Budget Player Cadet_
Smash Hero
...And it got deleted from the thread. So I figure it should be its own thread...Hey guys.
If I see posts like this, instant infraction without warning.
Just a heads up if someone else wants to be funny.
What if we aren't trying to be funny?
I got a PM from InferiorityComplex about the BBR accepting new members, and I replied with "why should I care?". Because honestly? That's how I feel after seeing the more recent turn of events around here. The SWF Brawl Back Room, as an institution, has been pretty much useless since, my guess? Around the start of '09. Basically, the minute people stopped listening to it. All it's got left is character discussions, which are usually way out of date and kind of disappointing, the matchup chart (which really isn't that useful), and rulesets that nobody appreciates or uses.
Don't get me wrong, the BBR should get respect. It's a collection of the most intelligent people in the smash community. But it doesn't. And because it gets very little respect, all it can do are things that are a combination of meaningless (character discussions, matchup chart), out of date (character discussions), completely ignored by the community (BBR Ruleset, and to a lesser extent BBRRC), or better done by the smash lab (any meaningful research).
The metagame data/discussion which matters (character dominance, player rankings, correlation character dominance/player dominance, etc.) is all either been shoved under a rug ("no talking about MK bans, but feel free to talk about and finally implement a ban on every stage which treats him better than Battlefield!") or is being dealt with by non-BBR sources (Ripple and co, doing wonderful work on the character dominance charts). On that note, I think it's fair to say that Ripple (and whoever is working with him, I don't follow the thread that well) have done more meaningful work on Brawl than the entire BBR has over the last few months.
Also, speaking of which, another important part of metagame discussion which has been "shoved under the rug": Stage discussion. Let me be perfectly frank here. STAGE DISCUSSION IS A ****ING JOKE. Look at the stage discussion forum. It's currently inhabited for the most part by long-standing holdouts like me, with the occasional bad troll (I really hope they're trolling) stopping by and spouting nonsense before giving up and leaving. Occasionally a glimmer of hope/smart post from someone like DMG, but that's about it as far as intelligent posts from people who matter (don't get me started on almost everyone else who really matters; talking to most of them is a nightmare/impossible. ADHD is a recurring example, Alex Strife a recent one–you really cannot talk to most of them).
The BBR could've/should've done something about that, like pushing stage discussion in the direction the BBR supports, but they didn't and now there's no point in doing so because it's too goddamn late; look there and you'll see the people who have no influence plea bargaining with the people who do have influence, "oh please don't ban Smashville, you've already banned every other stage with any moving parts, there's no reason to ban Smashville, think of character diversity/game depth". Yeah, Imad.
But in general, what's the point in asking people to join the BBR? You get that lovely little purple name, and then get to do... absolutely nothing worthwhile. If the BBR was sponsoring major nationals
...Yes, I have better things to do than join the BBR. That, if nothing else in this post, should speak volumes about the success of that organization.
EDIT:
"Social Group"? Well ****, I guess we need some other organization then.I don't know what the bbr is or isn't supposed to be.
But the brawl community really needs organization, and some sort of structure.
-Coherent universal rulesets for comparisons between tournaments and players
and that will serve as an official source for the community
-Some sort of national tournament structure and possibly *hopefully* objective national rankings so players can judge how they are doing and improving
-Ongoing discussions of topics and issues that effect the community when information becomes available that could change previous decisions. Yea so the community discussion on mk was very bickery after the first vote and that needed to be toned down. But that doesn't mean you can ignore it for two years or whatever pretending it doesn't exist and it doesn't have a large impact on the community, especially as more and more information that could be relevant to the decision is brought in (no matter which way you end up deciding).
-More structure on payouts (possibly) and advertising for tournaments
-More cooperation with international scenes.
-Looking at ways to make the game more rewarding/competitive
Maybe this wasn't the bbr's job, and i'm not pointing fingers (and really I don't care). I don't know who's responsibility it is or was, but someone needs to take charge and provide more structured help to the community for your community's sake.