^ if we are able to someone in some way create a solid rule set that utilizes item and make it the "standard" way to play i think we would gain a lot more support from different kinds of players as well as support from the Nintendo and maybe even Sakurai as he himself has stated he prefers the game to be played using items.
I know many are against the idea but what do we have to lose? It' not like if it doesn't work out we can't just go back to the way things were before.
I've argued this point a lot, but I can now say (that'm I'm older and less of a little snot) that, at the very least, try it. Melee could get away with it because they at least had a reason. What made it silly in Brawl was that they straight up adopted Melee's rules despite it was fixed in Brawl. If there is at least a good reason as opposed to "Well, they are random, so ehh."
Oh course, the first step is to try and appeal to the disenfranchised players. At least get them behind or, at at least not against you.
Really, Melee already has a well established competitive scene without items. Throwing items back into it doesn't make any sense when you have no control over containers being on/off, thus randomly exploding capsules/crates are able to occur and ruin competition.
That's fine. Melee at least had a reason. Of course, the problem is Melee is an old hat and Brawl is the focus until the next game comes out. This is where your growth lies. Let Melee be Melee. It's time has come and gone.
Your suggestion really does only apply to Brawl. It's not Smash in general, both 64/Melee did not create this huge "issue" or "disconnect" with the other communities.
The bigger issue is that there was "issues" within the game's own fanbase. Smash as an E-Sport will never grow if it's own fanbase think's it's a joke. And we did see it as a joke in 2004 and so on. It doesn't matter what other fighting game communities think if your own fanbase hates you. That is where the problem really started and it was a Melee problem.
Brawl came out in 2008, Brawl was the only Smash game that was mainly going to be featured at EVO, Brawl players didn't want items on so they got into a huge argument with Mr. Wizard and co., items still remained, the tournament for Brawl there wasn't spectacular by any means but also wasn't a total travesty (though it was very LULZY), and then people still wanted to argue with the fighting game community and... then they set the bias for Smash in general from there. That's primarily where all the hate comes from or originates from because the Brawl community didn't want to test items for awhile first whereas originally for the first couple of months to maybe even a year Melee actually had item tournaments.
Fact is no one BUT Melee fans make the distinction between the players. Everyone is a
Smash player and that fact will remain the same. That is how it is seen If something happens in Brawl, it effects everyone. It's also important to note that those "Brawl," players were actually "Melee," players. Brawl only came out months before and that was it's first real tournament. It was Melee players who took the rule set and plopped it into Brawl. If Brawl was it's own entity, it would have it's own rules and reasons behind it, not Melee's reasons.
So really, it's not Smash in general that needs "rethinking", it's Brawl that needs "rethinking" and to be quite honest I'm not sure if even "rethinking" it can save its public face that the fighting game community has for it. The damage has already been done you might as well move on and not care what the fighting game community thinks of it.
I'm going to say that this thinking will kill Smash brothers. Not Brawl. Not some other game. Smash Brothers.
No one makes the distinction. No one else finds the matches different between Melee and Brawl and among the fanbase, most of them find ti boring (Fox only, Final Destination ring a bell?) Brawl's problems are Melee's problems as Brawl's player base grew from Melee. All Smash Brother's have the same "face," and that face is awful.
SRK had a thread where they clearly explained why the hate the Smash community. They clearly said they hate the SMASH community. Not the game. Not the Brawl community. The
Smash community. The only people who want to make it two communities are the Melee players (yet they all post on the same few sites). A big thing that does need to change is trying to play off that Melee it's own thing when it's clearly not. If Smash Brothers is to grow, than this game of spliting games into sectors has to stop. It's not doing any good and it's just a way to throw other players (many who were Melee players) under the bus.
With tactics like that and the overall disagreement between the two communities it's no wonder they have this profound dislike for Smash (though really as far as I have read it's mainly the Brawl scene that the fighting game community hates).
Than we are not reading the same thing. The distinction only comes in when Melee players try to make it, and that goes for every thread here and on SRK. I'll say it again: trying to make a split will not help anyone nor does anyone outside of Melee players care.
Strong Bad made a good analysis, both on EVO and the age gap. The one thing Smash should do is encouraging a code of ethics, if only to try and shrink the maturity gap. Set ways people should act in tournaments and on other sites. People will respect Smash players if they have this.
One example of something was on the last State of the Game episode (Starcraft 2 BTW). They mentioned that people were booing the Halo champions (who did really well). Many of the Pros thought that was wrong and think Starcraft fans should stop that behavior. Similar things should go on in Smash (maybe not the same instance, but you get the idea). One thing they did well was punish M2K and Ally (I believe it was Ally. Correct me if I'm wrong) for what happened at MLG. If people are going to act in a bad way, at least make them accountable.