Orochinagi: The King of Fighters

Intelligent-ish Rant time. 

Seriously, I don’t really care if they bring back Shermie, Rugal, Orochi, ’94 Ryo or even Ryu.  I really don’t care.  What I expect, is a solid netcode.  I finally got to try out Blazblue with Shiny, who’s in the States (Don’t forget I’m in the UK).  He had a blue icon which means, in this game, a poor connection.  We tried to play anyway.

It lagged while starting up through the level intro, then it speeded up, then the round started.  When the match was over I realised I had not complained about input delays or jerking or anything.  THERE WAS NO LAG.  There was NO lag.  We were continents apart and there was NO lag.  Well okay, at least I couldn’t tell there was any!  And that’s better than 90% of KOF online matches I’ve played so far.

What do companies such as SNK and Namco have to do in this situation?  What can they do?  What would you do?  Just fix the code?  It’s that easy, is it?  Arcsys must be laughing- they have the special ingredient that makes their fried chicken taste top tier.  SFIV has a good netcode, but damn, Blazblue just makes it look like your local Cheaperklone Fried Chicken. 

Using this analogy you may have a little more pity.  How can SNK make their chicken taste as good as KFC?  Do you think KFC would give away their secret recipe?

Capcom were smart enough to (finally) listen to the community and get a licence from GGPO for future titles (that means after SFIV).  Did SNK do the same?  They got Ignition to do their marketing but did they even listen to the feedback from fans?  One day, Ignition were back and forth with the fans, then the next day, silence, and there’s been NOTHING since. 

It seemed like the end of a contract – Ignition went on to promote some other game after that day.  The fans were angry.  Really angry.  Ignition will have some trouble promoting XIII.  Why can’t SNK really communicate with the fans?  Too small a company?  There are probably a few good reasons, mostly involving cash.  However, there are game programmers out there, dying to get involved, or at least, we all know that GGPO exists.  Have SNK got their heads in the sand?  What is going on?  The real question is, why aren’t we being informed?  Put it this way – would you tell the world that your company is crap at making netcode and needs help?  How would you look to your investors?  But then again, are you smart enough to contact the right people?  Could you help SNK?

I remember a reallllly long time ago asking Capcom and SNK for permission to use their images for some poster or something.  Capcom said yes, SNK said no.  The poster went up, and the name of Capcom and their characters spread.  Why did you say no, SNK?  That kind of thinking is just bringing you down.

In my humble opinion, there are loads of things that could be done, cheaply and discreetly.  I am totally judging, this is conjecture etc, but I believe SNK (and many if not most Japanese companies) have too much faith in themselves and look inward, whereas they should be open to global feedback and suggestion.  Either that or they just don’t care about gaijin.  And if that’s the case, now that online play is most important to me, I will not give SNK any more of my gaijin money.  XIII better have good online play, otherwise I’m switching on SNK. 

You heard it here first.  I don’t care about Rugal, I don’t care if you bring back Orochi with eight arms and six boobs.  If the online play sucks, you suck, and you can go to hell, I’ll buy and play Street Fighter instead.

Okay, maybe not Street Fighter, but Blazblue for sure.