I wonder where people pull this ratio of casual and competitive from, because when I go on For Glory (a mode everyone will play at least more than once), I see some really hard ass people. I mean have you SEEN those Links sometimes? A lot of people enjoy pushing themselves to be really good no matter the title, though some waaaaaaaaaaaay moreso than others.
To be honest, Sakurai's quote there is really weird. You can cater to the competitive crowd without affecting the casual crowd in the slightest. Keep the skill floor the same and raise the skill ceiling to higher heights and you're basically done. Anyone who doesn't care for competitive play won't notice. I really can't understand the guy's inability to process that although casual players make the initial sales, competitive players are what can drive a game for several years to come.
Melee is only still relevant because of that crowd, accident of a high skill ceiling game or not; it's still going for absurd prices in 2015, 14 years after it's initial release. It is literally impossible for this to be for the sake of it's nostalgia factor or rarity, the thing was produced like pancakes and every successor has significantly more content than it ever contained; this is because of it's gameplay that happened to turn out unexpectedly deep, spawning loads of hype and spread by word.
If anything, keeping the casual skill floor and raising the competitive ceiling can only help the Smash Bros. series tremendously without disappointing either side for one or the other, and it does not need to be done through silly movement option exploits like wave-dashing. Just lower landing lag, make gravity heavier, increase hit-stun and DI strength, increase speed, have momentum carry between jumps (this one is just common game knowledge Sakurai), and wallah (no, Special Smash does not fix these problems). No one would complain audibly enough to have the community so split as it is now if they balanced a game around that.
Also Smash 4 may lean toward casual more, but compared to Brawl it's much more competitive and balanced. Brawl was the only inflatable middle finger to the competitive crowd, Smash Bros has always been fun to play in either fashion neglecting that title. I've literally been having endless fun with this game so far, regardless of my thoughts of it possibly having the potential to be better or not.
I conclude with just my dislike for Sakurai now in general with his recent statements on everything. He invented a great concept and still makes incredible titles, but he seems to REALLY hate the other side of his fan base that I'm basically partially included in, and makes it his job to erase possibilities of pleasing them (though this game turned that around slightly from Brawl). All he had to do was probably just bat an eye to the competitive scene and leave the gameplay properties as they were (removing wavedashing was a necessity for professional polish though); they're weren't hurting anybody.
Oh also, I'm pleased with how mature TSR is with dealing with members that enjoy the competitive scene. You wouldn't believe the shitty comments that I'd be seeing in hate if this were basically anywhere else on the internet (a good deal of casual players have somehow become even more elitist in their tone toward anyone who disagrees with them and would usually gang up in this situation, as ironic as that sounds). Honestly surprised I haven't seen "HURR DURR FINAL DESTINATION FOX ONLY HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE FUN UGH YOU DON'T LIKE IT BECAUSE IT ISN'T MELEE".
"Casual" "Competitive", they're just play style preference, nothing forced on anyone.
To be honest, Sakurai's quote there is really weird. You can cater to the competitive crowd without affecting the casual crowd in the slightest. Keep the skill floor the same and raise the skill ceiling to higher heights and you're basically done. Anyone who doesn't care for competitive play won't notice. I really can't understand the guy's inability to process that although casual players make the initial sales, competitive players are what can drive a game for several years to come.
Melee is only still relevant because of that crowd, accident of a high skill ceiling game or not; it's still going for absurd prices in 2015, 14 years after it's initial release. It is literally impossible for this to be for the sake of it's nostalgia factor or rarity, the thing was produced like pancakes and every successor has significantly more content than it ever contained; this is because of it's gameplay that happened to turn out unexpectedly deep, spawning loads of hype and spread by word.
If anything, keeping the casual skill floor and raising the competitive ceiling can only help the Smash Bros. series tremendously without disappointing either side for one or the other, and it does not need to be done through silly movement option exploits like wave-dashing. Just lower landing lag, make gravity heavier, increase hit-stun and DI strength, increase speed, have momentum carry between jumps (this one is just common game knowledge Sakurai), and wallah (no, Special Smash does not fix these problems). No one would complain audibly enough to have the community so split as it is now if they balanced a game around that.
Also Smash 4 may lean toward casual more, but compared to Brawl it's much more competitive and balanced. Brawl was the only inflatable middle finger to the competitive crowd, Smash Bros has always been fun to play in either fashion neglecting that title. I've literally been having endless fun with this game so far, regardless of my thoughts of it possibly having the potential to be better or not.
I conclude with just my dislike for Sakurai now in general with his recent statements on everything. He invented a great concept and still makes incredible titles, but he seems to REALLY hate the other side of his fan base that I'm basically partially included in, and makes it his job to erase possibilities of pleasing them (though this game turned that around slightly from Brawl). All he had to do was probably just bat an eye to the competitive scene and leave the gameplay properties as they were (removing wavedashing was a necessity for professional polish though); they're weren't hurting anybody.
Oh also, I'm pleased with how mature TSR is with dealing with members that enjoy the competitive scene. You wouldn't believe the shitty comments that I'd be seeing in hate if this were basically anywhere else on the internet (a good deal of casual players have somehow become even more elitist in their tone toward anyone who disagrees with them and would usually gang up in this situation, as ironic as that sounds). Honestly surprised I haven't seen "HURR DURR FINAL DESTINATION FOX ONLY HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE FUN UGH YOU DON'T LIKE IT BECAUSE IT ISN'T MELEE".
"Casual" "Competitive", they're just play style preference, nothing forced on anyone.
![[Image: mousey.gif]](https://gifsound.com/?gif=i.imgur.com/TcCcmRE.gif&v=-9QFAQ4Am7M)