Post date: Oct 31, 2011 6:1:28 PM
Creating content is decently hard, especially when the game isn't yet available to us yet. I know last month Harada posted that location tests would be held in SoCal, Texas, and New York during October, but October has come and gone and the most we've seen is supposed "server integration/installation" at places in America (e.g. Hawaii and SoCal). Now nearly all I've written thus far about TTT2 has come from basically three straight days of playing at EVO, small bits and pieces of information that I didn't come across were found with YouTube, and finally fixes and improvements to what I've found and what other people have found was through TZ.
That's the problem, we currently have to rely on an "American" base to parlay information. Of the TZ community, I think it's safe to say about ten of them are knowledgeable enough to make accurate comments on the game, while everyday new posters seem to trickle in to add miscellaneous things. While the experienced player brings (overall) accurate information, it's the newer poster that seems to bring the interesting changes; but at what point do we believe a newer poster? From early location tests, the amount of skewed information coming from "sources" exceeded the amount of good information available, so much so that statistically you could use the opposite of this information and be correct. I wasn't the only person to notice this and it wasn't until hands-on testing that it was obviously the case. Attribute it to a lack of character experience or possibly a complete lack of game experience, but it's not until we test that we can confirm or deny if the information is accurate.
So what exactly are the options for finding out information before we get a hold on TTT2? Obviously YouTube is a great tool as it allows us to see the situation rather than take someone's word on it. This also allows savvy players to see new information that hasn't yet been discovered or acknowledged. The main problem with YouTube is that even though streams may be direct feed, they are still limited frame rate wise at roughly 30 FPS. This doesn't seem like an immediate problem until you realize that the Tekken series runs at a signature 60 FPS during gameplay. What that means is that only half of the data onscreen is reaching the viewer at home. Basic questions such as something being punishable cannot be answered with great certainty. The other problem is that one or both the players on screen must be decent at the game to acquire pertinent information. If something is -10 and a player is punishing with i10 one frame late, it will most likely cause the viewer to think the string/attack is safe on block. It's also possible to combine these problems, maybe a player does an unsafe string (e.g. -14) and ducks, but the opponent does an i15 launcher instead of i14 punish and successfully launches the opponent. If the twitch duck animation occurs during an unrecorded frame, then it appears that the string is launch punishable and it's impossible for the viewer to know that this is the case.
Another option is to read overseas Tekken fan sites (i.e. TekkenCentral) to get more information. The most obviously problem to this is that the viewer must be able to read the native language of the site. Even then, mistranslations and errors may obfuscate good information causing the newly enlightened reader to propagate bad information. Lastly, like TZ, it's very likely that there are just as many newer poster posting inaccurate information or possibly trolls who are posting bad information just to post bad information.
So what exactly am I getting at?
We need an on-shore release/indefinite location test in America ASAP
Happy Halloween