Ahhh yes. "Shut up and get better." It's a phrase that we've all heard at some point in our fighting game experiences. Whether your enraged about how you lost or whether you're innocently stating your opinion on why something might be overpowered or broken, you are almost guaranteed to be smacked a few times with "Shut up and get better," "Learn to play," or something along those lines.
While I do agree with the message itself, I just want to call to attention the hippocrisy that is often coupled with this statement.
For example: Player A picks a power character, and Player B picks an acrobat character. Stage select chooses Metro rooftop, a stage with respawning interactables (with stupid big hitboxes) that can be thrown by power characters, but not by acrobats. Player A is a decent player, but Player B demonstrates throughout the match that he is the better player at a fundamental level as far as punishes, spacing, blocking etc go. The match is close, however, at the end of the match, Player A emerges victorious by virtue of interactables.
Player B, obviously frustrated, says to Player A "wow, really? that's how I lose?" to which Player A responds "Shut up and get better."
Now, I understand that is a rather extreme example (and the purpose of this thread is to not pick apart that one example), however my point is the saying of "shut up and get better" is said by a player who is not very good at all, or at least won the match in a way that, to put it bluntly, isn't very indicative of the player having "skill" or "being better." To me, it would be like a boxing match in which one boxer payed the ref off and was delivering cheap shots the entire match, and after the other boxer disputes the ref says "shut up and get better."
TL;DR My question is this, basically... How much merit does "Shut up and get better" have if it's coming from the mouth (or fingers) from someone who either isn't very good at all, or is abusing something that is "questionably balanced" because they themselves know they aren't very good?
I haven't read through the whole thread, just skimmed through some posts.
To be frank, Shadow, it is never a good idea to start a conversation over topics like this because as you can clearly see...the casual players and the tournament players will
never see eye-to-eye. Some, like yourself, play fighting games simply to fascinate themselves with their personal definition of epic matches, while others will do whatever it takes to climb up to the top of the mountain all while abusing whatever the game allows. Now there's nothing wrong with either mentality whatsoever, but part of playing fighting games is having to accept that you will inevitably meet players from the other side of the line.
As for your question about hypocrisy behind the sentiment of "Shut up and get better," I would say that the only possible hypocrisy it can have is if the player who utters those words disregards his own advice when he loses in later matches. Otherwise, whether you're talking about Injustice's interactables/stage transitions or anything else from other games that can drastically turn a match towards a player's favor...as long as it doesn't violate tournament rules, a win is a win. It won't matter if one player looked more skillful than the other, the outcome speaks the loudest. I know it may sound harsh, but such is the nature of vying for dominance.
And your comparison regarding a boxing match makes little to no sense to me. Now, I'm no boxing fan, so blast me on this if I'm wrong, but I'd think it was illegal to "pay the ref off" so the ref practically swings a match in favor of the player who paid him. Referees and commentators have to be absolutely neutral with both players in any form of competition.
You are describing two scenarios with entirely unrelated circumstances. In one, both players are playing within what a game allows with no outside interference, and in the other scenario, the referee ventures outside his boundaries to affect a match's outcome, thus breaking the very rules he's
supposed to enforce, unlike in the previous scenario.
Regardless, I know what you are trying to say. My advice is to either accept the game for whatever non-skill-related elements it may have, or simply play people who share your views, or disregard the game altogether. With all this talk of Injustice's interactables, you'd think people weren't using the option to disable them at the stage select screen. It is there for that very reason, though only for casuals...unless the tournament scene does decide to ban interactables.
Another bit of advice, but this one goes to the competitive players posting in here: you are not wrong to say or think what you do, but ultimately, not all players share the same goal of striving for victory at any cost, but rather to be entertained in their own way. You will never get the casual players to see your way of things, so stop trying to. Just leave them be and work towards your own goals, there's nothing that can dissuade you from that except yourselves. Conversely, I also ask that the casual players not crucify the more serious players for pressing whatever advantages they have on their quest to win.
