Hi everyone! It has been a while. As the title suggests, I am interested to know what you all like about the Killer Instinct forums, and why.
Before that, will share some of my thoughts in no particular order:
I really enjoy how organized the website is, and how many categories there are. I have mostly been reading other peoples posts, and it is extremely easy to find the sorts of topics that I want to read. And whenever I did end up posting something, it was really easy to know where to place it. Posts tend to get lost into the void a lot less frequently, and 'necroing" is not banned or frowned upon too much. Many other forums that I read kind of bundle things into a “General Discussion” sort of category, and you have to scroll for like 82,000 years before you find the right topics.
While I don’t exactly like “likes” either, I really enjoy the lack of dislikes. If people are wrong or disagree, they should actually talk to each other and cooperatively find the truth of the matter, rather than just dislike and leave. That sort of mechanic discourages discussion. (Likes do that too to a certain extent, but those are good for voting on memes or what have you, not necessarily discussion)
It’s about a video game that I really like. This is the biggest thing for me, and I would imagine that that is true most others. It’s why I went here to begin with. No one that I know cares about this topic that much, (which is totally fine) but on this website, I have plenty of other people to interact with that do.
There is very little, if any, censorship of discussion. I absolutely love this. Even if you say something that gets flagged, people can still easily read what you said. And you don’t get banned for having the “wrong opinions” as far as I know. It goes down to rude/disruptive behavior and such.
The amount of inconsiderate people is much less than what I have found on some other gaming forums. The people that are still here seem to be relatively respectful.
The user interface is very easy and understandable for me to use. I have had little issue with it over the years.
The lack of major issues is a benefit to me. The only real major ones that I can think of are just inherent to most social media as a whole. Maybe you can come up with some issues that I’m missing?
So with that out if the way, what do you (yes, YOU) like about these forums? What makes you want to log on again and again? I really want to hear it!
For myself, I think the things that keeps me coming back are love for the game and love for the community that fostered my growth in the game. And just in general I’m a huge fan of the forum format, where topics exist for a long time, can be searched easily, and there can be genuine conversations about any number of things.
The never-ending scrolling timelines of Twitter or Discord are uniquely terrible at encouraging real conversations or learning. Information must be hyper-condensed t, commentary on the information is mostly non-existent, and it all disappears down the scrolling tide of one-liners and memes within a few days. Nothing is archived, and there is rarely an opportunity to dissect or dig into the more subtle layers of a game. People post combos on Twitter because that’s about the only “substantive” addition to their community they can think to make on the medium - there’s no space to have an in-depth discussion about a character’s overall gameplan, options, and control of match flow. Which is unfortunate, because all of those things are (by my lights) much more interesting conversations to have, and are also far more important in actually helping you improve.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that these forums made me a better player. I liked Killer Instinct before I came here, but I fell in love with the game through my time and discussions at KIUF. The long-form back-and-forths from knowledgeable and learning players gave me an opportunity to see and appreciate the different avenues that go into decision-making, and seeing that depth made me want to dive deeper myself into the world of KI and fighting games more generally. I agreed with some of what I read and disagreed with other parts of it, but either way the exposure made me begin to think more critically about all the different aspects of the game and my game. The long conversations gave me the space to grow, to be right sometimes while wrong at others, and through it all to hone the ways in which I thought about FG options and balance. And then, because it was a true forum, it gave me the opportunity to revisit those conversations whenever I needed a refresher or to find a particularly salient point again.
This is also something I really enjoy about this particular forum. The sprawling 10,000-post original “GG’s Thread” had an absolute horde of individual topics within it, all the way from analytical game theory to call-outs to brief forays into movies people had seen. A huge amount of discussions and arguments, and most of it barely moderated if at all. Seeing the way that topic sprawled and meandered while having so many great points for learning KI and FG’s is one of the reasons I’m such a light touch as a moderator. Learning can happen in all kinds of contexts, and I think it’s important to “let the kids fight” sometimes to hash things out. Even if the main participants can’t agree, I know there are others who will be able to read the exchange later and pick up their own nuggets of wisdom from it.
I just got used to these forums that I never left.
Probably the single most important reason.
These days I just interact with whoever is left of our community on this forum. Met a few forum members in person and so it’s become more of a communication tool for me to stay in touch so to speak.
Most of the minor reasons why I joined the forum no longer apply sadly. Devs presence, a working PC version of the game, … however the fact that James is still helping out with problems ppl are having with the game is a minor but important reason I am still around. Gotta respect him and show some love. Visiting this forum is a way to show gratitude and letting the few devs left know that we’re still around and appreciate their efforts, I guess.
Now I spend a lot of time in the off topic section until a new KI game arrives or I just stop playing videogames altogether.
1.The community is easy to get along with
Like all communities we have different opinions. But we don’t have to agree. But while the community is not perfect, a majority of the community can respect an opinion. I think what really helps is that we have most folks who know that opinions, arguments, and feedback should be constructive and healthy. Most don’t always turn to insults either, and a lot of the disagreements come from misunderstandings. A very considerate community indeed. Heck to add to that, most of us get along because we aren’t always looking for like minded people.
2. Helpful tips
I’ve seen this time and time again. When someone needs help on something related KI almost never goes unnoticed. When someone needs help with a character, the communities best experts engage and help the individual.
3. Variety of topics.
If we’re not talking about KI, we also talk about other topics. Most of its fighting games but we’ve had topics on movies, other games, ect. So far we don’t hear too much on politics but personally it’s better that way. We don’t need that mess. I’ve been active in most of the forums on here from Soul Calibur to Super Smash Bros ect. But its also nice to see other topics people can come up with. Plus its great to share some work with other artiest on here.
I love the game, there’s a lot of interesting and helpful gameplay-related threads that are easy to find, the people are nice and sensible to the point that even when there has been heated arguments or drama it tends to settle down quickly. It can be pretty hard to find a gaming forum that isn’t drowning in fluff and tribalism, so I’m hoping this forum and community will still be intact by the time the sequel drops.
I keep coming back to the forums for two reasons: because I love the â– â– â– â– out of this game and running on blind hope that the remaining roster FINALLY gets an Ultimate.
