Devil’s Advocate
Just to play a little devil’s advocate here, but… why exactly are most people here FOR banning turbo and macros? For macros, I can sort of understand, because making it so everything that is the realm of “techskill” too easily accessible makes the game’s credibility itself somewhat suspect. However, hitting PPP and KKK, especially for pad players, is not really a matter of techskill, it’s more a matter of logistics. It’s really hard to press PPP or KKK without it being mapped to a specific button, and well, it’s built into the game, so it really shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not like it hinders “regular” tournament players in any way anyway.
As for turbos, I’d argue that since it’s not game-breaking, and doesn’t in itself endow an unfair advantage, and the advantage it does bestow isn’t something that couldn’t be gained with enough practice, then it’s allowable. I mean, what is really the issue here?
If the issue is that it’s not something “built in” to the game, and that it’s something that comes from a third party peripheral, well… aren’t joysticks in general not “built in?” I mean, sure, they are “tournament standards,” but the games, played on XBOX and PS3 are completely playable, though difficult, with pads.
If the argument is that it makes certain things, like Valle’s post regarding the turbo-link combos, easier, then couldn’t you say that considering joysticks make certain moves or links easier, then shouldn’t they follow in the same logic, and be banned?
If the argument is that it’s not the tournament standard, that tournaments don’t allow them because they never have and because most joysticks people have used don’t have the turbo feature, they should not be included, then I say to you that the “standard” these days is the TE Fightstick, which DOES have it, so isn’t the standard to HAVE it, though not necessarily to use it.
I can see that it would be considered unsporting, or just generally looked down upon, but really, what is the harm? All it does is makes people who maybe practiced less a little better because they now have a 50/50 shot at making their links, when their clumsy hands might have prevented this in the past. I think we’re looking at this with too narrow a lens.
Does it impart an advantage? Sure, if you practice in a way that it gives you an advantage, I guess it does. Does it impart an unfair advantage? I don’t think so. If you think so, let me ask you this… would you consider having really good players to play against, maybe an arcade where they congregate, an unfair advantage? Would you consider having played with a joystick and having the same sort of technology available to you throughout the games and tournaments having an unfair advantage?
Personally, I’m not a great player, so maybe there’s more to it than I know. But for me, who played on pad for years, and only recently moved to a stick, but still have pretty poor execution… I think that any advantage the turbo might impart is no more unfair than any a better player might have on me. If you still lose, that’s on you, don’t blame the hardware.
If you still think it’s an unfair advantage… I say we start banning other buttons, not just the turbo. Let’s ban Sagat players’ RH button, it gives them an unfair advantage.
and not sure about macro part, i mean if its just 3p or 3k that is acceptable i think unless it is like other stuff, i know a friend of mine had this stick that you can actually program stuff to a button, so like press that button once and your character will do combos and stuff (is this considered as macros or something else?)