Partner Spotlight: The Fighters Generation

If we hark back to the early days of the internet, you may remember there weren’t many spaces for fans to congregate. Forums were few and far between. If you wanted to know more about a niche or genre, or commiserate about your favorite game or TV series, odds are there wasn’t anywhere on the internet you could do so.

With message boards and online communities, fans were able to find a home for their commentary and content. The Fighters Generation was one of the first sites to provide a home for fans of fighting games, posting fan creations and boasting an encyclopaedic database for every fighting game series.

How did The Fighters Generation come about?

“The love of artwork, and pure passion and love for fighting games in particular; I played them religiously my entire life. Around 1997 and into the early 2000s was a very pivotal and epic time period for the fighting genre. That’s when I began collecting the best animated GIFs, character sprites, artwork, and started writing my early reviews for my favorite fighting games at the time. I needed a place for my “collection” to exist and I wanted to share this amazing artwork and content for others around the world to enjoy, so that’s how this passion project began.

“When I started building TFG in the late 90s, the internet itself was just gaining popularity. Haha! I was definitely among the “DAY 1-ish” online gaming community and I was also a member of legendary fighting game message boards like Shoryuken.com and Tekken Zaibatsu. Besides SRK, TZ, and a few others… there weren’t many other websites focused solely on fighting games, so perhaps I saw a gap in the market all those years ago.”

How has your audience impacted your experience as a site owner/gamer?

“Interestingly, I had a ‘social’ section on the TFG website long before “social media” existed as we know it! For over a decade, The Fighters Generation previously had a ‘Feedback’ section where I would personally answer emails from visitors and fans.

“I miss those days because back then, people would write in with long, elaborate emails, often sharing their own interesting or inspiring fighting game experiences and stories. Many who wrote in were artists, too! So they’d share their fighting game fan artwork with me, which I’d often post on the site for everyone to check out. I think they found it pretty cool when their message and/or artwork appeared on the site with my response!

“There have literally been hundreds of people over the years who have sent in their own collections of images, animations, etc. which I was then able to curate and [use to] make the website even better. TFG’s audience was always uniquely directly involved in the website’s growth, and still is! I always took feedback seriously and have made many improvements to the site over the years, thanks to passionate fans who cared enough to write in with corrections or suggestions.

“These days, I’m able to connect on TFG’s Discord, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon… so it’s much easier and far less time-consuming to connect and collaborate thanks to modern social media. My ultimate goal is to get back to doing YouTube videos and Twitch streams regularly, so I can personally connect with the TFG and fighting game community again on a much deeper level. As you might imagine, it’s certainly a lot for just one person to manage! In recent times, for example, I haven’t had very much time to commit to videos and streaming… but I’m making some lifestyle changes so hopefully I’ll be able to do so again more regularly. In my opinion, this is a key element to take the TFG website and community forward into the future.”

What’s one of your favourite aspects of managing your website?

“The thing I love most is UPDATING! Almost daily, I’m updating TFG with new content. Sometimes it’s random updates, and sometimes I focus on a certain game or series to add a bunch of new content. I enjoy keeping pages fresh with new artwork or information as frequently as humanly possible (there are literally thousands of unique pages that I manually edit), so it’s a certain unique obsession of mine.”

What are you most proud of in regards to your website?

“I’m most proud of the fact that so many different kinds of fighting game fans, artists, and game designers use The Fighters Generation for reference when researching character design, art styles, or animation inspiration for their projects. Any time I hear about an independent or professional artist using TFG for reference or inspiration, I’m very happy as well as humbled, as that was part of my original mission for the website: to be a consistent and dependable resource for artists and artwork appreciators, alike!”

Do you have any advice for website owners who are just starting out?

“My advice would be to manage your time wisely and never forget the reason and passion behind your work. Also, it’s very important to stay healthy. During long work sessions, try to take as many breaks as possible… getting up occasionally to walk around or exercise! Or even just take a break to give your mind some relaxation.”

For more information about all of the incredible partners we work with, check them out here. If you’re an existing partner who’d like to be featured in our Partner Spotlight, you can reach out to your Publisher Collective contact and express your interest. Want to get in on the action? Apply to become a partner here.