Why People Are Mad

[ComradePB]

Hi all,

I wanted to post again in a new thread as I have seen there are some people here reading through all these posts with conflicting recommendations and information and wondering what the heck is going on.

To reiterate as I did in my last post: I have 250+ hours in this game, I am a Ms. Fortune main, and I started playing before Eliza was added to the game. In short, I’ve been here a while and yes, I am a fan of this game.

Some History for You

The original idea for Skullgirls was started by two people: Alex Ahad and Mike Zaimont. Ahad designed the world, characters, and the stories tied to those characters. Zaimont programmed the game using an engine he designed himself from scratch. Once the project started picking up steam, the development team formed by the pair was picked up by Reverge Labs and partnered with Autumn Games and Konami as their publishers, thus Skullgirls was released.

Not long after, Autumn Games was hit by several lawsuits unrelated to Skullgirls that led to them having to layoff Ahad and Zaimont’s team. Not helping was the relationship between Autumn Games and Konami had soured leading Konami to remove Skullgirls from online stores. Thankfully the team was able to pivot, reform under a new company, Lab Zero, and kept the game alive thanks to a highly successful crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo called “Keep Skullgirls Growing” (you can still find the page for this campaign on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-growing#/). The game was rereleased under the new name Skullgirls: Encore which later became Skullgirls: 2nd Encore , the current version of the game.

“Keep Skullgirls Growing” promised stretch goals like new characters, artwork, story modes, stages, voice packs and music and offered rewards like a digital soundtrack download, developer sketchbooks, and an art compendium.
The campaign reached $828,000 in funding and some of the stretch goals would have additional fan input by voting on which characters would fill some of the new spots in the fighter roster. All was good.

Eventually things started to go south behind the scenes. Much of the original team has left the project for various reasons, not all of them pretty. This includes Alex Ahad and Mike Zaimont and with them, the dissolution of Lab Zero. Some remnants of the original devs do exist in the new company Future Club who, alongside Autumn Games and Hidden Varriable (who originally stepped in for the mobile version) are now in charge of Skullgirls. While Ahad seems to have moved on, Zaimont has been in a legal battle for with the remaining developers alleging they conspired to oust him from Lab Zero by manipulating his autism and mischaracterizing certain events.

This bring us to the divisive patch released at the end of last June and…well you know the rest.

Why Players are Mad

There is a lot of discussion on these boards about the content that was altered and what it says about the character of the people who speak in support or opposition of the changes. Please know that this only serves to muddy the water; I couldn’t care less what color Filia’s panties are or whether or not I have the ability to see them. The game still plays exactly the same as it did before and is one of the most fun 2D fighters out there.

The real issue here is that this has been and continues to be a massive PR disaster on the part of the developers, one that threatens to kill the game.

• Fans are upset content that was paid for and added through that $828,000 Indiegogo campaign has been altered or removed without some form of compensation or replacement.
  
• Fans are upset by the dangerous precedent set by the developers that anything can be retroactively changed or removed on a whim and without warning.
  
• Fans are upset by the response from the developers to their complaints which is saying nothing at best and mockery or silencing dissent at its worst.
  
  But most importantly:
  
  
• Fans are upset that they aren’t being treated like the fans anymore

Skullgirls Wouldn’t Exist Without the Fans

The FANS bankrolled the game and its downloadable content when the future of the game was uncertain. Lab Zero asked the FANS to vote on what they wanted to get out of the downloadable content they were promised. The FANS helped get Skullgirls to Evo by speaking in support of the game. The FANDOM’s antics led to some official inclusions in the game (Kai Kennedy commentated at many Skullgirls tournaments and is now the voice behind Beowulf hyping up the crowd on and offscreen).

The fans have been such an integral part of this game’s development, they’re practically part of the dev team.

So for the current devs to make decisions like this without even talking to the fans, to outright say that they will not engage further with the fans after the deed is done, to mock the fans when they raise complaints and later silence those complaints, is a MASSIVE stab in the back.

I want to keep playing this game. I would gladly recommend it to people because as a fighting game newbie, it made me feel welcome. The gameplay was solid and fast-paced and the art and characters were so insane that it was charming. But I can’t do/say that in good conscience anymore because I know that in a way, however small, I am supporting the terrible actions taken by the current devs.

Skullgirls will always hold a special place for me but sadly, unless some seismic change happens behind the scenes, I think it’s time for me to lay it to rest.

Rest in peace, until we meet again

[𝙈𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙤]

Well said.

[a real miko (true)]

if i could kiss you i would, thamku for this extra writeup now that the fire got some gas poured on it

[BoolXorElse]

The way that they just changed content that people paid for put me off immensely to the product. What the Publisher and Devs are doing stands firmly against something I would ever support from a game company. I've bought many games just because I like what the developers were doing. This I can't support. I don't want my games to be changed long after I purchase them. If they want to change stuff, make a new version of the game with the censored stuff and leave this one behind for the fans of it.

[Kyrion]

Very well said.

I'm always happy to give some points for well built summaries like this one.

[ComradePB]

Originally posted by Kyrion:

Very well said.

I'm always happy to give some points for well built summaries like this one.:precious:

Thank you

[The Grand Mac]

inb4 the Apologists come in and disregard everything.

In all sincerity, well-said. Thank you for this.

[Sharp299]

awesome summary, thanks for this...

"Fans are upset that they aren’t being treated like the fans anymore"
this is the painful one for me. :(

[e-dood]

I very rarely give awards on Steam, but this post does put to words on why fans are upset.

So take some of my points you beautiful bastard!

[EVEILMINION]

That's OP post, But sadly Steam and the new Devs don't care anymore.

[Belva Company]

I've had the feeling that Skullgirls has suffered through some sort of meddling.

[ComradePB]

An additional bit of info after rereading the backer rewards for the Indiegogo campaign:

While the Digital Art Compendium is currently available as DLC for $10, during the campaign, the minimum amount you needed to give to receive it was $100 (the total cost of that tier accounts for several other rewards like t-shirts, posters, and a Steam key, but still).

[Doon Cuil]

Greatly helpful, just found out about this stuff today and don't have enough hours or context to know much.

[drh]

nobody cares, stay mad lol

[Providence 777]

Originally posted by drh:

nobody cares, stay mad lol

I find this post ironic, since it was the pro-cenorship users who ran angry to complain to steam and beg them to silence customers.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3003329517

All this time you guys were trying to convince us that you don't care, or that no one cares, but clearly the actions from your side tell a different story.

[Mr. Underhill]

Well said, OP