Why do people dislike Melee and Melee players?

[MalanoMan]

and smash 4 elitism is "oh you like melee? that game is broken, unbalanced garbage, and i play smash 4"

I too agree that this is the consensus opinion among Smash 4 players. Extends to many others too. People dont want to play a glitchy, unbalanced game. I can understand that. That's what makes Melee, Melee though.

 

[Banjoisawesome2020]

I love Melee! Though, only nitpick for me, till June 11th 2019...No Banjo!

 

[Deleted member]

This question has probably been answered already but its the melee players.

Fact is no one hates melee, its the players that ruin it for them.

 

[Solo Popo]

The consensus on here seems to be that new Smash players don't hate Melee, they hate the players. Well, it's exactly the opposite for Melee players most of the time. Many Melee players hate the new Smash games with a burning passion, and that hatred isn't entirely unjustified. Since Melee it is no secret that Sakurai deliberately tried to undermine the competitive Smash community. He slowed the pace, removed hitstun and edge hogging, and added tripping to hurt the game's competitive potential on purpose. He looked at a community of players literally in love with the game the way it was, with all its tech skill and combos, and slapped them all in the face. It was utterly soul crushing. Only after seeing that people still wanted to play the game competitively did Sakurai let up and add a little hitstun back with Smash 4 and Ultimate. But his anti-competitive game design is still apparent throughout the new games.

If ultimate was literally Melee with updated graphics and new characters everyone would love it. Ultimate players are just stuck with what they have and don't know any better and don't like being told they are playing an inferior version of Smash that is much easier to play and worse competitively, even if it's true. The word "elitist" gets thrown around by Smash 4 and Ultimate players a lot, but that's kind of an odd criticism to use in a competitive gaming community. Distinguishing the best is kind of the entire point. The truth is that Melee, more than any other Smash, distinguishes the best from the average. You see ridiculous upsets from complete randoms in the newer smashes all the time, because the newer games are inherently less competitive. You would never see something like that in Melee. It's hard to point that out to someone who only plays Ultimate without threatening the sense of importance they attach to being good at it. So even if you approach an Ultimate player with respect you'll have a hard time just telling them the truth without annoying them, and most don't approach with respect because they feel utter disgust towards the newer games.

 

[Onmitsu]

I'm definitely a melee player, but I will at least give the newer ones a fair shot. Ultimate is definitely onto something, but nowhere near as fun as melee to play to me. 4 was boring on all levels. Brawl was terrible unless it was PM. I do have fun playing Ultimate, but there are many factors that will keep me from wanting to play competitively.

 

[Heyzeus_18]

Each installment of the series pretty much has its own group or "fandom" for the lack of a better word which they are pretty much loyal to that game, and that game only. They might play around in the other games, but they focus on one game, like SSB4 or Brawl. From looking at YouTube comments, reddit debates and the like, it looks like it is a common idea to hate Melee if you don't play it. Why is that?

I've heard of the stereotype that Melee players are just total douchebag teens who just play Fox and John every match they lose. The people I find in tournaments are usually good people who are actually respectful.

The whole melee vs brawl vs smash 4 vs ultimate thing is a waste of time, so many people say things about melee that is purely incorrect and it’s so obvious they don’t know why they’re talking about. Someone can be like, “melee is a garbage game because it’s broken and unbalanced and has so many glitches” someone proves them wrong and they’re like “well I like the new game more what’s wrong with that”. I see more melee haters than ultimate haters, usually the melee hater are people who are new to smash or are just extremely uneducated in it.

 

[Skeeter Mania]

The whole melee vs brawl vs smash 4 vs ultimate thing is a waste of time, so many people say things about melee that is purely incorrect and it’s so obvious they don’t know why they’re talking about. Someone can be like, “melee is a garbage game because it’s broken and unbalanced and has so many glitches” someone proves them wrong and they’re like “well I like the new game more what’s wrong with that”. I see more melee haters than ultimate haters, usually the melee hater are people who are new to smash or are just extremely uneducated in it.

Any decent points that have convinced you?

 

[Another Player]

The person in their backyard eating pizza, drinking beer, has a job, and takes care of a family doesn't have the time. They might not be aware of how great some people think of Smash in general and/or melee in general. People who are aware of the game prefer Chess, Magic, Resistance, Cribbage and/or some other game out there over these types of games. It didn't click with them is the term. I don't think there's a true reason to hate any game unless it's creator is a total dummy. We have all kinds of tests to see if something works. I don't need to go into depth here.