[Rolken]

The discussion (a continuation from IRC) is whether blue sphere ring records should be included on the site. Commence controversy~

edit: Points for and against-

Against:
-Low difficulty
-Game encourages maxing
-Lack of competition
-Not an Act

For:
-Of comparable difficulty to rankings on the site
-Offers opportunity for achievement
-Might as well

[Thorn]

For:
-Game encourages maxxing in S2 Acts too with same bonus

* Thorn wonders if he even has the right to post, as he was in that IRC convo...

[eredani]

For:
-Game encourages maxxing in S2 Acts too with same bonus

That is irrelevant, as those are completely normal Acts and you aren't supposed to go out of your way to collect every Ring in the level, even if it's possible to do that.

The perfect bonus earned by collecting all of the available Rings in the S3&K Special Stages is trivial to earn, and the SS's were made with the intention of the player getting every single Ring during normal play. You don't even need to be competing at all to go on and get all the Rings, and it's very easy to do normally.

The point isn't simply that they aren't Acts, but that Acts are well-suited for competition by their nature and are always ranked. Those special stages are intentionally simple to max the Rings out on and you're even encouraged to do so naturally, something that doesn't hold true for any of the regular Acts.

[Thorn]

...you aren't supposed to go out of your way to collect every Ring in the level, even if it's possible to do that...

And you are supposed to in S3&K?  A bonus is a bonus, no matter the location.  You said it yourself, "out of the way".  Just because it's not as far away in the Special Stages doesn't mean it's not out of the way.  The game has a way of scaring you away from Special Stage perfects, by speeding the stage up and making it easy to lose control.

I won't get anywhere going back and forth with you, as we're giving each other the same reasons repeatedly.  I just wanted both the argument and the counter to be visible to the forum.

[Crowbar]

Shouldn't this thread be a poll?

I vote no, for what little it's worth. I guess I just agree with Thorn more. It's not necessarily REALLY easy in all cases, but we would end up with tons of joint 1sts, more than I feel would be desirable.

[Rolken]

This thread isn't meant to be a popularity contest, it's a discussion.

[stanski]

Against:

I think competition in the S2 special stages is stupid, and no one even really bothers to compete. I think it will be the same way with the s3k stages, but worse.

[Rane]

I´m against it too.
Most of the stages are really trivial to get a perfect bonus in, with few exceptions (#4 or #5 of S&K, the one where you run on blue spheres all the time).

Stanski: I plan on competing in the S2 specials soon, but i don´t know if i can be bothered to go for top scores (meaning those that would challenge yours ^^).

[yse]

Hell, while we're at it, let's rank the amount of blue spheres you can get too! I mean you can compete on that right?

:/

[Spinballwizard]

I do believe yse nailed it on the head.

The only special stage I can't be arsed to perfect is S&K #4, because frankly it's a waste of time. And the others are so easy I could perfect most of them when the games came out, and I was only 8-going-on-9 when I got S&K.

EDIT: Also I find it sad to say that I think some nub in the channel or somewhere suggested that blue spheres be tracked. :(

[Bilan]

For -

 - Awesome music


...wha? <_<

[Crowbar]

For -

 - Awesome music


...wha? <_<

Oh shi I change my vote.

[yse]

Also where is the Sonic 1 special stage discussion. I mean seriously that has far more worth than this.

[Bilan]

I think thats going up unquestioned? >_>

[Thorn]

^From what I heard in chat yesterday most of them are going up.  This is the only one that there was serious controversy over.