While in terms of gaming, everything is looking plentiful, there are still some administrative issues that will slightly annoy the more invested fans, while the mainstream will probably be oblivious.  As for content creators, the year of the Snake could be a slippery one indeed.

Btw I’ll be commenating tomorrow Jan 4 at the Fatal Boss Tournament!

Destination Casablanca

There are a few choices in terms of travel: Morocco is set for February 22-23 and while it’s a school holiday, it’s not a holiday for university. I’m not sure if the venue will be the same, but we had lots of fun at the last one and the level is high, kek, you’ll get to see it’s not just lag, the skills are real.

Like Mature, I’ll have to do some juggling to get this to work and it won’t be easy.  Win or lose, Morocco is a fascinating country to visit and eating with the community is always fun!  The tournament will also feature Samurai Shodown which will run simultaneously.

Already it’s 2025 and players should also start planning for EVO in France, in Nice, which should be far cheaper than Africa but at the same time… maybe not!  Annnnd there’s no KOF… hmmmm.

Where’s KOF in 2025?

There’s no KOFXV, or updates for 2025, in fact, unless SNK decide to give Vice and Mature more jiggle physics to somehow please the trolls that weren’t going to buy the dlc either way lol.  I will be tempted by COTW and the community will be divided between KOF13 and XV.  I predict there will be a good spike in activity for KOF13, more if there’s crossplay, and then it will disappear, and players will demand for KOF11.  I’ll continue to host lobbies, and while I wait, I’ll play gacha games, tut tut tut.  Where’s the beta announcement, SNK?  Feb 20 for KOF13 and April 24 for COTW.  Hmmm, seems like a healthy timeline.

SNK’s revving it up

Lots of activity on SNS, but a little confusing.  Perhaps we will see those 10 remaining parts to the 30th anniversary, which SNK hasn’t forgotten about, after changing their twitter account name to “KOF Studio”… an account that celebrates fighting games, but it’s called KOF… ok, I guess.  Whatever, 2025 is really the year of Fatal Fury, let’s see with an open mind.

Did you see that Jenet’s face may have changed?  Her jawline may be more pointy now… or perhaps it was just the angle on the new header… of all the things to get angry about… well, fans are fans, after all.

By the way if you noticed the advert, the new Samsho action RPG could end up being called “battle of the crows”!  Speculation is that this game will be certainly like Wu-Kong and Seikiro, focused on fighting and levelling up.  Could be good, but can we count on fans of the new Samsho protag?  Do they even exist?  SNK taking risks again but I’m sure they will shoehorn Iroha, Nakoruru and Haohmaru into the story, they certainly should, if they want to please everyone (and get a reaction from some of the puritans).

The challenge for Content Creators

As a content creator, it’s been clear that streaming is a niche entertainment for the hardcore (niche) crowd.  If you’re thinking about trying to break through, or making a career out of eSports, you will need to either win some tournaments or organise a ton, be extremely attractive or simply entertaining … or, heaven forbid, make flashy while informative content.  All of those options take a lot of work and energy, and I’ve seen people burn out.  Creating videos is a grind and with the limited spare time I had, just turning on the computer and playing games with the chat has been relatively easy.  Mind you, I did a stream for 7 and a half hours, and I have trauma.  If you go quiet, viewers will get bored and leave.  It’s still work!  Support your favourite streamers with a comment or they might give up!

Again, it should be obvious, but making videos, documentaries and guides, is the way to get more clicks, on the other hand, short form videos such as tiktok and youtube Shorts, have certainly brought more people to the channel.  My hats off to NeogeoNow, Rooflemonger and GuileWinQuote, my brain just melts when I see the editing timeline!  The release of COTW will be interesting (or tiring), as it will show if making guides is more profitable than click bait rage vlogs (it’s not).  There is also the issue of algorithms simply not pushing the smaller channel content to users when they actually need it.  There are plenty of small CCs that seem to have given up because of this.  If they can hear me, I would say, never stop, keep going, and make a million guides, it will pay off in the future, it’s just not immediate. And, don’t forget to slap that “4K 60fps” sticker on it.

Speaking of channels, I experimented with a few more platforms such as D-Live, Trovo and Kick.  Facebook does give a little reach too, but if I stream more than three platforms at once, the quality begins to drop.  I think I’ll try rotating two a time.  Speaking of platforms, streaming on Twitch still has the legal issue of Frans Bleed Band pretending to own older SNK tracks, causing my streams to become unpublished, when there is an old soundtrack being played.  It makes you wonder if SNK get these copyright notices when they stream, it must be infuriating.  Either way, there is the argument of dividing traffic or converging it.  Would viewers from Kick come over to youtube, or would they refuse?

I often create content for the niche, rather than the mainstream, but sometimes, they cross over.  I’ve been trying to create the next edition of FGC Yearbook, for years, and the pandemic didn’t help.  That book didn’t sell well, but it was enjoyed by the FGC (of course they did, the book is about them).  The next editions were free, which avoided any copyright issues, so I could use lots of artwork, and people seemed to like it, but of course that meant no money went to anyone.  People need to get paid for work, otherwise they need to enjoy that work so that they can do it for free, unfortunately for everyone, my favourite work is grinding combos in KOF, so don’t expect more free books any time soon.  Still, it’s another project for the future, and if you have FGC photos you want to share, get in touch.

This year, I’ve let go of one class while taking on another which is half the amount of hours, and a regular block of work has not been renewed, so techically I should have more free time but right now I can’t see it, as there are always last minute teaching requests…

Ok that’s everything I think.  Whether you’re playing, or creating, I wish you all the powers to help you do you best!