Well that's was a long read...
I've been keeping up with this thread and the other one for a couple of days now, and after reading every post I thought it was a good time to reply.
I'm a member of SRK. I lurked for 2 years before finally joining in 2003. I also joined this site a year later because I was learning Melee, but I only got to a below-average level (barely 2 reps of shine inf
) and started focusing on other games, so I can't consider myself part of this community.
Some of the comments I've read in this site have made me rethink about the relationship between our communities, and the many ways on which the relationship between us could have been better. Before I address many of the concerns you've brought up, I'd like to first talk a little bit about the history of our community, more specifically how the first years weren't actually that bad at all. I remember back in the 2004-2007 period, Meele was called "Marvel JR." by a lot of people, and we know that SRK loves that Marvel, so that is a big title.
We all know what happened the year when Brawl was at EVO, so I'm not going to comment on that, however, it's important to note that after that year, we could say that each community went its own way. A lot of people think the relationship was bitter, but the truth is that the problem at EVO was a very simple misunderstanding that was solved very easily (Wizard's tweet).
The real reason behind the hostility between our communities is because of misconceptions and nothing more. I can only speak for the SRK side, and I can tell you that we had a lot of misconceptions about your community, but it's still worth mentioning that the personalities of both communities were very different.
The reason behind the misconceptions (at least on our side) lies on that old pointless discussion "Is it a fighting game or not". I'm not here to start that conversation, but let me point something out. Absolutely nobody on our side takes this discussion seriously.....
The reason why many of us (myself included, just recently actually) got into this discussion many many times is because of the fun we had from the reactions of those who went all the way to SRK to discuss that.
These people are the root of our misconceptions. A lot of us thought that these people represented the whole smash community. This is of course a mistake, however, we saw them as easy targets who were easily flame-baited, and we enjoyed the hilarious responses we got from them. I personally have a collection of quotes from these people laying around somewhere. I really don't think anyone can blame us for finding them funny. Let me share one with you.
smash is the most innovative fighting game to date as it add to the genre things that have never been seen before.
heres a list of things that make smash stand out.
-Tier lists
Ok I don't remember the full list, but that alone had me laughing for sometime
On the other hand, I have to admit that SRK at the time was unwelcoming to new members, but you have to remember that it was also a time where the majority of SRK came from the arcades where respect was mostly earned through winning games instead of posting an introduction thread. That's why the place seemed unwelcoming at first, but I can tell you this community changed my life in a positive way. The truth is that offline we've always been accessible and friendly, but I can understand the bad image you might have gotten based on our online image only. Most of us agree that this hardcore era of SRK is now gone, as we started a new one after 2009 with SF4, and yet another one last year with Esports.
Actually, it's not really gone, all of us who were part of the hardcore SRK are still there, the only difference is that we are a LOT now, so I can gladly say that we're now a minority in the community because we've grown so much.
Now, back on topic. I believe that this project is an amazing way for us to forget about the past and try to work together again. I'd like to first remind you all that this project is part of a big continuous effort done by our community leaders to improve the image of our community to the world. That is because we need it. You see, most of us acted carelessly on SRK on previous years because we were really an underground group. Nowadays, fighting games are really getting mainstream attention, not as much a LOL and FPS, but it's growing. Now we actually need to be careful about what the world thinks about us.
The community leaders realized this a long time ago, and since then we now have a lot of things we can use as reference when we we are targeted by yellow journalism. This year we are getting together to fight Cancer.
This brings me to my next point, and that is the transparency issues.
First, about hiding the donations.
Remember that the goal of this project is to donate as much as possible to charity, so I think you can understand how revealing the numbers would decrease that donation number significantly. Second, we have no way of knowing that these numbers will always remain hidden, but we can know for sure that if the EVO staff were to say that they would be revealed at a later date, then that would also decrease the amount of donations.
It really does make the most sense to keep them hidden if your goal is to donate as much as you can.
Now, about the other conspiracy theories going around. I'd like you to please reconsider who you're talking about. Yes, shady business practices are no strangers to the FGC, but that's why we have a list of venues and tournament promoters to avoid. The EVO founders are highly respected by the community, and have proven their love and passion for the community many many times. We trust them just as much as you trust your community leaders.
EVO staff understands they are requiring you to trust them, but I have no problems doing that, and I think so should you.
The last problem I want to address is regarding a big company coming in buying themselves in. This is a real possibility, but the truth is that it's really hard to police (Sony can simply ask John Doe to donate under his name), and it also goes against your goal if that is to donate as much as you can.
It seems I overextended myself, I apologize for that. I just want to encourage you all to support the game you love and donate. Even if you don't win, you're more than welcome to come and hold a side tourney. EVO is a great experience, I wish you could all feel it at least once.
Remember that among many things, yet another goal of this project is to unite communities, and it certainly has the potential to. Look at me and posting in a Smash forum. My 2008-self would have slapped me, but here I am anyway and I'm glad.
Thank you EVO.
