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User:Semicolon/Treatise on the Existence of Tiers: Difference between revisions
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===Deleterious Properties of Tier Formation=== | ===Deleterious Properties of Tier Formation=== | ||
For the second point, what evidence is there that tiers ruin the game? And more over, tiers are, to a certain degree, not in control of the players. Yes, we are able to develop a metagame for each character, but we are limited by the | For the second point, what evidence is there that tiers ruin the game? And more over, tiers are, to a certain degree, not in control of the players. Yes, we are able to develop a metagame for each character, but we are limited by the programming of the game. If it turns out that Meta Knight is so much better than any other character as to be broken, what are we as players supposed to do. We could ban Meta Knight, but that is a subject for a different paper. If Meta Knight is still allowed and he is as good as I am describing, why would any competitive player not play Meta Knight. Even if tiers do ruin the game (and I will contend that they don't), competitive players cannot concern themselves with anything other than winning. | ||
So, the question becomes why does it not ruin the game to have tiers. Here I simply reference almost every other competitive game there is. For the sake of a specific example, I will discuss Magic: the Gathering. At any point in Standard (Type II) Magic tournaments, there are over a thousand cards that are tournament legal. Is there any way to balance each of these cards perfectly? Of course not (cf. the statistical arguments above). However, does this ruin the game? Except in very specific periods, no (for those Magic buffs out there I'm referencing Urza's block and to a lesser extent Mirrodin). The reason it does not ruin the game is that there is a certain Rock-Paper-Scissors element to the metagame. On the one hand, there is deck X that is first seen as the top deck. Then deck Y comes along and beats deck X, but does not do much else. So now we have deck X that beats deck Z, but Z beats Y, which beats X. The point here is that because there are answers to even the top deck, there is an element of balance to the system. In Smash Bros. the same things happen. Yes, characters exist that are better than others, but they also have bad match-ups against low tier characters. This creates the dynamic described above. Even in the top tiers this exists. Here I reference Melee. In Melee, it was seen that Fox was a good match-up on Sheik, Sheik was a good match-up on Marth, and Marth was a good Match-up on Fox. Falco also factored into the mix as a slightly good match-up on Fox and Sheik, and less poor Marth match-up. That's balance even in the face of tiers. | So, the question becomes why does it not ruin the game to have tiers. Here I simply reference almost every other competitive game there is. For the sake of a specific example, I will discuss Magic: the Gathering. At any point in Standard (Type II) Magic tournaments, there are over a thousand cards that are tournament legal. Is there any way to balance each of these cards perfectly? Of course not (cf. the statistical arguments above). However, does this ruin the game? Except in very specific periods, no (for those Magic buffs out there I'm referencing Urza's block and to a lesser extent Mirrodin). The reason it does not ruin the game is that there is a certain Rock-Paper-Scissors element to the metagame. On the one hand, there is deck X that is first seen as the top deck. Then deck Y comes along and beats deck X, but does not do much else. So now we have deck X that beats deck Z, but Z beats Y, which beats X. The point here is that because there are answers to even the top deck, there is an element of balance to the system. In Smash Bros. the same things happen. Yes, characters exist that are better than others, but they also have bad match-ups against low tier characters. This creates the dynamic described above. Even in the top tiers this exists. Here I reference Melee. In Melee, it was seen that Fox was a good match-up on Sheik, Sheik was a good match-up on Marth, and Marth was a good Match-up on Fox. Falco also factored into the mix as a slightly good match-up on Fox and Sheik, and less poor Marth match-up. That's balance even in the face of tiers. | ||