JayWon
Smash Journeyman
First thing I do every time when I play with my friends is change time to stock. It’s just what I always have been doing since Smash 64.
For 1v1’s, and other tournaments/competitiveness, Stock mode is without a doubt the best choice.
For more players casually playing, Time mode is becoming an obvious better choice over Stock.
I believe having an affinity towards Stock mode over Time mode has been a heuristic error due to the tangible nature of having stock. Seeing how many stocks you have left resonates well with what “makes sense"; stock mode gives a simple, intuitively clear, accessible goal: don’t lose all your stock.
Time mode on the other hand is uncomfortable because it isn't very definite; you're never quite confident on who is winning by how much and that is a big turn off. Time mode is intrusive, distracting, and always felt like the time is doing nothing more than getting in the way of the real battle.
Turning on “Score Display” not only alleviates the “problems” of Time mode, but also makes it far superior than Stock mode. I will expand on this later.
What happens to the first person who dies in 8-player stock? That player will wait for the other 7 to kill one another, while having the luxury to dwell on the fact he/she is a loser. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, that player will more and more feed the idea of staying away from danger to better protect his stock next time. Do we really want to encourage this mentality? Why should Ness jump into chaos among other players when Ness spamming PK thunder on the bottom right part of Corneria is viable because it’s safe, thus completely fine?
Is playing a game that strongly rewards risk-averse mindsets theoretically more fun?
Isn’t it bull**** when the scoreboard proves you scored the most kills but the win was rewarded to someone else because he rarely received any percentage because he camped all game? Stock mode has become so standard that we forget that not being rewarded for Stock kills is fundamentally unconstructive and a problem, yet it's something we don't even see as a problem and it's just now accepted without question.
In Time mode, all players will continuously play the full match. This really is a big deal and is courteous to players who aren’t good. I have a 9 year old sister (mains villager, consistently can beat Lvl 8) and when I play doubles with her with bots and she dies early, I immediately just end the game and start over. I certainly do not want her to wait for that match to be over; it's not fun. If you want to convince friends who never played before that Smash is the best thing in existence and containing the hype on a daily basis is nearly impossible, it's best if they play as much as possible and never be left out and have them wait.
In Time mode, victory is rewarded to whoever has the least death as well as rewarding kills. So let’s ask this question again: Why should Ness jump into chaos among other players? Because Ness sees among the chaos one of the player has high enough percentage to be killed with a guarantee back throw. Ness finds an opportunity to sneak in and steal a kill to be a risk he must take. PK thundering on the bottom right part of Corneria becomes an obsolete strategy. Risk-taking is rewarded; being active, more aware, involved, and scanning for an opportunity to get an easy kill is encouraged.
Score Display On: This takes care of the main problems with Time mode that made it seem "off". I'm guessing Nintendo felt Time mode without showing score was a better choice because of the "surprise" and "anticipation" factor, but we all know that's precisely what we hate about Time mode. Seeing the +/- points on yourself and other players makes the active status of the game more tangible, and through this better sense of certainty Time mode stops being psychologically discomforting. In fact, it easily becomes extremely clear just how competitive Time mode can be with your friends. Seeing who is the most ahead automatically makes that person a high priority target, especially because of the time limit; Seeing the score display on gives everyone playing a purpose/goal to even out the match while scoring a point for themselves.
For me the default 2 minutes is too short to be fulfilling. There isn’t much potential for comebacks. Personally, I set the time anywhere between 3-5 minutes, really depends on how we feel at that time. There really isn’t an ideal time length. A 1 minute, 4 minute, 5 minute matches all have a different feel and pace. Switch it up!
Additionally, in the end game, if the match turns out to be very close, the last few seconds are very tense yet exciting; if someone is way ahead and there is no way anyone can catch up, everyone starts the hilarious tradition of spamming taunts with acknowledgement. Furthermore, the occasional Sudden Death every now and then is definitely welcomed.
To put things in perspective, essentially, Stock mode is a King of the Hill mode. Sure, other multiplayer games, such as Halo and other FPS, may have a King of the Hill mode people play once in awhile. But King of the Hill is never the main popular mode people play. In fact, when you don’t respawn after a bull**** snipe and have nothing to do but wait and observe everyone camp until only one person is left every single time, it becomes clear King of Hill will be too frustrating, and not fun at all to play consistently.
But most importantly of all, in 8 player Smash Stock mode, there will always be the dead last 8th place. In Time mode it isn't uncommon for a lot of people to have the same scores. Everyone will die a couple times and kill a couple times, resulting in a score that doesn't deviate much from 0. There will be a lot of ties, and even if someone happens to be dead last place, they won't be as discouraged because they might have only gotten a lower score by just a few points. They'll want to do better, score higher, and play harder. Not develop a fear of losing stock and become the camp king.
I don’t know how much of this is common sense. It just occurred to me that I never really took time to think about giving Time Mode a chance. I just habitually defaulted Stock and thought it was better and more fun and Time was stupid. After thinking about it, I now am confident Time Mode with Score Display On is the way to go and will provide the most fun for my little sister, friends, and me of various skill levels
EDIT: Okay, I know all of you are big boys and it's no biggie losing, but the primary reason I wrote this post was after I observed my 9 year old sister playing with her friends that age. OF COURSE, I've been playing stock all my life as well, but after couple sessions with my 9 year old sister and her friends her age, I noticed Stock is far from ideal at all. They developed really bad camping habits and focused on not losing rather than focusing on winning. Just want you guys to keep it in mind Time mode can be better psychologically for humans that are sensitive, and/or people who are playing for the first time.
For 1v1’s, and other tournaments/competitiveness, Stock mode is without a doubt the best choice.
For more players casually playing, Time mode is becoming an obvious better choice over Stock.
I believe having an affinity towards Stock mode over Time mode has been a heuristic error due to the tangible nature of having stock. Seeing how many stocks you have left resonates well with what “makes sense"; stock mode gives a simple, intuitively clear, accessible goal: don’t lose all your stock.
Time mode on the other hand is uncomfortable because it isn't very definite; you're never quite confident on who is winning by how much and that is a big turn off. Time mode is intrusive, distracting, and always felt like the time is doing nothing more than getting in the way of the real battle.
Turning on “Score Display” not only alleviates the “problems” of Time mode, but also makes it far superior than Stock mode. I will expand on this later.
What happens to the first person who dies in 8-player stock? That player will wait for the other 7 to kill one another, while having the luxury to dwell on the fact he/she is a loser. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, that player will more and more feed the idea of staying away from danger to better protect his stock next time. Do we really want to encourage this mentality? Why should Ness jump into chaos among other players when Ness spamming PK thunder on the bottom right part of Corneria is viable because it’s safe, thus completely fine?
Is playing a game that strongly rewards risk-averse mindsets theoretically more fun?
Isn’t it bull**** when the scoreboard proves you scored the most kills but the win was rewarded to someone else because he rarely received any percentage because he camped all game? Stock mode has become so standard that we forget that not being rewarded for Stock kills is fundamentally unconstructive and a problem, yet it's something we don't even see as a problem and it's just now accepted without question.
In Time mode, all players will continuously play the full match. This really is a big deal and is courteous to players who aren’t good. I have a 9 year old sister (mains villager, consistently can beat Lvl 8) and when I play doubles with her with bots and she dies early, I immediately just end the game and start over. I certainly do not want her to wait for that match to be over; it's not fun. If you want to convince friends who never played before that Smash is the best thing in existence and containing the hype on a daily basis is nearly impossible, it's best if they play as much as possible and never be left out and have them wait.
In Time mode, victory is rewarded to whoever has the least death as well as rewarding kills. So let’s ask this question again: Why should Ness jump into chaos among other players? Because Ness sees among the chaos one of the player has high enough percentage to be killed with a guarantee back throw. Ness finds an opportunity to sneak in and steal a kill to be a risk he must take. PK thundering on the bottom right part of Corneria becomes an obsolete strategy. Risk-taking is rewarded; being active, more aware, involved, and scanning for an opportunity to get an easy kill is encouraged.
Score Display On: This takes care of the main problems with Time mode that made it seem "off". I'm guessing Nintendo felt Time mode without showing score was a better choice because of the "surprise" and "anticipation" factor, but we all know that's precisely what we hate about Time mode. Seeing the +/- points on yourself and other players makes the active status of the game more tangible, and through this better sense of certainty Time mode stops being psychologically discomforting. In fact, it easily becomes extremely clear just how competitive Time mode can be with your friends. Seeing who is the most ahead automatically makes that person a high priority target, especially because of the time limit; Seeing the score display on gives everyone playing a purpose/goal to even out the match while scoring a point for themselves.
For me the default 2 minutes is too short to be fulfilling. There isn’t much potential for comebacks. Personally, I set the time anywhere between 3-5 minutes, really depends on how we feel at that time. There really isn’t an ideal time length. A 1 minute, 4 minute, 5 minute matches all have a different feel and pace. Switch it up!
Additionally, in the end game, if the match turns out to be very close, the last few seconds are very tense yet exciting; if someone is way ahead and there is no way anyone can catch up, everyone starts the hilarious tradition of spamming taunts with acknowledgement. Furthermore, the occasional Sudden Death every now and then is definitely welcomed.
To put things in perspective, essentially, Stock mode is a King of the Hill mode. Sure, other multiplayer games, such as Halo and other FPS, may have a King of the Hill mode people play once in awhile. But King of the Hill is never the main popular mode people play. In fact, when you don’t respawn after a bull**** snipe and have nothing to do but wait and observe everyone camp until only one person is left every single time, it becomes clear King of Hill will be too frustrating, and not fun at all to play consistently.
But most importantly of all, in 8 player Smash Stock mode, there will always be the dead last 8th place. In Time mode it isn't uncommon for a lot of people to have the same scores. Everyone will die a couple times and kill a couple times, resulting in a score that doesn't deviate much from 0. There will be a lot of ties, and even if someone happens to be dead last place, they won't be as discouraged because they might have only gotten a lower score by just a few points. They'll want to do better, score higher, and play harder. Not develop a fear of losing stock and become the camp king.
I don’t know how much of this is common sense. It just occurred to me that I never really took time to think about giving Time Mode a chance. I just habitually defaulted Stock and thought it was better and more fun and Time was stupid. After thinking about it, I now am confident Time Mode with Score Display On is the way to go and will provide the most fun for my little sister, friends, and me of various skill levels
EDIT: Okay, I know all of you are big boys and it's no biggie losing, but the primary reason I wrote this post was after I observed my 9 year old sister playing with her friends that age. OF COURSE, I've been playing stock all my life as well, but after couple sessions with my 9 year old sister and her friends her age, I noticed Stock is far from ideal at all. They developed really bad camping habits and focused on not losing rather than focusing on winning. Just want you guys to keep it in mind Time mode can be better psychologically for humans that are sensitive, and/or people who are playing for the first time.
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