#i used a base for general posing but the rest was all me hashtag gaming

[thekinglycrown]

Some silly Sebepel I've never posted we live laugh love them in this house

[s-tier]

As some of you guys may have noticed on Twitter this past week or so, there were a couple different hashtags trending for short bursts of time like SaveSmash, FreeMelee, among others. I'd like to take the time to help give those out of the loop some context because there has been lots of misinformation going around.

First, if I get any facts mistaken let me know and I’ll be happy to correct it.

On 19 November 2020, Smash Bros tournament series, The Big House announced on Twitter that they have received a cease and desist from Nintendo of America (NOA) “primarily due to the usage of Slippi” and will cancel both the Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros Ultimate online events. The Big House series has been hosting Smash tournaments for almost 10 years, and the more recent installments were even partnered with Nintendo.

Earlier this year, 22 June 2020, Project Slippi releases a version of Dolphin (a Nintendo Gamecube emulator) that includes features new to Melee like rollback netcode, integrated matchmaking, replay files, complex game statistics, and more. Rollback netcode is easily the most important addition, giving players an online experience that’s significantly better than what most modern fighting games provide. It’s especially valuable in a time where the world is fighting an ongoing pandemic and gathering dozens of players to compete in-person poses a major health risk. I could gush over how incredible Fizzi36 and the rest of the Project Slippi developers are for being able to incorporate rollback netcode into Melee, but that’s not the point of this post. Just need to know that the game’s ISO file and its contents do not need to be modified in any way in order for Slippi to do what it does.

Now, despite their claims, NOA is lying. As the copyright holder, Nintendo indeed has the legal right to shut down events, streams, and media that include any of their intellectual property. Most game companies don’t assert this right because, unlike Nintendo, they know it’s not a very good idea. However, based on The Big House’s initial statement and NOA’s follow up statement to Polygon on the C&D, the tournament was shut down for other reasons: game emulation/modification and piracy. First let me say that I’m not a lawyer and would rather have someone better suited explain; but from my understanding, Slippi would not be considered illegal modification of Melee, the game, since everything is done with Dolphin, the emulator, instead. And while it is possible that numerous Melee players may be competing on illegally obtained copies of the game and don’t own their own physical copy, the responsibility falls on Nintendo to prove it.

Some suggest The Big House takes this to court, but with how big Nintendo is, many agree that the amount of time and money needed to settle the case would be too high of a price for anybody in the community to pay. So is fighting for The Big House’s online tournament a lost cause? For this event in particular, most likely yes. It’s been over a week since the C&D was issued and despite the public backlash, NOA has yet to retract its decision. However, the Melee community is already making moves in response, and for the average person, all we can do is spread awareness and see what happens next.

News of The Big House shutting down had spread far and wide, trending on Twitter for some time, reaching influencers like moistcr1tikal, LudwigAhgren, and Mutahar(SomeOrdinaryGamers), several news outlets like Kotaku have covered the story, and gained support from various other competitive gaming communities including ones that play the games that Nintendo actually supports like Splatoon and ARMS.

Few days later on 23 November 2020, an anonymous Twitter account posts a Twitlonger that contains a list of claims exposing how Nintendo has actively gone out of its way to prevent the growth of the competitive Smash scene for many years as far back as 2006. Nintendo’s actions have not only have been a detriment toward the Melee community, but all the newer Smash games and beloved fan-game Project M, as well. Many figures in the Smash community agree that most or even all the statements made in that document are legit, and I highly recommend reading it for yourself and forming your own opinion.

I won’t go over everything covered in the Twitlonger, but in the past Nintendo famously tried to shut down the Melee tournament back at EVO 2013. Melee earned its spot at the event after raising almost $100,000 for breast cancer research. After a day of constant public backlack after the story reached the top of Reddit, Nintendo stepped down from their decision, and after that came one of the most memorable and impactful Smash events in history.

The information brought public by that first Twitlonger caused others came forward with their own claims against Nintendo, exposing their actions against these communities happening behind the scenes. These statements come from members of the ARMS, Project M, and Splatoon communities. (If I come across more, I’ll try to add them here.)

These developments, soon after The Big House’s C&D, made a lot of people upset towards Nintendo. While there are several ways to go about informing others and expressing your frustration with the situation, demanding fans of Nintendo to boycott their products will not help. Doing so would probably just make less informed people not want to support the Smash scene at all.

All this noise has made many people question what the Melee scene was after. Would a rerelease on modern hardware be the solution? No, if anything, it can give Nintendo more leverage to continue this abusive relationship with the competitive community. The Melee rerelease would also likely be the PAL (European/Australian) version of the game, but the community as a whole has already abandoned it in favor of NTSC (Japanese/American). Do Melee players want Nintendo to put up their own money and sponsor competitive events? In the past, yes, but after many, many years of no shown support thus far that is no longer the case. With how malicious Nintendo has been towards the Smash community over the years, many just want the company to turn a blind eye and leave Melee alone at this point.

Mentioned earlier, the Melee community has already taken action in response to the C&D. The general plan as of now is to respectfully spread awareness and continue announcing online tournaments. In December, Ludwig is hosting a big online Melee tournament using Slippi where the winner decides which charity organization will receive the prize money of tens of thousands of dollars. Fizzi released an updated version of Slippi with a spectator mode that enables smaller, independent tournament organizers to run online competitions without needing to rely on streaming, Discord’s screen share feature, or other methods of broadcasting gameplay. Many content creators and players are also taking the time to express how much Melee means to them and how the competitive Smash scene has positively influenced their lives.

Somehow, despite everything exposed up until now, people still actively defend Nintendo as if they did nothing wrong at all and tend to base their arguments on flawed logic and/or incorrect information (you’ll see a lot of it on the Nintendo subreddit). For the remainder of this post, I’ll try to break down a few common misconceptions and explain why Nintendo should not be defended by anyone that isn’t getting paid by them.

Thank you for reading.

________________

“The competitive Melee scene hurts Nintendo’s bottom line.”

Super Smash Bros Melee has been out of production for many years now, and Nintendo has yet to release it on modern consoles.

The competitive Smash community has historically been supportive of Nintendo’s current products at the time.

Assumes the existence of competitive Melee takes opportunities away from other Nintendo games’ existing communities, when in reality it was Nintendo’s own poor community management.

Assumes that competitive scenes negatively affects Nintendo’s brand and is unwelcoming to casual players and newcomers when companies like Blizzard and Valve pump millions into their competitive scenes knowing how profitable they are.

“Nintendo doesn’t want to support events for a scene full of abusive community members.”

Claims like these are ESPECIALLY BAD because it disrespects those who have been victimized by members of their community.

Implies that exposing and ejecting abusive people from the community, and attempting to create a safer environment is bad for the scene.

Assumes people in other communities aren’t capable of doing the same horrible things.

Long before all the allegations came out, Nintendo had already invited several of these community figures to events in order to promote their games.

“Just play the new game lmao Melee players don’t know how to move on”

Has been said for ages, and clearly those saying so don’t get it.

This is literally what Nintendo wants.

“Melee players have always been after the money.”

THERE’S HARDLY ANY MONEY TO BE WON IN THE FIRST PLACE. NO THANKS TO NINTENDO.

If playing video games for money was all Melee players want, they would not be competing in a game this difficult to be good at where tournament winnings can’t reliably pay the bills.

The majority of competitive Melee players are only in it for the passion, and being able to make a living through competing in a game they love is the dream.

“Competitive players take the fun out of games! Why should I support them?”

Unless you can’t read, or are some corporate bootlicker with no sense of empathy, I see no reason not to be supportive.

This whole situation is about a dedicated community that has existed for almost 20 years trying to play their favorite game with each other online in the midst of a pandemic, and for no good reason a big company will not let them.

“Supporting Melee and/or boycotting Nintendo means I have to give up my favorite games!”

No, buy and play what you want, how you want.

Do know that Nintendo is a big company with no intent on being your friend. Stop putting them up on a pedestal.

Boycotting Nintendo won’t do anything anyway; they’re too big, and the FreeMelee movement isn’t far-reaching enough to cause any significant harm to Nintendo’s profits.

"ACTUALLY, Nintendo is within their right to shut down events. They are allowed to kill Melee if they want.”

Yes, and Nintendo is within their right to suck my nuts.

Just because it’s legal doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do.

[rodrigohyde]

A. Lange & Söhne Against The World: The Watch Snob

Lange Saxonia Vs. Patek Calatrava

Dear Watch Snob,

I have been reading your articles for the past few years and I have grown to really enjoy them. This is my second time reaching out to you. Your advice, in your published article “Precious Time”, was extremely helpful. As I mentioned in my previous article, I had a number of personal tragedies to deal with over the past year and your articles have provided me with humor and a “welcome distraction” in a difficult time in my life.

I am reaching out for your advice once again to help in my desire to create only a two-watch collection that will last me for the next ten years or more.

I am turning 50 years old soon and I have grown really tired of waiting for Rolex watches and buying Rolex watches over the past few years that I don’t really want, to possibly get the watch I do one day. Your advice on waiting for the Rolex GMT Pepsi Jubilee sports watch in SS fits with my desire to reduce my watch collection and I am still waiting for it from my AD – no hurry though. This watch deserves a spot in my two-watch collection.

Anyway, I want to add a classic and simple dress watch as my other watch. I am torn between the A. Lange Saxonia Thin 37mm and the Patek Calatrava 5196J-001 Yellow Gold. From reading your articles and seeing the Saxonia in person, I now understand your love for A. Lange and your disdain for the Patek price creep. However, there is a feeling of horological history from Patek that I can’t deny either.

For a man who only turns 50 one time, would you recommend the Patek or the A. Lange in a two-watch collection, along with the 126710 BLRO? I am torn between two great watches.

Keep up the wonderful articles, as politics continue to tear Americans apart, your articles and our common love for watches can bring people together.

Related: The Watch Snob Says: What's On The Inside Counts, But Make It Look Good

I must say, I find Patek Philippe rather difficult to like as much as I used to, or would like to, these days. They embody, in so many ways, everything that is wrong with the Swiss watch industry – it has always been a rather stuffy, condescending firm but when the quality and integrity of design was good, you not only forgave these shortcomings, but found in them a charmingly anachronistic experience of old-school, old-style Swiss luxury watchmaking.

At the prices they currently ask, however, and with the lapses in finish and in general design integrity they’ve exhibited in the last ten years, what used to feel charmingly leisurely now feels incurably sclerotic; I have no issue with a company making money and if one doesn’t care for the cut of Patek’s jib, one simply votes with one’s wallet. I don’t mind them making money hand over fist, necessarily; I do mind that they seem rather obviously to not care much about anything else.

That said, the 5196J is one of the nicest watches they make – everything that one likes about Patek Philippe is present in the reference, and it is as tasteful a fine Swiss wristwatch as you could want. The caliber 215 PS is not the nicest movement Patek has ever made, but it’s not bad and overall it is a watch that one could wear for the rest of one’s days, with no regret. It should be about half as expensive as it is, but then one could say that about most of its competition.

The Saxonia, on the other hand, is still more expensive than it should be but much less so, and in terms of quality, it gives up nothing to the Patek. Moreover it comes from a company that still shows signs of caring about its clients as people. It is not so much less expensive than the Calatrava that cost alone would be a deciding factor, but that, combined with its impeccable quality, in my view recommend it over the Calatrava. However you know yourself best, and the name Patek Philippe is historically meaningful – if you know in your heart of hearts you would admire the Lange but always wish you’d purchased the Patek, then your course is clear.

Lange Saxonia Vs. Patek Calatrava: Round II

Dear Mr. Snob,

Thank you firstly for your articles. They are a source of knowledge and I look forward to the weekly articles which, read with a good glass of red or scotch, offers much pleasure.

Watch collection to me is a source of aspiration - I strive to do my work as well as the watch makes I admire and I strive to own the best watches by advancing my career.

To mark a career milestone I have been looking at a few watches and would now ask your opinion in my discourse for a worthy choice. My job takes me traveling often and I am enamored with watches that can easily switch time zones and therefore am looking at GMT / Dual Time and World Time watches. I wonder if any one of these two complications is superior to the other? One can surmise that there is a scale of complications with minute repeaters and perpetual calendars being right up there and perhaps the humble day date and power reserve being at the entry levels. If there is such a scale, how would you rank complications by themselves and is a Worldtime superior over a GMT / Dual Time watch or vice versa? I am considering the Nautilus Dual Time, Saxonia Dual Time, Calatrava World Time or Lange 1 World Time. If I am to wear the watch regularly then I suppose the Nautilus or Saxonia will be really good, simple timepieces but for one that will give pleasure and retain value, do you will think a Patek is superior over a Lange? Should it be a Dual Time or a World Time complication? I already own a Reverso Grande GMT as well as a Rolex Submariner.

To summarize:

1/ are some complications more worthy of others?

2/ is World Time complication superior over GMT/Dual Time?

3/ is Patek still superior over Lange?

Or, should I get a Calatrava and a Saxonia with no complications and call it a day?

Well, you have asked not one, but a myriad of questions – let me answer the three you have posed in your summary.

Firstly, no complication is more inherently worthy than any other; with complications, as with watchmaking in general, it is not so much what you do, as how you do it. Modern manufacturing methods mean it is now possible to make any complication inexpensively, and there are now bargain-priced dual time zone watches, as well as perpetual calendars, rattrapante chronographs, and so on. Traditionally, three complications were considered the elite: the repeater, the rattrapante chronograph, and the perpetual calendar – but nowadays, it is the repeater alone that still retains some of the mystique of former days, as it has proven, to some degree, resistant to mass production.

Secondly, the World Time watch is more complex but not necessarily superior functionally. I no longer travel to the extent I once did, however I have noticed over the years that one seldom really needs to know the time in more than one’s immediate location, and at home, for which the GMT/Dual Time complication serves admirably – and moreover, more legibly than a World Time complication.

Finally: No. It has a longer history, and of course continuity of production, but qualitatively, Lange has quietly been beating Patek at their own game for some time now. Go and take a loupe to the movement of a Lange, and the movement of a comparable Patek, and trust your own eyes.

Lange Saxonia Vs. Vacheron Fiftysix

Dear Snob:

I have what I consider a small modest collection that includes among others, a Nomos Tangente, Zenith Pilot Type 20 and Polar Explorer Ref. 16570. I was considering a JLC Master series or Reverso when I saw that Vacheron came out with the 56 Series.

At first blush it appears to be a good value to cost proposition for an automatic in that entry point from Vacheron. I’m curious as to your thoughts on the 56 line. Is the new line worthy of consideration? Or, should one bypass the new offering and instead stick with a JLC or wait a bit longer for the more established Patrimony or possibly an Saxonia Lange?

I am I think somewhat in the minority, in that I find the 56 line rather charming. The objections to it seem chiefly to be that it looks perhaps a bit more obviously chic than one normally associates with Vacheron, but as the watch on which the 56 Collection is based can attest, Vacheron has a long and very rich history of experimenting with unusual case designs .

The Lange will probably hold its value a bit better, but the Vacheron is a charming watch in its own right . It is of course too expensive for what it is – unfortunately an all-too-common thread in this week’s little collection of queries – but Vacheron is no worse in this respect than any other haute horlogerie brand. Some chums of mine feel Vacheron comes it a bit high to price themselves competitively with Patek, to which all I can say is, I know to whom I’d rather give my bit of gold these days.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at editorial@askmen.com or ask a question on Instagram with the #watchsnob hashtag.

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