Now, see, here's the thing.
I like Melee. I like Melee a lot. I was quite good at it. Was I a pro? No, but I had the advanced techniques down, I knew how to use them, and could put up a good fight. I also like Brawl. Like many Melee players, I'm relatively horrible at Brawl. It's taken me awhile to get used to it. Do I believe I can get better? Certainly.
The fact is, Brawl is not an elaborate game of rock-paper-scissors. Nor is it tic-tac-toe. This GUARANTEES the presence of a metagame as long as one is willing to look for it. A metagame does not depend on physics exploits. The fact is a game in which both players turtle, is, by definition, one that never ends. So somebody's going to have to figure out a way to work around that.
Is my argument that people shouldn't be doing this, that they're some kind of Brawl-playing heathen? No, it's not. My argument is that I will continue to play Brawl, because despite what anyone may tell you, we don't know a lot about it. This is significant for two reasons.
1. A game we don't know a lot about has a lot we don't know about. These things could be used to our advantage to counter turtling's presence in the metagame. I've read people saying that we've pushed the physics engine as far as it can go. That's simply not true. Take, for example, tripping. At some point the Brawl community decided that tripping is simply determined by a random number generator when you start a dash. I will personally buy one of these USB geckos for anyone who can prove this to me. The fact is that the tools available to the Wii homebrew scene simply do not permit that kind of knowledge; unless the Brawl community is harbouring some secret method that gives them more access to the Wii than we've seen possible (and, if you do, really, the rest of the world would like to know), then it's apparent that we don't know everything we could about the physics engine.
2. The device required for this is essentially a hex editor. Despite all of the other features that basically make "cheating" easier, the device is technically *just* a hex editor. Now, I've used hex editors before. In fact, I'd say, compared to the average person, I use them very frequently. It's a very maticulous process, using a hex editor. To accomplish some of the easiest goals (even "disabling" tripping) would take quite a fair bit of work and just as much research. To accomplish something with a serious impact on the metagame (say, re-enabling l-cancelling) would be to modify a game that was made using the most advanced technology (in the field) in the world, one that took years to make, with one of the most mundane and basic tools available. This issue is also compouned by the fact that we know so little about the game, that once we get in there (so to speak), we won't know where we're going. It would be like tearing down the Empire State Building using a hammer and nails, while wearing a blindfold.
Do I think you shouldn't do this? No, I don't; if people have more fun playing this way, then what's the harm? After all, the ultimate purpose of a videogame is to have fun. But I think your goals are a little unrealistic and part of a larger problem.
that site.
