Right; I think part of the confusion is that the author talks a lot about 'balance' in Smash but never actually defines what he means by it. I got the impressi

Right; I think part of the confusion is that the author talks a lot about 'balance' in Smash but never actually defines what he means by it. I got the impression from the article that when he talks about "balance", he means "constant and ongoing change to reduce options which players feel are overpowered, and enhance options which players feel are underpowered". He talks about Smash being "unbalanced", and then immediately explains that it's a console game which has never been patched. He then follows up by contrasting it with LoL, and the constant state of patching that LoL exists in. Treating "balance" as a verb, rather than an adjective. That's a very different interpretation of the concept than what I'm used to thinking, and so I think you're right that we ended up talking past each other a bit and ended up at the same place anyways. Guilty Gear is a lot of fun, and if you're interested in checking it out, you're in luck! A brand new game in the series is coming out in just a few weeks (Guilty Gear Xrd, pronounced "Ecksard"), for ps3/ps4. A bunch of people are really looking forward to it and it seems like it'll be a lot of fun. It's a very different style of game from Smash, but if you like one, you may well like the other.