Now we have five PS exclusive characters

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter x Tekken
#1

I dunno how many other have been thinking this, but I haven’t seen this put out in the open and it should be discussed. The norm is to ban console exclusive characters, but five is an awful lot and while 4/5 of them are kinda jokish there’s no reason to assume they’re going to be bad or otherwise less worthwhile inclusions than the normal characters and with five total characters on the line surely at least one will be good. We also know that the Xbox360 version has absolutely nothing in compensation; it’s a flat out worse version of the PS3 version (if it’s like all other Capcom fighters and the gameplay is very close to identical). We should consider what we gain from following established trends here.

It seems to me that it would make more sense to allow the five characters and just declare the Xbox360 version non-tournament standard. I say this as a 360 owner whose general position on the console wars has always been “Sony’s stuff is lame” so it’s not even a matter of personal preference for consoles. I just don’t see what we gain by banning so many characters to support an alternate version of the game; it seems like we could be playing a much “bigger” game by just treating this game like the PS3 version is the only one. Lots of older fighting games had specific console ports that were considered non-standard so it wouldn’t even be unprecedented even if the reason (more characters instead of different mechanics) would be. It sucks for people like me who only own Xbox360, but it seems like a no brainer community decision to want to play the version of the game with five more characters and like something that deserves serious consideration. I have a feeling this proposal won’t be considered that great by a lot of people, but I just see the cost-benefit of following tradition versus picking a single standard version weighing pretty heavily toward picking a single standard version right now. If we are going to just make the PS3 version the only standard version though, it makes the most sense to decide that now so people know before the game comes out not to buy the 360 version. Thoughts?

#2

It’s only 5 characters…no big deal if they are banned from tournament play.
Let’s keep it fair on both sides.

#3

Console flamewar bait…

My 2 cent: currently, the Xbox 360 is usually regarded as superior for every fighting game except Tekken. The only major that runs PS3 is EVO because it’s sponsored by Sony. So we really gotta wait and see which version is better competively, which has less/no freezes, frame skips, delay, input lag and make that the norm.
Honestly, 5 less characters to worry about is a plus in my book, but I wouldn’t be surprised if EVO allowed the use of the console exclusive characters and that sets the norm for the rest of the tournaments.

#4

That’s not true…

#5

I don’t exactly get why Pacman and Megaman are console exclusive to begin with. Not like they have anything keeping them from showing up on 360 except for contractual agreements.

@Geese Pants: Isn’t it because the EVO crew bought a ton of systems, and they don’t need to by 360s now?

#6

I actually agree 100% that they should all be allowed. We live in a day and age where its not all that hard to get your hands on the other console, even if you don’t buy it. Friends have it, friends of friends have it, and tournaments have casual play. IMO tournaments should just make PS3 verisons the standards, so if they have exclusives, tough shit if you don’t take time to practice. I’m sorry guys but “i can’t afford it” is no excuse anymore. If you can afford to fly to majors, fly to Vegas for Evo, afford to pay money to enter the tournament, pay for the game itself, pay for a fightstick, you have some spare cash to save for a PS3 now. Or hell, if your friends have it, borrow it or play alongside them. What surprises me is that PS3 has always been the standard for majors, so everyone HAS to own a PS3 fightstick or pad, yet they won’t even own the system itself.

Realistically though I know it will never happen because it will alienate a small userbase who own only a 360 and refuse/are too lazy/seriously have no options for getting their hands on the PS3 versions unless its at a tourney. Even so console exclusive characters have not been broken as far as I remember…Kratos pretty much sucked…maybe Soul Calibur IV but even then both versions got both Vader and Yoda later on. Its a shame really but what can you do? Gotta be fair to everyone I guess.

#7

Where is the option to ban the game altogether? That’s probably the only way this company will finally get the message to stop doing this casual BS.
You need cater to casuals with aesthetics, not with game altering content. VF got it, Tekken got it, but Capcom doesn’t care about [S]black[/S] competitive people.

#8

Microsoft was lazy, plain and simple. They were not only supposed to have Megaman and Pac-man, but possibly Master Chief and/or Marcus Fenix (lulz wut). In the end microsoft didn’t care about the game and never got back to Capcom. Probably because having a Spartan in DoA didn’t do much for the franchise.

Also I thought PS3 was the tournament standard because it is the most open console in terms of homebrewed modded sticks. People were able to carry over their old PS2 modded sticks to the PS3 correct? At least that’s what I assumed.

#9

Ban them all I say.
I get Cole and the cats, but Mega-man and Pacman?
FUCKING MEGAMAN
CONSOLE EXCLUSIVE

Yep…I’m mad salty

#10

I voted for the first choice because I recently switched over to PS3.

Xbox can go eat a red ring.

#11

I can’t believe people are actually voting for option A…
If you do it you don’t know what competitive means (hint: every player gets an equal access to all the tools regardless of devious marketing schemes from sony or microsoft) and you don’t give a shit about tournament organizers, who should at least be offered the flexibility to use whichever console they can get.

And if the next game will have 10 XBox exclusive characters and someone says the same, that it’s your problem for having a PS3? What do you do, switch consoles back and forth depending on each new game’s exclusive characters? That’s a bunch of BS.

#12

Pacman and Megaman will be available to 360 users eventually. Nothing is really exclusive anymore anyway.

#13

Console exclusives are always insta-ban. That’s how it is. Alienating part of the community over exclusives is dumb.

You think otherwise, take it up with the actual organizers.

#14

Nah man. I’ll just go to my local scene, where they got Xbox, and play/learn the characters there. Pretty sure this is what many Xbox users are gonna be doing when it comes out.

But I’m just being biased. I know they’re not gonna allow it, so I figured I’d vote for it anyway.

#15

Leaving them unbanned is simply not a viable option for serious play. It hurts players on the off-console because they won’t have proper experience against the banned characters, and it creates bad expectations for players on the “correct” console, since console usage for tournaments is hardly standardized ( how would you like to be under the expectation that megaman is acceptable, only to end up at a 360 tournament or a multi-platform tournament on a 360 station? ).

The only real answer here is to express your dissatisfaction toward Capcom, not to try to provoke some nonsensical console-centric tribalism.

#16

If i’m not mistaken, all EVO majors are PS3, meaning if you’re training for the big one, you need a PS3 to train on ESPECIALLY if there are slight differences in timing and also which fightstick you buy. Not really the fault of EVO if you don’t get your hands on a PS3 and don’t have a stick or pad right? Not sure why that can’t apply to characters too.

I hate to be that guy, but in all honesty banning these characters make tournaments more fair for people like me, aka people who love the FGC, will enter the tourney, and won’t even make it past pools. The pro players and the ones who always place on top will ALWAYS find a way to play against or as these characters so they are properly prepared for the big time. I mean the same could apply to Jill Shuma, and the slew of MK characters. Only difference is, both consoles get it. But they still cost extra money and some people STILL don’t own them and complain when they lose to said character.

Again I know realistically they’re going to get banned, but its 2012. I feel if you don’t properly prepare for a tournament by checking which console its on, its not the fault of the rest of us who did. Irritates me when people come to a tournament begging for sticks or pads because they won’t buy a PS3/360 one depending on the tournament. Hell i’ve even heard excuses like “well the PS3 version lags, so that’s why I lost” You’re not prepared son. Not our fault.

#17

I don’t understand how this is alienating part of the community or whatever. It’s not like people were born with a 360 stick in their laps. No one considered it a serious problem that the GC version of CvS2 was in no way supported; it had different mechanics, and it wasn’t considered competitive. If you owned GC, tough stuff. Nothing is stopping you from buying the standard version; everyone has equal access to the standard version since it’s available publicly for purchase. This situation isn’t that fundamentally different.

As per switching consoles per game, is that actually that serious of a problem? As competitive players, our interest in these games should be expected to last for a large number of years. A console generation on average is only six years. That’s not asking for that big of an investment at all given that we already assumed from the start that we were buying new hardware every six years.

From a TO’s standpoint, I imagine it’s more like “now people who show up with sticks for the wrong console have no excuse, now my crew doesn’t have to worry about travelling to that next city over that prefers a different console, etc.”. One standard version of a game is clearly in the collective interests of TOs as a whole. Whether any individual TO might be hurt is up to debate, but collectively I don’t see how TOs are anything but helped by the first possibility.

I’m trying not to be rude, but this is just an attempt to shut down discussion. This is a forum for competitively minded people, and presumably we should be able to discuss pros and cons in a mature fashion and reach a reasonable conclusion. Statements like “That’s how it is” are not actual arguments but rather attempts to bully people into accepting your viewpoint. As a practical matter, we have a choice. Perhaps some people might find it alienating (though as a 360 player myself, I find the idea of banning a ton of characters for my alleged sake silly). Perhaps though people find the idea of a whole five characters, which is a whole lot of characters, compelling enough to say that the 360 version by having five fewer characters is basically a different game and like the GC version of CvS2 just not suited for tournament use because of its differences.

Also, no one is saying Capcom’s approach here is good. It’s not. We just have to deal with reality though. Reality is that we have an unprecedented five console exclusive characters on one side and absolutely nothing on the other and only a social stigma preventing us from having a game with 10% more content which is a whole lot. The only question here is what we do in response to this situation, not whether we would prefer Capcom have done things differently. And as a 360 player, I can’t possibly see why I’d want to always play an inferior version of the game just so I can play the same game at home if I choose not to buy a PS3 which I’m perfectly capable of doing. To me, everyone loses if we support the 360 version and everyone wins if we support the PS3 version just current 360 owners win less but still win. I just don’t get who is losing here if we allow the characters.

#18

What about Cole? I would think he would be banned no matter what…

#19

Ban them. The fact that these characters exist on one console exclusively in the first place shows that Capcom doesn’t give a single fuck about the competitive community. But that’s another topic.

#20

Sticks and controllers for different consoles are a lame excuse. Dual modding easy AND affordable these days.

The bigger issue is having to deal with controversies of so-and-so player lost simply because he didn’t have experience against so-and-so character.