Do you care about fighting games?

There should be an option for "Only if Smash counts." Because that's the only fighting game I care about. Otherwise whenever I played them I just hit random buttons and watch stuff happen. How am I supposed to remember those weird combos? I've never successfully launched a Hadouken in my life (or at least, not on purpose.) But, props to those who are good at it.

I used to like a couple of them, mostly the ones from Neo Geo, and I also like Dragon Ball FighterZ because I like Dragon Ball. But other than that, I couldn't care less about fighting games. I think they're not fun to play, are extremely boring to watch, and even more boring to listem to long conversations about them.

I like Jeff, Ben, and Jason and the Bombcast is my favorite podcast, but I just skip any fighting game content or talk they do about it. It's not so much because of not caring about it, but more because I'm just really tired of fighting game content on the site. I usually can't watch UPF live and there's been a fighting game or a brawler in a bunch of UPFs recently, I think that's one of the main reasons that's making me so tired of it. I know that the crew does content based on their tastes and I'm happy that they now have multiple people with similar tastes that allow them to do more stuff about it, but I just feel like it's too much. If I only checked Giant Bomb and nothing else, I would almost think fighting games are the only trending videogame genre in the last couple of months.

Not really. The EVO conversation had my eyes glazing over a bit. The combo of it being esports and fighting games just lost me. But Ben, Jeff, and Jason are really into them, and I wouldn't ask them to ignore something they really enjoy because I personally don't care for it.

I agree with you 100%. Especially about Demo Derby and Game Tapes. Those two are probably my favorite content on this site and in the past year they have only put out 4 videos of Demo Derby and 4 videos of Game Tapes. Meanwhile, they have had 16 videos of Ranking of Fighters in the past year.

Not at all.

But a few of the GB crew do, so I'm resigned to hearing about them.

Caveat: I did enjoy watching the Soul Calibre "This is The Run"

Not the catch-all ones like Street Fighter or Tekken, but themed games like Dragon Ball, One Piece and Injustice? Absolutely. I'm actually about to platinum the Budokai HD Collection and I've already beaten Burning Blood earlier this year. And don't even get me started on Smash.

Sadly, I find myself playing them less and less these days. Back in the day when I had plenty of friends around that were just as into them as I was, I'd play the crap out of them. But thanks to not owning a PS4 (used my brother's for Burning Blood) or Xbox One and everyone being too spread out/busy for couch play, I've mainly fallen into more single-player experiences and regulate multiplayer to couch co-op, the occasional game of Mario Party if I can manage to gather people, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe/Splatoon 2.

As for the ones I do still play, I'll mainly go for the ones with beefy single player content since the idea of getting beaten down by people who spend their whole day on these things or even do this for a living is terribly unappealing.

Still, I'm definitely playing a bunch of Smash Ultimate with my brother if I can manage to drag him away from Fortnite long enough, and I've got a buddy coming over next week to play some Budokai 3, so perhaps all isn't lost on the multiplayer side of things after all :)

Fighting games were a favorite genre of mine in the 90s and early 2000s, when I still regularly played in arcades and was thrilled to get homes ports, and then significantly enhanced home ports, for the consoles.

The current trend of fighting games geared towards esports and positioned as games-as-services, often with extensive DLC plans, has left me significantly less engaged. I appreciate from the start having relatively finished games and not products patched together over time and requiring regular-enough financial investments to keep the roster up-to-date (I don’t subscribe to the notion of only buying the characters you’re going to play). I also no longer often get the chance to play against friends, like back in the day, and I won’t pretend my lifestyle is such that I can enjoy online play, once a title has left its initial mass-appeal phase.

Even though I’m pretty shit at the current series, I still enjoy the Guilty Gear franchise, because while I understand the complaint about its overpriced revisions, the amount of story content and the character elements each installment brings keep me invested. If I actually liked the franchises in question, I’d probably feel the same about Mortal Kombat and the other NetherRealm titles.

As long as my schedule is free, I do enjoy watching EVO and some other tournaments, but I only really support (meaning buy) a handful of fighters that seem to offer a good single-player value for the money.

I used to play them back in the SNES days but there is just way to much competition online to where it's just not fun for me at all. I do love watching people play them but I no longer have any interest in playing them these days.

They're okay, but I'm only a casual player. I'm not a very competitive person, and tend against the violent trends in games, not toward.

They can be fun to let off some Steam, or for the mere kinetic, fast gameplay. Sometimes when being banned from websites, or just being irritated or bitter about something emotionally, I'll use Fighting games as an outlet to work some of the upset emotions out of my system. Fighting games are almost like porn in that regard, except that the emotion you can get out isn't so much eros, but irritation, anger, frustration, sometimes even sadness.

If I get banned or in trouble, or bullied or mistreated because of any fundamental difference in our values or ideologies, there's nothing I can do about it other than be sad, angry, and disappointed in my fellow human being and situation. Fighting games allow impotent rage somewhere to go. And somewhere that isn't destructive.

But I doubt I have the competitive spirit needed in order to spend long term time into learning the moveset of one character, reading opponents, studying frames, or any of that. I only enjoy them in cathartic bursts. And that isn't enough to get good.

The only thing that compels me to play Fighting games other than raw emotion and kinects, is the characters. Certain characters I really like, and playing as them let's me feel like I'm voting for their awesomeness, in a way. But I'm struggled to get past the barriers of getting to at fighting games, even to prove a certain female character I like is awesome. I generally main Bridget whenever possible, or Len, or Rachel Alucard. I'm not amazing at any. Rachel has a hard moveset for me to get good at, especially in the current metagame, so I've moved onto Trinity for sheer playability. And Bridget is by far my favourite Fighting game character, but I don't find him as fun to play as someone like Sol Badguy. On the other hand, I don't like playing as Sol Badguy, because he's everything I don't like about male characters in video games. So is most of the Guilty Gear cast. Male characters like Bridget are the type of characters I respect and gravitate towards.

I don't play them, or follow them. But I don't mind watching people play them or hearing about them. Mostly because I enjoy the enthusiasm of those that really do like them. It's kinda of like most (physical) sports to me - I don't know anything about most of them, but enjoy the people watching that happens at games/viewing parties. So I get a vicarious enjoyment from the coverage?

Nope, not at all. Not even GB can get me to like them.

Yes, I manage to play fighting games everyday online. Favorite genre then shoot'em up, platform, puzzle.

I'm terrible at them and I procrastinate every time a new one comes out saying "this is the one I'll get good at!" but I still love them. I think the genre has a handful of arguably serious problems many of the developers in this space have failed to address, but there's nothing quite like fighting games.

I love fighting games. It's been the only constant video game thing in my life since the early 90's when I played SFII in arcades. I can understand they aren't for everybody though. I think with Giant Bomb's content as of late, fighting games just tend to naturally line up with Ben, Jason, and Jeff's interests. Listening to this past Bombcast I was thinking wow if you're not into Evo or fighting games at all this must be a boring episode. It's pretty much how I feel whenever Dota gets brought up I guess.

@hippie_genocide: Yea, it's pretty dull for me when there's a 10 to 15 minute conversation about Street Fighter. I'm not saying they should stop, it's just not my thing. Same with DOTA, now that you mention it, or anything anime related.

I wish I could like everything that is talked about, but I don't. It's my problem, not GB's.

I'll play a Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter once in a while, sure. But it's not my favorite genre by any stretch and I will admit that the wealth of fighting game content coming from GB West has made me pay less attention to their content.

For me, it's one of those things that I keep wanting to get into, but just can't. In terms of actual gaming, I'm just not wired for it as I don't have the finger speed or memory to execute moves reliably and it just degenerates into a bunch of mindless mashing no matter how much I practice.

In terms of watching it, I think RoF and the like are really good features for people who are into fighting games, but I'm constantly mystified by a lot of what is going on and the terminology being used. It seems to require a lot of prior knowledge of the genre that I just don't have.