Free Step Dodge

Free Step Dodge

Web address	freestepdodge.com
Commercial?	No
Type of site	News blog, community forums, gaming, online media, political activism
Registration	Optional
Available in	English
Owner	Matt Ponton
Created by	Matt Ponton
Launched	2010
Current status	Online

Free Step Dodge (commonly abbreviated as FSD and nicknamed The Dodge), is an Internet website within the fighting game community dedicated towards high-level competitive play in the Dead or Alive video game series. Founded in 2010 by Matt Ponton, it has enormous and often pernicious influence over the series itself.

Formation

At the time of FSD's establishment, Dead or Alive 4 was the latest major instalment in the series. Despite being exclusive to the Xbox 360 console, the game was a commercial success in terms of sales, although most of its sales went to the United States, a country where first-person shooters (such as the Call of Duty franchise) and open-world sandbox games (such as Grand Theft Auto) are typically preferred by most of the gaming population. DOA4 received a high amount of eSports coverage and attention, including an appearance at the Evolution Championship Series in 2006, but its gameplay mechanics, which were considerably different to those of its predecessors, were often criticised by certain long-time fans of the franchise, who preferred the more accessible gameplay of previous games in the series, most notably Dead or Alive 2 and Dead or Alive 3. The game was also criticised for its aggressive and often unfair single player AI, which most players considered to be "cheap" and "unbalanced", even when compared to its predecessors.

Complaints from members of FSD led to the next major instalment in the series, and first not to feature any input from series creator Tomonobu Itagaki, Dead or Alive 5, featuring a slower-paced style of gameplay more akin to that of DOA3, albeit with a considerably steeper learning curve.

Membership

Free Step Dodge is free to join. The site has played to host to several prominent players in the fighting game community, such as Carl "Perfect Legend" White. The site has been noted for a rather high LGBT representation amongst its userbase.

Reviews

Free Step Dodge sometimes shows a pro-consumer stance towards the majority straight white and Asian male players of the Dead or Alive series, In 2020, it launched a scathing attack on its publisher, Koei Tecmo, and the use of microtransactions and overpriced downloadable content in its games.

Criticism

Even though Free Step Dodge has stated that it is an unbiased website, it has been accused of shutting down and censoring users who disagree with certain members of the site. The bias is extreme in regards to most conversations involving Dead or Alive 4, which is strongly disliked by many of the site's most prominent members.

There have also been cases of a strong politically correct bias in regards to the Xtreme sub-series, as well as revealing costumes in the fighting games, particularly regarding the series' female cast. In 2015, shortly after the release of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, the third and final major re-release of Dead or Alive 5, the Free Step Dodge community infamously banned over 120 revealing costumes for the female characters in the game from its tournaments.

Team Ninja creative director Tom Lee, who has openly expressed some often extreme far-left political views on Twitter, including support for political and public figures such as Greta Thunberg and John O. Brennan, both of whom have been linked to extremists, has a close relationship with Free Step Dodge itself.