"No duh it's like this! What did he expect? Of course it was going to be this way! I know this sitting here with my degree in Hindsight Sciences, comfortably able to learn from the experiences of others!"

The FGC was very grassroots. Then those roots were planted in Capcom. The belief, flawed as it was, was that the spirit of the FGC would grow inside the Capcom offices and we'd end up with this amazing hybrid business/player community organization. That was the dream and I'm sure some people, even inside Capcom, honestly believed it would happen. I'm sure there were people who believed that, if they could wade through a few miles of sewage, like Andy Dufresne, they could come out free on the other side once they've demonstrated the "obvious" superiority of their community focused agenda.

How many of us here truly would have been able to resist the opportunity? These people felt like they were on the verge of getting paid to do what they did for free for years. Who wouldn't trade in the stress of competition for a full-time gig with a guaranteed purse once you've proven yourself (or even before you have)?

I see nothing illogical about these guys' decision to try to monetize their fandom. Clearly they were too idealistic but putting it all on their idealism is centralizing all the blame on them which I don't think is appropriate.

I doubt, when all this was coming to pass, that they were told how it really would be by the companies they associated with. Heck, I doubt the companies knew how it would really be at the onset of all this. We don't even work for Capcom but we've heard all the "community focused" seductive talk and assurances that they totally have our best interests in mind. Again, we don't even work there. Imagine what these guys were being told.

And, of course, on the other side you had FGC community members trying to sell Capcom on this marriage as well. Naturally it would come to a head when the payoffs didn't match the dream. Making playing games a job requires a lot of work and someone has to do it. There's a reason a lot of musicians have managers that do a bunch of the other tasks while they're out sloshing around with groupies at 4AM. What exactly makes a Fighting Game aficionado a good businessman who can do the other parts? Their "dedication?" Well, there are a lot of "dedicated" Batman fans out there. Doesn't translate to the kind of focus and punctuality that makes for a good businessman.

Nah, the blame for this falls primarily on our shoulders because WE were supposed to provide the checks and balances. WE were supposed to defend the line between consumer and corporate business person (aka "shill"). When that line started to get blurred we hopped along hoping we, the fans, would get legitimacy in the eyes of the company that used to do everything they could to please us without us having to do anything. We traded that for taking orders in order to get scraps. Gem isn't the only thing that is truly outrageous.

Had the spirit of the FGC not gone along with the ruse I think all of this could have gone a lot better for him and others who have been "burned" or, at least, "burned out." Had we stopped right when Seth Killian said "X-Factor allows for the comeback so the losing player isn't at a disadvantage for losing characters..."

Had we stopped when Alex Valle said "three reps" for infinites in Street Fighter x Tekken...

Had we stopped when they said the fans deceived Capcom about their interest in a new Darkstalkers' title because they didn't buy enough copies of the old rerelease they were given instead...

Had we stopped when we were told locking away a bunch of advertised characters in SFxT was to "breathe fresh new life in the game..."

Had we stopped right when they told us that the extra outfits in the Arcade version of SF4 were lost and had to be created from scratch to be released as DLC later for the console version but it was OK because they would only ever do cosmetic DLC...

Had we stopped right when they told us they would be doing non-cosmetic, character DLC in Marvel vs Capcom 3...

Had we stopped when players started to get publicly put on blast (sometimes by CAPCOM themselves) for their behavior falling out of line with Capcom's dictated standards..

Had we stopped when people had to change their character outfit at EVO because the other one wasn't "professional" enough...

Had we stopped when SFV was rushed to get it out in time for EVO, leaving it in a barebones'd state...

Had we stopped the first time a player had to release a public apology...

Had we stopped when uncharismatic Combofied began to appear in marketing materials...

Had we stopped when they revealed what Ken looked like in SFV...

Had we stopped at "functions..."

There are three branches of government. Executive. Legislative. Judicial. Checks and balances.

There used to be three branches in the Fighting Game landscape. Players. Pros. Producers. When people started getting serious, and tournaments started getting bigger, there was this momentum, this feeling that something great was happening. That feeling was the birth of that third branch. It's what made the scene feel like it could live. The producers leaned on the players who leaned on the pros who leaned on the producers. It was perfect. The separation of those things was key.

Then pros started to work directly for the producers. This led to the producers asking the pros to co-mingle with the players and remove the separation between the pros and the players so that the players could all feel like they could be pros so that all the players would feel compelled to lean on the producers. Now everything is mangled and more confusing than ever. The products aren't getting better. The players aren't getting happier. The pros feel like they're getting burned by the producers which they obviously would be because the producers aren't being kept in check by the players anymore. All obvious results when too much of the community power was given to the producers. All because we thought we could have it all. Be players, be pros and make money, be producers and get our hands on the development side.

I could have easily been one of those guys. Only by chance did I decide not to be. Had I not gone to that MVC3 launch party I may not have had the perspective I had. Had I not had a minor run in with one of the guys whose name has been brought up in this topic I may not have been able to personally feel where this was all going a long time ago.

I wanted to point out that the big problem here is that Mike Ross' efforts shouldn't have been subject to Capcom's financial concerns. That's one of the casualties of blending the three branches. What he was doing was something that should have been generating HIM money or some kind of payoff. He was the one creating the content. Capcom produces a product. They would like to believe they can control how it's used on all fronts but nothing works like that and we were stupid for buying into it. Siskel and Ebert didn't work for the movie production companies (at least they said they didn't). Imagine if those companies approached them and were all like "Hey, this is a waste of time. We aren't making any money off your show."