this video pretty much explains it
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The tournament scene as well as the stream scene do NOT make up the majority of the game’s community, and should NOT be used to judge a game’s popularity or quality.
FGs (as in, not just KI) are continuously changing over time, and adapting to that is what keeps people interested instead of stagnating - in other words, it would be far worse if nothing changed at all. Overall, the mechanics to KI are not changing too drastically from season to season (for example, the combo system is still intact), and most of the changes have been positive overall because they are mostly changing for balance reasons (to prevent player abuse that can cause players to quit playing the game) and adding new mechanics (such as flip-out and stagger, for example) that keep players like me playing because of the freshness the newer mechanics and how they provide newer ways to play, along with all-new setups to learn.
Many of the mechanics in KI borrow from other popular FGs, and in a way is a nod to them. For this reason, KI is 1 of the few FGs that has numerous mechanics that can then be translated to those games, which makes KI a fantastic “gateway game” for new players to the FGC.
While I would like more stages too, FGs in the past have universally shown that they may not have as many stages as they do characters, or stages for each character. This is easy to see, and as such, KI should not be singled out for this - especially since “not having more stages” isn’t really an excuse to not play a great FG.
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I feel the opposite.
The updates, new mechanics, characters and nearly constant flow of content is what kept the game fresh and kept me playing and paying for the last three years. Dropping a game or hating on it because of changes seems more like its just sedimentary players who only play as an occupation don’t care enough about the game to adapt, not a fundamental problem with KI.
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I’d rather have the developers changing mechanics for balancing reasons and making the game more fun than no interactions or changes at all.
But players not liking the changes and moving on to another game is totally fine and deserves no criticism. It’s their right to do so.
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I second everyone on more “shake up changes” in fact I’d be down for another big “shake up” update like at the start of season 3.
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Funnily enough hes getting everything he wished for at the end of the video. Community survey, new characters, ultimates, and balance changes with no new mechanics on the horizon.
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I am absolutely not in the tournament scene or anywhere near good enough to think about it. I frankly don’t even understand why a game changing things up is a reason to quit. I know lots of high level players put a ton of time into it to develop their tech and their strategies… But how is moving onto an entirely different game somehow overall LESS “work” in terms of learning something new?
Isn’t a game shaking up its mechanics (assuming it’s not dumb changes or wholly weird changes) something that keeps a game fresh and interesting? A chance to look at the game from a new perspective and a new direction? I would think that having the exact same game unchanging would make it stale and have people drop it out of boredom. I just don’t really get how a game getting updates and interesting new mechanics somehow makes it more likely for people to leave. I would think the opposite is what makes people leave.
To compare to a completely different game, take a game like Civilization V. Over the course of its 6 years, there were tons and tons of mechanical changes. Entire strategies were completely thrown away over the course its evolution, sometimes towards the complete opposite strategy. Sometimes the changes were controversial, but overall it gradually improved and became more diverse and interesting overall. But it’s not like massive amounts of people just drop the game because of mechanics changes. Instead, they adapted, learned to look at the game through a different lens, and took on the challenge to master a slightly different variant of the game. And every time it changed it I was excited to fire it up again, knowing that I was coming back to a game that I knew I enjoyed, but got to relive and rediscover in a slightly different way.
As another example, when the NBA moved its 3 point line closer in temporarily for a few years in the 90s or when it added zone defense or when it implemented its hand-checking rules, it’s not like players just stopped playing basketball. They adapted, they learned, they take what’s given and master the new set of rules.
I mean, if you just don’t LIKE the game or if you simply PREFER another game, then of course that’s fine. But to leave BECAUSE of slight mechanics changes just strikes me as odd.
Again, I am not part of the tournament scene and I have not dedicated a gigantic chunk of my life towards being a top player in this game. I guess I just don’t really understand why a game getting refreshes and updates is somehow a bad thing… at least bad enough to the extent that it would drive people AWAY.
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So you don’t like KI because you can do crazy things similar to Marvel and that the game mechanics/meta changes too frequently.
Got it.
Edit: I was looking at this guy’s other videos and they’re all filled with a bunch of crap buzzwords and fake news just to generate clicks for his videos. He’s not even making logical sense in most of them.
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… I don’t understand his complaints… I mean even sfV is doing huge shake ups in the start of the season and then minor changes through out… its the way fg’s are going now adays unless you count nrs games.
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This is a completely legit reason to stop liking a game.
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KI best game ever. Let’s go season 4.
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The guy that made the video could have just said he likes MK more and be done. The video would have been 10 sec.
I like how he compared both Injustice and MK to KI. Leaving out that Injustice and MK are made by the same company.
Why is he even complaining about KI stages when MKX has around 10 total. I get that KI has changed between the seasons, but MKX has changed over the years too.
I like the game changes. It forces people to keep learning and not just learn a combo 3 years ago and be done.
I might be wrong, but I assume the time placement has to do with the size of the prize pool, and not the quality of the game.
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I hate to start with an ad hominem but that was honestly the most repetitive argument I’ve ever heard. He must’ve said “MK/Injustice and SFV didn’t change mechanics in updates while KI has” and basically circled around that fact, offering little else in terms of specifics or new information for at least half of that 12 minute video.
Now, my problem with that isn’t the fact in and of itself or even the repetition of it, but rather, the well used “KI isn’t as popular as it once was” sentiment (which is never supported by any factual evidence in the video or anywhere else this argument’s made) followed by “let me now throw out my personal issues with the game and then extrapolate that onto this population of gamers that I have no real indication as to whether they’re leaving or not and theorize this as the real problem plaguing KI.”
Now, could updated game mechanics be an issue for some people? Sure. Within the tourney contingent, I’m sure that there are people that don’t like relearning their character and left because of this.
Of course, there are also people that like KI keeping the experience fresh. Some people like seeing old characters get new toys. Did this person watch the S3 rebalance stream where tourney players were living and dying while listening to character nerfs and buffs? It was fun, entertaining, and people here on the boards seemed exhilarated by it and by talking about the game.
To the guy’s credit, he said that he didn’t pay as much attention to KI in season 2 and even less in season 3. Yet that kinda calls in to question just how much his finger is on the pulse of KI players and their comings and goings, especially if he doesn’t even know that ultimates are coming.
Moving along, he mentions MK and SF bringing out new iterations, but doesn’t seem to think they’re as big of a factor as his mechanics argument. Or at least this seemed implied.
If I tell you that a tourney player can likely make more money at a more popular game with a bigger community, is it possible that this is a factor in some tourney players leaving? Could it be as much or even more of a factor than changing mechanics? Who’s to say. Thing is, you can’t just dismiss a factor like this, not when we’re talking about two of the biggest, triple A titles the genre has to offer versus a small budget title that’s been scratching and clawing its way up the totem pole from the bottom of the FGC since day one.
I’d also question the “people are leaving” sentiment having much, if anything to do with KI’s position at EVO. Again, KI is not, nor has it ever been popular enough to warrant prime spot EVO consideration. Would I like it to be? Absolutely.
But still, he basically uses this treatment which could have multiple causation to float an unprovable premise, only to use said premise as a means to justify the validity of his own personal issue with the game.
To me, that’s a bit disingenuous. Why feel the need to build up such a circumstantial argument just to state your issue with adding mechanics?
Why not spend more of the video drilling down to specifics about what bothers you in those mechanics? Because all I heard was vague stuff like “crazy options,” “crazy set ups,” “like Marvel,” and “rediculousness.”
Well, okay, if he won’t say what his exact problems are with this game he’s been paying less and less attention to, then what am I supposed to take away here?
OP, would you care to fill in some of the gaps here? I’m not trying to belittle your opinion or even change your mind. I’m just curious what specifically bothers you. As far as mechanics go, I mean, it’s not like you have to use the new stuff if you don’t want to. So what’s the deal?
For what it’s worth, I’m hoping we get a season 4 without a new gameplay mechanic like recapture or flipout. The game has enough of those IMO. But I do hope for a big rebalance with new moves, changes, nerfs, buffs, etc.
I think they’re fun, and I love seeing an old character in a new light. Otherwise, you’re in 2017 playing a four year old Jago. Is that keeping tourney pros or any of us plebes more interested four years in?
If you disagree though, no problem. I didn’t mean any offense to OP or the guy that made the video. If season one KI was your favorite KI, then that’s cool. Personally, I’ve enjoyed seeing this game grow in to what it is now, but who knows, maybe season four will be my jumping off point if they turn the game in to something I can’t identify with. So really, no judgment here.
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It’s a very flawed argument, because the truth is you need to do just as much re-learning to play at a high level with things like numerous frame data changes as you do with adding or changing mechanics. If he wants to argue for one second that MKX’s wild and frequent balance patches were any easier to follow than the seasonal updates to KI he’s either being disingenuous or has completely erased the start of MKX from his mind.
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It is, but only if you don’t consider why they were changed. In KI’s case, they were made for new characters like Tusk and Raam. If your game were to make changes often just for the sake of changing things up, then I’d be on your side.
Why is that funny?
Consider someone like Spinal and Fulgore who have gone through a varitey of changes over the course of the 3 seasons… if you mained one of them and liked how they were in season 1, and don’t agree with how they are now at a present date after having been changed time and time again, then I can completely understand if you no longer wish to play the game.
Balance patches and additions to the gameplay change minor things to make sure every character on the roster stands an equal change against eachother, no one having a certain advantage over everyone else. But there’s been a handful of characters who’s gameplay and special moves have had a rehaul, some things added and other things taken from them.
And that’s totally a legit reason to stop playing them then.
Again, made in the grand scheme of things, to stop them from being too OP with the coming changes. I can understand why you (generic) would want to stop playing that character, but that’s because there’s no consideration given to how it affects the entire game. I would not want to play as Gargos against a meter and Instinct stealing Spinal, nor would I want to play against a Fulgore that can zone the crap out of Raam. Simple policy, accept the changes and adapt. Rarely, if ever, have IG made a change that significantly nerfed a character without giving them some kind of advantage somewhere else.
Simply because of the lopsidedness of this argument.
I know this is somewhat unrelated to the topic at hand but as a Glacius main since the 90’s I freakin’ hated the new Glacius. His entire playstyle was changed, he was hardly recognizable in most aspects of his kit when compared to the original. That being said I loved him so much that I adapted to the zoning malarkey because I love the character and always have.
Seems a little petty to drop an entire game because your character got reworked slightly.
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