The Smash Brothers - Series Discussion

[Spralwers]

I saw this on my friend's FB, so I'll be advertising through there as well. Like everyone else said, terrific job on the documentary. You captured the cultural aspect so well, especially on the feelings and emotions of the actual players themselves. I think that makes the documentary so accessible to people. I was really hoping to see the wombo combo though. That moment captured team synergy, crowd going wild, and amazing commentary all in one package so well.

 

[Rusty Shacklefurd]

This thread may end up holding the record for inspiring most first posts from forum members.

 

[Papa+Stone]

Wow youre right

 

[Hot_ArmS]

lmao too good

 

[Roski]

Can anyone rip the song from the documentary when they show all the 8 players in the intro?

 

[Swann]

You mean this song?

 

[BJWanlund]

I have sort of been on the periphery of the Smash community for a few years now, played a ton of Melee vs. the CPU and when I first met my buddy Nebs his Falcon just ripped me to shreds and I had to find out more.

But man, this documentary. I have to say, every ounce of the production values that went into this just had me picking my jaw up off the floor (including the drop-dead gorgeous 8-bit style map of the US... wow...). Getting to know Mew2King and the other Smashers was an interesting experience to say the very least and I can't wait to get back into Melee after about a year-plus away from playing the game. Plus my making this account is purely because of the documentary. Tis FABULOUS and I cannot wait to see the Remastered episodes myself.

 

[Roski]

I just hope they keep adding onto the documentary... PART 10, PART 11 so forth!

It'd be nice :3

 

[SmashCentralOfficial]

Is there a download of the full documentary? I would love to have this on my phone.

 

[Laem]

Great documentary!
...Now I know more about the American melee history than the European one tho
A shame Azen wasn't an interviewee.

 

[GCS Gaming Customs]

pls, more epic first posts

Great documentary!
...Now I know more about the American melee history than the European one tho
A shame Azen wasn't an interviewee.

He pbly would just stare into us, not even a word... I don't think we missed out on much

Great job on this, maybe ill go play that one game now

 

[zerokoh]

I've always been a bit of a lurker. I participated in a handful of random NJ/NY based tournaments and made a lot of friends, however, I really haven't played smash since brawl was released. This documentary not only hit me "right in the feels" - but rekindled my love of the game and the community.

Since watching all 9 episodes (repeatedly), I've reconnected with my old crew, bought a GC and have been practicing non-stop. I'm planning to enter every tournament in the area that I have access to. This documentary is not simply well done - This is an outstanding and accurate representation of the smash community I remembered and loved so well. There's just nothing like it.

Thanks to everyone for making this community what it is.
Big thanks to @samox for this documentary.

 

[Alexo30]

Isai <3

 

[Heefe]

Few hours later... damn, I watched all of the episodes in a row. Speechless... too bad there is no real competition in Germany...

 

[Beat!]

Uh, Germany has a pretty large smash scene, and Ice is one of the best players in Europe. They had a national tournament this weekend with about 70 people attending.

 

[Heefe]

Uh, Germany has a pretty large smash scene, and Ice is one of the best players in Europe. They had a national tournament this weekend with about 70 people attending.

I'm bound to my job atm and none of my friends play Smash so I'll be doomed forever.^^

 

[Str4y]

I just finished the documentary... It is an amazing one. I don't think people outside the community really understand the magnitude of Melee and what it means to so many people. It became something more than a game. It became a livelihood which everyone was able to do something that they love with others who loved it as well. I am so excited to get more involved with ssbm. It is so fun! Thank you for the documentary once again.

 

[Sorick]

I just registered specifically to tell you how awesome this documentary was. I only started following smash in the last year or so, which means I missed most of it but the documentary is so well done it makes me feel like I`ve just had a recap of everything that happened, which makes me want to stick around for some time.

 

[jvarg1990]

Made an account just to say how much I loved the documentary! I had a few qualms with little things (font choice, some narration, etc) but overall it was a wonderful experience. I ended up watching every episode in the span of a morning and had no regrets of doing so ;D

 

[metroid1117]

Samox, thank you for creating this documentary and sharing our community's story. As someone who started lurking way back in 2005 (for those of you who may only know me from PM, I've been around for a while ), it was awesome to re-live the stories and events that filled up my favorite high school past time.

 

[nooga]

Yeah can someone link the remastered one when it comes out, I really don't want to miss it.

 

[Strong Badam]

Rare Melee forum post from me.

You did Melee's history justice, Samox. Well played and well done. I hope you get it published and make some money off of it someday, because you deserve it. Loved every minute.

 

[Calzum!]

got in from a party at 2am on Friday and just watched this from start to finish, it was great and just made me wanna play again

Isai seems like the most chill dude in the world man, id love to have a conversation with him

 

[MookieRah]

I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary. It really was nice to remember some of those events (Husband talking trash at Smash AID comes to mind xD). That was up until episode 8. At that point... you really turned me off to the whole thing. It's one thing to have lots of interviewee's that say **** often, but when you include a **** joke in the documentary as something that was "significant" for everyone to know, it speaks very poorly of the community. Later you attempt to "address" the issue of gaming terminology was basically just a big set-up for a **** joke... Which basically communicates to everyone watching that you, the documentary maker, don't really give a damn and think the whole thing is a joke.

All of this, of course, was done on the episode that contained a lot of footage from Melee FC Legacy, a tournament which banned the word **** and other hate speech. It featured mine and my wife's design work for that tournament which we worked hard on as well. Hell, the FC Legacy logo and the FC 6 shirt a TO was wearing was pretty much the only impact my actions have had on the events in the documentary. It's quite frustrating. You have essentially tied the worst aspects of the community to people who are trying to actually clean this scene up and be more respectable.

As MilkTea said, if the community really wants to have more people in it (especially women) then we really need to clean up our act. This documentary could have made a big push for that, but instead you took the route of turning it all into a joke.

 

[idea]

Was gonna wait for my DVD to arrive, but everyone keeps talking about it so I couldn't wait any longer and marathoned the whole thing until 5 AM two nights ago

Amazing stuff dude, very professional and entertaining. Even the little jokes you inserted as transitions all worked really well.

I'm still kind of starting out with my career too, but if I ever get the chance, I'll try to write about your documentary for whatever big gaming journalism site will let me. (Although that'll take a while, so you should probably just send a news tip to some of those sites yourself. If any of them like the idea, tons of free publicity.)

But, uhhh...why did you use a Korean song during the Japan trip portion?

 

[Accelerator]

I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary. It really was nice to remember some of those events (Husband talking trash at Smash AID comes to mind xD). That was up until episode 8. At that point... you really turned me off to the whole thing. It's one thing to have lots of interviewee's that say **** often, but when you include a **** joke in the documentary as something that was "significant" for everyone to know, it speaks very poorly of the community. Later you attempt to "address" the issue of gaming terminology was basically just a big set-up for a **** joke... Which basically communicates to everyone watching that you, the documentary maker, don't really give a damn and think the whole thing is a joke.

All of this, of course, was done on the episode that contained a lot of footage from Melee FC Legacy, a tournament which banned the word **** and other hate speech. It featured mine and my wife's design work for that tournament which we worked hard on as well. Hell, the FC Legacy logo and the FC 6 shirt a TO was wearing was pretty much the only impact my actions have had on the events in the documentary. It's quite frustrating. You have essentially tied the worst aspects of the community to people who are trying to actually clean this scene up and be more respectable.

As MilkTea said, if the community really wants to have more people in it (especially women) then we really need to clean up our act. This documentary could have made a big push for that, but instead you took the route of turning it all into a joke.

I have a better idea, why don't people grow some skin?

 

[MookieRah]

I have a better idea, why don't people grow some skin?

You say that, but common human decency reasons aside, smash and fighting games in general will not get much exposure with the community the way it is. There is a reason why sponsors pulled away from Destiny after all of his shenanigans in the StarCraft world, there is a reason why Capcom had to publicly apologize for the cross assault debacle. If you really want to support smash you should push for professionalism and ethical discourse, regardless of whether or not you care about the people around you.

If you want to continue to act the way you do, fine (well not really, but nobody can force you to have sympathy/empathy here), but just know that you are basically hurting the scene each time you toss out the word ****, racial slurs, and hate speech. The spotlight is on us right now as well, with all the other incidents of misogyny in gaming that have been cropping up lately. This could have been something that set us apart from the other communities, cause while there are problems, they aren't as bad as a lot of other groups.

 

[Accelerator]

You say that, but common human decency reasons aside, smash and fighting games in general will not get much exposure with the community the way it is. There is a reason why sponsors pulled away from Destiny after all of his shenanigans in the StarCraft world, there is a reason why Capcom had to publicly apologize for the cross assault debacle. If you really want to support smash you should push for professionalism and ethical discourse, regardless of whether or not you care about the people around you.

If you want to continue to act the way you do, fine (well not really, but nobody can force you to have sympathy/empathy here), but just know that you are basically hurting the scene each time you toss out the word ****, racial slurs, and hate speech. The spotlight is on us right now as well, with all the other incidents of misogyny in gaming that have been cropping up lately. This could have been something that set us apart from the other communities, cause while there are problems, they aren't as bad as a lot of other groups.

There are not other incidents of misogyny in video games, It's called trash talk. It's not my fault or others players fault that people feel the need to make something appear as more than it is, trash talk.

Who said anything about racial slurs or hate speech? I've never heard of people throwing racial slurs or hate speech at others as trash talk. Whenever people seem to bring up this argument of offensive language in a gaming community the word "****" always seems to pop up. That seems to be the only word you're stressing over. Like I said, if one particular word offends you that much, you need to grow some skin.

 

[Darkevilprice995]

You guys accidentally gave PC Chris all the funniest and best lines.

How convenient.

 

[Frame Perfect]

it seems samox met INSANE CARZY GUY. he's a delight

"Homeless man busts out a needle and screams, "I GOT AIDS" at me. He tries to stab me with it a few times. I'm yelling out to the whole train station and no one wants to get involved. So I let him take the bag again and run after him. After a while I realize I can't risk getting AIDs in a tussle, so I tell him I'll give him 20 bucks if he gives me the bag. He counters with 40. I hand him 30 dollars and he goes on his merry crack head way. The rest of Apex 2012 went smoothly." - samox AMA

 

[Metalbro]

This was amazing. Really interesting stuff!

 

[BlakBlastoise]

This documentary is pretty much the only time I bother posting on the threads.
I'm really impressed with the final result, and I'm glad I donated to the cause. Great job.

 

[Sanic4Ever]

This was really well done. I started to get interested in the competitive side of smash bros around a year ago but this makes me wish I could've been a part of it from the beginning.

I feel a little bad now, back when Brawl was new and the fan base started to split I was one of the many people slamming Melee players because I was ignorant about why they really didn't like Brawl. I actually got bored of Brawl faster than any other smash game and knew it felt off even then, but couldn't figure out what it was. If my Melee disk hadn't broken long before Brawl came out maybe I would've realized it sooner. I started learning about the game itself when I realized I didn't actually like Brawl better, but this documentary gave some truly amazing insight into the community surrounding it. Every person that considers themselves a fan of smash bros needs to watch it.

Side Note: Caught major feels at 15:25 of episode 9, what's that song?

 

[Swann]

This one?

 

[Sanic4Ever]

That's the one, thanks a lot.

 

[andzrej]

Like I said, if one particular word offends you that much, you need to grow some skin.

It's not so much being offended as it is being a reflection on the smash community.

Personally, I am not affected at all when someone says "I ***** soandso in a match". You know and I know that it's meant harmlessly and not in a serious manner. However, there are some people who may find it a bit derogatory as throwing it around casually can undermine the trauma and problems with actual ****.

As a T.O. I definitely try to avoid using words like that, but even as a person I try to avoid it because you never know how it can affect someone. If you have an opportunity to be diplomatic and use more neutral statements than ones that might offend some people, why not take it? It does not take much effort, and it comes across much better in the community.

And remember, the people who you are telling to "grow some skin", in this case, may be people who have been directly or indirectly been affected by the real problem of ****. When something like that happens to you, a loved one, a friend, or someone in your life, it is not as simple as just brushing it off.

A little tact goes a long way.

 

[MookieRah]

That seems to be the only word you're stressing over. Like I said, if one particular word offends you that much, you need to grow some skin.

**** is quite common, and is quite traumatic for most **** victims. It's hard enough for them to move on with their lives as it is, much less with people casually throwing the word around. In severe cases it can trigger PTSD flashbacks. It's simply not something that one just "shrugs" off.

throwing it around casually can undermine the trauma and problems with actual ****.

This is also very true. Because it is so common in gaming communities, a lot of people don't understand how traumatic it actually is for it's victims. To make matters even worse, it encourages actual rapists as they see it as everyone does it. This is known as **** culture, and the gaming community is full of it.

Who said anything about racial slurs or hate speech?

Calling someone or someone who uses tactics you don't approve of gay or faggy are the biggest examples of these. In this case, you are associating someone's sexual preference with something negative. DoH talks about this as well. Other hate speech/racial slurs crop up here and there, but very rarely. Thankfully not many people are dropping n-bombs all the time. Hate speech/racial slurs basically just includes any words that don't have any real meanings outside of disparaging a group of people.

As a T.O. I definitely try to avoid using words like that, but even as a person I try to avoid it because you never know how it can affect someone. If you have an opportunity to be diplomatic and use more neutral statements than ones that might offend some people, why not take it? It does not take much effort, and it comes across much better in the community.

This is the end all, be all point of my previous posts. There aren't many words involved here, is it really that hard to attempt to at least limit their use?

 

[Mew2King]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsqlstAQeg8#t=3m48s

 

[Luma]

I'm bound to my job atm and none of my friends play Smash so I'll be doomed forever.^^

ehm so what?

 

[samox]

@ MookieRah - Offensive gaming terminology is a touchy subject and I probably could have handled it differently. As Wes mentions in that specific section, everyone has a different upbringing and everyone has a different perspective on certain words. Naturally, in a male-dominated and predominantly young community, you would expect to find crass language which may alienate others. That shouldn't surprise anyone. The point of that section was meant to start that discussion, not end it. And it wasn't necessarily a joke to turn to the neutral word 'pwn' as an alternative (though in retrospect I can see why you'd think that's what I meant, given the jaunty music). It just goes to show that even the way you talk about the subject can make people uncomfortable.