Is it a community if you don't turn up?
Is it a family dinner if people don't sit around the table?
Sure, online play and posting on forums DOES mean you're contributing to something in the overall community, depending on the value of the contributions.
But when it comes to people paying attention to our community and whether DOA is included in anything, the only thing that counts is seeing people turn up. That's pretty undeniable.
Try not turning up to your next job interview.
True.You are seeing a community in action when they participate in offline events. People create communities based on many different things. It depends on whether you just want an offline competitive community that is recognized by others in the FGC or Just an very active online community or Just community that functions as a whole. I know this site wants the former more so than the latter. But a community has to be built. It comes when people work together for a common goal.And it must take proper steps to get built the right way.
If the community is all in on trying to get recognized as a whole then recognition will come. But if the community is split on how it plays the game then one side needs to find a way to bring both sides together. If the high level community keeps considering itself and its style of play as being an exclusive club and demanding the rest of the community raise its game by coming to offline events and not recognizing how the majority of the community plays the game.That is just counter productive. The high level community will just continue to have a lack luster number of players that only consist of the top players that show up at offline events.
Instead of getting pissed about it and lashing out at the community maybe its time we started giving back by educating. Because as of now most of the DOA community is not buying what we are selling.
I'm sure in this day and age no one is going to pass up an interview for a job. Passing up a offline gathering to play a video game is another story.
I miss the days of where you would bump into some random person at an arcade or gathering a just be like "hey you play this game?" the person would be like yeah. Then you just play.No offline/online BS and drama. I still get this when it comes to playing SF and Tekken. Not so much when it comes to DOA.
After being here for a couple a months now. I just now realized that I'm just preaching to the choir. I love DOA as series and want the game and the community to get the respect it has earned and deserved. Its just seems like to me the DOA high level community wants to preserve its style of play and advocates everyone else falls in line and do the same or the DOA community is doomed. To some degree its true.In the eyes of the FGC we are basically almost non existent at major offline events. At the same time it isalso BS because the fans and players continue to support and buy the games. Hell, even the WWE wrestling game community is very active yet they do not put on offline events.And the online community is horrible yet THQ wrestling games still sale and are supported by the wrestling community.
Its easy for us in the high level community to point fingers and blame the casual and online players for not showing up to offline events. But if you look at this games roots it never really developed a hardcore arcade community. Nor got that easy name recognition that games like SF and Tekken has developed over time.DOA gained its fame (whether good or bad)off of fan service, game play, and being a console based fighting game throughout its existence here in the states.
As of now we are a community of puppies trying to be top dog. We got "killers" and those that support the DOA offline scene. But we are not communicating and getting together as a community as whole. Online is and was the one way we could have. But all I read and heard from the more vocal in the high level community during the DOAU days is that online play sucks and not valid for competitive play. I just find it funny that those that wrote it off online play were the ones that probably lost more than they wanted to players who they deemed wasn't good online. From my understanding the high level DOA community is made up of a small but passionate group of players.Who are very dedicated to promoting the game. Yet when your on an island for so long and just play among yourselves you start to buy into your set of standards and BS.I feel online play was a new frontier for the DOA community to embrace and capitalize on. Instead of embracing it quite a few of the high level community frowned upon it.
They were many including myself who consider themselves high level players who have contributed to the community by doing local events as well supporting the game by playing online, who were a bit turned off by how the most visible and vocal DOA players were hating on not just online play but its players. DOA was one of the first 3D fighting games to go online. And finally DOA players from around the world can play against each other. Instead of being happy or having a sense of pride it was then considered a non factor in how the game should be played by our esteemed high level community.Those we looked up to and watched on televise events and youtube videos just basically wrote off the majority of the DOA community and imposed a challenge "Prove to us your better by coming to offline events".
I'm not hating on Offline play or the high level community.I support it 100%.I just choose not to ignore or separate myself from the DOA community as a whole. I'm just a part of the many players who just want to play the game. I'm sure quite a few of you are tired of my "wall of text " posts on this or similar issues concerning the DOA community or the FGC in general. I'm even tired of having to repeat myself or say the same things but in a different way. I don't want to be seen as a troll or just as that one obnoxious person who comes off as a rebel on the forums. I mean no disrespect to everyone here.whether you are pro or beginner. I got nothing but love for the the DOA community and its players as a whole.
I'm just a 36 yr old woman still grasping to her early 20's by playing the game she loves to play. I also realized that I am a 36 yr old woman on the the verge of becoming a bitter and senile individual over dealing with young people in general lol. So this will be my last post on issues dealing with the DOA community on this site. I'm just gonna let the FSD community be what it wants to be.
My opinions are probably best served at other forums where I can be more involved in getting the DOA community to get out the house so to speak. I won't be posting here that often but I will be lurking around the site.If you notice I'm on send me PM.Or if you see me on PSN send invite me to a lobby for some matches.