A Solution to the Escalating "USFIV" Problem ...

Capcom, this is a letter that is wholly directed at you. Whether you want to acknowledge it, or not your latest "Ultra Street Fighter IV" upgrade is being thoroughly exploited by hackers. There's more than likely bootleg copies going around as well as modded copies with built in cheats. Extreme lagswitching is also a growing issue in the online lobbies of the game. Not only that, but Sony's unwillingness to deal with the hacker threat on their own turf further poses problems for you, and your fighting game franchises. Trust me when I say that if this hacking trend is allowed to continue no legit gamer will be buying your games. They will eventually realize that it would be a waste of money to pay for the new experience even at a discounted price. All is not hopeless just yet though. As the title of this article suggest I do have a plan to beat hackers at their own game, and no hacking is involved.

As it stands players who ragequit in "USFIV" will suffer a hefty penalty to their BP/PP points due to the in-game "No Ragequitting" system. While this system would be good in the normal sense of the meaning the current circumstances are working against the legit gamers who would actually benefit from a penalty-free ragequit. Hear me out for a second, if you will. With the added benefit of being able to achieve easy victories through hacking, and being able to upload said videos to Youtube via the newly improved Youtube upload feature you can bet your bottom dollar that the hackers hacking the game would stick it out to the end of each match just for bragging rights, and a higher place on the game's global leaderboard. Where does this leave the legit John, and Jan Doe gamer? Sh*t out of luck that's where. We either have to suffer through the match, and take the unfair loss, or ragequit, and lose out anyways. It's a lose-lose situation for any legit SF fan. I personally have been a faithful SF player since the introduction of "Street fighter II: Championship Ed.", and would very much like to enjoy this latest installment of the game. It's hard to do so though when the online lobbies are filled with the scum of the earth.

If you want to fix the mess that you are very much a part of you are simply going to have to issue an update that removes all ragequitting penalties, and remove any BP/PP rewards that are gifted to the opposing player as a result of the ragequitting action. What this would do is keep the hackers from earning BP/PP (which they would have gained unfairly in the first place), and totally void the replay. Eventually hackers would grow tired of the repetitive ragequitting from legit gamers, and would turn their attention from the game allowing it to be enjoyed by those faithful SF fans who have stuck with you through thick, and thin.

My hope is that you will heed my advice as unorthodox as it may be. There is actually some genius logic behind what I've said, and it would benefit you greatly to give it a shot. Someone, whether it's you, or Sony has to step up to the plate, and combat the threat that is hacking, or it will eventually end your profit making as well as the gaming industry that many have grown to love. You can only turn your back on a problem as big as this one for so long, before it begins effecting you in some form or fashion. Trust me on that. If you, and Sony aren't gonna give a damn at least give us legit SF players a proper chance to combat the situation on our own terms by totally voiding the USFIV ragequit system, and letting us ragequit the hell out of Dodge when need be.

Your Last Samurai,
Brad Carver (OtakuDante)