First, thanks to LA Akira for the interview, second thanks Akai for doing the interview and making it available. I have been running/sponsorsing small gatherings to intermediate size gathering in Ohio since 2003 at colleges, high schools, sports bars and my house. Not just VF, but Tekken, SC and UFC. So I have a little different perspective than whats been posted so far when it comes to dwindling players.

I think we are barking up the wrong tree here. Here's what I found in all these years:

PPL will play and continue to play a good game that appears to have a future and is well, supported by the game publisher. The more immersed a player can get into the culture of the game, the more loyal, and the more likely they are to play it at more than a casual level.
I know so many of you will disagree with what I'm about to post (you always do, sometimes just because its me that posts it). but the fact of the matter is, Posters, t-shirts, backstorys, music, advertising, major motion pictures, mangas, multiple game-modes, hats, celebrity endorsements, a diversity of websites, magazine articles, lunch boxes, action figures, anime,etc. all of that stuff adds to the immersion in a game. Tekken for example has all of this stuff. I just got done watching the latest Tekken anime movie (which wasn't that great but!) There is no secret about Namco-Bandai's committment to Tekken going forward., You can find Tekken hats, watches, t-shirts etc. Tekken is virtually its own brand. And Tekken for example has enough Single player features going to keep your interest in between tournaments and gatherings. So the 'dwindle' effect is not nearly as pronounced in Tekken ' as it is with VF. There is just so much more to the Tekken game than the 'Versus' feature used for Tourneys.


Virtua Fighter on the other hand has the best fighting game engine known to man, and is perhaps the most balanced game out there, BUT!!! VF5FS is the most stripped down (in every way) fighting game on the market. No Team mode, No tag mode, No survival mode, No story mode, no Tornament mode, No career mode, no Campaign mode, No mangas, no movies, no T-shirts, no hats, no real celibrity endorsements, no company committment, no Sega supported forums,blogs, or websites, no VF watches or VF keys chains.

Alot of you cats are comparing today's gamers back to the gamers in the arcade times, but shit has evovled, there are too many choices out there, two many really good games that have much more 'glamour' associated with them. And today's gamers can make the Leaderboards and have hundreds of thousands of other players see them, compared to being top dog in the arcade days with your three initials on the acade machine's scoreboard and word of mouth as the only proof that you rock.

Truth be told, VF5FS just really doesn't offer that much as a video game and as a franchise. You want to build a steady long running series of tournaments and a thriving community, you have to start with a solid video game and a supportive company. As a rabid fan of VF I criticize:

1) Its lack of game modes (typically found in other fighters)

2) its lack of a story mode/career or campaign mode

3) its lack of keeping even the simplest Win/Loss statistics (except for in rank mode)

4) Its lack of strategy guides (for example: Have you seen the SC5 strategy guide!)

5) Where's the company support in terms of Interviews, Posters, advertising, Youtube presence, short vignettes, hats, t-shirts, promises-of-future-versions, celebrity endorsements, etc.

6) the online features are extremely thin, and sparse. Although the netcode is better than most fighting games perhaps better than all other fighting games, its all for nothing because the lobby sux, the match making is horrible, The online modes are barebones, just compare Virtua Fighter's online mode to Soul Calibur 5's online offering!

I'm not shocked at all to hear that LA started out with 25-30 ppl a week and that it dwindled down to 1 or 2 ppl. VF5FS has enough wood to start a fire, but not enough to keep it burning. Unfortunately in today's world of deep rich, fully immersive games Sega can't hide behind a fighting game engine.

Sega does a good job of providing a bare bones arcade experience to home consoles. But arcades are no longer the standard! Not even close! Sega needs to forget about porting the arcade VF and generate a full featured VF for consoles.

PPL have an affair and leave VF not because VF is harder than other fighter games , but because its not as fun as other fighting games, and in many cases more features = more fun, more game modes = more fun, more visibility = more fun,

Before getting bummed out on the lack of interest by the community in VF, We have to first make sure we have a complete video game , and sadly VF5FS is not a complete fighting video game, at least not by today's standards...

Not sure why peopole are down on the Single Player modes in FS? It's a throw back to the FM system of choosing your path and License Mode can help you more than online play as far as working on bad habits, that you can't get online unless you are fighting top comp.

Hopefully a story mode for the characters is in the next one, because people actually gobble that stuff up, but I preferred the choice of branches over Quest Mode any day. The only problem with License Challenge was it took too long to make it challenging, but that beats grinding for items randomly. Half-Gravity and Cancel-mode should be in two player as well.

VF needs a story mode in VF6. Games need more of a hook to get new players than just "the system is tight." There are too many other things vying for their attention and time now a days.

Phanatik- you can now find a single Excel table with all the commands here:

http://virtuafighter.com/threads/single-table-command-list-in-excel-format.17293/


Enjoy!

oh ive used that b4. ok

Great interview with LA Akira! Thanks for that guys!

In regards to the dying VF scene, I think it's generally because of the hardcore fan base. There just isn't many hardcore Western players, or that I at least have come across online.

I'm not in the US, I'm based in Ireland and as far as I can tell, there are only 3 VF players in the whole country who are interested in casuals (including myself) and then actually traveling to 4 hours to meet those 2 players is expensive for me as a student, €50. Because of this, I heavily rely on the online section of the game and the online gaming scene is just dead. I have all ports open on my PS3 and X360 but it has made no difference at all. I am a passionate Sega fan boy so I keep going back to VF and pretty much have developed into a VF fan but if there is no online community, what hope is there for a strong offline scene?

Vets like myself are older and for one reason or another, cannot dedicate time to the game anymore but having lived through 3 VF iterations in this community, there are a few gaps that I see now.

1. There are no Japanese players to help lead the communities by providing direction and information. It's no secret that NYC has had Hiro and Kazu who helped them through VF3-4, Chicago had Shota and Boston had Joji. With 5, there is no one there to help.

2. With the advent of online, there is no desire for players to seek competition outside of their region. A newbie isn't going to know that online play isn't the same as offline play.

3. Where are the new generation of leaders? Each region needs someone new who can step up and lead their respective regions to glory. Be it NorCal vs SoCal, WC vs EC, US vs whomever.

If you think you're good, then fill the role or know your role.