Does Melee count as a traditional game? (A question about the genre and philosophy of Melee)

[Mastodon]

Hello everyone,

My question is fairly short, but it's a pretty subjective question. Does Melee count as a traditional game?

Just to specify for the purpose of this thread: a traditional game is something like Monopoly, Scrabble, card game, role-playing game (such as Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder), or other sorts of non-video games.

The reason why I ask is I work at a game store that does traditional gaming mostly, such as Magic: the Gathering and D&D. Currently, as a melee player, I've been trying to push our store to start doing melee tournaments, but we (the staff, myself included) have concerns about whether or not melee (and smash in general) fit in with what our store really tries to do. We're not a game stop, we don't sell video games or video game accessories...yet smash, and even other multiplayer video games feel like something that could wind up in this sort of environment. We have other concerns as well (such as, how does it really profit us), but I'm wondering who else out there has wondered if melee fits into this kind of place. Because, if it does, this would certainly be a big avenue for melee and competitive smash in general to grow its presence.

Generally, video games don't count as a traditional game. However, I would really like to see what this community thinks about possibly considering it a traditional game. Its a loose argument, but in my opinion, it shares several aspects of traditional games. The primary aspect is, of course, the need to actually play with other players in person.

What do you guys think? Also, does anyone have experience with adding smash to the line up of games at your local hobby shop? If so, what role does melee play at said store?

 

[Twinkles]

There's a Melee tournament every Sunday in my region at a local card shop and it seems to fit pretty well. Card tables can be set up to hold setups, also might be worth looking into to see if there are card game players within your Melee community because there are usually a couple. It's then like a free excuse to get potential customers into this specific store.

If you can find a way to setup Melee without interfering normal day store operations, I would say go all in on it. I also think you could also try to add to venue fee if you want extra cash for the shop, but that is a little bit more of a gray area that should be discussed with local TO's (extra venue fee can honestly break a tournament for people trying to enter).

 

[Massive]

As someone who also occasionally plays traditional games, Melee is clearly a video game (not a traditional/board game).

The largest distinction between the two is that traditional board games have human enforced rulesets and video games have digitally enforced rulesets. There are some games that blur this boundary, but in this case it's a pretty easy distinction.

That being said, traditional gaming stores are actually a natural venue for this. There is a pretty large overlap between the interests of the two groups, and if your store also sells physical media like wall art, sculptures, figurines, or graphic novels/comics, it can be a fantastic way to sell related stuff or bridge interest into your other merchandise.

 

[Mastodon]

As someone who also occasionally plays traditional games, Melee is clearly a video game (not a traditional/board game).

The largest distinction between the two is that traditional board games have human enforced rulesets and video games have digitally enforced rulesets. There are some games that blur this boundary, but in this case it's a pretty easy distinction.

That being said, traditional gaming stores are actually a natural venue for this. There is a pretty large overlap between the interests of the two groups, and if your store also sells physical media like wall art, sculptures, figurines, or graphic novels/comics, it can be a fantastic way to sell related stuff or bridge interest into your other merchandise.

Unfortunately, I don't think we have enough in terms of merchandise that would directly appeal to melee players. Of course, a lot of them are incidentally into yu-gi-oh, magic, rpgs, etc, but we don't really sell wall art, comics/graphic novels, and toys.

But of course, that could be an area for us to grow.

I do agree that the rules of the game are digitally enforced, but even still, our tournament system and rule sets are human enforced. Magic and yugioh may not be video games, but they have pretty strict rules, and magic officials (judges) have pretty specific fixes and rulings when mistakes occur (not sure about yugioh, but I assume they have a system in place as well). I definitely see a good argument for how rules are enforced, but really, things like chess and magic are about as air-tight as smash for non-video games...both of which games have digital variants (as does yugioh).