First, I always kind of liked Grimmmz even though I didn’t watch him stream and I’ve sort of been happy to know his streaming of other games has gone well for him. Sucks that he has an issue with trolls, but that’s part of the price of internet fame. I’m sure he’ll recover.
Second, so much truth being spoken in here. I think one of the challenges for the KI community is the same as one of the challenges of life (lol - not to get too philosophical). In S1 the game was a child and it was so obviously incomplete that people gave it the benefit of the doubt in all things. They saw the cool stuff amd the potential and imagined that everything would get fixed, and further imagined that the game would develop perfectly in line with their hopes and dreams. Sort of like every parent has delusions about their young kid.
In S2 the game matured and got older. More content and characters and adding more of the things people expected to see. But it also started to have a well defined personality of its own. By the end of S2 the game was pretty much whole and people could see that some things they didn’t love were not going to change or improve. The possibilities were no longer limitless in people’s minds and they had to start living with some things. Even though, as @Infilament says the game was clearly better, people stopped loving what was right about it and started identifying what was wrong with it.
S3 is like the game really grew up. It got better at all the things it committed to and is now the best version of itself that ever will be. But in doing that it chose to neglect certain things and some folks realized this game will never be gory. This game will never be grounded footsie based, this game will always have powerful offense. In people’s minds they couldn’t get over the fact that the developers made certain choices and that’s how the game is. It’s baked. KI isn’t going back to the undercooked but infinite possibilities of S1. (EDIT:!this is like the moment in life you admit to yourself you will never be a pro athlete but you are a damn fine accountant.)
All of this makes me seem more sympathetic to the complainers than I am. The truth is, though, this attitude is really immature. Part of being an adult is learning to recognize the flaws in things but still enjoying them anyway. I have never met a perfect person, but I can enjoy the company of many people because I choose to appreciate their good qualities instead of agonizing over their flaws. Games are the same. I’ve never seen a perfect game. But you have to choose to enjoy what you like instead of forever mourning what you don’t like. The KI community is like that guy at a bar complaining that if only he had a chance he could have made it big.
this needs to be pinned and standard reading for ALL forum members and KI Ultimate Fan Page members too. Great post. And sort of a sad truth. But it’s never too late to build up our KI community!
Our offline community in Austin is small but we’re growing and most importantly whenever we meet up we have a great time!
I’ve never done any, but I’m looking forward to participating in more team battles, I think that has potential to bring more KI folks together.
KI is a game that should still be being played a decade from now on a serious level, like Starcraft. It’s so balanced, has such an insane combination of execution, accessibility and depth and has been so unexplored that I expect players will be using it not for it’s own sake but as an opportunity to showcase their discipline, processing power and artistic flair. It’s not like SSF2T, which is still a handful of people playing a broken but beloved game the same way as everyone else, or even the barely-more-advanced “rushdown versus keepaway Ivy” type “choices” of other games that still see side tournaments (like Soul Calibur). As long as MS supports this game online I’m sure we’ll be able to watch it on Youtube, and it will grow not because of the novelty or AWESOME!!! factor but because people with elite skill sets will welcome the opportunity to challenge themselves in a way that no other fighting game can.
One thing I will say is that I would have liked to have seen mods dedicated to timing out the people in chat who would needlessly berate others, the game, etc.
That could have helped quelled the tide, even if just a bit.
