Lucas Guimaraes · @Thirdkoopa
8th Nov 2014 from TwitLonger
Project M not at APEX: What we should and shouldn't be worried about
Frankly, this has enough context to be it's own blog post, but screw it, whatever. For those who are following and don't care about Smash, close out of this immediately. Thanks.
First off, thanks to Warchamp7, The Derrit, and Prog for encouraging discussion out of me. Thanks for Skype for panicking and bringing it to my attention as well. Normally, I wouldn't talk about this type of event, but I might as well. This could honestly be it's own blog post, really.
So for those of you who don't know, Project M has been at APEX for the past few years. Project M is now not in APEX's line-up presumably with Nintendo's interjection (which btw, asides from that not being there, that's a fantastic APEX line-up). People are worried that with a current rumor and comments given, this will lead to a Cease & Desist of Project M.
What's Project M? - get out
What's APEX? - APEX is one of the biggest smash tournament's and iirc it doesn't go by fair use but that's for the apex peeps to answer and not me
Now, let's get onto answering the concerns of this.
Nintendo has control, not us - You know what, here's an article that's better for this: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/why-nintendo-can-legally-shut-down-any-smash-bros-tournament-it-wants/
Whether we should panic on Twitter - When has panicking on twitter done any good again? I feel like we need a history book on this. Seriously.
Project M not being at APEX - This is a big deal and all, and it does stink, but do not fret. This is still similar, to a degree, of a TO choosing one game or another. It's very simple - P:M is not of their work (Even if most of the assets were made by Nintendo in the first place) and Nintendo is sponsoring the event. Nintendo wants to advertise the top dog and give it as much attention as possible - Super Smash Bros for Wii U. Y'know, especially since that's on a console that Nintendo is selling mostly because of that game this year and wants to keep selling to keep their profit afloat. Businesses aren't people.
We have to look at this from multiple points of views. Nintendo is making that choice, and the TO's for APEX have to either comply or reject, in-which case if they reject, Nintendo sponsoring the event may go away.
Also we can't really do anything at this point on this being the scenario.
Project M not being at Future Tournaments - Okay, this is a bigger deal, and this is something to be concerned about, but a bit too far off. In this case, find a solution that works. Make a huge P:M Tournament and still host it locally. Make it something to be hyped for yearly. I'm not as into this scene, but based on how other competitive scenes have striven, I think we can find a route that actually works that's a fair unspoken compromise.
Project M and C&D - C&D sucks. C&D's are no fun. We can't act on this one now, so it does us no good to worry, but should something happen, I think in that case we *are* to unite together and speak of a vocalized opinion. Whatever we do, still, should be a unified positive effort. With EVO, we showed what we were capable of in a positive way.
Prepare for the worst and the best - A company like Nintendo doesn't just wake up with a business strategy saying "How can we keep our business from sinking/how do we not let us sink any lower/will we sink any lower"? Preparing for the worst is good, but we should also prepare for the best. Believe it or not, there is a best case scenario to this - APEX being one of the only casualties for P:M. For the most part, everyone still wins to a degree.
...Of course, there's also preparing for the worst. Preparing doesn't mean posting angry twitter comments to people that don't deserve it.
So, here's a quick recap
What we should do:
-Prepare for the worst *and* the best case scenario for whatever happens
-Be nice to the people that deserve it; P:M devs, Nintendo (for even sponsoring), and APEX staff are all included in this. The people did nothing to lose your respect, and until they do, it should be kept.
-Talk about the recent happenings in a productive and proactive way
-Support P:M and the other Smash games that come along with it
-Stick together in unity
What we *shouldn't* do:
-Panic on Twitter
-Hate the Messenger
-Send Death Threats (If you have any decent ounce of humanity, to anyone who sent those, go apologize NOW.)
-Negativity as a whole
-Separate and distance ourselves from the community; community splits do no good
What we should prepare for next year just in-case:
#BringBackProjectM
Hope this gave some insight. Kind-of a long version of what everyone else before me has already said, but as long as some people got a kick out of reading this I'm happy.