It may sound like a dull hum from all the way over there in Outworld, but the Street Fighter community has been a noisy, combative warzone lately, and not in a good way. See, ever since Capcom outlined Street Fighter X Tekken's Gem System, Street Fighter devotees (and competitive fighters in general) have been conducting heated debates over the system's merits, drawbacks and implications for serious tournament play, as well as the impact it will have on the casual fighting community.

Seth Killian, Capcom Community Manager and face of all things Street Fighter in North America, chatted with Gamasutra to expound upon some of the Gem System's intricacies and the design philosophy behind it. First and foremost, Killian stressed that the system has been part of SFxT's design philosophy for years, and that it represents the proverbial "nerd feather" that intrigues analytical theorycraft-style gamers.