Ok, I have some fundraising stuff to talk about, but first, wall-of-text time:
What I see here is a lot of baseless assertions with no real reasoning to back them up. Let's break this down bit-by-bit:
First I, having played all three of those games, don't feel that way. Brawl was worse than 64 and Melee, in my opinion, in several ways:
- The characters were unbalanced: two examples off the top of my head are that Jigglypuff was nerfed and Metaknight was needlessly OP. One can argue that Melee was unbalanced too but the way Melee was unbalanced actually added fun and a dimension to the game that Brawl simply did not have (Jigglypuff's entire strategy, wavedashing, etc.); the way Brawl was unbalanced made the game, in my opinion, simply not fun. The characters in general were too slow, the few that were OP dominated the others so much that it made the game hard to enjoy -- I shouldn't have to only play as Sheik or Metaknight to win; at least in Melee it's possible to win with many others, not so in Brawl. There's a reason Metaknight was banned in tournaments.
- The color scheme used was bland, muddy and ugly, this is a game where Nintendo characters beat the crap out of each other, bland browns and greys do not make for a good Smash game. I cite this color scheme comparison thread: http://smashboards.com/threads/smash-4-vs-brawl-graphics-comparisons.350957/ and ask you to look at how bland, grey and ugly the Brawl characters look compared to their brighter, more colorful counterparts in Smash 4. There's a clear, marked improvement between the two. The same holds true for Melee -- Melee was a lot more colorful than Brawl was and in my opinion that is one of the aspects that makes Melee better than Brawl.
- The roster itself left much to be desired regardless of the Geno issue -- for example Megaman wasn't in it even though during the Brawl days Capcom said they wanted to work with Nintendo yet Nintendo didn't bother to communicate with them; it took them 'til Smash 4 to get Megaman in the game when he honestly should've been in Brawl. Smash 4 corrects a lot of these issues, but they were still there in Brawl.
So no, just because one played 64 and Melee does not mean they would automatically feel the exact same about Brawl. That is a subjective claim that is being presented as if it were an objective truth, a pattern that is obvious throughout the argument.
But I especially take issue with these two statements:
It's just as arguable that someone who feels that people need to "sort out their priorities" because they don't want to buy a game one feels they're obligated to buy and claiming that it "makes someone sound like an upset child storming out of the room and pouting" is very immature:
- One, no, no one has to go along with any program. At all. People can buy whatever product they want for whatever reason they want and you have no right to tell them that they have to buy every game in a series, regardless of whether they actually want it or not, if they quote-unquote "have the slightest interest in the series". That's just absurd on its face.
- That reason alone exposes an arrogance that is the height of immaturity. Even making the argument that someone is immature because they don't want to buy a game for some particular reason (it could be any reason) is very immature. Part of maturity is being tolerant of other people's opinions, priorities and desires and accepting that they're all subjective and equally valid and that people have the right to feel however they want without judging them; treating what is clearly just your opinion as if it were subjective truth and then putting down people who feel differently than you about the subject is a very immature thing to do.
- The argument betrays a fundamental lack of respect for other people's feelings and desires. People who don't want to buy a game because a certain character is in it (this doesn't just apply to Geno, there are people who won't buy it because Ridley isn't in it or any number of different characters) are not going to be happy with the game regardless of how much they're browbeaten or bullied into buying the game anyway. All it will accomplish is make them spend $60 that they otherwise could've put toward something that actually would make them happy simply to appease the OP, and that is not something any mature person would demand of anyone else.
This point is especially made clear in the end of the argument:
- The last part implies that the OP knows the reason why I or anyone else got interested in Smash in the first place. That's an inherently arrogant argument to make. People could've taken interest in Smash for any number of different reasons -- for example I became interested when I learned Ness was in it, not because of gameplay.
- Just because one argues that they are already great games doesn't mean that they are, number one, and number two, even if we accept that they objectively are that doesn't mean that people can't have any other concerns, desires, or expectations they can use to decide what it is they want to purchase. People should be able to use whatever expectation or preference they feel is important to judge whether they want to buy a game or not. Clearly for those people the gameplay and the rest of the content doesn't outweigh their concerns and it shouldn't. To argue that it should is to argue that they have to set aside their own individual desires and priorities for what you think they should desire or want, and it should be obvious to everyone how self-centered and immature that line of thought is.
Ok, that being said, fundraiser stuff:
I whipped up a Wordpress blog... site... thing for the #Geno4Smash fundraiser and it's almost done (I just have to make a couple more pages and come up with some kind of design) but I don't know if I can get it done by tomorrow because I have to study for finals. Did anyone sign up on the volunteer sheet to help? If so I could really use their help right now.
Also we need to start looking for some streamers! What streamers do you think would be willing to participate or help? Do any of you guys run streams? I see RetroJake offered to help (which I express extreme gratitude for!), who else do you guys think we should ask?
I also had an idea: why don't we call upon the fan artists from Deviantart and Tumblr and ask if they would be willing to help by creating prizes for donators to get? Like drawings or pins or whatever? I'm sure people would like to buy #Geno4Smash pins especially if it's for a good cause.
Did anyone make a fundraiser page on Make-A-Wish's fundraising section yet? We need that done in the next couple of days because I need to put the link to it on the site before it goes live. I understand if we all need more time to do stuff though.
But I wasn't sure
