Welcome to the sixth installment of Super Smash Fighter! This week, we're going to be doing something a little different and discussing the nature of updating a fighting game, and how it affects the meta.
When a new game designed for competitive play is released, it usually receives several balance patches, which adjust the nature of the game and its characters with several buffs, nerfs, or outright re-works. The time it takes for these patches to come out tend to vary depending on the development team behind the game, the publishers, and what needs to be adjusted or updated. Some games will receive a whole update, with balance changes and added content. These updates usually come with the addition of DLC, as the game needs to be adjusted around a new character or stage, and players without the DLC need to be able to play with characters who purchased the DLC (assuming the game has online play).
There are some older games, however, that didn't have the luxury of being patched or updated. Without online functionality, Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of them. Sure, there was technically a bugfix update on later releases of the game, as well as PAL, but in terms of NTSC Melee, it was barely touched, and balance wasn't the main focus of the small update it received. Since the game was never updated, the game's meta has had 15 years to develop into what it is today.
Melee now has a (mostly) agreed upon tier list and stage list, as well as strategies and techniques used across the whole cast, and unique playstyles for each character. That doesn't mean the game is balanced, however. For the most part, only about 8 characters are considered viable, and among those 8 characters, there's still a widely agreed upon "best" character. This led to a majority of the competitive scene using less than half the cast. This also has its benefits, of course. The matchups of these 8 characters have been explored more than most matchups in any other game. Players have explored every nook and cranny of each matchup, to the point where there's almost nothing left to discover.
Alternatively, let's take a look at a traditional fighter that was never updated: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. 3rd Strike, released over 17 years ago, has never been updated outside of a patch that improved the online functionality in the modern re-release of the game. Although the game's competitive scene didn't thrive as long as Melee's did, 3rd Strike still dominated the fighting game scene for almost 10 years. 3rd Strike is still considered to be the best fighting game ever made by much of the fighting game community.
Similarly to Melee, 3rd Strike has some of the same problems and benefits from not getting updated. The game's tier list hasn't changed much over the years. The game's tier list has, for the most part, been set in stone with a clear "best" and "worst" character. Most of the matchups have been explored and fleshed out to the point where they can't be pushed any further.
Although never updating a game has the advantage of in depth matchups and a well developed meta, it also means that anything considered too good or too bad will stay that way. Kirby will never officially be viable, and Fox will always be the best character. There will never be any additions to the game either through DLC, making the game's cast final.
Most game developers have learned from previous mistakes and apply balance to their game fairly well before the game is released. Despite this, players often find exploits or oversights that the developers and beta players didn't notice. This will eventually lead games that seemed incredibly balanced to have a similar fate to the previous games we discussed. This isn't the case, however, with the inclusion of balance patches and updates. One game that had this luxury was Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, or for simplicity's sake, Smash 4.
The first significant example of Smash 4's patches affecting the game was Diddy's nerfs in 1.0.6. At the time, Diddy was considered by many to be the best character in the game, with his "Hoo-Ha", a community made name for his down throw to up-air combo, being arguably the best kill confirm in the game, killing most of the cast incredibly early. The 1.0.6 update nerfed this combo by changing both moves, as well as much of his movelist to make much of Diddy's attacks do less damage and knockback.
There were also buffs implemented into the game throughout several updates. Most notably, Mewtwo was given more speed, making him a much better character all around, Bowser was given a followup on up throw, which made his grab game much more threatening, and some characters, like Lucario, were indirectly buffed by changes in the shieldstun formula.
Now, on the traditional fighter side, we have the game Skullgirls. Although Skullgirls didn't actually update very often, there was a version of the game on PC called the Skullgirls Endless Beta, which had several updates with balance patches. These balance adjustments would be chosen based on several factors, then put in the Endless Beta for testing. The adjustments would then be added to the full version of the game based on player feedback. Although these updates didn't significantly change any characters (which is expected in a game with a cast of only 14 characters), it led to many adjustments to fine tune the game into what it is today.
Updating a game like this can prevent any character or option from being too strong, but at the same time, it can prevent the meta from flourishing. You'll often see new techniques or exploits get patched out before they can be fully explored, or sometimes, even full mechanics, like Smash 4's vectoring. Although Skullgirls doesn't face this issue (since its patches are based on community feedback), it can lead to some issues with the players. Since the Endless Beta isn't used in tournaments, not many people play it for too long, aside from just checking out the updates. Also, by making any big changes to a game, the meta could be thrown for a loop.
Another way to update a game is to do it after a long period of time. This gives the meta time to develop, and gives the developers time to make choices on what to change. A great example of a game that did this was Project M. The famous mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl had much to add and adjust, and a team of people who applied all of these updates for free with their free time. This led to a lot of time between updates.
Let's take a look at version 3.02. This version of the game was the first version to feature the current full cast of characters, and was one of the most popular versions of the game. A big problem that version 3.0 faced, however, was its unbalanced cast of characters. There were several characters who had way too many tools, and many of these tools were far too strong.
About 10 months after 3.02, version 3.5 was released. This patch was met with much with harsh criticism, as it accommodated a new design philosophy that led to much of the patch getting nerfed or drastically changed. Although this led to a split in the community, many of the changes were justified and led to a game that had less "jank" and a more balanced cast. A new meta developed around this patch, with new characters seeing more success in brackets, and new discussion about tiers. The next update came about 7 months later, with 3.6 beta. This update changed the whole cast yet again, some with new reworked moves, some nerfed, some buffed, and some were left relatively untouched.
The unintended final version released only two months later, with community feedback from the last patch being the primary source for balance. This led to the most balanced version of the game being released, and although there are still some characters that people consider good and bad, opinions on characters are constantly changing over a year after the update's release, and there's no agreed upon tier list.
Now, for the traditional fighter side of this, we have Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator. Guilty Gear Xrd was first released as Guilty Gear Xrd: -SIGN-, and Revelator is actually an updated version of that. Sign received a few changes before the release of Revelator, but most of these changes were in between the release of the Japanese and American releases. This means that the American version of the game was essentially the final version of the game.
With Sign released in both America and Japan, the developers had a lot to observe the meta, and how best to adjust it. Revelator released about a year and a half after Sign, and had no balance changes, but added several characters. Once all of the DLC characters were released (aside from Dizzy), a balance patch was released. This gave the developers time to see how the meta would develop with the new characters, and they adjusted the whole cast accordingly. This patch didn't lead to any huge changes, since the game was already quite balanced, but it led to some of the stronger characters being less frustrating to play against, and some of the weaker characters having stronger tools.
Through this method of updating, both games developed a meta that was roughly unaffected by the later patches. The games still have fleshed out matchups, and are considered some of the most balanced games in their respective genres.
There are tons of different ways to update a game and apply patches. These methods can all lead to the same level of balance, but they all have their advantages and drawbacks. Alternatively, a game could never update, and keep everything the same. This would lead to the game having an incredibly developed meta, but much of the content may be ignored for it not being viable, and the content that isn't ignored could have glaring issues. No option is necessarily better than the other, but some have led to more success than others.
See you all next week!
When a new game designed for competitive play is released, it usually receives several balance patches, which adjust the nature of the game and its characters with several buffs, nerfs, or outright re-works. The time it takes for these patches to come out tend to vary depending on the development team behind the game, the publishers, and what needs to be adjusted or updated. Some games will receive a whole update, with balance changes and added content. These updates usually come with the addition of DLC, as the game needs to be adjusted around a new character or stage, and players without the DLC need to be able to play with characters who purchased the DLC (assuming the game has online play).
NEVER UPDATED
There are some older games, however, that didn't have the luxury of being patched or updated. Without online functionality, Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of them. Sure, there was technically a bugfix update on later releases of the game, as well as PAL, but in terms of NTSC Melee, it was barely touched, and balance wasn't the main focus of the small update it received. Since the game was never updated, the game's meta has had 15 years to develop into what it is today.
Melee now has a (mostly) agreed upon tier list and stage list, as well as strategies and techniques used across the whole cast, and unique playstyles for each character. That doesn't mean the game is balanced, however. For the most part, only about 8 characters are considered viable, and among those 8 characters, there's still a widely agreed upon "best" character. This led to a majority of the competitive scene using less than half the cast. This also has its benefits, of course. The matchups of these 8 characters have been explored more than most matchups in any other game. Players have explored every nook and cranny of each matchup, to the point where there's almost nothing left to discover.
Alternatively, let's take a look at a traditional fighter that was never updated: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. 3rd Strike, released over 17 years ago, has never been updated outside of a patch that improved the online functionality in the modern re-release of the game. Although the game's competitive scene didn't thrive as long as Melee's did, 3rd Strike still dominated the fighting game scene for almost 10 years. 3rd Strike is still considered to be the best fighting game ever made by much of the fighting game community.
Similarly to Melee, 3rd Strike has some of the same problems and benefits from not getting updated. The game's tier list hasn't changed much over the years. The game's tier list has, for the most part, been set in stone with a clear "best" and "worst" character. Most of the matchups have been explored and fleshed out to the point where they can't be pushed any further.
Although never updating a game has the advantage of in depth matchups and a well developed meta, it also means that anything considered too good or too bad will stay that way. Kirby will never officially be viable, and Fox will always be the best character. There will never be any additions to the game either through DLC, making the game's cast final.
FREQUENTLY UPDATED
Most game developers have learned from previous mistakes and apply balance to their game fairly well before the game is released. Despite this, players often find exploits or oversights that the developers and beta players didn't notice. This will eventually lead games that seemed incredibly balanced to have a similar fate to the previous games we discussed. This isn't the case, however, with the inclusion of balance patches and updates. One game that had this luxury was Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, or for simplicity's sake, Smash 4.
The first significant example of Smash 4's patches affecting the game was Diddy's nerfs in 1.0.6. At the time, Diddy was considered by many to be the best character in the game, with his "Hoo-Ha", a community made name for his down throw to up-air combo, being arguably the best kill confirm in the game, killing most of the cast incredibly early. The 1.0.6 update nerfed this combo by changing both moves, as well as much of his movelist to make much of Diddy's attacks do less damage and knockback.
There were also buffs implemented into the game throughout several updates. Most notably, Mewtwo was given more speed, making him a much better character all around, Bowser was given a followup on up throw, which made his grab game much more threatening, and some characters, like Lucario, were indirectly buffed by changes in the shieldstun formula.
Now, on the traditional fighter side, we have the game Skullgirls. Although Skullgirls didn't actually update very often, there was a version of the game on PC called the Skullgirls Endless Beta, which had several updates with balance patches. These balance adjustments would be chosen based on several factors, then put in the Endless Beta for testing. The adjustments would then be added to the full version of the game based on player feedback. Although these updates didn't significantly change any characters (which is expected in a game with a cast of only 14 characters), it led to many adjustments to fine tune the game into what it is today.
Updating a game like this can prevent any character or option from being too strong, but at the same time, it can prevent the meta from flourishing. You'll often see new techniques or exploits get patched out before they can be fully explored, or sometimes, even full mechanics, like Smash 4's vectoring. Although Skullgirls doesn't face this issue (since its patches are based on community feedback), it can lead to some issues with the players. Since the Endless Beta isn't used in tournaments, not many people play it for too long, aside from just checking out the updates. Also, by making any big changes to a game, the meta could be thrown for a loop.
RARELY UPDATED
Another way to update a game is to do it after a long period of time. This gives the meta time to develop, and gives the developers time to make choices on what to change. A great example of a game that did this was Project M. The famous mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl had much to add and adjust, and a team of people who applied all of these updates for free with their free time. This led to a lot of time between updates.
Let's take a look at version 3.02. This version of the game was the first version to feature the current full cast of characters, and was one of the most popular versions of the game. A big problem that version 3.0 faced, however, was its unbalanced cast of characters. There were several characters who had way too many tools, and many of these tools were far too strong.
About 10 months after 3.02, version 3.5 was released. This patch was met with much with harsh criticism, as it accommodated a new design philosophy that led to much of the patch getting nerfed or drastically changed. Although this led to a split in the community, many of the changes were justified and led to a game that had less "jank" and a more balanced cast. A new meta developed around this patch, with new characters seeing more success in brackets, and new discussion about tiers. The next update came about 7 months later, with 3.6 beta. This update changed the whole cast yet again, some with new reworked moves, some nerfed, some buffed, and some were left relatively untouched.
The unintended final version released only two months later, with community feedback from the last patch being the primary source for balance. This led to the most balanced version of the game being released, and although there are still some characters that people consider good and bad, opinions on characters are constantly changing over a year after the update's release, and there's no agreed upon tier list.
Now, for the traditional fighter side of this, we have Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator. Guilty Gear Xrd was first released as Guilty Gear Xrd: -SIGN-, and Revelator is actually an updated version of that. Sign received a few changes before the release of Revelator, but most of these changes were in between the release of the Japanese and American releases. This means that the American version of the game was essentially the final version of the game.
With Sign released in both America and Japan, the developers had a lot to observe the meta, and how best to adjust it. Revelator released about a year and a half after Sign, and had no balance changes, but added several characters. Once all of the DLC characters were released (aside from Dizzy), a balance patch was released. This gave the developers time to see how the meta would develop with the new characters, and they adjusted the whole cast accordingly. This patch didn't lead to any huge changes, since the game was already quite balanced, but it led to some of the stronger characters being less frustrating to play against, and some of the weaker characters having stronger tools.
Through this method of updating, both games developed a meta that was roughly unaffected by the later patches. The games still have fleshed out matchups, and are considered some of the most balanced games in their respective genres.
CONCLUSION
There are tons of different ways to update a game and apply patches. These methods can all lead to the same level of balance, but they all have their advantages and drawbacks. Alternatively, a game could never update, and keep everything the same. This would lead to the game having an incredibly developed meta, but much of the content may be ignored for it not being viable, and the content that isn't ignored could have glaring issues. No option is necessarily better than the other, but some have led to more success than others.
See you all next week!
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