My college built a small arcade for their Welcome Bash and MvC had the biggest crowd even though only a few people knew the characters and even fewer knew the game. But people were still into it. Maybe it was the personalities of the people playing, maybe it was the game itself, but this was a spectacular social experience.

I played one game and got my ass beat, but people were still cheering for me. People wanted me to be the underdog. External influences asides, the spectators also understood the characters more than in other games too. They knew who Spider-Man and Captain America are, so it made them more comfortable to try it out and even try out one of the Capcom characters once they picked their superhero of choice.

There really is no separating the social aspects of fighting games from the quality of the game itself and how it influences the fun I had. But there is also no point in trying to do that to begin with. Fighting games and the lasting impact are measured in the strength of their communities. And although we were all button-mashers, we were button mashers with gratitude and humility when we beat the shit out of each other.