Papapaint
Just your average kind of Luigi.
As it is a necessary fashion, I will precede this post by saying THERE ARE SEVERAL THREADS FOR THE MELEE VS. BRAWL DEBATE. DO NOT BRING THAT CRAP INTO THIS THREAD. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A GAME'S COMPETITIVE VALUE.
This is the first article in a potential series of articles.
Competitive video game has a very rough-and-tumble growth. When video games were first created, they were meant as nothing more than time-wasting quarter-eaters, games where people could mindlessly enjoy themselves. After a little while, a very small community of arcade-goers grew, and then the single biggest revolution in gaming community history occured:
The High Score List
Many people would probably argue that this was the biggest step forward in competitive gaming. That may be true. But more than that, it formed the first gaming communities. People would practice and play and share (or keep secret) their knowledge, while others would watch and challenge, learn and comment, and work to have their initials in that #1 spot. There was no fame in this. People would not know who "ARN" was, or the real identity of "PBK". The only people who would know resided within the community itself.
Over time, this lead to challenges. Communities would take their champion and pit him against another locality's champion. They'd compete head to head, with 20-30 onlookers. It was here that the development of individual communities was evident; different styles were clear, different methods. Some were riskier, some were more careful, but in the end, everyone would learn something from the experience. The individual communities would retain their styles and still walk away having learned a few new tricks.
The communities didn't consist solely of that 30-year old bearded guy who could make the Mrs. Pac-Man arcade game glitch out by "beating it", or the 20-year old "Space Invader" champions. It also included the young kids who would go watch--perhaps never hoping to get to that play level, but watching, appreciating, admiring, maybe learning. The communities would generally do their best to be receptive to the new, young members, and welcome them (even if only as spectators).
With the advent of in-home video game systems, these communities saw a massive decline. Video games truly did lose their competitive value. Once computer games started to develop faster than console games, the idea of an "arcade" became even more obsolete. It wasn't until the advent of computer networks that communities started to form.
Enter: Doom
Doom was perhaps the first real networking computer game success. People could deathmatch against one another... in their offices. Small communities were built around this, but competitive gaming didn't really pick back up until
The Internet
A widely available internet changed gaming forever. People could discuss games online, set up tournaments, find other people, share emails, set up forums, etc. Suddenly, you could learn about something someone halfway across the world did to a game. There were scoreboards online where you could put your entire name... not just three ambiguous initials. Competitive gaming, and the communities built around it, re-emerged stronger than ever.
Smash
The whole fighting game community is possibly one of the most interesting and exclusive communities in the gaming world. Take, for example, FPS games. Because of their online system, anyone can learn. Anyone can pick up Counterstrike, get trashed in a few rounds, and then kind of settle down around a level at which they are comfortable. Maybe that's a low level, and they keep working to get better, but aren't too concerned with it. That may well be the case. But they can still be part of that community; they can still learn, they can still contribute, and they will frequently be accepted with open arms... probably not by a heavily competitive server, but certainly by most servers.
Fighting games, however, are almost always restricted to in-person competition. This has led to a community very much mirroring the original communities. Groups of people would play, find their best players, and have them compete with other best players. The internet allowed this to happen much more easily, but also provided in interesting step further. The community began to exclude anyone who wasn't one of the best... unintentionally. It wasn't malicious; it was simply that the top players would spend their time getting better with other top players. There was also no real reason for new players to watch or learn, because they could simply go home and play the game themselves at whatever level they wished.
As such, games like Street Fighter, Smash, Tekken... all these games were built on communities of solely competitive players. This doesn't mean that competitive players don't have fun, but it does mean that it's hard to be a part of the community without being a competitive player, as you once could. "Right" and "Wrong" ways to play were formed within the community. Bans were made. Changes to games, bugs, and exploits were found. This applies to all competitive fighting games.
However, Smash is quite possibly unique among fighters in that it is, at its core, a party game. Not only is the community made out of top players, it's made out of people who pushed it beyond its limits, and created a community out of it.
Brawl
For some reason, Brawl has shattered our community. Fire is slung in all directions. People haven't come together to share their ideas so much as argue about them. Everyone thinks their way is the right way. This does, in fact, apply to very nearly everyone. Open minds have become less common. We, as a community, have fallen apart. There is no way to debate this. New discoveries (and old ones, for that matter) are met with constant opposition and debate. New users are insulted before being welcomed, and old users are insulted for being settled in the community.
We need to understand that our community is shifting. Perhaps not permanently. Perhaps not for long. But everyone needs to calm the f*ck down. We're all at each other's throats, and this 9-year-old community is on the verge of collapsing because of everyone's tension. We need to open up, try new things, try old things, and be more welcoming on all fronts.
Use this thread as you wish. Use it to rant, use it to concede. Use it for some of your best memories of the smash community, or some of your worst. Talk about where you want this community to go, and where you think it is.
Let's make a community again.
This is the first article in a potential series of articles.
Competitive video game has a very rough-and-tumble growth. When video games were first created, they were meant as nothing more than time-wasting quarter-eaters, games where people could mindlessly enjoy themselves. After a little while, a very small community of arcade-goers grew, and then the single biggest revolution in gaming community history occured:
The High Score List
Many people would probably argue that this was the biggest step forward in competitive gaming. That may be true. But more than that, it formed the first gaming communities. People would practice and play and share (or keep secret) their knowledge, while others would watch and challenge, learn and comment, and work to have their initials in that #1 spot. There was no fame in this. People would not know who "ARN" was, or the real identity of "PBK". The only people who would know resided within the community itself.
Over time, this lead to challenges. Communities would take their champion and pit him against another locality's champion. They'd compete head to head, with 20-30 onlookers. It was here that the development of individual communities was evident; different styles were clear, different methods. Some were riskier, some were more careful, but in the end, everyone would learn something from the experience. The individual communities would retain their styles and still walk away having learned a few new tricks.
The communities didn't consist solely of that 30-year old bearded guy who could make the Mrs. Pac-Man arcade game glitch out by "beating it", or the 20-year old "Space Invader" champions. It also included the young kids who would go watch--perhaps never hoping to get to that play level, but watching, appreciating, admiring, maybe learning. The communities would generally do their best to be receptive to the new, young members, and welcome them (even if only as spectators).
With the advent of in-home video game systems, these communities saw a massive decline. Video games truly did lose their competitive value. Once computer games started to develop faster than console games, the idea of an "arcade" became even more obsolete. It wasn't until the advent of computer networks that communities started to form.
Enter: Doom
Doom was perhaps the first real networking computer game success. People could deathmatch against one another... in their offices. Small communities were built around this, but competitive gaming didn't really pick back up until
The Internet
A widely available internet changed gaming forever. People could discuss games online, set up tournaments, find other people, share emails, set up forums, etc. Suddenly, you could learn about something someone halfway across the world did to a game. There were scoreboards online where you could put your entire name... not just three ambiguous initials. Competitive gaming, and the communities built around it, re-emerged stronger than ever.
Smash
The whole fighting game community is possibly one of the most interesting and exclusive communities in the gaming world. Take, for example, FPS games. Because of their online system, anyone can learn. Anyone can pick up Counterstrike, get trashed in a few rounds, and then kind of settle down around a level at which they are comfortable. Maybe that's a low level, and they keep working to get better, but aren't too concerned with it. That may well be the case. But they can still be part of that community; they can still learn, they can still contribute, and they will frequently be accepted with open arms... probably not by a heavily competitive server, but certainly by most servers.
Fighting games, however, are almost always restricted to in-person competition. This has led to a community very much mirroring the original communities. Groups of people would play, find their best players, and have them compete with other best players. The internet allowed this to happen much more easily, but also provided in interesting step further. The community began to exclude anyone who wasn't one of the best... unintentionally. It wasn't malicious; it was simply that the top players would spend their time getting better with other top players. There was also no real reason for new players to watch or learn, because they could simply go home and play the game themselves at whatever level they wished.
As such, games like Street Fighter, Smash, Tekken... all these games were built on communities of solely competitive players. This doesn't mean that competitive players don't have fun, but it does mean that it's hard to be a part of the community without being a competitive player, as you once could. "Right" and "Wrong" ways to play were formed within the community. Bans were made. Changes to games, bugs, and exploits were found. This applies to all competitive fighting games.
However, Smash is quite possibly unique among fighters in that it is, at its core, a party game. Not only is the community made out of top players, it's made out of people who pushed it beyond its limits, and created a community out of it.
Brawl
For some reason, Brawl has shattered our community. Fire is slung in all directions. People haven't come together to share their ideas so much as argue about them. Everyone thinks their way is the right way. This does, in fact, apply to very nearly everyone. Open minds have become less common. We, as a community, have fallen apart. There is no way to debate this. New discoveries (and old ones, for that matter) are met with constant opposition and debate. New users are insulted before being welcomed, and old users are insulted for being settled in the community.
We need to understand that our community is shifting. Perhaps not permanently. Perhaps not for long. But everyone needs to calm the f*ck down. We're all at each other's throats, and this 9-year-old community is on the verge of collapsing because of everyone's tension. We need to open up, try new things, try old things, and be more welcoming on all fronts.
Use this thread as you wish. Use it to rant, use it to concede. Use it for some of your best memories of the smash community, or some of your worst. Talk about where you want this community to go, and where you think it is.
Let's make a community again.
