Tier List Construction Discussion and Proposal [Read Below]

[Radical Larry]

Tier lists are an inevitability that people often see within the Super Smash Bros. games, as well as the fan mod of Project M for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Tier lists are even common in fighting and RPG games, as well as some shooters. However, let me get into the discussion at hand, the thought of how the tier list could and/or should be constructed.

I myself would propose that we construct a Tier List in a fashion as shown below, and I will explain why:

This is not my opinion of a tier list at all, this is merely an example of what the Tier List could be comprised of. It is here for you to look at the amount of rows and how the tiers are titled. What I propose is a 4 rowed Technical tier list that uses not Height or Letters as constructs, but rather, just titles of viability leaning from Viable all the way up to Elite. Now you have to look at it for its value, and I will tell you that the construction of the tier list shown above is definitely very slim, very organized and very fair and balanced as a whole.

However, we then look at this example of a tier list by comparison:

In this, you can kind of see the very messy rows, the biggest separation of tiers and an overall bad example of how a tier list can be constructed. Having more than 4 or 5 different types of tiers will effectively make it a hassle to make a decent tier list, and considering that people will often want tier lists split up more and more, you can kind of see how horrible and flawed this construct is. This is something akin to disorganization, and it's not a good type of tier list to make.

The thought is, is that the less amount of tiers you have, the better it is to make a tier list. As well, I will give a benefit that my proposal for the tier list would do that other tier lists don't: Fairness. Instead of ranking tiers into ordered categorizations, my proposal in fact makes it to where no character is truly treated like they're being categorized as worse outside numerical values. While it may not be seen and it may not be reported, there are players out there who will base their character choice solely on where they are on a tier list, and the ordered tier lists affect that drastically.

People will assume that the characters who are much lower are not viable and as such, will avoid them unless they dedicate themselves to the characters. With my proposal, that will not even be a remote issue as all characters are treated as viable on the bottom and it goes higher from there. As well, the Balance comes in when you can have a very slimmed down and more readable tier list. Characters aren't divided as much and even when the characters are ordered from best to worst, it's not treated that way as the characters are rated from best in viability to least in viability, while all characters are still treated as viable. End result? People don't have to always choose the best of the best if they base their choices solely on the tier list construct.

So this is my proposal, what would your guys's proposals be? Do you have a tier list construct that could be more viable? Or do you have any arguments against my own proposal? This is a free realm to discuss opinions on what the constructs of the tier list could be. And I'd like to hear your thoughts.

This discussion could be for the future of Tier List construction in Smash for Wii U and 3DS.

 

[AnchorTea]

I don't understand what you mean by fairness in the first example. You're implying its more fair because the bottom row is named viable. You can do the same for the second example except it would look "less aesthetically pleasing". (All tier lists look messy unless you make a pictured one thats been through 20 mins of photoshop).

 

[Radical Larry]

Actually, you're very spot on with your post. The list would be fair as it would give characters a chance, and my proposal looks more pleasing, aesthetically speaking.

But what would you rather take? Which one would be better for people?

 

[Gunla]

Look.

Tier lists will rarely live up to everyone's expectations. You've already been asked to not just do this in the CCI because it's a Red Topic there, and just slamming down and talking down to the traditional style of tier lists and how they're bad and "need" revision in another thread doesn't change it.