Hey everybody, how’s it going?
In this post I would like to address not only the people of influence in this community, but also the every-person. Any and all KI fans. If you stream KI, make videos, post on this forum or on twitter or elsewhere or otherwise generate any KI related text or content - this is for you (and also me, by extension).
There are two dialogues which are simultaneously busy at this time - KI’s relative FGC popularity, and negativity in the community. It shouldn’t strike you as curious that these are both trending at the same time, and that’s because they are absolutely related to one another.
So let’s take a quick look at ourselves - why would we be concerned about KI’s relative FGC popularity? That doesn’t affect most of our paychecks here, and none of the people financially vested in KI being popular are engaging with this topic. So what’s our motivation to discuss it? Speaking solely for myself - I would like KI to be more popular because of two overarching reasons: I want to be able to have people to play the game with in the years to come, and I would like more people to play against. Anything else that may be a fringe benefit of KI being popular is absolutely trumped by those two things.
Why? Because fighting games aren’t best played alone, that’s why. The game will always be at its best when you have someone to play with. And this is my favorite freaking fighting game of all time, full stop. If you take a moment to really engage yourself in some introspection; whether or not this is your favorite game, I think you’ll find that you want the same things for the game that I do, and for the same reasons.
Dear Every-Person: Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising to this day. Please read that twice if you don’t believe it because it’s true and you need to live with that. Especially in the age of the internet. As you speak about the game - praise things, decry things, wish for things, dream of things - post about things - you are determining the bulk of the advertisement that KI will go down in history with.
Sure there are reviews, interviews, trailers, show floor appearances and the like… but that’s an absolute drop in the bucket compared the the content that you, I and all of us will create as we continue to talk about the game online. Don’t devalue yourself because you think someone else has more influence - you are far more powerful in this regard than you realize.
Now if you’re a person of influence who profits, even just a little, from streaming KI or making KI content - this REALLY applies to you. Why? Because you love playing KI (otherwise you wouldn’t be streaming it - you’re CERTAINLY not into KI of ALL GAMES for the money), and you want to acquisition more dollars for playing the game that you love. I want you to take a moment to throw your ego in the bin and think. Take a look at influential gamers - the MOST influential gamers - and the games they’ve helped to make popular. You will find that the very thing they did to help that game get popular was the very same thing they did to make the gamers themselves popular in the first place:
They had a ■■■■-ton of fun playing the game in front of their audience.
Fun is infectious. We see fun happening, and we want some. Most people, when faced with fun, generally have a reaction in their mind that equates to “give me some of that fun”. They’re paying attention to you in the first place, because they think YOU are fun to watch, while you’re having fun. When they get enough of you for the day or the week, they might want to go get into the fun YOU were having. One thing you generally won’t find is negativity permeating their content. That’s a no brainer - people have plenty of their own, and don’t need yours.
Now FGs are a very unique genre to the world of gaming entertainment - your ability to play the game is going to be tantamount to whether or not people bother to take the time to watch you. I totally get that, I’m one of the dudes who watches you. But I’d like to make something perfectly clear… as one of the dudes who watches you:
It’s OK to lose a match. Or several. Even 20 in a row. That doesn’t make you any less entertaining, or less skilled. Think about advice that you’d give a beginner in the game - you’d tell them not to sweat losses, right? How does this suddenly not apply when you’re playing in front of people? Literally no one expects you to be omniscient - which is absolutely what you would need to be to win every single match - so you can’t beat yourself to death when you lose in front of people. Frankly, anyone who expected you to win every single match you play is someone you frankly don’t need in your audience - call them a scrub and ban them from chat because that’s what they deserve.
The reason I mention this is because I’ve noticed that people are far quicker to cast blame anywhere but inward when they lose while playing for people. They’re very quick to call a player “trash” or to call the game or some aspect of the game “bullshit” or say it “sucks” - and even though these comments may not mean a damned thing to you at the moment you said them or even now, even though you may deep down LOVE the game - those comments will resonate with the people who look up to you, the people who consume your content, and that will directly affect the game’s future. I know that people should NOT be this easily swayed, and that they should be thinking more independently - but as my best friend’s mom once said, “Wish in one hand and crap in the other, see which one fills up quicker” - because they’re NOT, and they’re likely not going to either. You will be the driving force behind the word-of-mouth created by the vast majority of every-persons, because people just mindlessly parrot the things they hear influential people say. You need to realize that it’s a sad truth you are hopeless to change (though by all means, try).
You are literally influencing the amount of revenue you generate by playing any single game by the amount of fun you can consistently project to your audience while playing it. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be critical - it’s essential and the devs want/need it - but perhaps you should form your criticisms in a manner that won’t be misinterpreted by people with poor reading comprehension that have no interest in delving into the reasons for your criticism. Why? Because you’re that influential, like it or not.
Anyhow, this is already tl;dr territory and I’m sure I’ve lost a lot of you by now… so here’s the tl;dr version:
This game will only ever be as popular as the amount of people who see or hear about you having fun playing it.
If you made it this far… thanks, really. 
Thanks so much! I was hoping I got the point across.
Other than that, I’m known to be a bit of a fanboy among my friends because I’m talking about it a lot. From the music to the character reveals to the personal rivalries. I’ve been baby-stepping a purely FPS player into KI with Combo Assist (he likes Tekken and it seems like a good way to get him started), couple of sessions have gone well but he’s got a ways to go 
This game’s too much fun to ignore.
). I’ve told him the next time, we’re gonna play about 10-20 matches and find him a character he likes. After that, we get in to the more technical stuff… provided he still sticks around lol.