Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez Speaks to RSR – Video Game News
Interview by Siri Karri
I want to go ahead and apologize to anyone’s who’s reading this thinking that I asked in depth gaming questions about the release of 2012 or the recent results at Devastation. First, I was somewhat star struck upon meeting Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez for the first time and fumbled my game plan. Most of all though is because the readers on this site probably don’t have a great deal of knowledge in Street Fighter or fighting games. Going into the technical aspects of fighters with Gootecks would be like trying to explain the physics of the Nuremberg Ring to a person who only had a passing interest in automobiles.
This interview is mostly concerned with the fighting game scene and what can be done to improve it. If it’s stuff you’ve heard about before, I truly apologize for boring you. Everyone else may find something worthwhile however.
(In the manner of a college girl encountering her favorite rock star, I timidly tap Gootecks on the shoulder. I ask for an interview and he regards me with a mixture of bored apathy and contempt. Later I learn he is sleep deprived and was disappointed this wasn’t a video interview. Either that or he actually does hate me.)
SK: You really started getting into Fighting Games around the advent of 3rd Strike, how far would you say the community has come since then?
The fighting game scene has come a really long way, well, it went from EVO having less than a 1000 people in a ballroom at Cal Poly Tech to having 6000 – 7000 at the Rio or Caesar’s Palace. When I first put videos on YouTube I would get a few thousand views and now we’re getting 50k 60k views on Cross Counter.
SK: Gaming really has gone mainstream. You can pretty much go into a frat house and talk about Call of Duty and no one would think twice. What’s stopping fighting games from achieving that kind of popularity?
Biggest factors are the community itself, Capcom and a lack of information. The community in a lot of ways has to mature and start supporting a lot of the different aspects of the game; players, aspects, streams, everything. OH and there’s a lot of infighting and internal combat between groups and organizations.
We should be further along than we are. Capcom Japan doesn’t quite understand what’s going on over here because they’re over there . . . Capcom doesn’t support the tournament scene the same way Wizard supports Star Craft or Riot supports League of Legends. I mean recently there was a DotA (Defense of the Ancients) tournament with a million dollars for first place you know? Other companies will support the game by having MLG or IPL use their games in their tournaments. So far Capcom hasn’t done that. BUT Capcom America is definitely making steps in the community aspect. Also there isn’t a lot of sponsors because right now a lot of the fighting games are on consoles. A lot of the big sponsors are hardware , and with console games the only hardware is the monitor, the stick, and the actual console. That’s one reason why MadCatz and Hori do so well over here.
And I mean AE PC didn’t do too well.
SK: Is that because everyone pirated it?
Eh (shrugs shoulders )I mean there were problems with it. Like I have an Alienware laptop and it took me 45 minutes to get AE to run correctly. I know it wasn’t my laptop because it has [the latest hardware], and that’s not going to help your cause when you’re trying to promote PC gaming. What they could have or should have done is maybe give out copies of the game for free, but charge a monthly rate to play it online. Selling copies of the game one by one though . . . eh.
SK: We see each genre has a “Rosetta Stone”, the game no one can stop playing and it launches the genre into new heights. The FPS had Call of Duty, everyone played it and HAD to get good at it. Is there one for fighting games or not?
I thought it was Street Fighter IV?
SK: Well I walk around the dorms and stuff and out of all my friends maybe only 2 or 3 at most play Street Fighter IV
Once again it’s about the lack of information.
People don’t understand with fighting games it’s similar to working out and martial arts. It may seem silly, but it’s fucking true. All the elements; practice, working out, understand strategy. The people who actually make the games assume that everyone already knows how to play it. When people buy the Street Fighter IV, it should say go to Capcom Unity and insert a code that’ll give you a training video. People have to understand that it’ll take time for people to get the game.
SK: So what is the ONE game people should play to get into fighting games?
Definitely Street Fighter IV.
SK: Well, I have no more questions is there anything you want to ask Ringside? We like promoting this kind of stuff and we’re actually interested in Professional Gaming now. Maybe we can do something together?
(Thinks long and hard) Just put a link to us at the bottom of your articles man!
SK: Alright, well are you in the Street Fighter pools? If so who are you playing?
Yeah and probably Rose and Balrog . . . maybe Fei Long.
SK: I dropped Fei Long after I realized he needed one frame links. I’ve come to terms with my execution barrier.
See, and again with that misinformation about execution more people need to know about stuff like that.
To see Gootecks’ material that he produces to spearhead Street Fighter into the mainstream, follow this link.
To Read more of Siri’s work, Click Here
