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Last month, community member Jeremy Signor asked you guys to team up, conduct a roundtable discussion on a video-game issue, and transcribe the results for the Bitmob Writing Challenge. That didn't really pan out, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on the concept — a roundtable format can make for really interesting reading. (Check out a similar article we did on the Flash game One Chance for an example.)
So to help you wallflowers out, for the next three weeks Jeremy, Bitmob Community Manager Layton Shumway, and I will each host a discussion that you can join. I will start off this week with the following prompt on Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition below:
When Super Street Fighter 4 came out last year, fans celebrated it as a well-balanced fighting game. Many of the 35 brawlers performed well in high-level tournaments, and everyone had several bad matchups to deal with. That changed in Arcade Edition, where Capcom intentionally made new characters Yun and Yang stronger than the rest of the cast. While they do have weaknesses, their versatile attacks and damaging combos are reshaping the competitive landscape.
Given these facts, now seems like a good time to discuss character balance in fighting games. Chew on the following questions, then check out how to respond so we can feature your answers in our Roundtable.
- Are there any benefits to certain characters being better than others?
- Is Street Fighter more fun as a slow-paced "chess match" or as a faster battle, the kind that Yun and Yang create?
- Are the gaps in character balance as bad as people make them out to be? How much do they matter to the average player?
Here's how to participate:
1. E-mail me at chris.hoadley [at] bitmob.com and say you want in. Give me one to two sentences about your views on balance. I'll cap the entrants at 5 people to keep the discussion manageable. You have until Tuesday at midnight to respond.
2. On Wednesday, I'll contact everyone so that we can discuss through e-mail. We can debate for as long as we want until Friday, but I want to make sure we begin around the same time. I will act as the moderator of the roundtable, so I will comment myself and bring up more questions.
3. Your messages will be used as the body text of the article we post this weekend. Remember, this is about character balance, not how difficult Street Fighter is to learn or how Rolento should have gotten in instead of Evil Ryu. Also remember to explain concepts that readers unfamiliar with fighting games wouldn’t understand, like rushdown, zoning, links, tier lists, and so on.
I look forward to the debate!