduous to say the very least, in a way, I’m just happy for you in that now you know. No more working long days with a pain that no one can seemingly tell you the cause of. But I’m even more happy that you can get back to your life soon, ya know? I’m sure you’ve got some more tough challenges in the near term, but it really sounds like things are looking up long term.
I mentioned it before, but 2016 was kind of a garbage year in many respects. Here’s hoping your 2017 improves in every way, shape and form.
Oh and Michigan… Great state, great people. Lived there for a few years and loved it! 
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Beat a man when he’s down smh
Hmm, well I don’t really touch ranked all that often to be perfectly honest, I did just enough to get silver, since then I’ve played like 3 more ranked matches and now I think my rank’s been reset. I’m pretty sure I’m not Killer material as my reactions and capacity for learning aren’t as good as they used to be, (there’s a lot of nuance to learn along with the basic fundamentals) but I like to think that I put up a reasonably good fight, at least.
Anyways I’m not gonna crud up your thread any more.
@Iago407 Thanks for taking the time to read thru and wish well. You’re a kind individual, though I’m running out of ways to express gratitude. I hadn’t expected this amount of positivity and support. KI family is best support group. And, yeah, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel - hell, now I know I’m in a tunnel. It’s gonna be a little rough in the near future, but not like it’s been, and it can only get better.
@NitricZenith Nah, there’s no crud in here! Just gold for the soul. Or silver XD y’know.
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Silver’s bad for you - just ask Mira.
I actually read about that early this morning, and shed a good tear w/ him. It felt trite commenting on his Twitter page, but you’re absolutely correct, Sasuke - we don’t have to know each other to stand by one another and support each other.
EDIT: Soz.
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The sentiments are wonderful, but for the moment let’s keep that specific discussion out of public threads just in case he doesn’t want that scattered all over the forums within hours.
I just want to make sure that we approach that subject (or not at all) on his terms.
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Yeah you are right. I am sorry for bringing it up here. My bad.