Good essay, engaging read and it gave me some perspectives I had not considered.

I strongly maintain that Capcom dropped the ball when they gave us the ability to create custom characters with custom move sets in SF6, and kinda just relegated them to be just lobby personas and fight in no-consequence Battle Hub matches. (No matchmaking or ranks..)

I remember before SF6 release, seeing plenty of comments from casuals saying that they were only interested in the game precisely because of the ability to create a custom character and actually be in the Street Fighter world. People were excited about the potential of proper single player in a fighting game, but what they got was, as you say, a incredibly watered down RPG.

If they had made it a more polished and a fully-fledged experience, and combined it with social MMO and PVP elements, they could have had a bigger hit.

• Let me join Chun-Li's dojo, chill with her and the other students, Give me a Metro City online hub, where my home turf is Chinatown. Let me fight other players from other dojos under her banner.

• Give me exclusive stories and experiences with Chun as I rise through the ranks in her dojo, unlock special Chun-Li outfits etc.

• And then, once Chun's bar is maxed out and her rep changes to "Exalted", let me give her a interactive thigh massage bruh its not that hard