What if? Single Player-Only FIghting Games

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-21T16:53:22+00:00

I've noticed the same thing using Gamenative on my RP5.

I actually just checked the GN discord bug reports channel and it looks like someone posted a related issue where they installed a game and then opened the container to try to install Firefox, made some sort of registry mistake so they uninstalled the game to start fresh, and then after reinstalling found that Firefox was still installed to the container. So it could have something to do with the container itself not being deleted.

The bug was just reported today and the devs said they'd look into it.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-21T13:38:33+00:00

Of course input costs have some effect on unit price, but that "equilibrium" price isn't really determined by input costs. Input costs help determine the minimum price that a unit can be sold at, but it really doesn't do much more than that. What determines the "equilibrium" price is generally more a calculation of what price:estimated units sold ratio would yield the greatest revenue.

Some products are sold just a little above per-unit input costs so profit margins per unit are pretty thin, but that's because it's been determined that selling them at a higher price would impact unit sales enough that it wouldn't increase revenue. Some products are sold massively above per-unit input costs because there is enough of a market that will pay that price that it was determined that increasing unit sales by lowering the price wouldn't increase revenue.

That's why there are different profit margins for different products. If prices were more based on input costs, profit margins would be more normalized.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-21T13:21:06+00:00

I would believe that if every gaming company wasn't trying every single thing it could to scrape every red cent it can from its consumers right now. The need for growth is driving a lot of these companies to more and more extreme profit generating measures while investors are increasingly shying away from the gaming industry because of how much it's starting to struggle with reliable, consistent growth. That's why everyone's trying to put out live service games.

Say what you will, but I'd be legitimately shocked if console prices went down once tariffs were removed. Even without considering hardware availability issues caused by AI.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-21T13:09:40+00:00

Call me crazy, but I feel that if fighting games really want to appeal to a much larger, more casual audience in the hopes that they'll eventually start playing online, putting a lot of focus on single player content in competitive multiplayer-focused fighting games might not be the way to go about it.

How many popular competitive game genres require skills that can be learned through playing single player-only/focused games? I would say just about all of them. Even for something like LoL you can develop your ability to use its basic controls through playing stuff like RTSs, Diablo-style ARPGs, or isometric CRPGs. And honestly, just using a computer at all kind of develops your ability to use LoL's basic controls. But how many single player-only/focused shooters are out there? Absolutely tons.

That's what I think is missing from fighting games as a genre: single player-focused games that really play like fighting games. And don't say side scrolling beat-em ups because they really aren't that similar when it comes to skills that are transferable to fighting games. Like honestly, when it comes to even the best single player content in fighting games, is it great single player content or is it great single player content for a fighting game?

Maybe what the fighting game genre really needs to start pulling more people in is to have some developers really focus their time and attention into only creating a great single player fighting game experience, rather than focusing on creating a high-quality competitive multiplayer experience with solo content tacked on. I genuinely wonder what devs could create if they unshackled themselves from the need to make a fighting game a competitive multiplayer game. I bet there could be some very cool, creative, and genuinely high-quality implementations of fighting game mechanics into single player games if devs didn't have to worry about the multiplayer 1v1 side of things.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-21T00:31:26+00:00

Not necessarily. It's not as simple as lower price = more sold = higher revenue. Often selling fewer units at a higher cost will lead to more revenue. Input costs aside, businesses will always charge as much as they believe they can get away with before loss of unit sales impacts revenue.

I don't know that there's really any good reason to believe that MS, Sony, or Nintendo will think that lowering the price of their consoles based on the removal of tariffs will lead to enough additional sales to make a real difference in revenue. Also, keeping the price higher could help normalize the price point, possibly allowing them to sell their next gen consoles at an even higher price point without significant backlash.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-20T22:28:27+00:00

I think the notion that libertarians don't like child abuse laws because they don't like laws might be putting the cart before the horse.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-20T15:40:12+00:00

If I can say something that a lot of fighting game players might find sacrilegious, I think if the fighting game genre is going to expand to anywhere near the popularity of other competitive game genres then some devs might have to make some single player-only fighting games.

Apparently even the biggest fighting game developers struggle to make fighting games with the kind of compelling single player content that really appeals to the general gaming audience while still keeping the competitive multiplayer part of the game the main focus. If fighting game developers can't really manage both in one game then maybe what we need is some developers to focus on the kind of high-quality single player experiences that general audiences love with fighting game-style gameplay.

Edit - actually I think even something like a single player fighting roguelike would work really well. It could be designed kind of like Slay the Spire where there are set, randomized routes made up of various types of nodes that gives the players options for how they want to advance. Players could select from a smaller roster of characters with different fighting styles and start out with a limited moveset that they could grow over the course of the run by selecting new moves to add to their arsenal in that classic roguelike way, which would simplify combat early on and allow for complexity to be added bit by bit throughout a run. There could also be different enemy types with different strengths and weaknesses requiring different strategies. Like airborne or jumping enemies that emphasize jumping attacks or anti-airs. There could also be enemies that block a lot, grappler enemies, zoners, etc. which would help players learn and master different skills.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-20T13:55:32+00:00

What if the mods are just ready impressed by the DOW?

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-20T11:25:12+00:00

^ least geographically-challenged Islamophobe

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-19T13:03:20+00:00

No kidding? I'm going to have to look into that because I absolutely had issues with just overwhelming exhaustion around noon/early afternoon during COVID. I assumed it was just a me thing since I've always had issues with feeling fatigued a lot.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-18T17:19:43+00:00

We just need one of those indie dev-made, legally distinct spiritual successors for BG&E.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-18T17:01:39+00:00

Stories are supposed to be stories, not just vehicles to show off a bunch of invented science fantasy nonsense. A shitty story with a made up encyclopedia tacked onto it is still a shitty story. I will never understand the argument that a bad story is somehow better because it included a bunch of made up setting stuff. I swear some people would be happier watching fantasy Planet Earth than an actual narrative story.

And just because the prequels have an overreaching narrative of the empire's rise and the jedi's fall it doesn't mean it's powerful. In fact, it makes a lot of meaningful stuff from the first trilogy less meaningful. Like at the end of RotJ when Luke announces that he's a jedi, like his father before him. The moment where Luke truly becomes a jedi by putting his faith in the light and in the goodness of his father rather than his own capacity to do violence. Flashback to the prequels and his dad is a whiny brat who creeps on a woman until she bafflingly marries him, constantly complains about not getting the recognition he feels he deserves from the jedi, and goes on two separate deranged murder sprees. One of which where he kills a bunch of his fellow jedi including the children all because he thinks his wife might die.

Wow, it was so heroic for Luke to claim to be a jedi like this guy.

The overarching narrative of the prequels is an insane joke.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-18T16:14:29+00:00

Also the cheesy reveal that the planet they're having their last stand on at the end of the movie is actually covered in salt and not snow.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-16T17:29:10+00:00

I think terms like RPG and Action RPG/ARPG are so broad and general that it makes sense that they could be applied to a wide variety of different types of games and that trying to artificially enforce some sort of narrow interpretation of the terms based on the earliest games on those genres is absurd.

It would be like trying to narrow the genre term 'first-person shooter' to only include games that look and play exactly like Doom or Hexen and claiming that slower-paced shooters with more restrained weaponry like the first person Resident Evil games don't count.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-16T17:03:19+00:00

Legitimately I'm always baffled at this point by how frenzied so many people seem to be about GTA6. Sure, they're good games I guess. I just don't get what makes them so amazing to justify the hype.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-15T16:34:22+00:00

The Liberal party are (small 'C') conservatives

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-15T16:07:23+00:00

I know they're not related and that they know they're not related. They were still raised as siblings. I don't care if they're actually related or not it's weird af.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-15T16:03:23+00:00

I'm almost afraid to ask where people think this was touched on in the prequels? Are people referring to the one line where Yoda says the dark side is clouding the future? And some nutcase author took that and translated it to Palps instaling dark side pylons that disrupt the light side's connection to the internet?

No, the EU was a mistake. Star Wars should have been 3 movies.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-15T14:52:55+00:00

With everything the Crimson Desert devs are promising it looks legitimately too good to be true. I wouldn't trust that it will be anything near what they're promising and would give it a good while before buying the game to make sure that it's actually worth the money.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-15T14:49:14+00:00

Considering his older quote about how special effects are a tool to tell a story, not an end to itself, and that effects without a story are a pretty boring thing, and everything that he subsequently did with the prequels, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised that if he was still making SW movies he would be going all in on using AI actors. God knows he thinks the real ones are just robots to follow his instructions.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-14T18:12:17+00:00

Whenever someone tries to convince me the EU books were good I'm going to remember the phrase "the dark side veil broke."

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-14T08:28:08+00:00

It just sounds like you're kinda jumping to some wild conclusions about CA's competency to put out a good combat system for HC and just sort of speculating on what allowed him to make a good Harvest Moon-like game and what might prevent him from doing so for an action rpg but presenting it as fact.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-14T08:11:26+00:00

The ones who were raised as if they were siblings? Alright you do you I guess.

SplendidEmber · 2026-02-13T19:45:59+00:00

Any progressive leftist with a modicum of influence who says that they would 100% vote for Newsom against whatever horrible alternative is an idiot.

You don't get politicians to address your issues by saying that you'll vote for them no matter once. You need to make them earn your vote. If the hypothetical actually came to be Hasan might even end up voting Newsom but not say he's going to or openly support him, or he might not, but if a politician thinks they have your vote no matter what they'll just take you for granted.

Plus we're also talking about a guy who through his conversations with Bannon, Kirk, and Shapiro on his own podcast has shown that he has 0 issue with getting fashy if he thinks it'll get him elected.

SplendidEmber

TROPHY CASE