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User:Semicolon/Treatise on the Existence of Tiers: Difference between revisions
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:''By the [[SLAPAHO]] Crew, coauthored by | {{ArticleIcons|protected=highrisk}}{{essay}}:''By the [[SLAPAHO]] Crew, coauthored by {{Sm|Foghorn}} and {{Sm|Ax}}.'' | ||
It seems that controversy over the actual existence of tiers is far more contentious since the release of Brawl, and since the last tier wars fizzled to a standstill, and as such, we here at SLAPAHO have decided to compile this volume. Its intent is to put away the idea that tiers do not exist. However, we're not asking you to like that tiers exist; we’re asking that you accept it. In other words, this treatise is designed to answer a qualitative question, not a normative one. | It seems that controversy over the actual existence of tiers is far more contentious since the release of Brawl, and since the last tier wars fizzled to a standstill, and as such, we here at SLAPAHO have decided to compile this volume. Its intent is to put away the idea that tiers do not exist. However, we're not asking you to like that tiers exist; we’re asking that you accept it. In other words, this treatise is designed to answer a qualitative question, not a normative one. | ||
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===Argument outline=== | ===Argument outline=== | ||
*It is statistically highly improbable (rather, nigh impossible) that a game as complex in variable (meaning, in this case, the myriad of variable abilities including air speed, priority, weight etc.) , medium (meaning, in this case and hereby referring to, a character), and construct (meaning, in this case, the metagame, strategies, mindgames, and techs) could possibly be balanced under almost any set of assumptions. | *It is statistically highly improbable (rather, nigh impossible) that a game as complex in variable (meaning, in this case, the myriad of variable abilities including air speed, priority, weight etc.), medium (meaning, in this case and hereby referring to, a character), and construct (meaning, in this case, the metagame, strategies, mindgames, and techs) could possibly be balanced under almost any set of assumptions. | ||
:*A corollary to this argument involves the unpredictability of the constructs. Since it is impossible for the game creators to predict the ultimate utility of the various constructs, it is impossible to balance them. | :*A corollary to this argument involves the unpredictability of the constructs. Since it is impossible for the game creators to predict the ultimate utility of the various constructs, it is impossible to balance them. | ||
*Even minute differences can cause imbalance. | *Even minute differences can cause imbalance. | ||
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===Important concepts=== | ===Important concepts=== | ||
First, before we get to explaining of the arguments and what they mean for tiers, we have to examine a critical idea: what is a tier? Simply put, a tier is a ranking of how a character (or a set of characters) is | First, before we get to explaining of the arguments and what they mean for tiers, we have to examine a critical idea: what is a tier? Simply put, a tier is a ranking of how a character (or a set of characters) is expected to perform under tournament conditions based on that character’s metagame. The practical offshoot of this is the idea that the higher the tier of a character, the better that character is in relevant aspects of the game. Tiers are malleable, and change over time (even if these changes are marginal). They are based on tournament placing, so they are empirically decided, and disputes over tiers cannot be decided with logical number crunching (and before you say it, the existence of tiers CAN be logically proven, as we will see later). Instead, they must be decided by a very large sample of data under very controlled tournament conditions, and from there medium placing can be determined through inductive reasoning. | ||
Another idea important to this discussion is what is behind a tier, or in simpler terms what causes the existence of tiers. Clearly, differences in the abilities of characters are what tiers are based on, say they can be said to cause the existence of tiers. But these differences have a quality referred to in gaming as imbalance. Particularly in real time strategy games, the idea of imbalance features prominently, but it is common in fighting games as well. There is no game that has ever been said to have perfect balance, with the possible exception of Starcraft: Broodwar. So, with the conditionality of Broodwar’s balance in dispute, it can be said that the set of all balanced games is the null set, that is, there is no such thing as a balanced game. | Another idea important to this discussion is what is behind a tier, or in simpler terms what causes the existence of tiers. Clearly, differences in the abilities of characters are what tiers are based on, say they can be said to cause the existence of tiers. But these differences have a quality referred to in gaming as imbalance. Particularly in real time strategy games, the idea of imbalance features prominently, but it is common in fighting games as well. There is no game that has ever been said to have perfect balance, with the possible exception of Starcraft: Broodwar. So, with the conditionality of Broodwar’s balance in dispute, it can be said that the set of all balanced games is the null set, that is, there is no such thing as a balanced game. | ||
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===From 'fun'=== | ===From 'fun'=== | ||
Of the second argument, the argument of fun, nothing needs to be said other than to read the opening ‘Keep in mind’ section, and then say that this argument is irrelevant. It is also important to remember that tiers are rarely applicable to casual play, in fact, a large constituency of play | Of the second argument, the argument of fun, nothing needs to be said other than to read the opening ‘Keep in mind’ section, and then say that this argument is irrelevant. It is also important to remember that tiers are rarely applicable to casual play, in fact, a large constituency of play breaks standard tournament rule sets. | ||
===From match-up=== | ===From match-up=== | ||
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===Formation of tier lists=== | ===Formation of tier lists=== | ||
On the first point, this has most often been accompanied by the quote from designer Sakurai about how he did not want Smash Bros. to be competitive. First, it should be noted that his quote was taken completely out of context. All Sakurai said was that he himself was not a competitive person and did not want to design a game where the same person could win over and over simply by continuing to do the same moves. Yes, Sakurai probably would never play in a tournament. But that does not mean that others in the community cannot. I reference any other form of art: just because the artist meant for a singular concrete interpretation does not invalidate other interpretations. To Sakurai, the fun in Smash comes from the randomness of stages like Spear Pillar and the plethora of items. To others, it comes from heated competition, where it is simply your choices against another persons, without game-changing events getting in the way. Is one way better than another? No, of course not. We may prefer the latter, but that is no reason to reject the former or vice versa. Quite simply, people are free to | On the first point, this has most often been accompanied by the quote from designer Sakurai about how he did not want Smash Bros. to be competitive. First, it should be noted that his quote was taken completely out of context. All Sakurai said was that he himself was not a competitive person and did not want to design a game where the same person could win over and over simply by continuing to do the same moves. Yes, Sakurai probably would never play in a tournament. But that does not mean that others in the community cannot. I reference any other form of art: just because the artist meant for a singular concrete interpretation does not invalidate other interpretations. To Sakurai, the fun in Smash comes from the randomness of stages like Spear Pillar and the plethora of items. To others, it comes from heated competition, where it is simply your choices against another persons, without game-changing events getting in the way. Is one way better than another? No, of course not. We may prefer the latter, but that is no reason to reject the former or vice versa. Quite simply, people are free to choose the way they want to play the game. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with playing Smash Bros. under a tournament rule set just as there is nothing wrong with playing crazy games with lots of random things happening. | ||
Given that tournament play is acceptable, what then becomes unacceptable about tiers? The general argument is that tier lists should not exist because they only exist for tournament play or that they simply continue to reinforce themselves. For the first of those points, read the above paragraph again for the answer. Yes, they only exist for tournament play because ''that is what they are intended for''. As for the point on them reinforcing themselves, there is more to be said. Yes, there exist players who switched to Meta Knight the moment the Back Room announced him as top tier and now refuse to play any other character. But they are the small minority. Given the inherent neutrality of a mirror match-up, top players will always be looking for the counter to the top tier characters. Take, for example, Young Link in Melee. He was a low tier character, but he also developed into the best Peach match-up in the game. Players that consistently try to win are always looking for the best answer to each problem facing them. Picking a main and secondary characters is not a simple dart board toss or a look at the tier list for top players. They spend hours testing each character, discovering what that character is capable of and how they play them. No player would ever say, well Meta Knight is bad against Diddy Kong (this a purely hypothetical match-up description), so I am just going to have to lose all my Diddy match-ups. Instead, s/he would find another character to counter Diddy. Maybe s/he would discover a new technique(s) with that character and vault them up the tier list, just like Chu Dat and the Ice Climbers. By the nature of the fact that no character has perfect match-ups across the board, players will always being trying new things with other characters and constantly affecting the tier list. | Given that tournament play is acceptable, what then becomes unacceptable about tiers? The general argument is that tier lists should not exist because they only exist for tournament play or that they simply continue to reinforce themselves. For the first of those points, read the above paragraph again for the answer. Yes, they only exist for tournament play because ''that is what they are intended for''. As for the point on them reinforcing themselves, there is more to be said. Yes, there exist players who switched to Meta Knight the moment the Back Room announced him as top tier and now refuse to play any other character. But they are the small minority. Given the inherent neutrality of a mirror match-up, top players will always be looking for the counter to the top tier characters. Take, for example, Young Link in Melee. He was a low tier character, but he also developed into the best Peach match-up in the game. Players that consistently try to win are always looking for the best answer to each problem facing them. Picking a main and secondary characters is not a simple dart board toss or a look at the tier list for top players. They spend hours testing each character, discovering what that character is capable of and how they play them. No player would ever say, well Meta Knight is bad against Diddy Kong (this a purely hypothetical match-up description), so I am just going to have to lose all my Diddy match-ups. Instead, s/he would find another character to counter Diddy. Maybe s/he would discover a new technique(s) with that character and vault them up the tier list, just like Chu Dat and the Ice Climbers. By the nature of the fact that no character has perfect match-ups across the board, players will always being trying new things with other characters and constantly affecting the tier list. | ||
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===Nature=== | ===Nature=== | ||
The nature of tiers is a dramatically misunderstood concept. As enumerated in the introduction to this treatise, a tier is a ranking of sorts. It is does not contain information about matchups, player skill, stage balance, the effects of items, timed matches, or special brawls. It is relevant only in a single context: tournaments run by Smash Back Room rules. Tiers are | The nature of tiers is a dramatically misunderstood concept. As enumerated in the introduction to this treatise, a tier is a ranking of sorts. It is does not contain information about matchups, player skill, stage balance, the effects of items, timed matches, or special brawls. It is relevant only in a single context: tournaments run by Smash Back Room rules. Tiers are derived from a body of data from these very same tournaments, based on the performance of characters at these events. Thus, tiers are rankings of which characters are most effective in the aforementioned tournament context relative to other characters. Here are some important points: | ||
#'''Tiers are graded.''' A character at place 12 is more effective than a character at place 21, but the difference in effectiveness, theoretically, is less by relative position; that is, the difference in effectiveness is greater the larger the margin of separation between two relative places. | #'''Tiers are graded.''' A character at place 12 is more effective than a character at place 21, but the difference in effectiveness, theoretically, is less by relative position; that is, the difference in effectiveness is greater the larger the margin of separation between two relative places. | ||