Chapter 1

A. Background of the Study

  

    According to Campbell.C 's article entitled "Well Borrowed Gameplay Elements pushes 'Shadow of Morder' to the Top", some games that has been publicized successfully borrowed gameplay elements from other games or different genres of games. Not only specifically for this game, but a large quantity of developers has been doing  this since the past. This is of course not to blatantly copy them but to build upon the mechanic and evolve it further to fit their very own style.

 I quote from Campbell "If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then Monolith Entertainment has just written one heck of a love letter to Rocksteady in the form of 'Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor' “. (http://www.stripes.com/military-life/games/well-borrowed-gameplay-pushes-shadow-of-mordor-to-the-top-1.307609)

      Various gaming genres borrowed gameplay elements from Fighting games. The Fighting game genre is one of the pioneering genres which started videogames. Since games in this style has been developed since the dawn of video game creation, many games has largely used gaming ideas from this genre and integrated them into their games or even used it as a basis for making gaming titles. As the genre itself kept on evolving throughout the videogame history, the gaming industry prospered with it creating more ideas and giving birth to newer types of games that takes this genre as basis for their new gaming mechanics.

                "Every once in a while comes a video game that claims - or is claimed - to 'revolutionize' its genre, to bring it beyond what it used to be, or to 'evolve' it, defining a new step along the generic road it is treading".Taken from Arsenault.D's article that goes with the title of "Video Game Genre, Evolution and Innovation“. (http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/65/125)

  The Fighting game genre is a largely evolved genre  filled with educational materials for the c  reation of newer and more complex gaming elements. Fighting games has been around since the very early stages of the video-gaming world’s rise to the industry. Numerous trial and errors, breakthroughs, and discoveries of never before used gaming mechanics has all been seen by this particular type of videogame making it not only the one of the eldest but also one of the most successful types of game that ever graced the industry.

Fighting games gave birth to competition amongst different communities. Dargenio.A  has stated in his article titled " History of Fighting Games" about the birth of competitive gaming with the introduction of this genre.

  "But, the huge popularity spike that the fighting game genre and fighting game community has seen in the past couple years has set some pretty phenomenal changes in motion. " (http://arcadesushi.com/the-history-of-fighting-games-part-1/)

               

      The genre in its early stages, despite its nature of pitting more than one player to another, didn’t started as a competitive game. It only did when it has evolved enough to incorporate strategy and technique into its gameplay in games like Street Fighter II where the real competition began. The games by then has been largely designed to favor the player who have honed their skill better than their opposition. The said genre is also one of the biggest reason the arcade community has risen to its peak.  But nowadays, due to the advancement in technology, consoles are able to connect players from all over the globe to compete with each other. But it is largely agreed upon by many players that the offline scene the arcade community gives still gives the best experience in terms comfortability and stableness of framerate which online matches fail to deliver.

     Despite the dwindling interest on the genre, because of newer genres being born, Fighting games continues to bring people from over the world together. In a recent article by Lambert.K of Powerleveled, moves done by developers could definitely kill the community by choosing exclusivity in their games.

      "If I could give one word to describe the state of the current console war, it would be exclusivity. To me, that is a dirty word which only serves to hurt the gaming ecosystem."

"Street Fighter IV is one of the best fighting games ever made and completely revitalized the dying genre. It was released in 2009 on Xbox 360,  PS3, and in arcades (2008) and enabled more people then ever to fight each other thanks to Xbox Live and PSN. Not only that, but since this was the first major fighting game to be released on the current gen consoles of the time in an era of amazing communication, the fighting game community was able to grow and share information exponentially."
(http://powerleveled.com/capcom-exclusively-killing-fighting-games-with-street-fighter-v/)

    This only proves that Fighting games connect people over the world even with the recent difficulties the genre has been experiencing. Although these difficulties exists, fighting games is still one of the pillars to video gaming and a main attraction in world of the rising entertainment industry known as E-Sports(Electronic Sports).It is not a genre to be ignored. As the one who introduced competitive gaming to the masses, fighting games is one of the largest featured games in this rising entertainment industry. The sheer number of players still supporting the Fighting game community in prestigious international events like EVO proves that fighting games still garners interest even with the booming success of MOBA’s(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena).

Taken from an article by a player in the guise of AFliXTioN entitled "Fighting Games- A Dying Breed". He speaks of the current situation the genre is facing.

              
      " I think the main problem with fighting games is staying relevant, Publishers won’t take the risk on producing a new fighting game as no one might play it no matter how good it is and it’s hard to make a fighting game with unique game mechanics. This is why fighting game series such as Street Fighter and Tekken have lasted so long they are tried and tested formulas and they already have  a great fan  base, so what is the point In making a new game where you need to gather a whole new community and to be honest the fighting game community isn’t that big." (http://www.6aming.com/fighting-games-a-dying-breed/)

     With the current flow of events where players and viewers commonly  follow the most popular games to date and where the prevalent issues surrounding the genre continues to haunt it, fighting games has been forced to play a submissive role and give way to more popular kinds of gaming despite  its contribution to the industry and to the unique challenge and thrills it gives to players and enthusiasts that venture in this type of game.To sum it all up, knowing what unique challenges this genre bring to the table will encourage new people to try it out .Therefore saving the genre and keeping it relevant to the current times which will  then greatly contribute to the ever evolving industry that is video-gaming as it always does since the beginning.

  This paper shall pinpoint the factors as to why the Fighting Game genre is considered to be dying so that it could be remedied before it is too late to revive it.

B. Statement of the Problem

This research aims to answer the following questions:

1.What are the factors regarding the difficulties surrounding the Fighting Game genre?

C. Significance of the Study

Players- Gaming is of course primarily targets its audience. Saving  this exceptionally competitive genre will keep diversity in the gaming  libraries of each players. Learning the discipline needed in different genres will grant more skills to its players such as hand and eye coordination and reaction times.

Game Developers- Developers should be able to use the information for the purpose of revolutionizing the genre so it would be more appealing to the community and the industry.

E-Sports Organizations- The world of electronic gaming entertainment is only starting to take off and will be a very prominent type of entertainment in the future. Having more competitive types of game will attract new players and viewers alike furthering the rising popularity that this industry is receiving right now.

Future Researchers- This study will be a very informative piece of research that will aid the future researchers in their quest for finding newer and better solutions to whatever they may be after that will touch this grounds of research. Their research can be built upon this data or be used as a basis for future research purposes.

D. Scope and Delimitation

                This research focuses in the unique gaming elements present in only the most relevant game titles and game mechanics in this specific genre of gaming  but will use older games as basis for some information gathering. Although the topic will touch on competition elements that is universally present in all competitive games, the study will only focus on the elements that are largely involved with the Fighting game genre only. This is due to the span of time allotted for this study.

                In any case a topic which is not in the boundaries of the research is touched upon, they will only be used to support the study and will not be given any emphasis.

E. Materials and Methods

                 The researcher will make use of the already available information available on print and online credible articles. But the researcher will still conduct live interview s amongst players in the community that is readily available for data gathering in the immediate vicinity of the researchers study location.

F. Definition of Terms

Video games -  is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device,[1] but it now implies any type of display device that can produce two- or three-dimensional images. The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use. Video games have gone on to become an art form and industry.
Fighting games-  is a video game genre in which the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as blocking, counter-attacking, and chaining together sequences of attacks known as "combos".

E-Sports(Electronic SportsGaming Community-  A term used to refer to the collective of players who share a common video game interest and culture. They can be an organized group that shares information between its members and hold official events

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena(MOBA).  A rather new gaming genre that has taken the gaming world by storm. Also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS), originated as a subgenre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre of video games, in which a player controls a single character in one of two teams. The objective is to destroy the opposing team's main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computer-controlled units that march forward along set paths. Player characters typically have various abilities and advantages that improve over the course of a game and that contribute to a team's overall strategy. A fusion of action games and real-time strategy games, players usually do not construct either buildings or units.

Chapter 2
                                                                               

 Discussions

I.                    The Current State of Fighting games

             The Fighting games genre has been one of the pillars of gaming early on in its rising process.

The Fighting game genre has arguably started what we know today as competitive gaming. It is where players go against another in a competition level where their skills are tested and only the best would rise to the top of the competitive rankings. These phenomenon would start gathering more interest in gaming all together where communities are born. Players from the same genre share valuable informations and discoveries everyday and they are tested if it has any value in the current state of competition level or what we call the Meta game.

             But due to the rise of other genres rising to competition levels, the Fighting game genre has been more and more neglected in favor of trying out newer forms of competitive gaming. For the past few years, the genre has been active in international level events like EVO. But the problems is that the arcade scene of fighting games are considered to be less and less active and local sessions can be scarcely found in most places. Affecting the gaming community all together. Meaning there are less players active in the community.

                “If I could give one word to describe the state of the current console war, it would be exclusivity. To me, that is a dirty word which only serves to hurt the gaming ecosystem.” (http://powerleveled.com/capcom-exclusively-killing-fighting-games-with-street-fighter-v/)

                A statement made by Lambert.K regarding the current decisions that will largely affect the current state of Fighting games in his article called “Capcom Exclusively Killing Fighting Games with Street Fighter V”. CAPCOM, one of the biggest developer and publisher of Fighting games struck a deal to keep Street Fighter V, one of the most well known Fighting game, to be an exclusive title. Effectively cutting the community into half.

“ Obviously this moment is greatly enhanced by the fact it’s in a tournament situation, but you can still get that buzz when you are playing in an online environment. As demonstrated here by one of my favorite youtubers Maximillian”

                A statement by Sean 8-bit, which testifies to the fact that online gaming is now favored by a number of players.This again, lowers the numbers of participants in the offline arcade scene where the genre is made of and started from.

              

                But nowadays,  franchises like Street Fighter , Tekken and Mortal Kombat are gaining more and more popularity. Newer titles like Persona 4 Arena, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Blazblue are trying to revive the genre. They are trying to reactivate the hype and return the genre into it’s former glory giving a chance for success after the genre’s dark days of the past a couple of years ago.

II.                  The Unique Challenge Fighting Games Possess

We can say that Fighting games is a forefather of competitive gaming with a sole reason that it is build to be competitive that has a mechanic unique to itself. Most of the Fighting games revolve around fundamental mechanics that rarely or cannot be seen elsewhere. This makes the competition in fighting games very unique and losing the genre entirely will be a blow to the industry and the whole community of players and enthusiasts that follow this genre.

First of all, fighting games requires skills that can be acquired through training and hardwork. A good player should also possess knowledge of the game’s mechanics that are unique to a very diverse game library. This has been largely believed by the players who have reached the top of the competitive scene currently.

“Unfortunately, it’s this brutal difficulty that drives so many people away from a beautiful, strategic, and amazingly fun genre.”I (http://geekti.me/wp/2012/02/mastering-fighting-games-turning-a-dan-into-a-ryu/)

                Stevenson.S’ opinion over the state of matters regarding Fighting games in his article entitled “Mastering Fighting Games: Turning a Dan into a Ryu”. To be able to enjoy fighting games, it is imperative that you are ready to train and study to be able to have atleast a fighting chance. Mastering and understanding mechanics in this genre is key to taking it to an enjoyable and competitive level.

III.                Factors to why Fighting Games are said to be a dying genre

A.      The Online and Casual Gaming Phenomenon

       The Fight game genre has been born and made to be played in an honest offline session. This is where the genre is most problematic even with the implementations of better netcodes in many of the existing fighting games that are currently released. Losing the arcade scene means losing the home where the genre has prospered and skyrocketed to popularity in the past.  A game made to be played with deadly precision will be greatly affected by the current situation of online and its issues.

    “Casual gamers. That's the other big group that gets attention from game makers. Inside gaming culture, "hard core" and "casual" are tribal divisions.

     "For the hard core, gaming is the passion. Casual players enjoy games, yet they don't steep themselves in gamer culture rites like midnight openings. Still, as the gaming population grows, and gets older, exactly where those two tribes begin and end gets a little blurry.”A statement from Kelley.K regarding the division of the community between hardcore and the casual players from the article entitled “Hard-core and casual Gamers Play in Different Worlds”.

(http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/11/29/246747168/hard-core-and-casual-gamers-play-in-different-worlds)

                One of the biggest problem of the biggest problems of developers of Triple A titles is the boom of casual gaming. Hardcore gaming lost customers and potential customers to casual gaming. Of course this took effect on Fighting games which is considered to be a niche game in the past.

               

B.      The Inert Difficulty The Genre is Built Upon

The genre is built upon the usage of simple but hard to master fundamentals to complex gaming mechanics.

“Unfortunately, it’s this brutal difficulty that drives so many people away from a beautiful, strategic, and amazingly fun genre.” As Stevenson.S stated in the article “Mastering Fighting Games: Turning a Dan into a Ryu” (http://geekti.me/wp/2012/02/mastering-fighting-games-turning-a-dan-into-a-ryu/)

     Since the genre is made to be competitive, it is only natural that the learning curve for it is very steep. Players are asked to learn the fundamentals and mechanics and improvise from there so that they may have a chance as the top ranks. This is the kind of game that players need to invest a certain time to be able to be enjoyed in contrast to the very popular casual games where it only takes minutes to learn and play.

C.       The Decisions made by the Developers and Publishers regarding their games

Many decisions made by these companies had a huge impact to the strife the genre is in right now.The current state of the console wars have had a hand in these matters as well.

“If I could give one word to describe the state of the current console war, it would be exclusivity. To me, that is a dirty word which only serves to hurt the gaming ecosystem” as Lambert.K has stated in the article “Capcom Exclusively Killing Fighting Games with Street Fighter V” (http://powerleveled.com/capcom-exclusively-killing-fighting-games-with-street-fighter-v/)

 Some games like Street Fighter V has chosen to be exclusive to a few console unlike games which had success that went multiplatform. This will further dwindle down the already low number of players the community have and is a bad move for the community although it’s a good one business wise.

D.      Lack of Advertisement

Most fighting games are inadequately advertised leading to the fact that the masses barely know half of the current games that are carrying the name of this genre. There are really good games that are not advertised and only been known through the hardcore community and sometimes the tournaments. But this requires you to be already an enthusiasts. Making people who don’t have a clue about the community oblivious about them. And in turn, lowers the people who want to try them out.

"I want to play MVC 3 but it ain't Gaben approved.Am I missing out... this is coming from a guy who couldn't get into Street Fighter but can enjoy fighting games like Tekken and Super Smash because it's all about dat button mashing." Stated by user aexyas from the IGN Boards
(http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/the-lack-of-3d-fighting-games-on-steam-is-ridiculous.454372675/)

        Large re-publishers have largely neglected this genre and only put on very few in their library. This is mostly true to even the most popular re-publishers like Steam.

E.       Profanity , Gore, Sexual themes and more inappropriate content

Although some of these are used to actually attract customers. These also lowers the age range in which players are allowed to put their hands on these games. A very large quantity of the gaming population are very young in under 21 years of age.

"Calvert and Tan  compared the effects of playing versus observing violent video games on young adults' arousal levels, hostile feelings, and aggressive thoughts. Results indicated that college students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game do." An article study by Shin.G  entitled "Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression" (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723)

Licensing groups rate some of these games so that these audiences should not be into it. This could be a huge problem in some countries where age restrictions are strictly implemented.

                 

IV.                Conclusions

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the coming downfall of this genre. But most of them are fixable to a certain extent that could patch up the current problems the genre is facing. One problem came with the advancement of technology and should easily be remedied with the problem itself. The fighting game genre could ride the online phenomenon back to its former glory if technology advances well enough to eliminate connection issues that hinders the experience with the genre. There are also creative directions that put up difficulties that can also be removed by choosing a better direction with regard to these games. Although the community can’t be changed in a snap of a finger. The genre could also use the current situation as an advantage to present these games in a much larger scale and approachable to a wider spectrum of audience but not losing the roots as to why the genre is worthy of the attention of the gaming population.

Chapter 3

Summary

This research paper gathered information as to why the Fighting Game genre came to the situation that it is today. A shell of its former glory where it was once the best and one of the most well played games across the globe in terms of arcade and offline community volume to prestigious tournaments attended and watched all over the world.

The researcher gathered around rich information regarding the subject matter by means of collecting articles from legitimate Gaming journalism sites and classified and collected information by face-to-face and online interviews

1.                  1.  According to the information gathered. There are a lot of factors, direct and indirect factors that contribute to the situation where the genre is in. Those includes the following :

        *The Online Phenomenon
        * The Difficulty of the Genre

        *Business Decisions from Developers and Publishers

        *Lack of Advertisements
        *Creative Directions that Limits the Audience Range         

 

       2.       The gameplay mechanics itself made it very distant to casual players. The casual community nowadays is the largest percentage of gamers in the world and this fact contributes to the very little percentage of players into these games

       3.       The Arcade scene’s lack of action greatly affected the genre cause the games are made to be played in these environments.

Conclusions                   

Based from the findings and information this research has gathered, the researcher has concluded the   following :

1.       The Community and the companies that produces these games are holding the life of the genre and must be attended to.

2.       There are problems that are from the game itself and can be fixed through a more thorough study regarding the matter.

3.       The current trend greatly affects subject and can be used to the advantage of envisioning a better future for the genre.

      Recommendations              

1.       The Game developers should conduct a more thorough study in keeping the genre relevant to our times and the current gaming trend.

2.       Gamers who has the means can spread word about the uniqueness and competition the genre offers.

3.       E-Sports organizations should use the advantage of this competitive genre in a give and take relationship. This entertainment industry is just emerging and making use of this genre as an attraction will be a very good move.

4.       Researchers interested in this subject should conduct a larger scale study to be used for the purpose of integrating them into plans for the advantage of the industry and the community.

    References           

AfLixTioN,2012, Fighting Games A Dying Breed, Articles from 6aming.com Retrieved from http://www.6aming.com/fighting-games-a-dying-breed/)

Arsenault.D,2009, Video Game genre, Evolution and Innovation, Articles from Eludamos.org Retrieved from http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/65/125

Campbell.C , 2014, Well Borrowed Gameplay Elements pushes 'Shadow of Morder, Articles from Stripe.com Retrieved from  http://www.stripes.com/military-life/games/well-borrowed-gameplay-pushes-shadow-of-mordor-to-the-top-1.307609

Dargenio.A,2014, A History of Fighting Games, Articles from Arcade Sushi.com Retrieved from
(http://arcadesushi.com/the-history-of-fighting-games-part-1/)

Kelly.K.2013, Hard-core and casual Gamers Play in Different Worlds, Blogs NPR.org Retrieved from

(http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/11/29/246747168/hard-core-and-casual-gamers-play-in-different-worlds)

Lambert.K,2014, CAPCOM Exclusively Killing Fighting Games with Street Fighter V Retrieved from (http://powerleveled.com/capcom-exclusively-killing-fighting-games-with-street-fighter-v/)

Shin.G.2008, Video Games : A Cause of Violence and Agression,SerendipipUpdate Blog ,Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723