Event - MLG Anaheim 2014 My Letter to Nintendo

[SnackAttack]

Spoiler

Dear Nintendo,

My name is Brian Sentz and I love the Super Smash Brothers series, which brings me to the purpose of writing this letter. Ever since February of 2009, I have been involved in the competitve Super Smash Brothers Brawl scene. We have a very large community which regulary hosts tournaments all over the country for casual and hardcore players. Very recently, (just this year) Super Smash Brothers Brawl was added to the Major League Gaming pro curcuit but we weren't allowed to have a video stream or commentators that the other games such as Tekken 6, Halo 3, and Starcraft 2 were allowed to have.

With this in mind, I would like to make a formal request of your company to give Major League Gaming the rights to have a stream to enhance the quality of the events. Not only would this allow for those who know about tournaments to be in the loop about what is happening, but it may very well allow for exposure of not only Major League Gaming, but of our community, your company, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl as a whole. These Major League Gaming tournaments have not only meant a lot to me over the past year, but to the whole Super Smash Brothers Brawl community, and it would be a shame for us to not be able to continue with these events because MLG doesn't have the rights to a video stream
for the game.

So please Nintendo, read this letter completely and consider where I and the rest of the community are coming from, these tournaments are a great experience and I would love to see them get more exposure.

Sincerly,

Brian Sentz

I wrote this letter after seeing Mike's thread, but I have not sent it yet.

I want the community's input here as well as the higher-ups, such as AZ, JV, and Deimos' opinions.

 

[Enzo]

finally someone gets off their *** and make a step towards change instead of just posting and complaining

+10 good **** bro

 

[platomaker]

good job, i say go for it.

 

[Shy Guy!]

Why is it blacked out?

 

[Variable]

Why is it blacked out?

Dramatic effect? Idk lol.


Anyway good letter man, I hope it gets to them. MLG without live stream is.. Like cookies with out milk. =\

 

[Player-1]

I remember AZ posting A LONG while back that sending a letter wasn't a good idea or something, but it was a while ago and things may have changed.


I think you should probably add a petition or something so we can get a lot of people on it just in case they don't know about MLG or whatever and think this is just some random email from a random fan for his small local tournaments or w.e.

 

[rPSIvysaur]

Wait until AZ says something about this.

 

[SnackAttack]

Anymore opinions? :D

 

[Ripple]

say something about how youre an orphan and are terminally ill and just want to watch SSBB from your bedside since you were born with no hands and could not play it, as you take your last breath.

that ought to do it

 

[Dark 3nergy]

im not sure if it should be Dear Nintendo or To Whom it may concern

what address do you plan on sending it to?

You also have to consider what nintendo views MLG as. So if i were you OP you should research what nintendos stand is concerning companies like MLG

 

[volume]

this letter is well written but how do you think nintendo will act upon recieving the letter?

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

It's an ambitious idea. However, to get something like this legitimently passed, it will need to have much more push behind. So much so, that I do not think a single letter will do much of anything. I imagine you will likely get no response at all, or if you did, it would be a polite message back saying, in a very wordy way, no. Nor would a petition help I think unless you have some 100,000+ people's personal signatures and addresses. What is really needed is a large movement. One letter is not enough, but a few thousand to tens of thousands of letters from many, many people might be required to have Nintendo heavily consider a change to their policies regarding their merchandise.

As it stands, SWF has only 88,000+ users. But this number gets cut down when you consider some people have made multiple accounts, or others simply sign on and never continue. After that you are probably looking at only a few thousand that are really dedicated to playing and keeping upto date on things. The best I have ever seen a stream was around 1,500 people at one time. So unless everyone gets together on this, a single letter will likely not do much. It will be interesting though to hear a reply from nintendo commenting on why they do not want streams anyway.

 

[Dark 3nergy]

this letter is well written but how do you think nintendo will act upon recieving the letter?

thats where research comes in

 

[Dax]

not to sound rude, I actually hope that your letter is successful but...

do you guys get why Nintendo refuses?
Reason is: MLG's stream isn't for free. And Nintendo basically is saying, well, we don't agree about you making money with our game. That's the problem.
If MLG's stream was for free, maybe things would be different but at least as far as I know, it isn't.
And yes, I know, in the melee era they didn't care but don't ask my why about this.

 

[**Havok**]

You gave me an idea Snackies...

 

[Dark 3nergy]

also fyi i have written a letter to nintendo power before and received a letter back from the editor

so before anything else goes n says it wont happen youd better think twice about that

 

[GimR]

also fyi i have written a letter to nintendo power before and received a letter back from the editor

so before anything else goes n says it wont happen youd better think twice about that

Just to but in real quick

Nintendo Power =/= Nintendo of America

That is an unfair comparison. The person you contacted is the Editor of the Magazine, the other is the head of the corporation.

I really do hope this works out though Snack.

 

[Remzi]

not to sound rude, I actually hope that your letter is successful but...

do you guys get why Nintendo refuses?
Reason is: MLG's stream isn't for free. And Nintendo basically is saying, well, we don't agree about you making money with our game. That's the problem.
If MLG's stream was for free, maybe things would be different but at least as far as I know, it isn't.
And yes, I know, in the melee era they didn't care but don't ask my why about this.

Stream is free...

 

[GimR]

Stream is free...

yeah but they offer the High quality stream for $10. MLG might offered to do the Brawl stream for free though. Who knows

 

[ph00tbag]

Well, first of all, I'm fairly positive that if petitions never really mean anything to Nintendo, a letter from one dude isn't going to change their mind much better.

That said, your letter doesn't really drive the point home. First off, you don't even mention the stream until the end of the first paragraph. Any businessperson reading that would have no clue where you were going until then. Then, when it comes to explaining why you think Nintendo should include the stream, your only way of relating it to Nintendo is that it would be good publicity for them. The rest of the letter is a bunch of boring crap about you and the community that come off more as whining than as any kind of request.

A request should first and foremost be presented as such. Start the letter off with it. Tell them you want MLG to have the rights to a live stream for competitive smash events right off the bat. Then you can tell them why it's a good idea. But don't talk about yourself or the community. Talk about Nintendo. Talk about their mission statement, their business goals, etc. Then, once they're good and buttered up, categorically show that the Smash community and the MLG championships are aligned with Nintendo's goals.

Of course, before you do any of this, you should probably be working at a decently high-ranking position in MLG. They'd be more likely to listen to you if you have some kind of name recognition.

 

[SnackAttack]

I understand.

The whole "it means a lot to the community and I" is an emotional appeal.

 

[volume]

thats where research comes in

maybe everyone should sign some sort of letter, a petition of some manner lol.

 

[volume]

oh but everyone do remember when signing a letter not just the brawl community can sign but anyone really not just that but we can all make letters and we could send them from other sites eg. allisbrawl and other sites could send from users that arent on swf. another thing is almost everyone i know plays smash but not competitively so thats a good 200+ people. if everyon e in the community helps out then we can get live stream, even if its not HD.

 

[Dark 3nergy]

Just to but in real quick

Nintendo Power =/= Nintendo of America

That is an unfair comparison. The person you contacted is the Editor of the Magazine, the other is the head of the corporation.

I really do hope this works out though Snack.

i realize that, i just want to point out that them not responding to anything, as a company whole, wasnt necessarily true from my pov

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

You guys are forgetting one KEY element here.

Sakurai purposely nerfed Brawl to make it more casual, and to try and remove the competitive element. He does not support his games being competitive at all.

Nor does Nintendo. Nintendo is a causal gaming enterprise. They cater to families and children, not to competitive gamers.

As much as it would be nice to see it work, it can't, and it won't. Stop getting your hopes up, Brian.

Edit: Online petitions don't do anything. They definitely won't do anything for this situation.

And the "boycott" idea that GIMR suggested it absolutely idiotic.

 

[Mikachiru]

Edit: Online petitions don't do anything. They definitely won't do anything for this situation.

...So getting Uwe Boll to stop making terrible movies is impossible? He only needs 1,000,000 sigs...

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

Nope. He'll still make money due to Germany's dumb laws.

 

[Anth0ny]

Let me answer that on Nintendo's behalf:

A) We want a quadrillion bagillion dollars.

B) LOL COMPETITIVE VIDEO GAMES

That is all.

 

[Gamegenie222]

You guys are forgetting one KEY element here.

Sakurai purposely nerfed Brawl to make it more casual, and to try and remove the competitive element. He does not support his games being competitive at all.

Nor does Nintendo. Nintendo is a causal gaming enterprise. They cater to families and children, not to competitive gamers.

As much as it would be nice to see it work, it can't, and it won't. Stop getting your hopes up, Brian.

Edit: Online petitions don't do anything. They definitely won't do anything for this situation.

And the "boycott" idea that GIMR suggested it absolutely idiotic.

This but I also find it funny that PKMN is competitive and they are okay with that but not with smash blasphemy I say.

 

[GimR]

You guys are forgetting one KEY element here.

Sakurai purposely nerfed Brawl to make it more casual, and to try and remove the competitive element. He does not support his games being competitive at all.

Nor does Nintendo. Nintendo is a causal gaming enterprise. They cater to families and children, not to competitive gamers.

As much as it would be nice to see it work, it can't, and it won't. Stop getting your hopes up, Brian.

Edit: Online petitions don't do anything. They definitely won't do anything for this situation.

I know there is a video online somewhere of a tournament where the winner got to play Sakurai in a round. I don't think they're against tournaments. I feel they don't care about them at all.

 

[Life]

Put it in terms of money and someone will listen.

"I feel giving more exposure to the tournament scene will increase the replay value of Brawl and Melee, and therefore the likelihood of current Brawl and/or Melee owners purchasing the next Super Smash Bros. game, if and when you decide to do so."

(IDK if you should mention Melee though)

Also, someone should translate this into Japanese, that'll help.

 

[volume]

Put it in terms of money and someone will listen.

"I feel giving more exposure to the tournament scene will increase the replay value of Brawl and Melee, and therefore the likelihood of current Brawl and/or Melee owners purchasing the next Super Smash Bros. game, if and when you decide to do so."

(IDK if you should mention Melee though)

Also, someone should translate this into Japanese, that'll help.

"exposure to the tournament scene will increase the replay value of super smash brothers. brawl, and therefor the likelihood of currnet brawl owners purchasing the next super smash bros. game, if and when you decide to do so."

no melee because its mlg brawl.

 

[GimR]

Put it in terms of money and someone will listen.

"I feel giving more exposure to the tournament scene will increase the replay value of Brawl and Melee, and therefore the likelihood of current Brawl and/or Melee owners purchasing the next Super Smash Bros. game, if and when you decide to do so."

(IDK if you should mention Melee though)

Also, someone should translate this into Japanese, that'll help.

Nintendo America is who he should be writing this to since their the ones that deal with MLG

 

[Life]

@GIMR: He should send it to both. NoA for MLG's sake, and NoJ for SSB4's sake.

 

[DeLux]

I wish the two companies would compromise. I'd be more than willing to watch an advertisement or two if that meant getting a live stream to such a large tournament. Especially since it seems like Nintendo would be hitting an obvious target demographic if they did this. And MLG would also benefit.

 

[EPsilon933]

I have doubts, but good luck.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

I know there is a video online somewhere of a tournament where the winner got to play Sakurai in a round. I don't think they're against tournaments. I feel they don't care about them at all.

You mean the video where he plays a local "tournament winner?"

No, that was a video on a Japanese radio show (The equivilant of), where a player who advanced from Round one the Japanese Brawl Launch tournament was put up against Sakurai. It was put on the Nintendo Channel in Japan back in January 2008.

Sakurai is definitely against competitive play, and would prefer that his games were kept casual.

Read this if you haven't already.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=158790

Sakurai created the smash franchise, for all intents and purposes, to be a party game. He would prefer it stay that way and he would never endorse tournaments of his games.

 

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

honestly you can look at the melee community and blame them for everything that's wrong with brawl.

 

[SnackAttack]

What........

 

[TP]

honestly you can look at the melee community and blame them for everything that's wrong with brawl.

honestly you can look at posters like this and blame them for everything that's wrong with our community.