SSB4: How Nintendo could turn the (competitve) beat back.

[Player-1]

was it hard to type that with a straight face?

 

[lordvaati]

I honestly am glad that Sakurai is directing Smash once again. God knows how crappy the next game would have turned out if it was directed by someone else.

not if it was done by miyamoto.

 

[Lythium]

Not necessarily.

 

[Big-Cat]

At the very least, Miyamoto would've emphasized the multiplayer as he advised Sakurai to do that from the beginning.

 

[Mr.Jackpot]

I honestly am glad that Sakurai is directing Smash once again. God knows how crappy the next game would have turned out if it was directed by someone else.

I actually laughed.

 

[Lit]

was it hard to type that with a straight face?

lololololol to funny...

 

[Jonas]

That's a ... Skewed viewed.
With that mindset you can basically say any game is competitive just because people are playing it competitively.
I've witnessed pokemon puzzle league side tournaments before, does that mean it's competitive?
Hell no.

Thing is, Pokemon Puzzle League has a clearly defined set of rules within the boundaries of which the game takes place. The game also uses these rules to define a victor at the end of each round. Hence it is possible to interact with the game in a way that insures you will be the victor, and not your opponent. When you do this for the sake of winning, it's called competition, and since the game allows you to play like that (ie it rewards one player for playing better than the other) it's a competitive game.

In the end it doesn't really matter however, because there are no "competitive games" or "casual games." There are only certain attitudes towards different games, and if a group of people, who are competitive by nature, share a common interest in a specific game (be it Star Craft, Street Fighter, Smash, Mario Kart or Pokemon Puzzle League), of course they are going to make a competition out of it, regardless of the designer's intentions.

Honestly I don't understand why people care so much about the designer's intentions. What, do people have such severe daddy issues with Sakurai that they're afraid of breaking his unwritten rules for how to play Smash Bros.?

Of course, it goes without saying that certain games lend themselves better to competition than others, but is it really too much to ask this of Smash Bros.?
Melee is good because it allows you to play competitively by removing random or degenerate variables, but it also has a low entry barrier and tons of random (but optional) stuff going on, which makes it ideal as a party game. It's all-inclusive.
Brawl, on the other hand, seeks to exclude people (competitive gamers). It doesn't have a lower entry barrier, it just has shallower gameplay.