(
WARNING: This post is
VERY much salty, and I mean no offense to anybody with anything I say in this post, little of which applies specifically to Smashboards. Proceed with caution if you don't want to listen to a teenager rambling about Smash speculation and it's many issues.
)
Honestly, Smash speculation in it's entirety since the Ballot was revealed seems to be less about the
speculation aspect and more like a bunch of people saying that their character is more likely than yours. Like, I get it, you don't think my wants are particularly likely, but there's a reason people call them
PERSONAL wants, not "things that are likely that I want".
Speculation's become less of a, well,
speculation and more along the lines of character propaganda campaigns. All I hear in this side of the community is stuff like "VOTE KRYSTAL!", "VOTE SNAKE!", "VOTE DAISY!", etc. Not to say I have any ill will to them, I certainly don't, but it's a trend that I'm not fond of.
This isn't a political campaign, and we need to stop treating it like one; otherwise, it leads to undesired toxicity between fans, and that's no fun for anybody. Also, the attitude I sometimes see in these sorts of areas (
especially on Reddit) is honestly some of the worst I've ever
seen in a fandom; and I come from the franchise that's caused people to cry "Ruined FOREVER!" since
the year after it launched. When you can one-up
THAT with how toxic this community can be at times, that is a
BIG issue.
Mention that you want Ridley as a character?
SAKURAI SAID HE'S TOO BIG LOL! Want an oddball,
extremely bizarre pick like Optimus Prime?
YOUR DUMB FOR THINKING HE HAS A CHANCE! Hell, even mention that you want a Pokemon that
isn't Sceptile (who I would be fine with) or Blaziken?
NOT GONNA HAPPEN, BLAZIKEN/SCEPTILE ARE MORE LIKELY!
It's like we've become a strict camp where only the characters we deem "acceptable" can be desired, and people who don't follow what we deem "acceptable" simply can't craft things for the character they want in the game, but need to follow a book of rules that, if they don't follow
every one of them to the letter, means they can't express their deviation from this "standard" of who can be in the game; which leads to utter stagnation since everybody can only talk about the characters a bunch of text allows them to, meaning we don't see those wacky, oddball but intriguing choices anymore. It's just a pool of "We want more veterans back!" and "We want this small group of newcomers in!". There's no
FUN of speculation anymore, it's all serious business and whoever happens to have the most support behind them who get to shine at the tops of the board, while others just languish in obscurity, buried under the hundreds upon hundreds of other choices no longer deemed "acceptable".
If we need to regulate speculation, we need to do it in a way that
DOESN'T hamstring people's creativity. Make it so the character needs to have some kind of involvement in a Nintendo-made game, like Splatoon. But solely basing things on the Ballot is forgetting the other side of this sort of practice; deals between companies. If Nintendo has the ability to negotiate with Hasbro to get their IP's in stuff like Splatoon, it definitely means they could do it for Smash. Hasbro would have to be
daft not to see how much potential marketing that having their famous character alongside some of the biggest names in gaming gives them. Yes, some people will complain if it happened, but the money they'd make would
more than outweigh the complaints from the company's perspective.
Of course, I'm not saying that sort of deal
will happen, but now that the two are on legal speaking terms, it's a whole new scenario for us. We've never
had this situation before, and so there's that enchanting mystery about what it could mean for the future; we don't know if it's only a one-time thing or if they might do this for other things, too. And since Shovel Knight opened the doors for non-Nintendo produced amiibo? There's an even
bigger incentive for the two companies to continue working together. If Hasbro knows there's the ability for them to maybe make more merchandise for their biggest IP, they'll leap at the chance to do it. And Nintendo will still make money from it because of the fact that it's their own line of figures, so they certainly wouldn't be against it.
But what do I know? I'm just a 17-year old kid who wants someone as ridiculously unlikely as Optimus Prime in Smash Bros.
Clearly I'm just being dumb for thinking outside the norm for a character choice that isn't some hilariously unlikely retro character, yet another Mario character or any of the "normal" picks. :/
They shouldn't be offended if I don't know their character.
