PixlBit

So over on NeoGAF and various other forums I visit, there was a huge row over a revelation in Eurogamer that the PS4 will only grant about 5.5GB of RAM out of the 8GB in the device, with a big portion of it walled off for the OS. You even had people talking about cancelling their pre-orders over this. Never mind that A) all those great demos we saw at E3 and other places were built around the assumption of just 4GB, or that B) it's likely that the OS will be pared down over time the same way the PS3's was.

Really, though, this was just the most emphatic case of the sort of hysteria that has been pervasive throughout the entire next-gen rollout. While MS gave people plenty of reasons to be legitimately leery before turning things around, some of the nontroversies surrounding the next-gen consoles have been ridiculous. And in many cases, it's driven by unsubstantiated rumors anyway.

I'm excited about the PS4 and really want to get one. But I'm not going to lose sleep over something like RAM count, since even at just 4GB that's 8x as much as what they have to work with now. And they were already able to make stuff like Killzone Shadow Fall and the Dark Sorcerer tech demo with that amount.

I just...ugh. And then people wonder why outsiders don't take us seriously.

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So I caught bits and pieces of the inaugural Video x Games tournament in San Marteen, where various fighting games and COD were played. The event had been pushed heavily at various fighting game events over the past year, and several prominent fighting game players were in attendnace. "Going to DA BEECH" was even a meme on Twitch streams for a while. :p

The actual event, though, was a real mess. There was word of serious problems with the bracket, in which players didn't know how far in they were in the tournament and proper records weren't even kept at times. Several events--such as an appearance by the cast of Mortal Kombat webseries--ended up being cancelled. They also had cosplayers like Jessica Nigiri doing commentary (leading to some embarrasingly thirsty bullshit in the stream chat) as opposed to...actual players and known FGC figures.

But by far the worst part was the UMVC3 finals. You had ChrisG, one of the most dominant players in the world, fighting against the Evolution 2013 champion Flocker. I was really excited to see how the two would play each other; both play very oppressive characters, and Flocker had gotten several amazing come-from-behind wins over the weekend. Instead, they halfassed the whole thing, picking random teams and not playing seriously at all. It was plain as day that, yet again, another final had been ruined because they'd decided to split the winnings amongst themselves.

Money has always been a big issue within the fighting game community. Fact is, there really isn't much to go around; the kind of sponsorships and endorsments you see in games like Dota 2 and LoL don't exist, and prize pools and payouts are much smaller. Thus trying to make real money through playing fighting games is difficult even for the best players. But doing stupid shit like this is not going to help.

It's disrespectful to the people watching the event. It's disrespectful to the companies that are sponsoring the event, and put money up to add to the prize pool and cover travel costs for the players. And it's disrespectful to the teams that actually handle the streams, who often work for free and even end up losing money (although it was handled by Capcom itself this time).

And then you'll have these same players go on Twitter whine about how the scene is still too small, or accuse TOs (tournament organizers) of not giving enough money to the players, and how their precious skillset isn't being valued. How does this bullshit do anything to rectify those things? Why should I feel any sympathy for such blatant hypocrites? How is this going to get more people watching the streams or build interest in the games--which will do far more to bring money in than potsplitting ever will?

I'm sick and tired of hearing people complain about the lack of money or growth in the FGC without doing anything to help, or even making it look worse. I don't want to hear their excuses when you have players going to grad school or playing while holding steady jobs. And besides, there are games with far more money on the table, and jobs that actually provide reliable income, that they could be focusing on instead. There's really no excuse.