Fan complains about competitive online play; Sakurai agrees

Smashgoom202

Smashgoom202

Dry Bowser
Retired Wiki Staff
Here's another bit of information: apparently, Masahiro Sakurai is anti-competitive play, after receiving a complaint about such online players from a fan:

http://gengame.net/2013/03/sakurai-says-the-competitive-no-items-smash-bros-battles-arent-interesting-or-fun/

I find it ironic that he claims that's he's trying to make it so that everyone can enjoy it, even though it's coming down on a particular group of people who enjoy playing Smash Bros. this way.
 
good luck trying to make a fighting game not competitive.
 
I think he's taking issue mainly with the fact that in order for competitive play to exist currently, rules need modification and certain things are excluded, not specifically with the fact that competitive play exists.
 
Mario4Ever said:
I think he's taking issue mainly with the fact that in order for competitive play to exist currently, rules need modification and certain things are excluded, not specifically with the fact that competitive play exists.
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I got that... But I wasn't entirely sure how to explain that. Besides, I think it's clear that Sakurai has kind of a bias for this kind of thing.
 
All of this boils down to personal play style. Some people think playing competitively is fun, others (like me) like whatever random option that gets tossed in and enjoys it.

I really don't like the attitude on how competitive play is "boring" or "uninteresting". The complainer dude should really look in the other side's point of view.
 
All it boils down to is who you play against. If you play against players whose skill level approximately matches you, it's fun. But if you play against lesser-skilled players or greater-skilled players, it becomes really, really boring. When you are pitted against lesser-skilled players, there is no challenge to win. But, if you are pitted against greater-skilled players, you are almost guaranteed to be assimilated and crushed like you were a fragile flower or something of the sort.

That's my take on it, at least.
 
Crystal said:
good luck trying to make a fighting game not competitive.
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Just play as Meta Knight in Brawl, there isn't any level of competition unless it's 4-way Meta Knight.
Sakurai's anti-competitive play is already seen in Brawl's poor balance and completely ramdom mechanics like tripping or most of the stages. I don't get it why he can't just make it like Melee in which it was a really fun game that COULD be played the competitive way with most characters if you were good enough, but still be really accesible to almost everyone, instead of making a really inbalanced game that won't appeal by default to competitive gamers, but will also alienate some fans.
And, besides, the fanbase will eventually make it competitive, just look at Brawl tourneys like APEX.
 
It depends on how you define "fun", really - if winning is what's fun to you then of course no-items games are more fun because it's more fair.

On the other hand, if you just want to mess around with your friends and see who can to the most ridiculously awesome moves, then items are more fun.
 
Dr. Javelin said:
It depends on how you define "fun", really - if winning is what's fun to you then of course no-items games are more fun because it's more fair.

On the other hand, if you just want to mess around with your friends and see who can to the most ridiculously awesome moves, then items are more fun.
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I know a friend who's into the more "competitive" no-items style, and he says it's more fun because it's more about skill and learning the playstyle then about randomness and freak chance.
 
(i'm in that camp too, btw)

I personally consider it more fun because I enjoy learning games. Learning them, getting better at them, mastering them - what's fun to me in games is honing a master technique and then getting to practice it out on your unwitting friends. Bliss.

Random item drops totally destroy this for me because basically one side or the other can randomly get an advantage of an item. Even if you turn off "broken" items like Smash Balls, Starmans, etc. you still have a major problem when one side gets a Green Shell or something, lobs it for a KO. Totally upsets the balance of the game and makes it way less fun for me.

But I mean, if you enjoy randomness and it's more about messing around than skill, then that's perfectly fine. I just don't like to play that way personally.
 
I dunno. I get good at the game, even if the only opponents I mainly play against are dumb CPUs. Evidence is that I am able to beat most other kids at my school that know how to play the darn game. But it's the dumb CPUs that make it fun for me. My personal niche zone is 17 minutes, 4 players, any stage, 2.0 ratio, and mainly explosives. Playing only 4 stock matches in only certain