What is GraFighters?
GraFighters just might be the new or just an addition to the current ways to entertain your downtime, rather then just looking at what your friends are. Instead of checking out where or what your friends or favorite celebrities are up to you can spend that down time (the down time that everyone seems to have, but yet still have no time to do anything productive) creating something… and be a little more productive then what social media currently is forcing us to be. It may not seem productive but at least your getting something done and well if your lucky you can build a pretty good street credit in the process! So with this said… what is GraFighters. The answer to this question is it’s a pretty sweet web site that allows you to draw a creation of your own (and yes really draw, using pen and paper just like back in the golden years of childhood) and then upload and fight your creation. After uploading your GraFighter you are able to challenge and accepts fights from there. GraFighters is a website that allows you to actually bring your drawings to life and battle your friends, bringing back you childhood dreams
Getting Started
All right so everyone is probably sitting there reading this saying well how do I get started… the answer is banana fingers. Yep! It’s as simple as banana fingers… Well at least that’s the super secret code that you will need to get pass the introductory page and actually get working on building your so called “social street credit” up. But after knowing the super secret code and getting through the beta testing explanation story, its fairly simple to get fighting (hopefully will be coming out of beta soon and actually introduced to all users without a pass code). GraFighters did a great jobwith making the site extremely user-friendly. You siply draw your picture,take a picture and then upload it to the website and your on your way. When uploading your character it makes it very siple to bring it to life. It walks you through on how to trace and explain the operating system of who your character is.
Problems and Issues
One problem or concern that I have with GraFighters is that its still in ‘beta’ and even though the word ‘beta’ doesn’t mean too much for other companies like Google and other Sites that even when in beta the user would have no idea. GraFighters takes the big word ‘BATA’ a bit too serious. Google will just let you be and let you explore… GraFighters on the other hand puts a big Stop Sign to any curious explores trying to find an interesting website to bring their drawings to life. The good thing is I don’t think there is any other sites at the time that the aspiring artist can bring their drawings to and bring them to life, but lets hope they don’t forget to check back on their first love- GraFighters but sooner or later I think they might just be forgotten. Lets just hope the world just doesn’t know about GraFighters yet and it’s only a big kept secret that soon will be introduced and proclaimed to the rest of the social media.
Another issue that was brought up to GraFighters from ones who have been currently using it is the attributes. People are wondering how attributes are being given out by the system, why they are being given out and what are they labeled for. There are bars on the side of the character but are not described of what they are characteristics of. As of 11/8/11 GraFighters did send out a Tweet that they have given a new design of character stats, as well as bonus points added for equipping weapons and armor.
New Statistics
Old Statistics
What’s Next?
After listening and being a part of a presentation given by the founders of GraFighters they gave a bit of information of where their next step was going to be. The founders of GraFighters were short and brief when asked what’s their next step when bringing GraFighters as a Website to the public. They said they first want to get out of their ‘beta’ ways and get it to the public to start using. They also mention some sort of way of being able to control your character. The current way of fighting the GraFighters is that they fight on their own. They mentioned that it might be made an option for the user to play GraFighters as a sort of video game. Personally… not as if my opinion matters that much, I like their original idea. I like the idea of the fight out come, the win or loss, being determined by how well you drew your character. I like the way that the program reads your character and fights it accordingly. There is no fun in drawing a sweet 10-foot monster that is so bulked up on steroids’ that he still wouldn’t pass a drug test if he used his first borns’ urine. The original idea pulls the creative aspect and forces it on you. You must experiment to see which characters win and which loss. Your ‘Social Street Credit’ shouldn’t be determined on how well you can control a joystick, if that was the case then computer nerds would take the “Championship Title Belt’ and the website would no longer be fun. GraFighters is the idea of the artist taking over and finally being successor rather then a misfit.
