A DOA Fighting Game Competitor's plea to DOA community.

[J.D.E.]

Don't mean to offend anybody, but I can't take it anymore! I'm an outspoken person so I'm a say what's on my mind! I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm about say in this topic, but I gotta ask because it's getting annoying! Why do you play DOA? Do you play because you love it as a fighting game or do you play it because of girls? Do you play it because you like to dress a girl you have a "cyber crush" on? Ain't that what DOAX is for( I don't even play that game. PERIOD.)?

I'm for one am a passionate DOA fan who enjoys the game for what it is. I love it as a fighting game. It bothers the fuck outta me when I see people on twitter topics, or in the Dead or Alive Group on Facebook talking about the costumes & how they're gonna dress out their character & how sexy it is. C'mon! IT'S A FIGHTING GAME! Let's be serious. If you wanna talk the girls in DOA, ALL females are hot! Now that's outta the way, above all else I'm a fighting gamer! One who enjoys DOA because it's IMO 1 of the best fighting game franchises on this planet, but I don't see that from peers!

Here's what I see: People making demands for a swimsuit on twitter or a lingere outfit so they can "take photos of them & hang them on their wall". Don't get me wrong. Nothings wrong with that, but that's all I see. Nobody wants to take the game serious. That's 1 of the things that give all these haters something to talk about as far the community goes! It gives us bad look man! You're adding more fuel to the fire for assholes to bash DOA & for ppl to look at it this way! Plus, you don't wanna travel when your fellow members ask you to! & then you wanna bitch when people trash the game! Plus you got people who bitch about a character & don't know the character's tendencies & then wanna whine for a damn character nerf! Well FUCK! Look at what kind of fucking fan you're establishing yourself to be!!!

I just wish that people would enjoy DOA as a competitive fighting game. I wish that fans of DOA wouldn't go nuts over swimsuits & take the game for what it really is. I wish people would take it more seriously, & not go that crazy over swimsuits & take what Team Ninja gives you & appreciate it! But I don't see that!

What is your thoughts on this topic? This is just soul searching. Say what's your mind too as I said what I had to say.

 

[CrimsonCJ]

Personally, can't speak for anyone who plays for the fanservice. A couple things, though.

First, I blame TN as much for this reputation as anyone else. Look, the kind of fan service reactions happen with every fighting game out there. And it's not like DOA is unique for providing fan service all-together; one that didn't play that card heavily would be the exception and not the norm. But DOA has tendencies that take that to some really notable and obvious extremes, and TN doesn't seem to care about that. It may or may not be half-hearted in its attempts to market to DOA professionals, but it certainly doesn't seem to care what putting up bikini DLC does for the brand.

Secondly, if only this were the biggest issue facing DOA right now! Frankly, it'd have a lot of potential to surpass its branding if it didn't face a whole bunch of other issues in the way. (A self-hating community, lack of clarity in vision, amongst other things)

So, I don't think you're wrong. But it's a bit of a tree in a more problematic forest.

 

[Prince Adon]

I'm a big fighting game fan. I play just about any fighting game. DOA happens to be my favorite franchise. I've been playing it since DOA1 first came out in arcades. Before that I was a SF player, and also often played Tekken, KOF, MK..etc. I feel people who complain about fanservice are on the wrong site. I don't think anything wrong with wanting fanservice to an extent, but this is a competitive community where the last thing we care about is what outfit TN is going to sell us. I care about seeing the competitive community and offline scene grow. I plan on supporting, and participating offline as much as possible and this is coming from someone who is not well off. I do what I can.

I also feel people who complain about the core game mechanics is in the wrong place as well. For someone who been playing DOA from the beginning I love the way it is. Is it okay to want it to get better and hope for certain changes? Yes. Of course. We all want that. But if you expect the game to suddenly to turn into something else as a whole you're playing the wrong game.

Also look at the tier list discussion. That topic is laughable right now. People arguing and tearing eachother throats out over opinion of something that isn't even relevant at the moment. If people outside this community were to see that topic they would laugh. Point is my main focus is the competitive scene. I don't know what other people focus are, but some people focus are clearly not where it should be. At least not if you want to be a part of this community. Intelligent discussions are mostly out of the question here.

I feel if you're a member of freestepdodge that it's because you're interested in the competitive side of DOA. That's what the site is here for. To teach you how to play the game competitively, and hopefully get more people motivated to compete offline. If this isn't you you might just be in the wrong place. I understand some people just want to play for "fun" and that's fine too. I know some people want to play competitively "online" which I guess that's okay too. But the point being the strong point is to get the community grow. Rather you're doing that offline, or online if you're not here for some kind of support you're in the wrong place. I know how you feel JDE. A lot of things been going on getting on my nerves too and I'm tired of staying quiet about it.

 

[J.D.E.]

Personally, can't speak for anyone who plays for the fanservice. A couple things, though.

First, I blame TN as much for this reputation as anyone else. Look, the kind of fan service reactions happen with every fighting game out there. And it's not like DOA is unique for providing fan service all-together; one that didn't play that card heavily would be the exception and not the norm. But DOA has tendencies that take that to some really notable and obvious extremes, and TN doesn't seem to care about that. It may or may not be half-hearted in its attempts to market to DOA professionals, but it certainly doesn't seem to care what putting up bikini DLC does for the brand.

Secondly, if only this were the biggest issue facing DOA right now! Frankly, it'd have a lot of potential to surpass its branding if it didn't face a whole bunch of other issues in the way. (A self-hating community, lack of clarity in vision, amongst other things)

So, I don't think you're wrong. But it's a bit of a tree in a more problematic forest.

I mean I have the collector's ed & all that, but seriously. All these fucking annoying people with "Oh team ninja please oh please dress Kasumi is her red thong & bra piece" WTF!!!!! C'mon YO!!!

CrimsonCJ I wish theyd stop that DOAX shit all together. But I blame all these fucking fans who too damn blind & too damn immature to see that this is a fighting game franchise & look past that shit too

 

[CrimsonCJ]

CrimsonCJ I wish theyd stop that DOAX shit all together. But I blame all these fucking fans who too damn blind & too damn immature to see that this is a fighting game franchise & look past that shit too

They certainly don't help, do they?

 

[J.D.E.]

They certainly don't help, do they?

What do you mean?
Edit: If you mean that DOAX, it's irrelevant to the series!

 

[CrimsonCJ]

What do you mean?
Edit: If you mean that DOAX, it's irrelevant to the series!

I do mean that. It's hard not to think of how TN considers its characters after something like that gets released. If only it were irrelevant, but that's what happens when you sell your characters that way. It was short sighted.

 

[Prince Adon]

Yeah. The series needs to get past this fanservice bs and focus on being a "fighter".

 

[VirtuaKazama]

At least you told it like it is. And we all wonder why other communities like SF, Marvel, and Tekken, non-fighting gamers, and casual gamers look down at the game as a button-mashing, fanservice type of game. Not to mention, there are people who actually reinforce that stereotype of the DOA community.

Don't get wrong, I grew up on 3D Fighters (since Virtua Fighter Remix was my first fighter that I ever played, and I still love VF to this day), not to mention that I am slowly transitioning to 2D Fighters, but DOA has that VF feel when I first played DOA2 on the Dreamcast.

DOA has great mechanics and focuses more on defense. Counter-holds, parries, offensive holds, defensive holds, you name it, they got it.The problem is that no one looks at the basics. All they do is pick up and play without zero knowledge of the game.

So yes, I do agree with this topic.

 

[CyberEvil]

I'm not going to post anything lengthy, here, but I will throw this out there for your consideration:

There were over 500,000 people that bought this game. You can view the total number of registered players on the leaderboards. I'd like you to compare those numbers and then tell me what story those numbers tell. I'll even allow for DOUBLE that number of registered players to be those who play offline exclusively. To be blunt, the mentality that you're talking about as being a detriment to us (the mostly competitive players) is the ONLY reason that we still have a franchise.

My own personal feelings on how seriously I want people to take the franchise are the next best thing to irrelevant when I stop to consider the big picture. It always comes down to financial viability.

 

[Awesmic]

Normally I'd be strongly offended by topics like this since I'm a "half-breed", but I know my potential as a DOA fan raised as a DOA player. I've seen the progress for myself, so this is funny to me.

That said, if I wanna screw around with my modified Christie doll with my hard-earned cash and still be motivated to learn how to play Christie in DOA5, that's my dad-gummed prerogative.

Oh, and DOAX for life.

 

[shunwong]

Most fighting games try to attract both the casual and the competitive. SF4, MK9, Tekken... Even VF5FS is considered the most accesible of VFs. SC5 let fans down and turned out to be the least sold SC ever...Fans are needed for the survival of fighting games series.

 

[Anton]

To me, it really comes down to "if there is a scene, I'll play it".

I was called a community sheep, but part of why I play fighting games is the social aspect of going to a tournament and beating someone at the game, honing your skills, if you may.

DoA barely allows me to do that and I have a genuine love for the series. It's just lack of players.

 

[X_Fact0r]

That is my issue a bit with some of the scene here. Way too many players are content being online warriors at home, when some, not all, have the chance to play offline. I use to only play offline as well in the long past, but once I learned about frame data, how much more fun people are in person versus many of the trolls online, and how I was learning more offline than online I changed my way of thinking. I won't lie, I bought some of the dlc but mostly as a blast from the past. It would get me more in the mood to practice since I barely know anyone around here that plays offline, so personally spending the few bucks to get my Hitomi outfit I used for the thousands of hours I played DOA2U is worth it since even the biggest players loose their competitive drive at times.

Point is we have to nurture what players we can on this site and try to get more players out there so offline scene can happen. I am going back to training again for Final Round to see who comes out and trying to get offline connections from that, just like I did 3 years ago for Tekken. Talked to a guy that is going to his first Final Round for DOA this year, even though he is nervous about it. I applauded him and said take it as a learning experience one step at a time.

 

[Murakame]

I also believe that TN's main focus with DOA should be it's mechanics. I don't know about other people but when I bought DOA 5 I bought it because it seemed like TN was trying to take a step in the right direction for the series. I had never been interested in DOA prior to this game. The fact that TN is on twitter asking for feedback on the game is even more proof that they are serious about this. I don't mind a few extra costumes (as in actual outfits for the females and MALES not just bikini's) but come on. This is the time to be productive and help TN improve the franchise. Take things one step at a time. Fix the netcode, work on balancing issues such as the recovery on low holds (though this may only be an issue online. perhaps offline they are less advantageous.) and character balance, then ask for costumes.

 

[CrimsonCJ]

I'm not going to post anything lengthy, here, but I will throw this out there for your consideration:

There were over 500,000 people that bought this game. You can view the total number of registered players on the leaderboards. I'd like you to compare those numbers and then tell me what story those numbers tell. I'll even allow for DOUBLE that number of registered players to be those who play offline exclusively. To be blunt, the mentality that you're talking about as being a detriment to us (the mostly competitive players) is the ONLY reason that we still have a franchise.

My own personal feelings on how seriously I want people to take the franchise are the next best thing to irrelevant when I stop to consider the big picture. It always comes down to financial viability.

This kinda misses the point, though. Every game has significant fan service elements and base their actual economic support on casual players who are not going to show up on leaderboards. That, in and of itself, isn't actually that big of a problem.

What is a problem is when you sell those elements so blatantly and so dominantly that you manage to get branded as silly, childish, and discriminatory, when all fighting games have elements that are silly, childish, and discriminatory. This isn't simply an issue that would go away with more players. Nor should it have! The charges from the outside at the game are completely on-point and TN should have taken the long road.

A lot of the over-the-top elements of sexuality and character degradation could have been kept out and the game well could have added more numbers over time than it lost. It would have had to do some hard work to do some counter-branding, but it's happened and succeeded without losing the brand identity. But TN didn't have the guts to pull that off.

 

[J.D.E.]

I'm not going to post anything lengthy, here, but I will throw this out there for your consideration:

There were over 500,000 people that bought this game. You can view the total number of registered players on the leaderboards. I'd like you to compare those numbers and then tell me what story those numbers tell. I'll even allow for DOUBLE that number of registered players to be those who play offline exclusively. To be blunt, the mentality that you're talking about as being a detriment to us (the mostly competitive players) is the ONLY reason that we still have a franchise.

My own personal feelings on how seriously I want people to take the franchise are the next best thing to irrelevant when I stop to consider the big picture. It always comes down to financial viability.

I know about the sales & how well it does, but I'm talking about how people don't take it seriously as a fighting game & get mad when people bash it. But I get your point.

I also believe that TN's main focus with DOA should be it's mechanics. I don't know about other people but when I bought DOA 5 I bought it because it seemed like TN was trying to take a step in the right direction for the series. I had never been interested in DOA prior to this game. The fact that TN is on twitter asking for feedback on the game is even more proof that they are serious about this. I don't mind a few extra costumes (as in actual outfits for the females and MALES not just bikini's) but come on. This is the time to be productive and help TN improve the franchise. Take things one step at a time. Fix the netcode, work on balancing issues such as the recovery on low holds (though this may only be an issue online. perhaps offline they are less advantageous.) and character balance, then ask for costumes.

That's what I'm saying, but you have people WHO ACTUALLY DO?! But again, it's fucking fighting game for God's sake! 1 that should be taken seriously & 1 where costumes & bonuses in the game should be looked past, nooooo. You don't have that fighting game fan service. It's like a bunch of girls dressing up their barbie dolls! (No offense to any females on FSD)

At least you told it like it is. And we all wonder why other communities like SF, Marvel, and Tekken, non-fighting gamers, and casual gamers look down at the game as a button-mashing, fanservice type of game. Not to mention, there are people who actually reinforce that stereotype of the DOA community.

Don't get wrong, I grew up on 3D Fighters (since Virtua Fighter Remix was my first fighter that I ever played, and I still love VF to this day), not to mention that I am slowly transitioning to 2D Fighters, but DOA has that VF feel when I first played DOA2 on the Dreamcast.

DOA has great mechanics and focuses more on defense. Counter-holds, parries, offensive holds, defensive holds, you name it, they got it.The problem is that no one looks at the basics. All they do is pick up and play without zero knowledge of the game.

So yes, I do agree with this topic.

Some of them don'tbut most of them are fanboys who really don't know jack about the game & just do it to make their game look like it's better but I can see what you're talking about. But not all of them are like that.

 

[Murakame]

Some of do, but most of them are fanboys who really don't but I can see what you're talking about. But not all of them are like that.

This is true man. So many people bash on fighters just because it's not their game of choice. There's some form of hate for every game:

SF: "oh its slow and boring!! this game sucks!!"
VF: same as above
DOA: "LOL @ fap material disguised as a fighting game."
MVC / UMVC: "Oh this game is so cheap and easy mode!!"
Mortal Kombat: "LOL mortal kombat."
Tekken: "Retarded juggle fest!!"
Soul Calibur: I dont even know if people hate on this game
Persona 4 Arena / Blazblue / "Anime" fighters: "LOL @ you weaboos living in the basement."

There's probably more out there but like damn man. I can understand if a person dislikes a game's core mechanics but if stuff like the above the primary reason for avoiding or not playing a game that's sad.

 

[X_Fact0r]

It is sadly just part of the era fighters are in now. People can play who they want online so they only play the game they want and hate on the rest. I see less and less people playing more than one or two fighters anymore, and it kinda saddens me. At least trying to play other fighters can open your mind to different tactics in the fighters you are use to playing, which is why I try most any fighter out at first.

 

[CyberEvil]

Let's avoid triple posting, OK? Posts were merged...