I don't see how it might be a party game. just because it has random aspects doesn't make it a party game. it justs means it's a game where anything can happen.
I see how you might think that way. In fact, that's what I first thought when I heard about tournament rules. "You mean they play tournaments without items? That's stupid! Items are a part of the game! They're obviously not good at the game!"
But essentially, random aspects of a game mean that no matter how good or bad you are, you still aren't completely responsible for how you performed. Think about how cheated you feel when you run just slightly off screen in Melee, only to run into a walking bob-omb. Frustrating, eh? Especially when you were only at 87% and that knocked you off, and you're buddy was at 327%. Now think of how pissed you'll be when he claims he's the better gamer, when he really only won because that was the random item that spawned there off screen. Now imagine that not only is he gloating, but someone just handed him a check because he's the "better" smasher.
Scenarios like that are why random factors tend to only be included if the game is just for casual, lighthearted fun; rather then experienced, skillful competitive fun. For the record, both types of fun are just as fun. Any game that you can drink a few beers with, play sloppy, and still have a good time is PROBABLY a casual party game.
But moving on to what I was going to say...
I feel too old to be registering for a first post, on the twelth page, of a heated thread.
There is something that I feel has not been mentioned (yes, I've read all eleven or so pages, but if I missed it, point it out) which may lend credibility to the "Brawl is designed as a party game" theory.
Put simply, I can not see a reason, from either a business and design perspective, to remove the ability to perform certain advance techs. Here's why.
1) Beginners don't notice them. Seriously. How many people absolutely love SSBM and have no idea what a shffl' is? Wave-huh..and why is that useful? Unless a casual player encounters a competitive player (or searches youtube) they're gaming experience will never be "lessened" by the inclusion of advanced techniques.
2) Removing them doesn't help casual players, or level the playing field enough that a casual player has a chance against a competitive player. Let's be honest here. If you're a competitive player, you're usually going to beat a casual player, without or without the normal tools. Even with items on. Same goes for casual players. You might win once or twice, but usually? Nope.
So why take them out? It doesn't make sense to me. Unless, as a the designer of the game, you feel like people are taking advantage of your game engine to play it in a way that you did not intend. They took your immaculate wooden sculpture and used it to have a nice cheery bonfire. Can it do that? Yes. Did you want them to? No. Next sculpture you release will be carved from stone! Let's see them try to burn it now!
And that's where the difference between casual and competive players enters the discussion. There seems to be this reccurring objection.
I'd give the game some more time to 'open up', wait for some people to find some techs and then judge. even if it isn't competitive based on Melee standards doesn't mean it won't be competitive at all.
Or in other words...
Q) Isn't it possible that Brawl simply hasn't been played enough to discover all the cool new tricks?
A) Yes, it is POSSIBLE. Likely? No. Remember the example of the sculpture. Casual players look at the Melee Sculpture and the Brawl sculpture and see two extremely similiar works of art. That's because they're enjoying them on a different level then competitive players. Casual players aren't the ones huddled in tight circles outside of the ring of spectators, asking each "How on earth are we supposed to get a fire going when the new one's made of metal?"
Eventually people might figure out that if you run enough eletric current through the right metal and do it the right way, it'll heat up and maybe set things on fire. If so, great, we have a brand new way of making fire and just had to figure that out.
But why not just make the second scuplture out of wood to begin with, if it already met everyone's needs that way?
Now, since this is supposed to be an objective thread...
Keep reading even after you finish this next sentence. I can see that it might be possible, though farfetched, that the designers attempted to radically alter gameplay in a manner that would bring greater depth and complexity to the game.
Keep reading, again, even after you finish reading this next sentence. SSB really was designed as a "casual" game. Keeping that in mind, SSBM also had within it the capability to spawn an extremely competitive sub-culture. However, that competiveness required altering or limiting the game to bring out these competive aspects. 1 v 1 matches, no items, on levels that favor individual characters as little as possible. Tournament style play is really just a "house rules" variant that attempts to limit randomness and bias as much as possible. In a situation like this, it is no wonder that we have tiers (or there are no tiers, everyone's equally special) that reflect only a few viable options for competive play. Tournament rules change a casual game into a competitive one, and the balance is broken because of it.
Balance is in issue in all games, but when you alter the purpose of a game, and develop custom rulesets for it, you risk exacerbating those balance issues. It may be that the new design of brawl appears dumbed down and stupid because it is attempting to balance characters in such a way to make more of them viable in competitive play. Whether or not the attempt is successful might remain to be seen. However, if the new design is an attempt to create a balanced competitive game, and a fun casual game, that is extremely important. If that's the case, all that anyone could say is "This new system didn't work, next time give us one that does. I'm gonna go back to Melee til then, I appreciate the effort."
IMHO:
Random tripping is basically the middle finger to competitive play. Essentially the randomness of items enforced by the game designers. That could just be my "ground-centric metagame" talking, but I highly doubt it.
- End Note: It's probably not my metagame talking, because I don't have one. I'm purely a casual player, with no interest in being hardworking enough to be competitive. But then again, if you didn't know that already, you're probably a casual player too. Awesome. Let's exchange friend codes. Lag seems to work in my favor.
