Astuu-Latest Gaming Blog Website
  • Astuu-Latest Gaming Blog Website
  • News
    • All
    • Mobile
    • news
    • PC
    • PS4
    • Reviews
    • Switch
    • Uncategorized
    • Video
    • Xbox One
    How does the horror game “Little Nightmares II” design sound?

    How does the horror game “Little Nightmares II” design sound?

    “Resident Evil 8” demo time limit led to dissatisfaction

    “Resident Evil 8” demo time limit led to dissatisfaction

    “The Last of Us Two” Wins The Most “Game of the Year” In History

    “The Last of Us Two” Wins The Most “Game of the Year” In History

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    The Witcher 3 loads crazy fast on Xbox Series X

    Carve up the mountain in this Witcher 3 snowboarding mod

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    Trending Tags

    • Top List
    • Adventure
    • eSport
    • Open World
    • Strategy
    • Sport
    • Console
    • Action
    • RPG
    • Racing
  • PC
    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    Save on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Control and more as Target also slashes prices on Amazon Prime Day

    Control is coming to Xbox Game Pass on December 3

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: a killer graphics card for next-gen ray tracing on a budget

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: a killer graphics card for next-gen ray tracing on a budget

    Doom Eternal coming to Xbox Game Pass PC, new master level released

    Doom Eternal coming to Xbox Game Pass PC, new master level released

    Best Minecraft mods 2020 | Top 15 mods to expand your Minecraft experience

    Best Minecraft mods 2020 | Top 15 mods to expand your Minecraft experience

    Here’s how 343 made weapon sounds for Halo Infinite

    Halo Infinite Battle Royale rumours are unfounded, says 343

    Cyberpunk 2077 trailers show off gameplay, Johnny Silverhand, and Keanu Reeves

    You’ll be able to bring Cyberpunk 2077 saves to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

  • PS4
    Witcher 3 open-source modding project Wolvenkit to support Cyberpunk 2077

    Witcher 3 open-source modding project Wolvenkit to support Cyberpunk 2077

    Controller players on Steam doubled in size since 2018

    Gangs stealing PlayStations from moving lorries in the UK

    Cyberpunk 2077 trailers show off gameplay, Johnny Silverhand, and Keanu Reeves

    Cyberpunk 2077 pre-load is over 100GB, not counting the day one patch

    No more delays for Cyberpunk 2077, for real this time

    PSA: Cyberpunk 2077 contains images that could trigger epileptic seizures

    Players on next-gen FIFA 21 have muscly thighs and the ball squishes when you kick it

    EA may end up blocking FIFA Ultimate Team entirely in countries with strict gambling laws

    Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Complicated, Deep, Perception, Reality

    Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Complicated, Deep, Perception, Reality

    Call of Duty: Warzone Rebirth Island map, new operator and more revealed

    Call of Duty: Warzone Rebirth Island map, new operator and more revealed

  • Switch
    The Witcher 3 loads crazy fast on Xbox Series X

    Carve up the mountain in this Witcher 3 snowboarding mod

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    Animal Crossing New Horizons Fishing Tourney: prizes, points and trophies explained

    Animal Crossing New Horizons Fishing Tourney: prizes, points and trophies explained

    Monster Hunter Rise Switch demo arrives tomorrow

    Monster Hunter Rise Switch demo arrives tomorrow

    Hitman 3’s opening cinematic puts Providence in Agent 47’s crosshairs

    Hitman 3 trailer shows off PlayStation VR gameplay

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Bug Prices – when and where to find every bug

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Bug Prices – when and where to find every bug

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fish Prices – when and where to find every fish

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fish Prices – when and where to find every fish

  • Xbox One
    Xbox holiday commercial stars cute dogs, oh and Master Chief

    Xbox holiday commercial stars cute dogs, oh and Master Chief

    Fortnite: Chapter 2 Season 5 Beskar Challenges- Where to find the Razor Crest

    Fortnite: Chapter 2 Season 5 Beskar Challenges- Where to find the Razor Crest

    FIFA 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X has the most divisive intro of all time

    FIFA 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X has the most divisive intro of all time

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Resources Guide: How to upgrade your health and gear, and unlock new Abilities

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Resources Guide: How to upgrade your health and gear, and unlock new Abilities

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Tips: How to become the ultimate Greek hero

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Tips: How to become the ultimate Greek hero

    Sea of Thieves will be optimized for Xbox Series X/S

    Sea of Thieves is getting a Battle Pass in 2021

    Cyberpunk 2077 streams and Let’s Plays will be taken down ahead of release

    Cyberpunk 2077 streams and Let’s Plays will be taken down ahead of release

No Result
View All Result
  • Astuu-Latest Gaming Blog Website
  • News
    • All
    • Mobile
    • news
    • PC
    • PS4
    • Reviews
    • Switch
    • Uncategorized
    • Video
    • Xbox One
    How does the horror game “Little Nightmares II” design sound?

    How does the horror game “Little Nightmares II” design sound?

    “Resident Evil 8” demo time limit led to dissatisfaction

    “Resident Evil 8” demo time limit led to dissatisfaction

    “The Last of Us Two” Wins The Most “Game of the Year” In History

    “The Last of Us Two” Wins The Most “Game of the Year” In History

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    The Witcher 3 loads crazy fast on Xbox Series X

    Carve up the mountain in this Witcher 3 snowboarding mod

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    Trending Tags

    • Top List
    • Adventure
    • eSport
    • Open World
    • Strategy
    • Sport
    • Console
    • Action
    • RPG
    • Racing
  • PC
    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    LOL Leads 3 Most Popular Computer Games

    Save on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Control and more as Target also slashes prices on Amazon Prime Day

    Control is coming to Xbox Game Pass on December 3

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: a killer graphics card for next-gen ray tracing on a budget

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: a killer graphics card for next-gen ray tracing on a budget

    Doom Eternal coming to Xbox Game Pass PC, new master level released

    Doom Eternal coming to Xbox Game Pass PC, new master level released

    Best Minecraft mods 2020 | Top 15 mods to expand your Minecraft experience

    Best Minecraft mods 2020 | Top 15 mods to expand your Minecraft experience

    Here’s how 343 made weapon sounds for Halo Infinite

    Halo Infinite Battle Royale rumours are unfounded, says 343

    Cyberpunk 2077 trailers show off gameplay, Johnny Silverhand, and Keanu Reeves

    You’ll be able to bring Cyberpunk 2077 saves to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

  • PS4
    Witcher 3 open-source modding project Wolvenkit to support Cyberpunk 2077

    Witcher 3 open-source modding project Wolvenkit to support Cyberpunk 2077

    Controller players on Steam doubled in size since 2018

    Gangs stealing PlayStations from moving lorries in the UK

    Cyberpunk 2077 trailers show off gameplay, Johnny Silverhand, and Keanu Reeves

    Cyberpunk 2077 pre-load is over 100GB, not counting the day one patch

    No more delays for Cyberpunk 2077, for real this time

    PSA: Cyberpunk 2077 contains images that could trigger epileptic seizures

    Players on next-gen FIFA 21 have muscly thighs and the ball squishes when you kick it

    EA may end up blocking FIFA Ultimate Team entirely in countries with strict gambling laws

    Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Complicated, Deep, Perception, Reality

    Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Complicated, Deep, Perception, Reality

    Call of Duty: Warzone Rebirth Island map, new operator and more revealed

    Call of Duty: Warzone Rebirth Island map, new operator and more revealed

  • Switch
    The Witcher 3 loads crazy fast on Xbox Series X

    Carve up the mountain in this Witcher 3 snowboarding mod

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    FIFA Ultimate Team loot boxes “long way” from gambling, says ex-EA exec Peter Moore

    Animal Crossing New Horizons Fishing Tourney: prizes, points and trophies explained

    Animal Crossing New Horizons Fishing Tourney: prizes, points and trophies explained

    Monster Hunter Rise Switch demo arrives tomorrow

    Monster Hunter Rise Switch demo arrives tomorrow

    Hitman 3’s opening cinematic puts Providence in Agent 47’s crosshairs

    Hitman 3 trailer shows off PlayStation VR gameplay

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Bug Prices – when and where to find every bug

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Bug Prices – when and where to find every bug

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fish Prices – when and where to find every fish

    Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fish Prices – when and where to find every fish

  • Xbox One
    Xbox holiday commercial stars cute dogs, oh and Master Chief

    Xbox holiday commercial stars cute dogs, oh and Master Chief

    Fortnite: Chapter 2 Season 5 Beskar Challenges- Where to find the Razor Crest

    Fortnite: Chapter 2 Season 5 Beskar Challenges- Where to find the Razor Crest

    FIFA 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X has the most divisive intro of all time

    FIFA 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X has the most divisive intro of all time

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Resources Guide: How to upgrade your health and gear, and unlock new Abilities

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Resources Guide: How to upgrade your health and gear, and unlock new Abilities

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Tips: How to become the ultimate Greek hero

    Immortals Fenyx Rising Tips: How to become the ultimate Greek hero

    Sea of Thieves will be optimized for Xbox Series X/S

    Sea of Thieves is getting a Battle Pass in 2021

    Cyberpunk 2077 streams and Let’s Plays will be taken down ahead of release

    Cyberpunk 2077 streams and Let’s Plays will be taken down ahead of release

No Result
View All Result
Astuu-Latest Gaming Blog Website
No Result
View All Result
Home Switch

As Nintendo shuts down a tournament, Smash fans unite under the #FreeMelee hashtag in futility

admin by admin
November 24, 2020
in Switch
0 0
0
As Nintendo shuts down a tournament, Smash fans unite under the #FreeMelee hashtag in futility
0
SHARES
4
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Pin
0shares


Reset the clock, because the Super Smash Bros. Melee community and Nintendo are at loggerheads again.

For those who follow the wider competitive fighting game eSports scene, that’s a semi-regular occurrence. Attempting to get going with the MLG, fighting over which Smash games are selected for Evo, even dealing with abuse within the community – the Smash scene always seems to be going to war over something. This time, Nintendo is the one at fault.

So, a bit of background. ‘The Big House’ has been a mainstay of the Smash tournament scene for many years. In the midst of a global pandemic the tournament organisers did what many have done with games like Street Fighter, Killer Instinct and their kin – they took the tournament online.

For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this is relatively simple. The game has online functionality, and while it is classic Nintendo-level online – that is to say, lacking features in places – it’s serviceable enough to run an online tournament with a bit of organizational jiggery-pokery. But the Smash Bros. community has always been split between the new games and the old – and so something had to be done about Melee.

This is where things get complicated. There’s an excellent fan-created mod for the GameCube emulator Dolphin allowing Melee to be played online with silky smooth rollback netcode. Anybody into fighters knows that rollback is the gold standard for online, and in truth the mod, Slippi, was really built with Super Smash Bros. Melee in mind. So the organizers of The Big House decided to put together an online pandemic-safe Melee tournament using the mod.

You can imagine what happened next. In a statement issued to Kotaku, Nintendo explained that it contacted the organizers of The Big House and asked them to cancel the Melee tournament due to its use of the Slippi mod framework, which requires an emulator and thus a ripped copy of Melee to use. The organizers refused, Nintendo says, so the company lawyers broke out a cease and desist letter, forcing the overall cancellation of the event – meaning the Melee issue took down the perfectly serviceable Smash Ultimate tournament also.

For someone like me, primarily a Street Fighter fan with a passing interest in competitive Smash Bros, the following outcry was predictable. I’ve seen it all before. When Evo announced that it would no longer host a Melee tournament in favor of just Smash Ultimate, to glance at Melee Twitter or Evo’s replies was as if the world was ending.

Subscribe to the VG247 newsletter
Get all the best bits of VG247 delivered to your inbox every Friday!

This is relatively alien to me – in Street Fighter, the new game comes out and we move on, unless the new game is so bad that it warrants rolling back to the previous one, as with Street Fighter X Tekken. Either way, aside from anniversaries and throwbacks, most franchises run one tournament game at a time. When Evo dropped Melee, I tweeted a joke about being free of the tyranny of Smash taking up two valuable game spots and my replies blazed with everything from genuinely funny burns to death threats and racism for over a week. Anyway, the point is, Smash has never been like other fighters – in the competitive community, Melee is practically a different franchise. Despite my jokes, I do respect that concept.

So people have written cute parody songs, but others are screaming into the ether about how a billionaire needs to buy Nintendo to save the franchise. A lot of it is low-quality rubbish, like a meme mocking Nintendo for shutting down a tournament for using emulation despite deploying emulation themselves for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars release. Others have genuine points, though, like how some of Nintendo’s more hostile actions towards the Smash community have shut down events that would’ve raised huge sums of money for charity.

It all feels rather futile, however, and as an outsider I can’t help but wonder how the people behind The Big House didn’t see this coming. The Big House is on Nintendo’s radar – the company has sponsored past iterations of this event – so were they really surprised when Nintendo stepped in after seeing something it didn’t like?

All of this sits in a legal grey area. Emulation is generally legal so long as you follow certain requirements, such as ripping your own copy of a BIOS or the game images you want to play. If you own a GameCube, then download Dolphin and then rip Melee from your own disc, that’s arguably all fair use of the content you’ve purchased in the past. Ripping the game counts as backing it up for personal use in US copyright law.

If you download a copy of a game off the internet, however, that’s piracy – and that’s what Nintendo sees happening here. The company told Kotaku that the Slippi mod “requires use of illegally copied versions of the game”, something which isn’t entirely true but something which also, realistically, was probably the primary method of acquisition of Melee for those planning to enter the tournament. Ripping your own GameCube games is surprisingly complicated, requiring either a hacked Wii or GameCube or a PC with a very specific older model DVD drive. On the flip side, given this was a tournament for the most hardcore of Smash fans who usually compete in face-to-face tournaments, they obviously own GameCube hardware and copies of the game.

Nevertheless, I’m surprised the organizers of The Big House didn’t see this coming from a mile off and simply focus on Smash Ultimate. Nintendo is famously aggressive about protecting its intellectual properties, and has often pursued borderline cases such as this. This seemed inevitable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

Let’s be clear, though: Nintendo doesn’t exactly come out of this looking good. It’s fair to say that not all companies would’ve taken Nintendo’s path on this. Capcom has turned a blind eye to many a bit of emulated competition in older Street Fighter games, at least before it started re-releasing them. Nintendo’s aggression here is not towards a huge company, but to a group of fans, and the state of those #SaveSmash and #FreeMelee hashtags on Twitter show what a mess this has caused. In this sense, the solution is arguably worse than the problem Nintendo perceived in the first place.

Back when Nintendo tried to shut down the Evo 2013 Melee tournament, the company was simply being, frankly, a dick. It was a corporation applying a sledgehammer to a situation more deserving of a chisel. The company didn’t understand the community or see any value in eSports. The fan outrage there was justified and useful. Combined with meetings with Evo’s organizers, the decision was overturned, and it really marked a turning point in Nintendo seeing value in these sorts of events. That was real hardware with no legally dubious implications, however – it is worlds apart from this.

The sense of victimhood the Smash community and particularly Melee players feel is understandable. They’ve often had a crap time, and they’ve delivered quality tournaments often with a fraction of the official support other games enjoy. Feeling under-appreciated can have you seeing unfairness everywhere, however, leading to things like meltdowns over Evo applying the same one-game principle to Smash as every other franchise. This is another case where energy would probably be better focused elsewhere, rather than screaming until blue in the face on Twitter about an issue on which the company is unlikely to change its mind.

For starters, of course, there is the community’s own house. In July, Nintendo had to publicly condemn the community for allegations of widespread abuse and sexual misconduct at Smash events. To the community’s credit, it was fast to eject the accused, but the echoes of this are likely still reverberating. Nintendo’s support of Smash eSports has always been shaky, but if anything could’ve undone the slow progress of recent years, it’s the revelations of early 2020.

Fans would also do well to speak to something Nintendo understands. As a company, it values money, and sales. While threatening to boycott might move the needle a little, what would arguably move it more is to ask for the true recognition Melee needs. Nintendo has now released a slightly-enhanced version of a GameCube game, officially emulated, in Super Mario Sunshine. We are now arguably closer to an official online, modern Melee re-release than we have ever been. If you want to Free Melee, you should probably ask for that.

Watch on YouTube

');
jQuery(yt_video_wrapper).remove();
});
});

}


Tags: fansFreeMeleefutilityhashtagNintendoshutsSmashtournamentunite
Previous Post

Black Friday deals: here's where you can pre-order and buy Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S

Next Post

Sony's PS5 US TV ads were seen three times more than Xbox

admin

admin

Next Post
PS5 and Xbox Series X/S will be in stock at Best Buy over Black Friday

Sony's PS5 US TV ads were seen three times more than Xbox

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Us

Video games since 2018.

This site © 2020 Astuu Limited. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.

Read more

Categories

  • Mobile
  • news
  • PC
  • PS4
  • Reviews
  • Switch
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Xbox One

Tags

Adventure Amazon Assassins Black Call Cold coming Console Creed Cyberpunk Day deals December Destiny Dogs Duty find Fortnite free Friday game games guide Heres launch Nintendo Ops Pass patch Players Pokémon PS4 PS5 release review Season Series Switch trailer update Valhalla War Watch week Xbox
  • About
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Astuu-Latest Gaming Blog Website
  • News
  • PC
  • PS4
  • Switch
  • Xbox One

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
0shares