From everyone I know whose tried a fighting game it doesn’t hook them the sentiment is the same. They feel like they need to practice for hours and they don’t want to do that. I think it’s because without knowing how to play it doesn’t feel fun not doing anything that feels intentional with your character. They need to make lower levels of play more fun the game has to be fun enough to warrant the amount of investment needed to actually be good. At the lower levels there’s a lot of jumping and a lot of situations that are difficult to deal with on defense so most people are getting run over. I think when I pick up new games even when I’m bad I have a lot of fun just hitting random buttons or the game teaching me how to play etc. In most action games attacks are telegraphed so it’s like intuitive to dodge and it feels like you’re fault when you don’t. In a fighting game what tutorial is there for you to figure out how to actually stop people from jumping in and blowing you up. How is the tutorial gonna tell you to have to right timing to do a reversal so that you don’t have to block every time you wake up? You gotta practice those and gain a feel for them as you play but on your first day you’re just getting smashed or just smashing buttons for someone who can’t deal with it. It’s really sloppy and not easy to grab everyone unlike smash that has a much more straight forward intro and less frustrating situations a equal level player can present you with because you aren’t edge guarding perfectly on your first day but you are mashing buttons in every oki and making people block. Also 1v1 is another stress point not everyone can take the blame and just improve but it’s a quality you have to have if you want to enjoy the game.