The History of the Fighting Game Community

That was a brief overlook of the technical innovations that were found in the early fighting games. Now it is important to focus on the actual community of fighting games. Street Fighter 2 was one of the biggest games so it made sense that it would attract a large number of people to participate and play the game competitively. This competitive scene was global as people like Daigo Umehara and Tokido came to the United States from Japan to play with other big names like Alex Valle and Justin Wong. To host these players people in the community would host tournaments to allow for the people to compete with the international players and each other.

These tournaments were hugely important in building a scene. They allowed for people to meet and play with each other. This was seminal in building the community as the internet was in its stages of infancy. Tournaments like Evo, Battle By the Bay, and Final Round. Evo or the Evolution Series is one of the biggest fighting game tournament series ever. It is important to understand how tournaments allowed for the growth of the community, they created a communal experience of fun and competition. This environment is unique in the realm of playing competitive games. Instead of the traditional teams almost anyone is allowed to come to a tournament. This allows for a more communal and broader experience as opposed to other competitive games like CSGO, DOTA 2, and League of Legends.

Tournament players like Alex Valle, Daigo Umehara, Tokido, and Justin Wong were hugely important in creating and fostering the scene. Alex Valle was originally and still is an away a competitor. Yet he has taken a large step back from competing, he instead has taken on a more mentor role. He focuses on the role of creating tournaments and opportunities for people on the West Coast. Daigo Umehara donated money to the Evo Scholarship fund. Which is a scholarship that allows members of the community to pursue a degree in game development at NYU.

The fighting game community was shrinking as after Street Fighter 3rd Strike which came out in 2000 there was not a major Street Fighter game for a long time. As the Street Fighter community made up a large portion of the fighting game community. This meant that as the community got more and more niche because of how complicated playing Street Fighter 3rd Strike there was less people who wanted to play the game. This meant that as people left the community not enough people were joining the community to keep up with the numbers. This lasted for about 8 nine year until Street Fighter 4 got announced in 2008. Street Fighter 4 revitalized the Street Fighter community. This influx of Street Fighter players allowed for a growth of other communities as other people flooded in to the scene using Street Fighter as a base for jumping to other fighting game. This meant a huge growth of the community as more and more people jumped into the game