What makes LF2 outstandingly popular in certain countries?

[STM1993]

I kid you not. THIS - 29,029 registered members and 1,522,773 posts. LFE doesn't even come remotely close. And still, what I'm referring to is relatively/local popularity. In Israel and Poland LF2 is exceptionally popular. For example, LF2 tournaments and clans (there are also good DCers in Israel and Poland as well). As far as I know there are still active Israeli ad Polish LF2 clans (I know there used to be German ones, dunno if still active), while I doubt if there ever been local clans at other countries?? And I doubt there are any international clans (at least active ones). To be honest, not really sure about Taiwan/Hong Kong anymore. And btw, nowadays we have a program in Israel, "Little Fighter Netowrk", it's made by LF2 multiplayer creator; it's an old Hamachi-like program, but it's not limited by the number of members to a room. You just log in with username & password of the forum and dang you there, not needing to search Hamachi rooms/players anymore and you can play up to 4 (right now 9 players are logged in).

Just going to point out that the vast majority of posts end up in the general section, which is unrelated to LF2. If we are going to compare statistics in the LF2 section, you have 27,525 posts & 1,287 threads vs 74,993 posts & 4,614 threads. That said, I won't question the level of activity our respective sites have.

As for popularity, hard to say. A game is usually most popular in its home country, so that explains Hong Kong. Taiwan does share a language with China, so that could be one reason. LFE is explicitly an international fansite even though it started in Germany. I do notice that smaller localized communities, especially those that share a local culture/language tend to be most tightly knit and so more attractive to such fans than an international community. It also really helps that LF2 is actually really fun to play online together if you have a good connection & matching timezones, something that international communities don't really have (lag really weakens the online LF2 experience). It still doesn't explain why LF2 as a game is popular in Poland or Israel, but it does explain how the community can endure and thrive.

A shame though, it does mean that there are things that are lost behind geography and language. I personally would've loved to read those guides you have in the Israeli mainsite.