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roboticphish
Smash Cadet
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2013
- Messages
- 54
Hi all.
Apologies for the delay in getting to you guys. There were a number of factors delaying the discussion and vote on this issue, and I'm going to do my best to go into as much detail as I can without overstepping my bounds.
First and foremost, the discussion on UCF was started back in October, in the second session the 5 held together. At the time, we were in a serious crisis regarding the direction we would take. We had no way to come out and just blanket support UCF, for a variety of reasons. There were some gameplay issues, which Nintendude's submission statement will go into with more detail. There were some precedent issues, most notably that this is the first software mod allowed in a unified Melee ruleset, and with that precedent established, future possible mods become easier to fight for. Finally and most importantly, there was the legal issue of software modification being a pretty big no-no in terms of our scene's health. For mods like 20XX and 20XXTE, this was a negligible concern. However, UCF gained massive and widespread popularity that meant it could not safely or simply be ignored. It gained this status in a few different ways.
Chief among these reasons was the simplicity and the minimal impact of the mod. No skins were changed, it didn't mess with stages or characters, and it changed two very, *very* small elements of gameplay in order to remove as much of the RNG factors of the controller lottery as possible. It was as unintrusive and simple a mod as we've had perhaps ever. Secondly, Netplay has taken our community by storm. For better or worse, the vast majority of players entering the scene in the last two years were introduced to the game through Netplay. And, with the introduction of Faster Melee, these Netplay players were becoming accustomed to practicing and playing on a setup that was better than vanilla melee in every respect. It polled the controller twice as frequently and implemented UCF codes too, after a time. How frustrating it must be for these players to go to a Vanilla tournament and see all of their hard work fall apart as they realized their practice had been unsuited to it the whole time. Finally, UCF was pushed hard by a significant portion of the visible top playerbase, including several of the 25 and a couple members of the 5 themselves. This legitimized UCF even in spite of setbacks like Shine 2017, and led to the UCF movement coalescing as a whole.
What this left us with, in October, was no way to justify or support using UCF as a national standard, but also no way to blanket ban it without crippling national attendance and turning away half of the current player base. It was only in the zero-hour of 2017, over the Christmas holidays, that we were able to have a meeting with some movement. This amendment is the product of over 10 hours of Christmas-week meetings on the issue.
The amendment is simple: Since we can't outright legalize and standardize UCF, this amendment turns UCF over to TO discretion. Included below are submission statements from each of the members of the 5:
Nintendude: Regarding UCF Standardization and Regarding TO Discretion
Sheridan: Regarding Both Votes
Juggleguy: I voted no to UCF for a few reasons. The first reason is there's a slippery slope that comes with software mods that I don't want to see the community go down. I hold vanilla Melee in a sort of reverence; we have played this game since its release without ever modding it for tournament gameplay, and who are we to do so now, especially if it opens the floodgates to other mods? The second reason is it increases the perceived barrier to entry for new players who are crucial to the sustainability of the scene. A 16-year old game played on CRT TVs doesn't need to introduce another hurdle to its own potential growth. I would rather see vanilla Melee played with its flaws than see the community fizzle out due to the final straw in lack of accessibility. The third reason is it places a huge stress on major TOs who need to be mindful of external legal factors when organizing large events, which often require contracts with several entities and sponsors. I'd ask everyone to please understand that the non-disclosure agreements from these make it difficult to be 100% transparent.
Shi: Due to the delicate nature of IP and Copyright Infringement laws and that different organizations have different needs and requirements, there is not a one shoe fits all solution to UCF. I firmly believe there needs to be a solution for the problems at hand but also understand there are constraints in the scope in which we can operate. Therefore my vote for the use of UCF is that it will be at the discretion of TO's to use it as they see fit with the needs of their event.
Blur: Regarding both votes
You can find the text of the amendment here
VOTE HERE
I also wanted to add a last note, which is that the 'silver bullet' solution to the controller lottery has to come in the form of a visible hardware adapter. The arduino was a good start to this end, but because it is easily concealed and easily configured, there are logistical issues with it. The ideal solution is to make a hardware adapter for the connection between the GCC and the console that could be standardized and easily checked. Software mods have legal limitations; hardware does not. Again, apologies for the delay on this issue. We will be passing the amendment to legalize box controllers to the 25 very soon, so please keep an eye out for it.
Apologies for the delay in getting to you guys. There were a number of factors delaying the discussion and vote on this issue, and I'm going to do my best to go into as much detail as I can without overstepping my bounds.
First and foremost, the discussion on UCF was started back in October, in the second session the 5 held together. At the time, we were in a serious crisis regarding the direction we would take. We had no way to come out and just blanket support UCF, for a variety of reasons. There were some gameplay issues, which Nintendude's submission statement will go into with more detail. There were some precedent issues, most notably that this is the first software mod allowed in a unified Melee ruleset, and with that precedent established, future possible mods become easier to fight for. Finally and most importantly, there was the legal issue of software modification being a pretty big no-no in terms of our scene's health. For mods like 20XX and 20XXTE, this was a negligible concern. However, UCF gained massive and widespread popularity that meant it could not safely or simply be ignored. It gained this status in a few different ways.
Chief among these reasons was the simplicity and the minimal impact of the mod. No skins were changed, it didn't mess with stages or characters, and it changed two very, *very* small elements of gameplay in order to remove as much of the RNG factors of the controller lottery as possible. It was as unintrusive and simple a mod as we've had perhaps ever. Secondly, Netplay has taken our community by storm. For better or worse, the vast majority of players entering the scene in the last two years were introduced to the game through Netplay. And, with the introduction of Faster Melee, these Netplay players were becoming accustomed to practicing and playing on a setup that was better than vanilla melee in every respect. It polled the controller twice as frequently and implemented UCF codes too, after a time. How frustrating it must be for these players to go to a Vanilla tournament and see all of their hard work fall apart as they realized their practice had been unsuited to it the whole time. Finally, UCF was pushed hard by a significant portion of the visible top playerbase, including several of the 25 and a couple members of the 5 themselves. This legitimized UCF even in spite of setbacks like Shine 2017, and led to the UCF movement coalescing as a whole.
What this left us with, in October, was no way to justify or support using UCF as a national standard, but also no way to blanket ban it without crippling national attendance and turning away half of the current player base. It was only in the zero-hour of 2017, over the Christmas holidays, that we were able to have a meeting with some movement. This amendment is the product of over 10 hours of Christmas-week meetings on the issue.
The amendment is simple: Since we can't outright legalize and standardize UCF, this amendment turns UCF over to TO discretion. Included below are submission statements from each of the members of the 5:
Nintendude: Regarding UCF Standardization and Regarding TO Discretion
Sheridan: Regarding Both Votes
Juggleguy: I voted no to UCF for a few reasons. The first reason is there's a slippery slope that comes with software mods that I don't want to see the community go down. I hold vanilla Melee in a sort of reverence; we have played this game since its release without ever modding it for tournament gameplay, and who are we to do so now, especially if it opens the floodgates to other mods? The second reason is it increases the perceived barrier to entry for new players who are crucial to the sustainability of the scene. A 16-year old game played on CRT TVs doesn't need to introduce another hurdle to its own potential growth. I would rather see vanilla Melee played with its flaws than see the community fizzle out due to the final straw in lack of accessibility. The third reason is it places a huge stress on major TOs who need to be mindful of external legal factors when organizing large events, which often require contracts with several entities and sponsors. I'd ask everyone to please understand that the non-disclosure agreements from these make it difficult to be 100% transparent.
Shi: Due to the delicate nature of IP and Copyright Infringement laws and that different organizations have different needs and requirements, there is not a one shoe fits all solution to UCF. I firmly believe there needs to be a solution for the problems at hand but also understand there are constraints in the scope in which we can operate. Therefore my vote for the use of UCF is that it will be at the discretion of TO's to use it as they see fit with the needs of their event.
Blur: Regarding both votes
You can find the text of the amendment here
VOTE HERE
I also wanted to add a last note, which is that the 'silver bullet' solution to the controller lottery has to come in the form of a visible hardware adapter. The arduino was a good start to this end, but because it is easily concealed and easily configured, there are logistical issues with it. The ideal solution is to make a hardware adapter for the connection between the GCC and the console that could be standardized and easily checked. Software mods have legal limitations; hardware does not. Again, apologies for the delay on this issue. We will be passing the amendment to legalize box controllers to the 25 very soon, so please keep an eye out for it.
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