The problem is that so many people see us as the "Smash community," and TO's don't want to only run games for the "Smash community." We aren't a community anymore. Smash 4 made sure of that. Smash 4 is hurting both PM and Melee as a game, and plenty of the members of the Smash 4 community and Melee/PM community are arguing over their games.

If Nintendo had released Smash 4 with the same type of promotion they've done for their past games, this wouldn't be a problem. Instead, they pretending to listen to our complaints about Brawl and the early versions of Smash 4. They invited primarily top level Melee players to the Smash 4 invitational at E3. They implied this game would be the middle ground we wanted, and while that would create tension among Smash fans, it would be fine.

But that isn't what happened. Smash 4 is not the middle ground, but the blatant exposure Smash 4 has gotten has made people believe it is. I legitimately believe that if Smash 4 had been released without pretending to care about the competitive community, it would've gone the same path as Brawl, but much, much sooner. I've seen far to many people say it has "fixed all of Brawl's problems," but never once have a seen any of them bother to elaborate.

Ever since Smash 4 came out, we haven't been the "Smash community" anymore, just like what happened with Brawl. In the last couple of years, when Melee and PM were the 2 main games for Smash by far, we were a community. The games coexisted, and as one grew, the other grew. Sure, there were some tensions between fans of the two games, but nothing serious. On the other hand, Smash 4 is clearly hurting the growth of PM, and even Melee fans are lashing out at it.

I'm glad CEO is giving a reason for their decision, and it's certainly understandable given that Smash 4 is the new game. However, exactly how long is it going to stay 'new?' This isn't a one time thing. Smash 4 is hurting the community because Nintendo couldn't stick by their word. They've already decided to stop doing balance patches in a metagame that you don't need to a research team to help you realize one character is dominating the rest of the cast.



Sorry for my admittedly biased rant. I could go back and make it seem neutral, but I simply don't want to. I'm legitimately upset, and I'd like that to be known. I'm already fighting the urge to explain each and every thing I dislike about Smash 4 as a competitive game. All bias aside though, it's hard to argue against the statement that the "Smash community" is no longer one community, and that Smash 4 has dealt a serious blow to it rather than helping it.