Cover Letter

The intent of this research paper is to come to a conclusion on a hot button topic within a
community I am a part of. I think it would be insightful to assess all angles and relevant data and
form a more educated opinion on the topic of modern and traditional controls, as most other
discussions of this topic prove to be primarily conjecture and not much else. My intended
audience for this paper is really the fighting game community, the group this topic is most
relevant to, however I do intend on writing the paper in a way that won’t alienate those outside
of the FGC and will be readable for anyone with a basic knowledge on video games. Much like
the fighting games I discuss, I’ve had to take measures to incorporate both the broader
audience and the core audience of fighting game players, such as with the glossary, where I
explained fighting game terminology.
Making an annotated bibliography proved mildly difficult. I was aided by my synthesis
chart, which itself was difficult to make, on account of the simple fact academics don’t seem to
make papers or books that are really relevant to fighting games. There was one source that
seemed pretty relevant to my topic about balancing in fighting games, unfortunately it was all in
Korean, and google translate refused to translate it, so for the time being I had to leave it out,
though I may roll back that decision if I find a way to translate the document. I’ve struggled to
find relevant papers and data from purely scholarly sources, and with the bibliography I’ve
constructed I’ll have to create some very complex and interconnected arguments in order to fully
utilize all the rather disparate sources.
This paper demonstrates progress towards multiple course outcomes. As I have been
able to create my own research topic, and been able to delve into it in detail, at least through the
bibliography, I have demonstrated “generating inquiry”. “Information literacy”, through my choice
and assessment of topics within the bibliography, being able to state whether something is
credible and relevant to my research. “Research genre production”, since the assignment itself
(the bibliography) is related to a research paper, which is made for a specific community.

Annotated Bibliography
Kobari, Sachie. (2023). How Tekken 8 harnesses the power of PS5 – out January 26, 2024.
Playstation blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2023/08/29/how-tekken-8-harnesses-t
he-power-of-ps5-out-january-26-2024/

This is an article from the official Playstation Blog. This article is an interview of Kohei Ikeda,
who is the director of Tekken 8. This interview is mostly made as a promotional piece for
Tekken 8 as well as a means of pushing players to play it on the Playstation 5, with the primary
focus being on how Tekken 8 leverages the technology within the PS5 to create a unique and
enjoyable experience. The interview also touches on the command system within Tekken 8,
which includes the newly added “Special Style”, and Mr. Ikeda gives their rationale for the
addition of the style.

This article presents one of the primary arguments for the addition of more simplistic styles of
input in fighting games, with them being presented as both useful in attracting new players but
also allowing seasoned players to learn new characters, with the latter part of that statement
being a particularly unique take on the idea of modern/simple controls. This is also a credible
source to my research since it is directly from someone who worked on a game recently
sporting the sort of controls my research is about, with the person specifically being a higher up.

Taro (2023). The number of players is several times that of the previous game! We ask the
developers of "Street Fighter 6", which revolutionized fighting games, what is the driving
force behind "new acquisitions" [Interview]. Inside Games.
https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2023/07/21/147316.html

This is an interview conducted by a Japanese video game news publication where-in those
interviewed are the director and producer of Street Fighter 6. This interview centers around the
main premise that Street Fighter has enjoyed a bump in popularity in Japan, online specifically,
and the interviewer asks the director and the producer how they feel about a myriad of topics
relating to Japanese pop-culture and the Street Fighter community, such as the games
popularity among online Virtual Youtubers. The interview touches on modern controls, which the
popularity of the game among casual players can be attributed to, and the director and producer
give their rationale on why it was added and they expound upon that giving a rationale why the
more traditional controls were kept in.

This article is relevant to my research as it provides another reason for the inclusion of modern
controls in newer fighting games as well as demonstrates a sentiment expressed by the fighting
games industry involving how casuals and hardcores are viewed and how important both are to
their business. The source itself is credible as it is directly from two people who worked closely
on a project that was, by and large, a forerunner in this approach to fighting game design.

Mattiassi, Alan. (2019). Fighting the game. Command systems and player-avatar interaction in
fighting games in a social cognitive neuroscience framework . Springer link.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11042-019-7231-2#Sec4
This paper is focused on player perception of inputs and how they relate to movements done in
response to those inputs by the in-game avatar, using the medium of a fighting game for the
experiments. The reasoning for creating a series of experiments in this way was in order to
study the relation between players and their perception of inputs in a realm outside of the
VR/AR space, which dominates this field of study. This paper speaks on the aspects of how
players learn command systems in fighting games and how that learning is hampered or aided
by changes to the command systems style.

This paper serves the purpose of expounding on the learning aspect of getting into fighting
games. People don’t start off as professionals when beginning any hobby, with fighting games
being no exception. All beginning players are casual, in essence, and special/modern style
controls serve as a means of allowing these new players to more easily learn aspects of the
fighting game, instead of them being confused and ultimately dropping the game. With this
angle one can examine the special vs traditional controls debate with a more scientific analysis
than the reasoning of developers, either going for or against the arguments made by them. The
source is credible as it can be found on the UCF library website.

Thorpe, Andrew. (2011). History and alternative game input methods.

IEEEhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6000321
This paper is about alternative control schemes within the world of gaming, with a background
section and then an experimental section where players are tasked with playing a game with
various types of controllers, which generally range from difficult for a newcomer to use to more
intuitive (keyboard, mouse, Xbox controller, Wiimote, a 3D mouse [a strange type of ball
contraption], a DDR-pad, a webcam, and another different 3D mouse). A survey is then
conducted after the experiment and player feedback is presented, showing what kind of input
methods were more enjoyable and how it may affect perceived fairness, for instance.

Though this paper focuses primarily on the controllers used by players it gives great insight into
the actual beliefs of players regarding how a video game is played. It touches at length on
player feedback and subjects of fairness and intuitiveness, which can be extrapolated into the
debate on modern vs traditional controls by examining this data more abstractly and taking the
conclusions like “players prefer more simplistic controls schemes”, and expanding it to
encompass input mapping (what buttons do) instead of simply how a controller is configured
(whether it is motion operated or button operated for instance). This paper can be considered
credible since it can be found on the UCF library website.

Juul, Jesper. A Casual Revolution : Reinventing Video Games and Their Players (2010).The
MIT press https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=34b7698f-b77b-
4698-b511-505f194e1a29%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxzaGl
iJmF1dGh0eXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpd
GU%3d#AN=291830&db=nlebk

This is an academic book focused on the games industry and the gaming community and the
apparent conflict between casual and hardcore gaming. The book details the rise of casual
games and how they are played (this book came out in 2010 which was around the time many
mobile games and the Wii were either at their peak or just coming off their peak in popularity).
The author presents information regarding how games are controlled, anecdotes about casual
gaming, a player survey, and several other pieces of evidence and data that leads to their
conclusion that casual gaming will not go away and will pervade the industry for years to come,
perhaps being the primary focus of developers from now on.

This book strikes at the heart of my argument, as modern controls are truly intertwined with
casual play. From the in-depth discussion on controls, how casual play relates to developers, to
discussion on casual play within non-casual games, the book serves as a solid source for my
research paper, covering many bases. The book takes a stance that games are becoming more
accessible to a larger range of people, no longer being relegated to just a section of hardcore
players, which is very important to the fighting game community as it is one of the most
historically hardcore and niche groups within gaming. The conclusion and tone of this book aid
well in the argument presented within my research paper. This book can be found on the UCF
library website, making it credible.