Why I picked the platforms I did

So after a nice healthy dose of cloud-yelling, I figure I'd do a shorter bit here discussing why I picked the platforms I have. I touched on it a little bit in the other posts, but I thought it'd be worth it to go into the ones I picked and why. 

I have not unplugged completely from social media. I've simply curated it down to a few platforms that I know work the way I want to-at least, for the most part. Also keep in mind a couple of these platforms are...somewhat debatable about how 'social media' based they are. If you squint hard enough, you could consider an old message board a form of social media, but it's way, way different than, say, Tiktok or IG. I'll go into my little ideas and such in each section.

1. Bluesky. Bluesky I like because it allows me to keep my feed as my feed. it does have a 'discovery' place where algorithms come into play, but I don't have to use it; whatever I see on my feed is from my followers, or whatever they repost. And on top of that, I keep my collective relatively small there. It's definitely 'hard social media' (for lack of a better term), but it's relatively easy to curate, and keep my interests as my interests. I don't fall into that algorithmic complacency(a term I used that I quite like.) 

2. Facebook, TO an extent. It's friends and family only-I have to know you to add you, and preferably know you pretty decently, and trust you on top of it. I use it to keep in contact with friends and family for meetups via messengers, or abroad, and to keep in touch with what events(concerts, conventions I'm interested in like gaming related ones, and so on), since I don't use IG. FB is generally an alright place to keep in touch with these. I generally keep my posting light, however. I'd like to break away from it completely some day, but trying to convince my older family members to swap to SMS or Signal or something is...trying, to say the least, heh. 

3. Reddit. I consider Reddit "Soft Social Media." It's still social media because it sneaks an algorithm based on stuff you like, but you can also just make it go away(you can turn off recs) and keep yourself to a heavily curated bunch of subreddits; from there, you can just treat them like a light version of internet forums. They aren't as cool and personal, but it's something. 

4. Discord, which to be honest isn't so much social media as it is a big chatroom. IRC does a similar thing. Not much to say here except that you can just chat with whoever you want, set your profile to private so you don't get bothered and whatnot. Not really a big deal(you can spend too much time on this like any computer thing, but it's just...basic.) THAT said; Discord utilizes some stupid things, and I'd sooner swap to something else-but for now 'it'll do.' 

I am not sure I even want to count Whatsapp, since I *only* use that to contact the minion, since he doesn't have a FB messenger. It's just there.

Then there's stuff like Youtube(which might be my most active entertainment site, but I use it for music, podcasts, recipes and the like-BUT, I also try to keep it to Stuff I Know rather than randomly scroll). 

I don't think I can call myself a 'digital minimalist', so much as someone who is just being more mindful of what they use and how. I know some people who feel better getting rid of all of it, but what I am attempting is to more or less dial my use back to something resembling the midlate 2000s. (I might go back to the earlymid 2000s sometime, who knows.) What this means is "If I could do it on something like a Blackberry in the late 2000s, I'll do it on my phone." So pictures? These are cool, but I'll wait to upload them(unless it's necessary at that moment, like for directions, or if I need to buy something and I'm in a messenger.) I can surf websites, but I don't have social media apps(with the exception of messenger stuff, which, again, you could message people from that.) 

If I'm out and about, I don't hit up the social media I do use(Bluesky is from the browser), again, with the exception of messenger. If I have a particularly boring doctor's office visit, sometimes I'll bring a book with me, but if I don't have my backpack or whatnot then I might read a few websites or listen to music. 

I like the idea of using a phone as a "Swiss Army Knife" that you choose what goes into it. Having cameras/camcorder on my phone? Good stuff for when I want to use it, carrying around a minicam? Look I'm not a luddite-I don't mind technology at ALL. I mean I'm a computer and game nerd. I just don't take pictures of everything and upload them all the time. Music? I was considering getting an ipod again, believe it or not-but for now, I'll use it for music. I think it's fine to keep the amount of stuff in my pockets down, plus I DO like my bluetooth headphones. Books and reading-it's better for my eyes to do it without the phone, but I don't have all of my old cool RPG books back, so I do read PDFs sometimes. But as I reacquire them, I read them more and more, and I try to read regular books whenever I can. 

I go between Google Drive notes, and handwritten ones. Depends on where I am. If I can, I'll take a small notebook around with me. If I'm just out on a fast errand, I'll use the phone. At home, I just use notebooks, OR a PC. Mostly, what I'm trying to do is ask myself "Can this wait until I get home, like I used to?" And if the answer is yes, then I'll just do it at home. Essentially doing not "Minimalist" so much as "Digital Balance?" I've always liked taking a measured look at things when possible, and while I think going pure minimalist is great for some, I think I like that balanced late '00s approach as my favorite. 

That said, I fully plan on continuing to re-acquire my CD/LP collection for DJing, since I DO want to do that mostly hard copy, and continue buying hard copy games and books as much as I can, too. 

Anyway, I think that's enough dedicated to cloud-yelling, I might make my next post about games and music, heh. 

Cloud Yelling Part 2: Early 2000s internet was peak

In keeping with my theme, the last blog I ranted somewhat about how I dislike a lot of social media and how it makes things so impersonal(while letting everyone just share a ton of aspects of their life to thousands of strangers.) 

But with this one, I'd like to actually discuss aspects of the Old Internet for some of the younger readers, and why, for me, it was kind of the peak. It really comes down to a couple of things; it was a good balance of on and offline, and actually had some community to it. 

I have noticed nowadays more and more people sort of getting sick of the current 'ways.' I'm not sure when the turn happened, but it feels very recent. I'm not sad for it at all, but I'm noticing that I guess the "social media bubble" started to burst a little bit. People are talking about taking apps off of their phones(some folks go as far as the dumb phone; personally I am of the "Take a bunch of apps off, leave a few on that come in handy like Messenger/FB for international family contact, necessary ones like the public transit ticket buying apps we all need now, etc" camp. I think having a good camera/camcorder on my phone is cool; after all, I did say I enjoy taking *some* concert footage and the like when I go. 

The whole "Good Balance between On and Offline" is, for me, the biggest thing that I enjoyed about those years, pre-iPhone(though to be fair, not everyone had one of those at launch at their price.) Online was a place you went, and you had to actively look for things. You looked for communities that you were interested in, via, say, webrings or just surfing. Despite keeping in contact online via message boards, forums, and AOL/AIM chat(or other chatrooms), you still sent each other things. We still traded hard-copy demos and CDs over the mail and so on, and even sent each other stuff. And yeah, we met in person, too!

While there was definitely an air of that "online stranger danger", a bunch of us were 18 to 25 and were generally able to tell. I had online meet-ups with a lot of cool people from the message boards I was from, and saw many others-some of these people I'm still friends with! Hell, one could connect with the scene in one's own town from the message boards, chatrooms, and forums. Some folks we'd meet at gigs and local record stores, others we'd meet online, and then proceed to meet AT gigs and record stores in person. I met a LOT of cool folks from online in those days! And we got the webzine together by a lot of like-minded folks meeting on a message board for another band(Danzig 7th House Crew, Unite!)

As time went on, online and offline started to blend more and more. I'd say this absolutely had to do with the smartphone-even moreso than social media itself. I have been on record saying that if I couldn't get back Internet, 2005-2006, I'd go for Internet, 2009-2011. Social media existed, but it was sort of in its larval stages, and when you look at worldwide smartphone usage, in 2007, it was around 122 million units sold. This went up over time, but unless you were a very high-tech and kind of on the rich side business person, you probably still had a flip phone or maybe a Blackberry at the time. 2012 is when I kinda remember smartphones becoming more of A Thing, and even then the worldwide smartphone sales were around 1 billion, according to charts-still less than it is now. 

After that, though...when the apps rolled in and more and more phones became good at stuff, everything started to blend together a hell of a lot more. And that's when the internet lost its feel and became homogenized. 

I never really fell down the social media rabbit hole TOO hard. I used it, and I have spent some time doing the dumb doomscrolling(especially over the pandemic), but I am pretty happy that I never really tumbled fully down the hole like many. I did quit certain ones because I just thought they were stupid(I will never in a million years understand why people just wanna upload videos and pictures of themselves and/or their friends, and/or SOs, and or other family members Doing Random Shit for thousands of people, I said it before and I'll say it again), and I've since kinda cut down screen time on others. I've gotten to the point where my phone is just another tool. I make a point of not using social media when I first wake up in the morning until I've had some coffee, and I try to leave off it before bedtime(though I'll play games or something on PC or my retro handhelds.) Mostly, if I'm chatting, it's on Discord with friends of mine, sort of like in the old IRC-days or AIM days. 

I'm pretty serious when I say that if I could snap my fingers and return the net to the way it was in 2005(limited social media, Youtube, message boards, webrings, etc), I would do it without a second thought. Myspace was a thing, but it was pretty...alright. It was less invasive than a lot of stuff. Smartphones? You know what, they can stay-without social media, they're just cool pieces of tech that you can surf the actual internet on, which is fine. I loved having to actually seek stuff out. I will say cutting out a lion's share of social media kinda brings that back again, but it IS still sorta crappy since websites just aren't what they used to be. A lot of places just use social media AS their sites now. Not just musicians-for example, the old comic store I used to frequent in the US uses a Facebook page and has an Instagram. It's...pretty normal for a business. (If I got back into regular DJing, I might end up grudgingly using an IG just to announce gigs, but I'd rather first just unlock my FB to more public and use that, instead. Which I'd try first.) Websites for artists, businesses, and everything do still often exist, but as I said, they're kinda more bare bones. I missed when they had the message boards to meet people. 

Artists and businesses do have those official FB groups...but they always end up feeling so much more impersonal, somehow. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but whenever someone posts to one, it just doesn't have the same community-building effect as it did when folks would post on a message board. It just feels so...empty.

In a pinch, though? I'd take that '09-'11 internet again. Yeah, there was a little more social media around, but it *still* wasn't as bad as it was now. Forums and message boards were still used, websites still existed, and while things were getting a little too cross-pollenated, it was still an alright place to be. Twitter was used to mostly talk about other media and odds and ends, Tumblr was a pretty cool place for talking about other media(though things could get a little weird there, you could keep your circles small), IG was still pretty dumb but way, way more tolerable and less used than now. 

And let's face it, nowadays, jeeze. There's so much of your info out there. I'm not one of those tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists(though if you live in the US right now I'd be, uhh, protecting your data for reasons), but I really dislike oversharing online, and feel like there was a form of...I dunno, anonymity in the older net. It's weird, since forums were there and it was easy to get access to them, and they could get hacked and everything, but generally all you had to do to sign up was use an email(which could've been some burner hotmail account) and a screen name, which could generally be changed whenever you wanted. You didn't really have to give out any info you didn't want. Sites got more and more pervasive until they ALL want you to sign up and half of them want you to pay.

I also think the more 'connections' we got, the less connected we got. I can think of very few people I met through twitter or whatnot alone. Most of my modern, post social media online friends were met via Tumblr and the Final Fantasy XIV circles-we kept in *touch* on Tumblr, Twitter, and Discord, but we met originally other places. There is one friend that comes to mind I me through a mix of Twitter and Tumblr, but I saw their Tumblr first, and then added them on Twitter. One other set of friends I DID meet thanks to Twitter, but we mostly got to know each other on Discord. But before that, I certainly grew closer to people I met via message boards. (And even then-the folks I met on twitter were met somewhere between 2015-2020...which was, believe it or not, quite a different time. Even social media, at one point, was a little better in those days before algorithms and all the other bullshit blasted it into what it became post 2020.) I find it's just not very good since 2020 for actually *meeting* people online. 

I know nothing I am saying here is new and I am once again probably preaching to the proverbial choir, but I do feel like we're coming to a sort of boiling point where I think more and more people are jumping out. In the communities I AM in, I've seen more and more discussion about it. Perhaps it's due to how the world has been going, or perhaps it's something else, or a mix of things. Maybe the lockdown still has some of the remnants of its tendrils stuck in us. It could be any number of reasons. But perhaps it's just a lot of us having just mentally gotten tired of being constantly connected, and it's all hitting a bunch of us at once. I think since it's been probably a bit over a decade now that social media and smartphones have gotten their full grasp in us(I feel 2012 was the biggest major turning point, and it just sped up from there), maybe a whole lot of people decided collectively that it was enough. Smartphones are still selling(there are more now than ever), but with SO many things online turning into such shit-well, one can hope that perhaps we can start blasting the more OG internet out of it. 

I'd love to be a part of a couple more message board communities again. 

Old Metalhead Yells At Cloud, Part 1: Random Reels Suck

I want to preface this by saying that I have, as of the past half year or so, basically ditched most social media. To be honest, I wasn't particularly attached to a lot of it; but I had accounts, used them from time to time(albeit casually), and eventually just got tired of them. 

I was never into Tiktok, I felt that Snapchat and especially Instagram were pretty stupid and vanity-chasing nowadays, though I think IG was alright at the start when I used it to follow artist friends of mine, and actually managed to FIND stuff like cool artists and cool photography, but it turned into a reel-soaked vanity mine that made me feel like a disconnected alien, so I ditched it. (I could never fathom why people would need to show so much of their lives, doing whatever, with whoever, or whatnot, but millions of people like to do it so I guess I'll never get it.) Twitter I ditched for obvious reasons(I didn't delete, but I locked and basically let it gather dust), and anything else is just...whatever, I never really needed it. 

Basically I have a F&F Facebook since a bunch of my US family uses it(and I basically have to know you to add you), Bluesky, and I do use Reddit, but I consider that almost *close* to a message board, since one can at least sorta just post to communities that one cares about. 

FB features those reels, too; luckily a lot of my friends that use them don't really use them like the majority on the other sites do.

So what is tonight's cloud-yelling about? How I notice reels just made so many things, especially concert stuff, so freaking boring and samey now. This was mostly brought on looking at some cool old pictures(like, actual photographs) of some 1990s gigs online, as well as watching some old video(as in, camcorder footage) of some old gigs. 

All of those were so exciting to watch! I thought getting to see the time Megadeth played Lepakko here in 1988(a small club that used to be popular, the building was torn down in...'99 or so?) was really cool. And the quality was pretty damn good for a camcorder; I imagine the person recording it was *probably* with a magazine or publication at the time. I also saw footage of a 1996 Satyricon gig from Belgium, likewise taken from the side of the stage. Again, really nice quality for what it was! 

Then I started to get nostalgic for Tuska 2006(yeah, almost 20 years ago now), when Celtic Frost played; the gig was fantastic, and I managed to find a few videos of it-not too many, though, as iPhones weren't actually out yet at the time, so this was likely taken with a digital camera or mini-DV. Not the best quality, but nonetheless, cool to look at.

While I did all of this, I started asking myself  "Damn, if these were on now, I could have my absolute pick of footage. Like, I could have footage out the ass. I can call up concert footage even on Youtube, let alone the other sites, from the past few years and get my pick of a hundred different smartphones." 

And then I realized like-this may well be why so many of them are boring now. I love having a nice professionally shot concert to watch, but the glut of everything else just...oversaturated things. 

At any given gig, 99% of the crowd has a smartphone, and of those people, at least half are filming a whole bunch of footage from the gig. Mostly from the start and end, sometimes from the middle, etc, etc. The day after a recent concert, I had my pick of a few songs that were uploaded overnight. 

And I was...barely interested in it. 

So...what happened?

I feel like footage back then was taken with more consideration? More care? Like, usually when I'd take gig pictures with press, I'd take a few of the first 2 or 3 songs, and *maybe* a video. I was lucky, I got to use a proper digicam. Others only got to use a disposable camera, which for a lot of places was the only allowed format if you weren't press. (Some places allowed digital cameras, so long as you didn't have a zoom lens.)

Thinking more about it, I'm going to set up a scenario of BobTheMetalGuy, both a 2002 member of a message board, and a 2023 member of whatever social media, to try to explain why I feel like reels and such got mega boring. 

In 2002, BobTheMetalGuy is going to a gig in Philadelphia(we'll use Philly since I used to live there.) So, in those days, again, there were a couple of choices. Digital cameras or disposable cameras. The former were definitely more convenient-but still limited. They didn't take *the worlds best* pictures, they had limited space(a large card in 2002 was sixty-four of god's own megabytes, 32s or even 16s were more common), and you had to transfer them, pick out the best ones and so on. Video? Only if you had 32 or 64. 

Disposable cameras net you roughly 24 pictures, and you had to get them developed the next day(luckily most drugstores had one-hour service.) You didn't even KNOW how well they turned out until after the fact. 

Your whole night-including any pregame with the crew, post-game with the crew, band pictures, AND concert photos-were basically at the whim of this space. So BobTheMetalhead is gonna make damn sure that the ones he takes counts. Thought and care are put into them. 

Now keep in mind, at a typical gig, not everyone is gonna have these. Maybe a handful of people. And out of this handful of people-not everyone necessarily ran in the same circles! Maybe one of Bob's RL friends belongs to this message board, but that's it. And they might not even be taking pictures. It could be the other 30 people at the gig with cameras don't belong to this particular community, so will be posting their pictures elsewhere-or not at all, maybe keeping them.

So Bob gets done the gig, gets some good photos, and decides to post them to the message board. There's some really cool ones, and everyone gets to see pictures of a gig they weren't at. Maybe he has a digital camera, and the band played a song they usually don't, so people get a 30 second clip of it! It's pretty freaking cool. Later on, some professional video of the gig comes out, and that's cool too-but Bob's pictures are still, in a sense, one of a kind. 

And this happens for other cities; but even then, it's something different. One of Bob's message board friends, Abyss Fracture(we'll go with that name) posted some really neat front-row pics from the LA gig, and another person neither of them know managed to get a rather excellent top-down view of the drummer from the Chicago gig. 

There's pictures, the pictures were shared, and they're online; they aren't locked to the forums itself or anything. These pictures are freely available for anyone to look at, as are the videos. And they're probably still around even later. The video might get uploaded to Youtube 3 years later, even, as a short video! The pictures were discussed and shared in a community. 

Now, we'll go into 2023 Bob, and we'll compare the two. 

Bob, like everyone, has a smartphone. About 99% of the people at the gig he's going to has a smartphone, too. He really doesn't have to be careful what he films; he films a ton of the pregame(and uploads it instantly to his reels), and at the gig, he, along with 1/3 of the audience, watches a good portion of the gig through their phones-not all, no, but a lot-and uploads it pretty much instantly to whatever sites he's uploading too. As does everyone else. And then he films a bunch of the post-game(uploading it), so a bunch of strangers who might be looking for a little gig footage-perhaps they couldn't make it-ends up getting a bunch of reels and clips of people they don't know going to a bar because of the algorithms. 

Maybe I'm sounding a little scathing and biased here; I can't lie, I AM biased. This is what it feels like.

Instead of some nicely thought-out pictures and maybe a video, we get a ton of the same gig, in the same city, of some of the same songs(maybe some mixing up there, sure, but definitely the intro and the encores), at maybe slightly different angles depending on where whatever uploader was standing. These videos are all shown to a bunch of strangers, rather than a community, and the posts on said reels and whatnot are all impersonal emojis. 

I'll try to be fair here. I try, when possible, to look at the good in things. So I try to look for advantages where I can, and that goes for things that I'm not particularly a big fan of. 

Nowadays, getting a lot of high quality video of a gig CAN be cool! Maybe if you can't make it, it's nice to be able to see. Granted, a lot of the coolest videos still end up coming from the professionals who can get the stage shots and everything, but yeah, it's pretty cool to be able to see gigs you missed. Also, having better quality of things is nice, too, and sometimes, having more of it is beneficial. When your only footage of a gig is a grainy video, or a video from someone who, say, never films the drummer or keyboardist or something, then it can make you kinda yearn to be able to see them, and being able to maybe call up another video or set of reels that DOES do this is kind of nice. I can even use the example above of that awesome 1996 Satyricon gig; that band is known for having one of the most proficient, fastest drummers in black metal, and the camera person didn't film him nearly enough, if I had to nitpick. I'm still grateful I got to see that gig, but yeah, if I had to pick an advantage of the 'Modern Times', the fact that you get more footage means you might, possibly, end up with some better footage. 

And hell, not ALL reels are just mindless oversaturated drivel. I mean, if, say, Metallica(just to throw a band out there) posts a few behind the scenes reels for their fans of them heading to the studio, or heading to a city, that's pretty cool? It reminds me of footage you'd find on an old tour video, the only difference being you'd have to wait for the tour video or DVD to come out.(Back then, that was how we got the behind the scenes tour and studio stuff.) In this case, I'm not bothered by it and even think it's cool. Fans like getting inside peeks and the studio and tours-it's just they can get them a little sooner now. These reels and such have a purpose. Same thing for when a friend of mine takes a trip overseas to see a festival, and makes an album out of it to share on their F&F Facebook or something. That's got some purpose, I think, when you at least share to your circles. And sure, some of these include those pre and postgame, some overseas food and the like. 

Essentially, I think the format can be used "for good". Like many, many things in the world, the actual tech itself is just...neutral. It's there. It's not good or bad. It's how it's used, as always. I've seen Youtube Shorts used for good(I love ones that deal with cute animals and follow a few), and for the boring(a million and one reels of the same thing.) 

But I think, here, the cons outweigh the pros at the end. I can almost feel that the reels are 'soulless' in a sense; they're just done to post material online. While Bob may not care about getting a ton of followers or anything like that, these hundreds of reels just feel...posted. Very little discussion(if any, since often reels don't allow them, at least some pictures that get posted to, say, FB or something allows for some discussion about them), just...content. 

Content. There's that word. 

That cursed(in a bad way, not in a cool hellfire kinda way) word.

"Information made available by a website or other electronic medium." Even the definition of the word has a new addendum, now, to discuss online content. 

People LOVE uploading content. 

Uploads nowadays just feel like...content. That's the best possible way I can think to explain it. When I watched those videos I mentioned above, they didn't feel like "content." They felt like neat views into the time period, concerts that I didn't get a chance to see, and the photos felt like cool things posted to a community to share them with others and spark discussion about stuff. And sure, we all liked to show off JUST a little if we met the band! (After awhile working press, and moving overseas, it became pretty common for me to do that, so it was like, Just Another Night, but I know people liked to see the pictures, so I posted them.) And I'll post a picture of the gang together at a bar or something(to my F&F FB, which...just basically involves the people I was with.) 

I think we're ALL, in modern days, guilty of uploading 'content' now and again. You could argue this rambling blog of mine is content under a modern definition. I don't like using the word for thought-out things, though. 

And this rambling brings me back to why those reels always feel so soulless; they're just recorded, uploaded, rinse and repeat. Why? I guess millions of people just really like uploading stuff. There's endless reasons why. Maybe it's because it's "the thing to do" now. It's just...*normal* to do so. 

This is maybe why it lost me and why I started feeling so disconnected to a lot of modern social media. The "this is just how it is" aspect. I already will never understand why people want to show off so much of their lives online(look, if it makes you happy, you do you, find happy where you can get it in this world, but I will never understand why), and now I just don't understand why, for example, you'd wait so long for a gig just to watch it through your phone. Again, by all means snap a few good pics and a video for memories! We've been doing that for decades.  But does it ALL need uploading instantly? Do you need to watch the entire gig through your phone? 

And hell, imagine being the band. Imagine being onstage and just looking at a sea of phones instead of feeding off the crowd energy. I really don't blame Ghost for banning phones from their gigs(though I do think medical use should be allowed, of course-smartphones do have necessary medical uses, so they should be allowed to *exist* at gigs.) 

I kinda miss having a little bit of friction or inconvenience is all. I really didn't mind waiting until the next day to do my uploads(and who knows, maybe even nowadays with a smartphone I'll practice patience myself before uploading a few pics to my friends, just because I can.) I know I missed not knowing everything that everyone was doing-that's why I ditched a lot of social media. I was able to get rid of that. 

I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say I feel like people have been changed by this; I've seen it firsthand. I guess what I'm saying is maybe take a chance. Take a few good pictures of a gig(I think rarer gigs are pretty cool to take more of?). Take one video. Maybe even two, if you get a rare song or a killer encore. But wait a day to upload it. Find some of the best or coolest pictures like we used to. Maybe try uploading the video to a more personal friend and family circle instead of adding to the online reel glut of which there will be hundreds of. Maybe the whole world doesn't need to see the trip there. Maybe post a pic of the pre or post game to a tighter community like in the message board days to talk about it instead of blasting antics to thousands of people who don't even know you or you don't know. I mean I admit if I fly to a different country for something big, it's natural to have several pictures, and I also think there's intent behind it. Sometimes I get the impression people just post stuff to post, and one can tell the difference between a 50-picture album made with thoughtfulness(like a group going to Wacken and posting it to their friends) and a 50-picture album that's just thrown into public social media for the hell of it where thousands upon thousands of people end up tripping over a stranger's antics. 

But in any case, maybe enjoy the gig swinging your neck around in the front row instead of watching the entire thing through your phone and give back some of that energy that the band is feeding to you. 

So...it's...uhh...2025

 Yeaah...it's 2025. 

I haven't done anything here since...2022. Which was still pretty lockdown-like. 

I have no idea what I'm going to add to this; I kinda want to have an all-in-one blog for my retro games, fighting games, black metal and other odds and ends. 

I'll let you know when I think of something to write about. Maybe "old grump yells at cloud on how the early 2000s internet is better." 

Maybe I'll wax poetic about my hopes for the collapse of social media or something...

SNK Lore Misconceptions(and possibly where the came from)

 In the process of trying to clean up(to only somewhat successful ends) the SNK wiki(which is quite good, but still not 100% accurate, running more of a 75-80% accuracy or so I'd say), I decided, for fun, to put together a list of some very common misconceptions. 

Now, I don't unfortunately know every one of these-but if others know other misconceptions, please by all means let me know. 

Canon Side Material:

It should be said that the only known canon side material are:

A. The Team Stories(located online and sometimes, like in the case of Adel's story in 03, in the Gamest mooks, which carry the official team stories, 

B. Official books, which sometimes have lore bits you don't find elsewhere(Character Encylopedia, Perfect Reader, Gamest mooks as mentioned above which also have character concepts, things like that), or

C. The Ureshino novels, which basically just novelize the games themselves but add things-his work is all official. 

No Manhua, other mangas or anything are official canon. Now, I am not saying that you can't have fun with your own headcanons or whatnot, by all means do that, but for purposes of recording canonical lore, I try to keep things to the official material.  The manhua in particular are not canon-no, Mr. Karate did not ride a T-Rex to fight Geese riding a mammoth, and I don't think over in Street Fighter land that Ryu ever fought Gene Simmons, but I'm not as schooled on Capcom lore so someone might need to corroborate that one for me. ;p 

(FWIW, the manhua are great, entertaining reads-but treat them like some fun fanworks, and not canon material. But if you do fanwork and want to borrow from them, by all means go ahead, like, I'm not trying to police fanwork here. I'm just trying to keep the wiki-lore straight.) 

"What about ANB/The Shingo Manga?"

These aren't stated as to be actual canon yet. ANB was said to have been written to be able to line up as to not mess with the timeline too much, that they 'could' take from as canon if they wanted, but AFAIK they haven't used very much of it. The Shingo manga is a big unknown; I guess we wait to see if he has some blue flames in the game, eh? 

"Shipping?"

The only 100% bonafide confirmed ships in this game are Andy/Mai and that took forever, and stuff in the background like "Daimon and his wife," "Saisyu and Shizuka", "Seth and his wife," "Vanessa and her husband"(See below for this one.) The rest? Are all just up to the fans. Ryo/King were never confirmed in the game-they keep dancing around it. They keep going back and forth constantly on Robert/Yuri and seem to love to just stop at confirming the Terry/Mary ship(which I thought they had confirmed, but I seemed to have been mistaken.) The latter two of these are 'Almost There', but SNK seems to tease everyone, lol. I have a feeling if you asked the devs themselves they'd say they'd all say something different. Something could change here of course and they could decide to finally hammer home another canon one, but yeah. (I notice most of the '100% confirmed ships' are all in the background.) Mature and Vice are another fanon ship-in the source material, they are barely even friends; they are co-workers who happen to work together often. (Mature and Rugal were never really confirmed, either, just hinted that they had a fling from some flirting, but again, never written in stone.) 

So anyway, here's a few misconceptions for you:

-"Leopold Goenitz."- Goenitz' first name to any novels, as checked by someone I know has read them, was never stated in any source material. A side comic made up a name for him. Like, use it in any fanwork you want, but this sort of thing doesn't belong on the wiki. 

"Gaidel the Water User."-Gaidel's element, if he even had any, was never stated in past material, either. The only elements actively stated in lore were the Four Heavenly Kings(Wind, Earth, Fire, and Lightning.) This was once again due to a non-canon manhua. Also, Gaidel was reincarnated without his powers anyway in the official material. He didn't even remember who he was fully. He MAY have had some subconscious memories that got passed onto Leona, but the reasoning behind his reincarnation going wrong was never even stated in the original novels. It was probably just to facilitate Leona's plot, a means to an end, rather than a technical reason why it went wrong. 

"Goenitz had Mature and Vice killed by Iori": Unlike the other two things that were caused by weird manhua/comic stuff, this one was instead caused by the game itself being translated imperfectly back in the day. As we know, Dweebenheimers, SNK had some...interesting translations back in the day, wubba-wubba. This unfortunately carried over to some more important things. It was a minor mistake all told, but one that changed the full context of the ending(once again, needing to go to the novelization for this.) 

What actually happened here was that Goenitz warned Mature and Vice from messing with Iori, because he was extremely powerful. They were basically poking the bear, wanting to use Iori for their own purposes to mess with the Orochi stuff, and in the process-between that and everything else that happened during the end of the '96 tournament-set him off, so to speak, and he killed them on the spot. But there were no issues with Goenitz wanting the other two dead. They basically brought that on themselves. 

"The Hakkeshu Dislike Goenitz": They don't. Not even Mature, Vice, or whatever. Gaidel, should he return, probably has a bone or twelve to pick with him but he's technically no longer a Hakkeshu as he reincarnated wrong, and of course Leona hates him, but the rest? They don't really...care. They're indifferent. Like you can even see in a recent team story, CYS and Goenitz are more cordial, but they aren't a bunch of buddies who go out for bowling league every Saturday or something(though this would make for some good artwork.) Think of the Hakkeshu as 'business partners.' If you notice, Goenitz in the recent Awakened Orochi story is more disappointed in the others than mad, but he knows that when 'The Call' hits, they'll come. They're a bunch of reincarnating beings of a force of nature; they have all the time in the world. They don't always get along, they sometimes butt heads on methods, but they aren't really enemies or anything. Yamazaki doesn't give a rat's ass, M&V are just in their own little world(they're still ghosts, too). Btw-adding this on: CYS, as we see in the game, are close, so that's all correct. (I mean, if it's in the game, unless it was specifically retconned by SNK, it's fine.)

"Goenitz gave Rugal his Power": What happened here was Rugal took the power, Goenitz(when he was only 18, Rugal was a young man himself in his early-ish 20s), whipped his ass, and took his eye. He let him *keep* the power, however, as a bit of a test on how it worked out. In addition to this one, Mature and Vice were not some long-time workers of Rugal, they were sent to spy on him like, around '94 and only lasted until after '95. They weren't with him very long. As mentioned above, it's unsure how close he and Mature were, but Vice didn't care one way or another about him. (This stuff's origins is I think simple mistranslations.) 

"Leona is somehow the leader of the Ikari team.": I have no idea where this one came from as this is just common sense with "How the Military Works, Rank-Wise," but here we go. This *may* have an origin in the '96 story where Heidern had her handing down his orders for one first mission, in a sense that he was still the Major Head behind the mission but he used her to pass down his orders for this one, and this somehow got taken as 'she is the leader in all games despite not outranking anyone.' It's the only thing I can think of how this one proliferated. I

But the rest all clearly state either Heidern as the main lead, or Ralf as the leader, with Leona not even having a proper rank(Heidern is a commander, Ralf is a Colonel-which is a rather high rank, mind you-and Clark a First Lieutenant.) He's even stated straight up as heading the team in a few stories('97, '03, XI and XIII come to mind), and in XIII Heidern goes as far as to ask Ralf and Clark their opinion on how the mission should be handled, despite his rank being above them in said team story. This stuff's even available in English, so I don't know how this gets mistaken. That said in the games themselves, it's pretty clear the three just...work smoothly together with no real 'power fights' or anything, some humor in the 03 story where he jokingly states "Is this how you treat your leader?" after some teasing. 

(On this note, it's ALSO an occasional misconception that Clark is higher ranked than Ralf, probably because he's more chill, but no, Ralf is clearly stated as a Colonel, which is a higher rank than a First Lieutenant.) 

Billy Kane Hates Smoking: The guy has a favorite cigarette brand. I think it was even stated that he just thought the jacket was cool. The origin of this was his jacket, I guess? Where they saw his fav cigg brand and then that he hated smoking is beyond me but I guess the jacket was that convincing, lol. 

Vanessa's Dead Husband: This one originated from a website of a guy who was writing his own what-if stories(he even said as much, mind you, but the site is not in English so it got mis-translated as canon, I guess.) But yeah, there's a strange bit of fanon that Vanessa's husband is dead. He is not; in the lore her husband, and kid, are alive and well as of now. Unless this changes in the future, this was basically someone's bit of fanfiction that grew out of control that started getting believed as canon. 

Whip Dislikes Krizalid: Whoo boy, this was a doozy of a mistranslation in KOF '99. Much in the realm of 'You Jerks', during these days SNK's EN department loved to add insults when there wasn't any. The original translation had Whip extremely sympathetic toward Krizalid when she went to go see him at the end; there was not one insult, or even harsh word, to my knowledge, said. I can even link, thanks to a Discord member who I know, what the ending REALLY said right here: 

Needless to say, '99 butchered it and yeah. I would go as far as to say that at least half the time you see weird insults back in the day there was likely something much different written here. I remember people being so confused at this ending because Whip was throwing around words like 'Simp' and 'Puke' while crying after the fact and the Westerners, who I am now convinced were robbed in this, were had no fucking idea on why that was. Whip was incredibly sad about what happened to him. 

There are some other things that are not misconceptions, per se, but things that have never actively been clarified, like Ron killing some of his sons(it's *hinted*, but never confirmed, yet, if he did so, we just know the other sons besides Duo Lon are missing.)  Iori had a girlfriend that was mentioned in the past on and off, but nothing ever came of her; this is one of those 'Unknowns' in the background. The last time anything like this was mentioned was early NESTS saga, however, so as of now there is nothing in official material about her. Also, Rugal has an estranged younger brother-he was only mentioned once in a Falcoon interview from 2005, and was never named. He was never mentioned since that, either, so no idea what's up with this. 

Then there's other weird bits like "Why Not Team Bernstein?" I have NO GODDAMN CLUE on this one but the games spell out in black and white in big, block letters that Adel is nothing like his father and literally show the man working with Heidern, with him on speed dial like they're friends. Why they keep trying to shove him and his dad on a team together is beyond me. This is just pure fanwank. (And Rose isn't a fighter anyway, so it's not like this team would even work from that angle. Sport Fencing doesn't equal fighting and the stories make it pretty clear she hates even lifting a finger in the first place.) Since nothing like this happened in the games or anything I didn't put it above, but it's a really damn strange suggestion I keep seeing that basically flies in the face of the established lore, so I just stuck it at the end. (It's a damn shame the 2003 story was never officially translated since that explained a lot of their dynamic.) Btw, for those interested, here is the link to the 2003 translated story, with credits to the translator, Miau: https://twitter.com/AzzyFGC/status/1516428477918023707

Anyway, if I think of more of these(more like, WHEN I do, since there is quite a few, lol), I'll just keep adding to this, but after trying to fix the wiki today I was sort of inspired to put this together. 

Some KOF Roster facts and figures(a lot of raw data), for your perusal!

While going through lists and such to discuss the last blog I did about KOF XIV's newcomers, I had found myself combing over various data of the rosters over the years, and the more I did that the more I found myself interested in things, maybe because I like numbers and stuff. 

So I decided to record my findings in a blog for those who might be curious about how the rosters have worked over the years. I thought this might be pretty cool to do for some of the countdown?`

KOF has always had a fairly decent sized roster that only grew over the years(MOSTLY...); older games had fewer(24, 25 characters and such)-but keep in mind in *those* days, rosters in general were much smaller. Street Fighter Alpha, for example, had 13 characters. Marvel Super Heroes had 10 playable and 2 unlockable bosses. Samurai Shodown 2 featured 15(16 on consoles.) With the exception of Tekken, rosters tended to be smaller(and Tekken 2 had only a fraction of the games now, with 25, and in those days there were a lot of palette swaps, like Roger/Alex and Angel/Devil lowering the number.) 

So KOF busting out with 24 playable characters in it's very first game was pretty damn big, and it only went up from there. Some stuff I'll be going over in this blog are:

Roster size for each game(including DMs)

Gains/Losses in between games

Amount of new characters with each game

Some other odds and ends(like who disappeared, who came back and so on.) This is going to be done in a fairly basic 'List Format.' I'll be recording them as:

Roster: The count, with a difference from the previous game. 

Established Characters: These are characters who are already established in King of Fighters. (In '94, these are already established in SNK games.) As the years go on, you'll notice the new characters become 'established.' 

New Characters: Here are characters who are new to the current game in question. I will specify if they're new to KoF, or if they're brand new characters(separating the two numbers, this is for data reasons.) 

Returning Characters: This is where someone who was removed, but comes back in a later edition, will be put. 

Removed Characters: Where people who *were* in a previous iteration, but taken out of the current one. 

Comments: Odd commentary. (This tends to increase as the series goes on, as there's more to explain.) 

Also some notes: I WILL be counting like, everyone in the rosters-bosses, EX characters, and so on. Orochi versions of the Orochi characters will also be counted. I will also be using completed rosters in the case of games with DLC or console upgrades, but I will specify this in them. 

Finally, while I tried to be as accurate as humanly possible-as one person can be-I am but one person and I may have missed a number or something here, so I ask forgiveness in advance. I checked and double checked these between games, wikis, and everything the best I could. 

So starting with KOF '94, known as the Rugal Saga. Yeah, it's just one game. 

Roster: 25(24+1 unplayable boss)

Established Characters: 14(Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Takuma, Athena, Kensou, Ralf, Clark)

New Characters: 11(Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikado, Goro Daimon, Heidern, Chang Koehan, Choi Bounge, Brian Battler, Lucky Glauber, Heavy D, Chin Gentsai, Rugal Bernstein)

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: None

Comments: Being the first game, there was a fairly nice load(11) of brand new characters to round things out. Several of these would move on to become regulars who never or rarely miss a game. Others...disappeared. Except for a couple Dream Matches. 

'95 begins what is known as The Orochi Saga. 

Roster: 26(24+2 Bosses). +1 from '94. 

Established Characters(22): Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Takuma, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Heidern, Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Chang, Choi, Rugal

New Characters(4): Iori Yagami(New), Saisyu Kusanagi(Sub-Boss, New), Billy Kane(Fatal Fury), Eiji Kisaragi. 2 Brand New, 2 from other franchises. 

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: Lucky, Brian, Heavy

Comments: The first game of the series already sees some roster shake-ups. It introduced the legendary Iori Yagami into the series, but removed the Sports Team(who would go on to be the notorious bad-luck team of the series.) Rugal has a cyborg arm now. 

Roster: 29(27+2 Bosses.) +3 from '95. 

Established Characters(20):  Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Iori, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Chang, Choi

New Characters(9): Leona Heidern, Kasumi Todoh(AoF), Mature, Vice, Geese Howard(Fatal Fury), Wolfgang Krauser(FF), Mr. Big(AoF), Chizuru Kagura, Goenitz. 5 New, 4 from other franchises. 

Returning Characters: None.

Removed Characters: Rugal, Saisyu, Billy, Eiji, Takuma, Heidern

Comments: As we once again see a roster jiggle, Billy and Eiji were beaten up by Iori, Saisyu sat out after some problems with the mind control, and Rugal exploded again. We see quite a few new characters enter, though; 9 this time, with five brand new ones. Chizuru is one of the '3 Sacred Treasures' along with Iori and Kyo. 

Roster: 36 Characters(35 Playable, 1 boss.) +7 from '96. 

Established Characters(22):  Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Iori, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King,  Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Chang, Choi, Chizuru, Leona

New Characters(12): Shingo Yabuki, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, Chris, Ryuji Yamazaki(Fatal Fury), Blue Mary(FF) Orochi(Boss.) Also Orochi Leona and Orochi Iori make playable debuts; CYS have Orochi variants. 5 New,  2 from other franchises, 5 Orochi Variants. 

Returning Characters: Billy Kane(FF), '94 Kyo as an alternate

Removed Characters: Mature, Vice, Geese, Wolfgang, Mr. Big, Kasumi 

Comments: The grand finale of what is known as 'The Orochi Saga', this one had the biggest roster of the three so far, but once again, shifts. Mature and Vice were literally killed by Iori at the end of '96, while some others stepped out and, once again, we saw some more introduced. The Orochi Saga is oft seen as one of the best overall stories of the KOF series. Because Iori murdered his other two teammates in the last tournament, he enters this one alone. 

This roster has some oddities as there are 'Orochi' versions of the characters, and '94 versions of Kyo, for another alternate version of a character. Oddly, they shoved Chiz on the Women's Team instead of actually making up the 3 Sacred Treasures, but that may have been because Shingo was new, and was not established enough to replace Kyo on Japan Team yet. 

DREAM MATCH! This is the first Dream Match of the series, and thus does not follow a story. Dead characters are allowed in DMs since they take place outside of any storylines. 

Roster: 51 Characters(including all EX/Orochi versions and stuff). 59 Characters in '98 UMFE. 

Established Characters: Everyone

New Characters: None

Returning Characters: Almost Everyone who was missing

Removed Characters: None

Comments: Because Dream Matches are basically Everyone Is Here(or close to it), I'm not doing these in a traditional way so much as I am just listing the roster counts and everything. This was the first DM; '98 and 2k2 were both Dream Matches. Ash Saga never got a proper dream match(grr.) '98UMFE saw a few more characters added back in including Orochi, Goenitz and some others. 

Back to the series!

'99 begins what is known as the NESTS Saga. 

Roster: 33 Characters(32+1 Boss). -3 from '97. 

Established Characters(20): Benimaru, Shingo, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Athena, Kensou, Chin, King, Blue Mary, Kim, Chang, Choi

New Characters(9): K', Maxima, Whip, Bao, Li Xiangfei(Fatal Fury), Jhun Hoon, Kyo-1, Kyo-2(these are Kyo clones), Krizalid(Boss). 8 New(counting the 2 Kyo clones), 1 from another franchise.

Returning Characters: Kasumi, Takuma

Removed Characters:  Daimon, Yashiro, Shermie, Chris, Orochi, Chizuru, Billy, Yamazaki, Orochi Variants

Comments: '99 changed things up. 4 person teams, with a designated 'Striker', and some new systems. Being the first game of the series, the roster dialed back a bit from '97(the DMs are counted separately), despite having a slew of new characters added. Any removed characters are from '97. As we see, this 1st game of a new arc had 3 less characters than the previous arc. 

Roster: 36(35+1 Boss.) +3 from '99.

Established Characters(29): Iori, Kyo, Benimaru, Shingo, K', Maxima, Terry, Andy, Joe, Blue Mary, Ryo, Robert, King, Takuma, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Whip, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Bao, Mai, Yuri, Kasumi, Kim, Chang, Choi, Jhun

New Characters(7, all new): Ramon, Vanessa, Lin, Seth, Hinako Shijou, Kula Diamond, Clone Zero(Boss). 

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: Krizalid, Kyo-1, Kyo-2

Comments: I do not list non-playable strikers in this. This game interestingly enough was the first whose new characters are all originals(since '94, that is, which was sort of different circumstances); most other games had some originals and at least one or two who came from established SNK series. This also has the four-person teams. 2000 saw many strikers that were previously playable characters-like Chris, Daimon, and so on, as well as some new characters. (They still were not playable.) 

2000 also may be one of the KOFs with the least overall changes between two games. Besides the 7 new characters, the only ones removed from '99 were Krizalid, who was the boss, and the Kyo clones. It basically took what there was, added some new, and went on. The NESTS rosters were daring enough, but still were packed with favorites in general. 

Roster: 42(40+2 Bosses.) +6 from '00. 

Established Characters(34): K', Maxima, Whip, Lin, Kyo, Benimaru, Shingo, Iori, Vanessa, Seth, Ramon, Terry, Andy, Joe, Blue Mary, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Takuma, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Bao, King, Mai, Hinako, Xiangfei, Kim, Chang, Choi, Kula

New Characters(6, all new): May Lee Jinju, Foxy, K9999, Angel, Zero(Sub Boss), Igniz(Boss.) 

Returning Characters: Heidern, Daimon

Removed Characters: Jhun, Kasumi, Clone Zero

Comments: Once again the new characters are all originals. There are a couple of sit outs this time(Jhun due to a broken...arm, and Kasumi again. Clone Zero was ventilated before getting a colony dropped on him.) Iori teams up with the Agents this time(he's not particularly tied to teams.) This was the first, and only, appearance of K9999; he was retconned out of the actual story. 2001 basically did what the others did of the past time; it took what there was and mostly built up on it, removing very few from a previous game of an arc. 

This game closed off the 'NESTS Saga.' 

DREAM MATCH again! The second Dream Match had a ton of characters; 2002UM still has the largest roster of any KOF game. There IS a bit of difference with this than '98's DM, though. 

Roster: 49(66 in 2002UM.) 2k2UM remains the biggest roster, as said. 

Established Characters: Everyone. That said, 2k2UM added in even more characters who was missing. 

New Characters: Kusanagi, Nameless

Returning Characters: Almost Everyone who was missing(pretty much everyone in 2k2UM.)

Removed Characters: K9999

Comments: Unlike '98, there are new characters. Kusanagi was created as another Kyo clone(he will come back later), K9999 was retconned out, and replaced with Nameless, a new NESTS test subject(despite the fact 2k2 UM still misses a proper story, Nameless has a story. Basically, Nameless' story was put in instead of K9999's in the previous NESTS plot.) There are also EX/Classic versions of characters. 

K999 marks the first and only time a character was ever completely retconned out of the series after their release. Retcons have happened in the series, but it was never to completely retroactively remove a character. 

Now we're heading back to the series proper! 

2003 starts what is known as Tales of Ash/The Ash Saga. 

Roster: 37(32+5 Bosses). -5 from '01. 

Established Characters(23): Terry, Joe, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Leona, Ralf, Clark, King, Mai, Blue Mary, Kim, Chang, Benimaru, Daimon, Shingo, Athena, Hinako, Kyo, Iori, K', Maxima, Whip

New Characters(9): Ash Crimson, Duo Lon, Shen Woo, Tizoc/Griffon(Garou), Gato(Garou), Malin, Maki Kagura(Sub-Boss), Adelheid Bernstein(Boss), Mukai(Boss). 6 New, 3 from other games in a way(Maki first appeared in KOF '96 in a way, though not...in a tradtitional manner. See comments.)

Returning Characters: Jhun, Yamazaki, Billy, Kusanagi(as canon from a DM, Sub Boss), Chizuru(Unlockable)

Removed Characters: Vanessa, Ramon, Lin, Seth, Xiangfei, Kensou, Bao, Chin, Andy, Choi, May Lee, Foxy, Angel, Heidern, Zero, Igniz, Kula, Takuma

Comments: Now this game saw some changes. Some very big roster shifts, a bit of a drop in characters(again, in between arcs tend to dial a bit back before the arcs themselves USUALLY increase...see later, however). 2k3 also had a very interesting plot twist in where the apparent hero-Ash-seems to almost be a villain? But then the son of one of the most established classic baddies turns out to be pretty cool; in fact developers stated Adelheid was intended to be the 'other protagonist' of this saga despite starting out as a boss.

Maki is actually an illusion(she is dead before this game.) The reason why she's New with a note is that she is implied to be an illusion fought instead of Chizuru if the 3 Sacred Treasures are chosen in '96, but cannot be picked normally. This is ALSO a KOF that has legit two canon boss paths in the lore. 

This game also was the first KOF game to be a 'Live Tag' game rather than a traditional 3v3 game. This would go on for one more game after this. It ALSO really started shifting team comps around again('99 did this some, but then re-established lines somewhat.) 

FINALLY(yeah 2k3 has a lot of notes), as you see several usuals sat this one out, like Andy, Kensou, Chin, and so on, and there was a fairly large removal(though only five less than '01.)

Roster: 47(45+2 Bosses). +10 from '03. (46 without EX Kyo.)

Established Characters(25): Ash, Shen, Duo Lon, Benimaru, Terry, Kim, Ryo, Yuri, King, Ralf, Clark, Whip, Athena, Tizoc, Gato, Kyo, Iori, Blue Mary, Shingo, Adelheid, Robert, Mai, Malin, K', Maxima

New Characters(13-14): Oswald, Elisabeth Blantorche, Duck King(Fatal Fury), Momoko, B, Jenet(Garou), Sho Hayate(Savage Reign), Jyazu(Savage Reign), Gai Tendo(Buriki One), Silber(Buriki One) Shion(Boss), Magaki(Boss). Tung Fu Rue(Fatal Fury), Hotaru(Garou). (EX Kyo Kusanagi is technically added too, for 14 if we want to be technical.) 5 New, 8 from other games, and EX Kyo.

Returning Characters: Eiji Kisaragi, Kasumi Todoh, Kensou, Ramon, Vanessa, Kula, Geese, Mr. Big 

Removed Characters: Hinako, Chang, Kusanagi, Chizuru, Maki, Joe

Comments: XI was one the current biggest roster gain between two games in the same arc(not between two non DM games, that comes later), with a full 10 higher. Refining 2k3's tag system, there were some adjustments(like Adelheid being balanced to become playable), and some team adjustments(like Fatal Fury being considerably different with Terry, Kim, and Duck King.) 

XI's roster is sometimes seen as one of the more daring, and fun, rosters in the series; keeping many classics while going around to some other, non Fatal Fury series again, like Buriki One and Savage Reign, also returning some long-time missing characters like Eiji Kisaragi in a canon entry. 

There's also a huge amount of new additions to the roster; however, only five of them are genuinely *new* characters, as the rest of these all come from other titles, and some of these had yet to appear.

(There is now an interruption in the Ash Saga with KOF XII.)

I hesitate to use the term 'Dream Match.' More like a Nightmare Match.(But this isn't a review, it's a data-drop blog. Heh.)

Roster: 22

Established Characters: Not too many from the old(again, this is a non canon game). Will show below for XIII. 

New Characters: Not Canon(Will show below for XIII.)

Returning Characters: Not Canon(will show below for XIII.) 

Removed Characters: Like everyone. 

Comments: This in no way was canon; at best it felt like an incomplete demo of a game. They made the swap to sprites here that would go on to basically almost bankrupt the company, cause them to cut the Ash Saga short, and we never did get a proper Dream Match for it. I could go on a Festivus-style rant about the damn sprites and what happened here. Suffice it to say this remains the KOF with the smallest, weakest roster in the series. It brought back a few usuals, but dropped so many cool characters. Including like, SUPER regulars. To the point where I don't even count this as a game when keeping track of people who missed games. It didn't even have Mai. It gave nothing and started to bankrupt the company. 

Critical Counters were kinda neat, and Claw Iori IS possibly one of his coolest iterations, but these were NOT WORTH the cost. 

Roster: 37(36+1 Boss, includes DLC.) -10 from XI. This is the biggest drop yet, and the ONLY in-arc drop. 

Established Characters(From XI, 22, counting Kyo/Iori variants): Elisabeth, Duo Lon, Shen, Kyo(Regular and NESTS, latter DLC), Iori(Claw and EX, latter DLC), Benimaru, Ryo, Yuri, King, Robert, Mai, Kensou, Athena, Kim, K', Kula, Maxima, Ralf, Clark, Ash

New Characters(4): Hwa Jai(Fatal Fury), Saiki, Raiden(appeared in XII but wasn't canon, FF), Mr. Karate(AoF, as DLC.) 1 New, 3 Established. (This is the fewest amount of new characters an arc has seen.) 

Returning Characters(Counting from XI): Leona, Chin, Andy, Joe, Chin, Mature, Vice, Daimon, Takuma

Removed Characters(Counting from XI): Shion, Magaki, B. Jenet, Gato, Momoko, Duck King, Gai, Silber, Jyazu, Hayate, Eiji, Oswald, Tizoc, Ramon, Blue Mary, Kasumi, Malin, Whip, Shingo, Adelheid, Tung, Hotaru, Geese, Mr. Big. (Adelheid, the Agents, and the missing Ikari Warriors appeared in the story mode; Adelheid and Heidern were working together, and the Ikaris were working with the Agents.)

Comments: Ash Saga was a mess development wise; as said, it almost sunk the company. They had to cut several characters, and the game had never seen a regression in roster numbers *within an arc* before now. (Rosters can shrink a little bit between arcs-like between, say, '97 and '99 and so on, but this was the first time it shrank *in* an arc.) A lot of plot points got hurried(Adelheid, despite being named as the co/'other' protagonist from Word of God, was shoved in the story mode to work with Heidern due to them having to cut him from being playable), a lot of unused sprites and art appeared, characters lost moves in the sprite games. It does remain a fav of many, but it was definitely disappointing in terms of having to shrink everything. It sort of 'broke records' in terms of drops-the fewest new characters(only 1 brand new one), and a whopping *24 removed characters*, beating the previously 'removed' record by 6. 

Funny enough, Mature and Vice make a canon entrance again; as literal ghosts who take solid form when they want. (This was probably the first time they started saying to hell with deaths in the canon, so there IS that.) 

KOF XIV started what doesn't have an official name yet, but the Verse Saga seems to be appropriate.

Roster: 58 including DLC. 2 Bosses but they're on the normal roster and balanced with everyone else. +21 from XIII; this IS the first gain in between arcs. 

Established Characters(24): Kyo, Iori, Benimaru, Daimon, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Mature, Vice, Robert, Ryo, Yuri, Terry, Andy, Joe, K', Kula, Maxima, Kim, Ralf, Clark, Leona, Mai, King

New Characters(20): Shun'ei, Gang-Il, Luong, Xanadu, Sylvie Paula Paula, Kukri, Mian, Hein, Meitenkun, Nakoruru(Samurai Shodown, appeared in a Game Boy title once), Mui Mui(Pachislot), Love Heart(Pachislot), Alice(Pachislot), Nelson, Zarina, Banderias, Antonov, Verse(Boss), Najd(DLC), Rock Howard(Garou, DLC). 15 New, 5 from other franchises/things. 

Returning Characters: Oswald, Vanessa, Blue Mary, Heidern, Whip, Yamazaki(all as DLC), Tung Fue Rue, Chang, Choi, Ramon, Angel, King of Dinosaurs(Tizoc's rudo persona), Geese, Billy

Removed Characters: Ash, Elisabeth, Duo Lon, Shen, Saiki, Raiden, Hwa Jai, Takuma, Mr. Karate 

Comments: Well XIV DOES have the largest non Dream Match roster of all(hell, it's got one of the biggest overall rosters, too.) That said the roster has a bit of a...mixed feel. Shun'ei wasn't named as the main protagonist until recently for KOF XV, so the roster didn't seem to have too much overall direction. It was a strange mix of 'Completely Safe/Established' and 'Weird new characters who had no direction except for a few.' It did bring back several who sat out the rest of Ash Saga due to the heavy cuts. It DID, however, bring back some favs(Geese, Vanessa, etc) and introduced a much-requested character(Rock Howard.) 

Oddly enough, the only Ash Saga character to make it back was Oswald, and that was as DLC; this is not common in the series, and no one knows why that is. Usually you see at least a handful of new additions from a previous series make it into the new arc; examples being Iori, Leona, and Shingo carrying over from Orochi Saga to NESTS, K', Kula, Maxima, and Whip carrying over into Ash(and most of these characters carrying into later series.) We have yet to see where XV goes; the story seems to be pointing at the Ash Saga characters making a return, though. 

XIV had the largest amount of new characters than any series; a whopping 20, with 15 of them being BRAND new, 1 from Samsho, 1 from Garou and 3 from Pachislot games. (Note: Love Heart and Mui Mui are now defunct characters, so SNK no longer uses them.) 

And next up...

TO BE CONTINUED...

For a Quick-List: 

94: 25

95: 26

96: 29

97: 35

'98: 51

'98UMFE: 59

99: 33

00: 36

01: 42

2k2: 49

2k2UM: 66

03: 37

XI: 47

XII: 22

XIII: 38(3 DLC)

XIV: 58(2 DLC Seasons)

So I hope you enjoyed this slightly rambly info dump. It's interesting to see how the roster has changed over the years, for better or worse. I will always feel the foray into sprites was a dark time for the series(besides the cuts, the lost moves...aworst of all it almost BANKRUPTED THE COMPANY. That's worse than any damn cuts.) 

It's cool to see, I think, how things shift/change, even if we don't know all the reasonings(like, WHY exactly did they try to cram so many new faces into XIV compared to other games-new faces who never really landed with a lot of people-when there were a ton of previous characters who were well-liked who didn't get a lot of time?) Generally speaking new games would see a more reasonable 5-7 brand new ones, which would generally get more coverage. It's also neat, I think, to see who the regulars are, and who sits out sometimes/has sat out sometimes(could give some hints to the future.) 

I've said before, my personal favorite roster is XI; even if I don't necessarily think it's the current objective best(which I consider 2k2 UM to be, just from sheer volume), XI is the only KOF game right now I can play my favorite team legally in(Iori, Ralf, and Adelheid.) Everyone looks for different things in rosters, I feel; we all want our favorite teams, after all. 

Here's hoping XV knocks it out of the park with the best roster yet, eh? Could we see one that beats XIV in size and some of the more treasured rosters in sheer quality? Like while it's impossible to please *everyone*, they manage to come across a roster that appeals to a big ol' swath of the crowd, at least? They did say to "fire up those dream rosters..."

But wait! 

A BONUS SECTION! 

A list of characters are here who either:

A. Have never missed a game, or:

B. Have only missed a single game in the series since their release.

I AM NOT COUNTING KOF XII IN THIS. XII was, IMHO, an unfinished demo of a game that didn't even have *teams*, wasn't canon, and was more of a proof of concept. 

Missed ZERO games since their playable introduction: 

Kyo

Iori

Benimaru

Ralf

Clark

Robert*(Starred, since he sat out the arcade XI, but was introduced into the console version, and since I count those as the complete versions he goes here)

Mai*(Same as Robert, so half/half)

Maxima

K’

Kim

Terry

Yuri

King

Ryo

Athena

Missed ONE game since introduction(I point out potential XIII character cuts; the only KNOWN confirmed cut from XIII was Adelheid but there is a fairly substantial list of ‘rumored to have been cut’.)

Kula(2003)

Leona(XI)

Oswald(DLC in XIV, introduced in XI and skipped XIII. Possibly another victim of the XIII character cuts.) 

Duo Lon(XIV)

Elisabeth(XIV)

Shen(XIV)

Whip(XIII, another possible victim of character cuts. DLC in XIV.)

Joe(XI)

Kensou(2003)

Blue Mary(XIII, yet another potential cut victim. She was DLC in XIV.) 

Just some nice to knows. All other characters that had been introduced have missed more than one game so far.

(As an aside, I think the only genuinely safe characters are probably in that top spot, though I DO think some from the bottom set are very safe going forward; Kula, Leona, Kensou, Whip, and Joe mostly.)

And that's about it for now! I'm working now on a sort of prediction list that I'll post up to see how wrong or right I am. I'll be writing up my whys behind things and everything.