It's quite ironic that Rising Thunder suffers from this problem, given their stance to attempt to lower the skill ceiling and actually make the game more accessible. In fact, I'd put forward the argument that Rising Thunder suffers from the problem of crowding out new players more so than most other fighting games, because:
1) The technical alpha gave people an advantage, like you've said, to figure out what people do, and how to counter it. The people who got technical alpha codes were largely people already within the fighting game fanbase, so with refined fundamentals, the open alpha doesn't actually give any newcomers any ability to play the game. It's true that the game is in alpha, and therefore should be given to dedicated people who will try out the game, but it contradicts the ethos to make the game accessible, especially since:
2) There is no matchmaking/casual system implemented. On average, I probably play around Diamond II players. I don't think I've played 20 games yet. More importantly though, there is no way you can filter through to find a skill level that you can IMPROVE to. I've seen a lot of 'it's your fault because you're not trying hard enough', mainly on the dark crevices on non-Giantbomb sites, but there is no way you can improve on the fundamentals of a fighting game without people whom you can test what works/does not work on. The lack of a matchmaking system is bad enough, but the implementation of a ranking system is a sure deterrent for any kind of casual play. You will not get a chance to play against people if a ranking is at mind.
3) Information is perfect for a lot of players and easily practiced - what I mean is that, as a Crow player, I know that my Beyblade stuffs jump-ins, buffer cr.heavy x Beyblade stuffs dash-ins, and stuff like that. These are advantages I've, again, got from playing the Technical Alpha. Against every character, I should know what to do (I don't though. I hate Chel.). Due to the lack of inputs and such, I don't need to dedicate myself to a particular move - I just need to react to whatever you're doing. This means that the value of my information (from playing the game, from theorising it, etc.) is far higher, because it can be easily practised, than in other fighting games such as Street Fighter. In Street Fighter, if they're a jump attack away from me and I'm playing Ryu, I know I can either Hadoken or Shoryuken, anticipating some kind of walk-in or some kind of jump-in respectively. Inputs necessitate some kind of commitment, which means that the information that I have, of the perks of Hadoken and Shoryuken against your character, is less valuable, because the ability to do either of those moves in each case is less fluid. Most characters in Rising Thunder have the ability to defensively counter every option in the game, and given the ease of doing so for a player who knows what to do, the game gets a lot harder for the people who do not.
I still think the game is a really good thing for the fighting game genre, showing that skill isn't necessarily derived from execution difficulties. Also, the network must be on some sorta dope, because I've had 300 ping games go without a cinch. That said, the way they've handled the Alpha makes it a far search from that gateway drug fighting game that allows new players to develop fighting game fundamentals without an impossible learning curve, whether created from an intrinsically competitive nature or a plethora of nuances.
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