So you are OK with paying for rebalancing?
Just asking.
That seems like a loaded question. Rebalancing to what extent?
Two characters getting damage nerfs and one character getting a health buff? No.
38 characters getting new moves, altered properties for existing moves, overall mechanic changes to the system? Maybe.
All that plus new online modes, enhanced netcode, new backgrounds and minor aesthetic changes? Yes.
12 new charaters as well? Of course.
You do not understand.
The original version of this game will be largely useless once Ultimate is out. The community for the first release will completely die out and everyone will either move to the next game or just bail completely. To sum it up again, it was a $70 beta.
The 'community of the first game' were the people asking for new characters, rebalancing and new moves/system tweaks. So of course they are going to go onto the improved version which gives them what they ask for. They played the original for 8 months, which is a lot more than you can say for most retail games.
People who didn't want any of that stuff probably wouldn't be playing the game on a regular basis two months from release, let alone 8, so why do they care? They have their 38 characters, single player modes (Which were fleshed out nicely with the event mode and shadow battles) and multiplayer against like-minded people. They can still boot up Vanilla and play casually against friends or against the computer if they really want to. IN SHORT: IT'S NOT A BETA.
I'm guessing most people who are part of the 'community' and are still consistently playing the game come November will pay for all the new content that THEY ASKED FOR.
Look at it this way, once Ultimate is out will you ever go back to the original version? Of course you will not, why would you? In past cases like the Street Fighter Alpha series, or upgrades to III the games changed a huge amount, artisitcally, stylistically, musically... Some people prefer the earlier releases because they are so different. This is just the same stuff from the original game with some new content that will not work with the original version. There is no reason for Capcom to at least offer connectivity, I mean Sonic & Knuckles offered it in 1994, why is it Capcom cannot in do this in 2011?
Nobody plays SF2 World Warrior, Next to nobody plays SF Champions edition, Nobody plays Super Street Fighter 2: new Challengers, nobody plays Alpha 1, Nobody plays Street Fighter 3, Nobody plays Street Fighter 3: Second Impact, Nobody plays Capcom vs SNK 1, Nobody plays Darkstalkers 1 (or whatever else there is apart from Vampire Saviour).
People will always go with the newest and most improved version, one of the few cases this didn't work is in the Alpha Series where it's split between Alpha 2 and 3, and that's because 3 was a pretty big departure from 2 which split the fanbase. I THINK (not sure) at the time most people just went to 3 though.
As for Sonic & Knuckles bit, do you mean just including the new Characters in Vanilla as DLC? I could see that working, but then what about the balance changes and upgrades etc? The community wants all that, and it can't be implemented piece by piece, it would need to be a major (almost certainly paid) upgrade anyway, which would be the same thing right?
I can see your point about releasing the characters for Vanilla only though, but at the same time, that doesn't explain how they would include all the other stuff without releasing a new version or upgrading it via DLC (which would be the same thing).
Now you sound like Sharky. :'(
NO U
(Seriously though, expand on that, because I'm trying to be as reasonable as possible with my arguments, and I'm open to change my mind on this. I'm also willing to admit that I'm being slightly blinded by the fact that a lot of the characters appeal to me personally).
I don't understand how companies can have DLC like 'Undead Nightmare' and the GTA Episodes, yet Capcom can't have this as a big pack?
They could, but they put it on a disc instead?
I'm not sure what your point is here. If it was all on download only as one 'big pack' then its the same issue of splitting the game into Ultimate or Vanilla. The people who wanted the new content and rebalance would buy it, and anyone who didn't care would still play Vanilla.
If you guys have just been arguing about putting the 12 characters as DLC for Vanilla, in theory I agree with you, but I would personally rather get an updated game with all the other improvements instead. I'm also not sure how easy it would be to put these characters into vanilla since they were built around the new version, but I would have no aversion to it at all. In fact I would probably buy Ghost Rider and Frank West just because.
Anyway, I really hope i'm not coming off as a jerk or fanboyish, I genuinely am looking forward to this and don't really understand the anger about it, if I do offend or come off too strong I apologise.
EDIT: Hoooly shit, I need to stop overthinking this stuff, I just wrote a lot more than I thought I would.