I've seen a lot of people say that this game should not be taken seriously (at least at a competitive level) and I'm not sure I think people who like to argue that this is simply a joke or shouldn't be taken seriously actually have legitimate arguments to back it up. I've seen:

• It doesn't look good.
• It's only played with two buttons.
• One-hit KO / No health.
• It's just meant as a parody.

And I don't think any of these are valid and seem to be stated more by people who don't even play fighting games that much or know about them on a fundamental level compared to those that do.

Thankfully, most people think otherwise or just don't care, but it's rather frustrating to see people dismiss it for practically no reason.

The people who hate on Divekick also probably hate having fun.

I was trying to work out at what point it stopped being a joke. Or at what point I stopped understanding the joke.

It did start life as a joke right?

For the same reason thumb wrestling isn't a serious martial art.

Same reason Smash Bros. isn't taken seriously; there's little depth.

its a real different kind of fighting game, seems like it relies more on timing and strictly playing mind games with your opponent by figuring out when to dive and kick.

rather than the normal reliance on strategy with combos and blocking and button combos and special moves and whatnot.

its a fighting game, i don't think its nowhere near as deep as other traditional fighting games though.

@icemael said:

So because the game lacks technical complexity, it shouldn't be taken seriously?

I guess this is also the reason I've always thought of Smash Bros. as a valid fighting game (if the random elements are stripped out): fighting games do not need to be traditional to be competitive. Perhaps the depth that Divekick offers is more nebulous than others (kick angle, emphasis on mind games, emphasis on footsies, air specials and ground specials...), but if a good player can consistently beat out a player who's just button mashing, I think it's as valid as any other.

Because elitist assholes don't know how to cope with something being different. It has the mental game that fighting games have, it just delivers that feeling all the time rather than just when the match it close. Whatever, fighting game elitists can harp on it all they want, I'll be over here having fun with my friends (playing Divekick).

Most people have a hard time accepting that complexity has little to do with depth. To them, the more buttons and moves a game has (fighting, strategy, or whatever) the "deeper" it is.

i was under the impression that a lot of people were pretty open minded to the idea of it appearing in tournaments etc. ever since it appeared ultradavid has been championing it and talks a lot about how strategy/mind games based it is.

that said i think it is easy for people to take a glance at it and decide it is a joke because it is presented as a joke and a pretty funny one (i think at least)

100% agree with you there. I've been telling friends of mine that it's the most fun I've had with a competitive game, and some of them are adamant that this game is a joke and nothing more. Maybe my frustration is borne out of the fact that I've played it, and the people who dismiss it are making judgments solely on the game's look.

Sadly, many people lack a sense of humour.

Elitist Assholes. They want to feel special because they spent 100 hours in a training room in Street Fighter to learn Sick C-C-C-Combos bro and don't like that this game is accessible.

It was interesting that the DiveKick tournament at PAX East came down to Mago and Tokido in the final. Nothing about what they were doing was random. Mago picked a character that let him whiff punish and capitalise on poor spacing easily just like he does with his SF4 character. It was amazing to see the level of strategy going on in such a stripped down, simple on the surface system.

@fluxwavez: The more it is getting fleshed out and polished, the more people are accepting it. I think that once it is really given a spitshine and people are able to see the variety of characters and depth in the overall system, they'll understand why it truly is an interesting challenge.

It seems pretty serious to me.

That would be like saying Chess isn't a serious strategy game because it doesn't have the depth of Warhammer 40k.

Complexity ≠ depth.

Every time I see this game, I'm astonished at how deep it is, and how it only seems to get deeper and crazier. I didn't even realize it had special moves until TNT tonight.

I know I can't wait. Looks fantastic. THIS IS FANTASTIC.