#ukfgc

Ultimately, this post comes with a little anger, mainly at the fact that a lot of gamers who play fighting games (me being one of them as a casual) have opportunities to interact with a community to vastly improve there skills, unfortunately me living in the UK this isn't so accessible, and me being disabled even less so. Also mainly at the fact I receive a torrent of abuse whenever I play a fighting game on stream.

What does the above statement have to do with my title you might say, like many games, League of Legends.....DOTA 2.....etc the communities are rife with toxic people, elitists, people who simply think there better than you etc.

However in the fighting game community, especially online, this goes one step further, being a twitch streamer I expect some "trolls" to enter my stream, make fun of my weight etc, however this is none more apparent than in this community, the abuse received at myself not only on a skill level (which I admit to being an average casual player) but also myself personally is above nothing i've received playing any other game on twitch in the last year of streaming.

So again, how does this relate to my title, the reason why it relates is simply put, these games are MUCH harder to get good at (in terms of actually getting competition and training online and off) and in my opinion the community does absolutely nothing to welcome new players into it, even less so than any other game that has skill tiers, Fighting games don't, your either good or your "gutter trash".

So this makes me wonder, gaming is supposed to be about the games, and twitch is meant to be about bringing gamers together, so is it fighting games or is it twitch that's causing the problems. Ultimately its the games, fighting games simply invoke toxic responses even via private message from steam, Xbox live and Playstation Network, however Twitch offers no support or help to streamers with issues of cyber bullying like this, if anything it provides Cyber Bullies an opportunity to seek what they want, a chance to troll, a chance to slander, and ultimately in some instances an opportunity to abuse streamers and viewers with hateful remarks. 

As we see at a tournament level the fighting game community has very little hatred in the spotlight (there may be some behind the scenes granted) but anything below that there's very little in terms of positivity which is exactly how I try to keep my stream chat. Positive and friendly.

Now I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush, i'm sure the FGC is very friendly as a whole, but as with anything the minority are the ones that shine, its just a shame the minority here is a pretty high percentage. Everyone whose entered my stream from the UK (that i'm aware of) has welcomed my lack of skill and given me advice, for which I am very appreciative of, and some of them even got in on the Endless Lobbies which is absolutely fantastic.

So whose responsibility is it to correct this......its EVERY gamers responsibility, abuse isn't acceptable in any format, and certainly not when they hide behind a social media handle as we saw with GamerGate etc. Toxic communities are formed by gamers, and its the gamers responsibility to change this, otherwise eventually there will be laws passed to stop these privileges for good.

I run a casual Ultra Street Fighter 4 stream for UK and European PC players, if your a player that wants to get involved in something chilled but ultimately a safe environment to learn the game without being criticized and also receive feedback and help, then stop by at www.twitch.tv/jr_uk - hit the follow button and join in next time we run a stream. EVERYONE IS WELCOME REGARDLESS OF SKILL!

Now if anyone whose actually good at these games or is a part of an FGC (Fighting Game Community) read this, this isnt intended to be a pro's blog post, this is merely my experience of trying to learn how to play fighting games, and things that have worked for me to pick up tips. Im still a new player, ive only been playing fighting games properly for a few weeks, however ive enjoyed playing and watching them for a long time.

1) Find a game you enjoy - Now i own the following games, (All PS3 unless stated) Darkstalkers, 3rd Strike, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Revolution, Marvel Vs Capcom Origins, Mortal Kombat 9, SF2 HDR. Tekken 5, Dead or Alive 5, Ulitmate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Street FIghter X Tekken (PC and PS3), Blazblue Continuim Shift, Injustice and Super Street FIghter 4 (And AE2012 upgrade - PC and PS3), none of which I would call myself good at really, however if you want to learn a game, you have to enjoy it, so i picked Street Fighter 4 because for me its probably the one I enjoy the most.

2) Read about the characters, pick one you think youll enjoy to start with -  For street fighter 4, i was toying between a charge character (Balrog, Blanka) or a Shoto Character (Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken) - I went with Ryu in the end, the reasons why all shoto characters I feel give you a basic understanding of a lot of basic movements for fighting games, not just street fighter.

3) Get used to your controller - Whether this be a Pad or Arcade Stick, I have a SFxT Fightsitck Pro, i like it, its comfortable whilst not being too big, so play a few games against the AI or do some training with it (in SF4 challenge mode is quite good to start you on the basics of your character)

4) Play training mode - Take your character in training mode, pick certain things (E.g. Ryu's Medium Kick into Hadouken) and practice it for a while, you want to be able to do what your practicing almost every time to start with, then move onto something else, start basic and work your way up.

5) Read forums - I found shoryuken.com a great source for new players on tips and methods on how to train etc.

At this point i had learnt some of the basics, i felt comfortable with my arcade stick but im still a complete newbie to fighting games. So i took this opportunity whilst still practicing the basics to watch some players, now ive been watching fighting games for a few years as I find watching them hugely entertaining, being a player for the UK theres not a huge scene over here, so I found myself watching things like Wednesday Night Fights from Level Up, Evo (once a year), Curleh Mustasche - most of these are available to watch on twitch

Theres even some great players on YouTube - a couple I tend to follow and watch are JR Rodriguez (Akuma specialist however awesome 3rd strike player - http://www.youtube.com/user/PIKACHUAKUMA?feature=watch) and Maximillian (Pretty damn good all round Fighting Game player - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgaIuQYGr6ow_jbote4BKA) - watch these for a while and youll pick up basics without actually realising it, like when to block, when to attack, when to punish, and youll get a basic understanding of matchups etc.

6) Play some ranked matches or player matches - If you don't feel confident playing games in ranked formats play unranked matches, but filter out players of your same ability - they're likely to be of a similar level and you'll get players who will make mistakes so you can learn to punish, but always play patiently - don't rush in (unless your playing a rush down character)