Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[PeridotGX]

Did the Grinch Leak really start so late in October? I feel like I remember it starting much earlier in the month...

I would have sworn it started later. I remember there being barely a weak between Grinch and the November Direct.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Aight everyone. The timing for the shutting down of the forum is 5pm PST. You have around 19 hours to say your goodbyes. Make it your best one.

 

[Delzethin]

This is a more bittersweet moment for me than it is for most. I've watched these past three-plus years with excitement and anxiety in different measures, saw so many of you celebrate as your most wanted newcomers--some pipe dreams you never thought possible--were confirmed. But by the time all was said and done...I never got to join you.

I've rarely been into the biggest headliners or hype generators. Maybe it's because I've always been mainly a Nintendo fan who branches out into other series every now and then, but it's usually first party characters I get invested in. Maybe it's because of my interest in game design and drive to test my skills against others that I approach Smash as a creator and competitor, and not just a fan. The characters I end up supporting are the ones who can do something unique or bring something to Smash that we've never seen before, and if something about them or their story arcs in their games also resonated with me, then it makes me want the chance to play as them and compete using them all the more. Whether Geno, whose game of origin was what sparked my interest in the RPG genre as a child...Lycanroc, who was so prominent in its source material and had such interesting abilities to offer yet was overlooked and ignored by so many other speculators in ways that hit so close to home...Zacian, who provided another chance with a different set of skills that still stood out in a unique way...even Dimitri, whose tale of trauma and redemption struck a chord even though I knew full well he was a long shot and Byleth was much more likely.

But in the end, none of it was meant to be.

It's enough to make me wonder if maybe my time has just passed. Maybe I was a fool for hoping for so many lower key characters when Smash speculation is all about chasing the biggest third party names in gaming nowadays. But I'm pretty sure that's your judgement to make, not mine. I'm so old at this point that I'm practically a graybeard by the Smash community's standards, anyway, so maybe I am out of touch.

Still, I don't plan on leaving or anything like that. This is still a series I care about, even if I wish things were less contentious or toxic than they've been. I still play competitively, and Ultimate is the most balanced Smash game to date, so I see no need to bow out yet when I feel myself improving on a regular basis. And besides, I've kind of made a name of myself making content about this silly ass video game--why would I abandon the people who look forward to seeing what I come up with next?

Even if I know full well that you all have no real reason to listen. In the end, I "lost", and in a community that cares so much about results, I know what that entails.

So...here's to an ending that feels satisfying for many, triumphant for some, but...kind of hollow for a select few of us who never got to be part of the festivities. Thanks to Cosmic77 , RandomAce , LukeRNG , TCT~Phantom , WeirdChillFever , PeridotGX , Garteam , Scribe , Shanoa , and everyone else who joined me in my journeys off the rails that ultimately went nowhere.

Here's to whatever the hell happens in the next few years until Smash 6.




And if you are still listening...try not to get caught up in chasing hype, alright? Even if that rush of excitement feels exhilarating, it never lasts. And there're more merits to these characters than just how much hype their reveals would create.

 

[Ivander]

It's strange how despite me being glad that Smash Speculation is slowing down/coming to a halt, there's that part of me wanting to keep the Crossover Hype train going. Here's hoping that Capcom does do another Vs. Capcom game to possibly fuel that train, especially with Teppen fuelling my crave for another game.

 

[Dan Quixote]

Ugh why's the last day of the speculation zone have to happen on a day I am mega busy. Okay gotta be quick with my farewell here. I only joined this place late enough to see FP2 speculation, but it was still fun! Met a lot of cool people on this forum who I'll hopefully see again on other parts of this site, and it really makes me look forward to Smash 6 if only just to see this wacky, wacky cycle start all over again. Really happy with SSBU itself, too, so that helps.

See y'all on other subforums!

 

[DarthEnderX]

Aight everyone. The timing for the shutting down of the forum is 5pm PST. You have around 19 hours to say your goodbyes. Make it your best one.

Everyone already did! They thought it would be closed by now!

 

[Ben Holt]

Welp, now that Ultimate is done, here's my predicshlist for Smash 7:

Spoiler: 28 Newcomers and a giant list of considerations

(28 Newcomers based on pattern)

1. Crash Bandicoot
2. Coco Bandicoot (Crash Echo)
3. Waluigi
4. Dr. Eggman
5. Spring Man
6. Rex
7. Heihachi
8. Shadow (Sonic Echo)
9. Tails
10. Knuckles
11. Dixie Kong
12. Lloyd
13. Geno
14. Ms. Pac-Man (Pac-Man Echo)
15. Spyro
16. Master Chief
17. Alucard
18. Dr. Wily
19. Ryu Hayabusa
20. Chun-Li
21. Impa
22. Toad
23. Lara Croft
24. Doom Slayer
25. Dante
26. Rayman
27. Shovel Knight
28. Jonesy

Considered, but missed the cut:

Proto Man (Mega Man Echo)
Zack Fair (Cloud Echo)
Jeanne (Bayonetta Echo)
Cynder (Spyro Echo)
Funky Kong (Donkey Kong Echo)
Dry Bowser (Bowser Echo)
Toadette (Toad Echo)
Alph (Olimar Echo)
Octoling (Inkling Echo)
Zoroark (Lucario Echo)
Sceptile (Greninja Echo)
Raichu (Pikachu Echo)
Gooey (Kirby Echo)
Yuri (Lloyd Echo)
Ayane (Ryu Hayabusa Echo)
Roxas (Sora Echo)
Heroes separated into unique movesets
Slime
Dr. Cortex
Crunch
Dingodile
Hunter
Ripto
Dragonborn
Vault Boy
Tifa
Chokobo
Terra
Noctis
Black Mage
Zidane
Crono
Gex
Bass
X
Zero
Sigma
Akuma
Guile
Monster Hunter
Razewing Ratha
Palico
Palamute Hunter
Amaterasu
Enderdragon
Amy
Metal Sonic
Silver
Blaze
Chaotix (Espio, Charmy, and Vector)
Akira
Jackie
Dracula
Trevor
Maria
Liquid Snake
Raiden
Bomberman
Goemon
Geese Howard
Chosen Undead
Solaire
Artorius
Jin
King
Globox
Barbara
Rabbids
Ezio
Altaïr (Ezio Echo)
Sans
Cuphead
Shantae
Earthworm Jim
Cappy (Moveset of Odyssey captures)
Minions (Goomba, Koopa Troopa, and Hammer Bro.)
Paper Mario
Paper Luigi (Paper Mario Echo)
King Boo
Dry Bones
Wart
Birdo
Mario Kart Racer
Cranky Kong
Tom Nook
KK Slider
Krystal
Baby Metroid
Sylux
Raven Beak
Bandana Waddle Dee
Blue (Blastoise, Charmeleon, Bulbasaur)
Leaf (Venusaur, Wartortle, Charmander)
Decidueye
Gengar
Blaziken
Plusle & Minun
Scizor
Midna and Wolf Link
Demise (Ganondorf gets a new moveset, and Demise gets the old one.)
Skull Kid
Revali
Marshall & Chorus Kids
Excitebiker
Balloon Fighter
Isaac
Ninten
Dunban
Mecha Fiora
Akira (Astral Chain)
Lyn
Medeus
Kratos
Atreus
Sackboy
Jak and Daxter
Ratchet and Clank
Nathan Drake

 

[Strider_Bond00J]

I know I already made a final good-bye post yesterday, but I suppose I'll just keep it brief and say thanks for all the speculation times, Smashboards. Farewell!

 

[Guynamednelson]

Maybe it's because I've always been mainly a Nintendo fan who branches out into other series every now and then, but it's usually first party characters I get invested in.

Ironically, I think it's how I mod PC games that made me lean slightly more towards being a first-party purist. I'd rather have more Declasse cars populate the streets of Los Santos than Chevrolets, I don't turn L4D into Among Us vs. Fall Guys guest-starring Shrek as the Tank, and I don't turn the Dragonborn into a Battletoad with a Keyblade. This doesn't mean I will avoid every single mod that isn't lore-friendly, as I will still play plenty of custom TF2 maps and L4D2 campaigns among others that don't fit their aesthetics/lore properly.

 

[Ny0kazer]

Till next Smash, folks!

 

[Fluttershy64]

I was not very active on here, but I enjoyed speculating and talking to all of you and I hope to see you in the social thread!

 

[Diem]

This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.

Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.

However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.

Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Introduction

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Ultimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.

In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).

At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.

Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.

In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.

By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.

Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.

There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.

For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.


Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone

I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.

The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.

Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.

Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.


Thoughts On Sora

I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.

There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.

The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.

There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.

It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.


A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread

I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.

Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread, @BirthNote, would also constantly highlight the contributions that various Dixie Kong supporters put out by changing the topic title. This actually helped foster a sense of community without it being a “social club”. It made everyone feel like their contributions were meaningful and that they put forth something worthwhile.

This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.


A Brief Background for Who I Am

There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.

My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.

I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.

For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.

I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.

After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.

With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.

I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.

The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).

When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).

Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.

At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….


Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories

At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.

There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.

There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.

Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:

@Arcadenik: Duck Hunt
@Opossum: Chrom
@N3ON: Banjo & Kazooie
BKupa666 : King K. Rool
@Fuzzy Pickles!: Mega Man
Diem : Dark Samus
@Diddy Kong: (What do you think)
DaybreakHorizon : Sora ; Joker
@Phoenix Douchebag: Simon

These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.

I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.

In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.

The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.

For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.

Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.

Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:

• A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
• A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
• History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
• History and analysis of the Koopalings
• A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
• An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
• An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
• A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.

As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.

As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.

All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.

I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).


The Decline of The Smash Community

The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.

It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.

The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.

GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.

For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.

Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.

Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.

In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.

In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.

In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.

I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.

Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.


Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward

I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.

One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.

A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.

There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).

Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.

Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.

I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.

Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.


What Is Truly Important

I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.

I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.

With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.

I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.

It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.

I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.

It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.


Conclusion

Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.

Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.

In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.

I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.

The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.

I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.

As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.

I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.

However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.

Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.

Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.

Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.

This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.

As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.

Excellent words as always. And, as with your words on Ridley three years ago, I feel inspired to respond in kind.

I agree that the speculation and character support realm is pretty tapped out now. For one reason or another, I never was very involved in the speculation or character support scenes, despite being passionate about the games. I got very involved after Ultimate's announcement, as I'd never been more excited for a game in many years. Even then, I wasn't overly invested in the speculation, as I would have been happy with just what they announced at E3. I had characters I wanted, of course (and one obvious dream that would come true), but my hopes and joy with the game far from hinged upon it.

With the DLC era, though, I almost completely disengaged from the discussions of who would be added, on account of how the inclusions could be virtually anyone at that point. Remember when hundreds of thousands of people and dozens of "leakers" were certain that Crash Bandicoot was coming any day? And this year, people were somehow convinced "Jonesy" from Fortnite was going to happen. At the end, somehow, people were believing that Cinderace was going to be the final character, because it was believed that a new Pokemon character was likely. Personally, it just felt like the train had completely gone off the rails, and crowds would be whipped up in the most frivolous of directions.

These narratives were spun from the more capricious nature of social media and online discourse, as you point out. More centralized and consistent discussions, like GameFAQs and SmashBoards, have eroded away onto Reddit and Twitter, which are driven more by echo chambers, like you say, than by dialogue. Discord servers have also replaced forums for many people, but you'd never have a discussion like this in a Discord server, yet it seems to have become a niche idea.

It's also saddening to hear about how the internet has become more noticeably toxic in some ways. I think part of what spun my lack of activity on this site over the past couple of years was some large drama that occurred a couple years ago, where a bunch of users (whom I actually enjoyed interacting with) had formed a bit of a clique and, discontent with one of the admins whom I knew to be a good person, tried to pressure that admin to step down or be removed; and when they didn't get what they want, they essentially packed up and left to go be somewhere else. Fair enough, I suppose, but it was all so horribly immature and disheartening. I'd already had bad experiences in other online communities, and that scenario did put a bit of fear into me, wondering if someday people I thought were friends might turn against me.

It's the double-edged sword of smaller, more familiar communities like this one. Everyone gets to have more of an identity than, say, Reddit and other social media, and get to know everyone a bit better, but if any toxicity starts to bubble up... it gets that much more dramatic.

I will say, though, that since you bring up the "Grinch" hoax as well, that I'm proud of the maturity I saw here when that happened. I was one of the few people who, from the beginning, argued exhaustively that it was a hoax, not a leak. To water down all the things I said, essentially, it was too suspicious, too unclear, and too much to be credible or practical. At the time, of course, the majority of the community was in rapture over what they considered to be a legitimate leak that confirmed so many of their wishes, so I was against the crowd. But I never felt mistreated or attacked at all. People didn't want to believe me, of course, but no one took it personally and made me a target for saying that something they really believed and wanted to happen might not be true. I was never spoken to rudely or with contempt, and in general, most people here are very friendly and relaxed.

Despite some dashed hopes, I think it's safe to say that everyone of a reasonable mind is very happy with how things turned out--especially if you're speaking statistically, given that Sora was the most requested character by the numbers. It's interesting to think how Sora is in some way, perhaps, a fulfillment of Iwata's vision for Ultimate. He knew the ballot results, wanted Sakurai to take them and make Ultimate, taking this unique opportunity to make the most crowd-pleasing game Nintendo's ever made, and in the end, Sakurai managed to truly deliver. I'm sure Iwata couldn't be prouder, and this will not only go down as Sakurai's greatest achievements, but probably one of the greatest achievements as a whole--not just Sora, but everything Ultimate is.

Anyways, the next era of Smash speculation will be totally different. That next game will be years from now, and probably have a different focus and spirit to it than what we've seen from 64 through to Ultimate. It will be something more fresh, and as such, it won't be a replacement for what we've had all our lives so far. There will never be another era quite like this. I'm just happy I got to be part of it, however briefly. And it was lovely to meet everyone here, especially those who have been around much longer than me, with all their passion and stories to tell. I look forward to being able to tell more of mine someday, and I look forward to hearing from others and learning about how different characters appealed to them so strongly as well.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Aight everyone. The timing for the shutting down of the forum is 5pm PST. You have around 19 hours to say your goodbyes. Make it your best one.

Bro like everyone's said their goodbyes by now what we gonna do from now to then?

...One more Fire Emblem argument for old time's sake?

 

[Idon]

I know what I'm doing:
shilling SMT till the very end as per usual.

BTW, the Demi-fiend returns from SMTIII as a DLC superboss for SMTV and I think that's pretty neat:

Smash 6 render

 

[Guynamednelson]

Discord servers have also replaced forums for many people, but you'd never have a discussion like this in a Discord server, yet it seems to have become a niche idea.

It's easy for me to see why there's people who'd rather talk on a Discord server than, say, Twitter or 4chan: You are more likely to be sticking with people who are similar to you, instead of risking being bombarded with stuff like UGH TOUCH GRASS by outsiders who don't share your interests.

On the other hand, I think online chatrooms are too fast-paced for sharing bigger messages like what we have posted today.

 

[Hinata]

Don't let the closure of the speculation threads distract you from the one bit of speculation that still remains: We never got an answer as to why the 8/8 Direct was taken down.

 

[Ny0kazer]

Bro like everyone's said their goodbyes by now what we gonna do from now to then?

View attachment 335149

...One more Fire Emblem argument for old time's sake?

It's time to bring up Cacomallow for the (hopefully) last time.

 

[Guynamednelson]

It's easy for me to see why there's people who'd rather talk on a Discord server than, say, Twitter or 4chan: You are more likely to be sticking with people who are similar to you, instead of risking being bombarded with stuff like UGH TOUCH GRASS by outsiders who don't share your interests

I should mention that it should be perfectly fine to be open to ideas that aren't your own, but these past several years, the internet has collectively agreed that the only way to challenge other views is to be a complete ****, and admittedly I'm a victim of adopting such a mindset. Some people do try to not be *****, but they get the UGH UR CRINGE AND LAME GO OUTSIDE mindset projected on to them because it's too prevalent.

Thus, Discord servers about Character X became where to talk about wanting Character X in Smash rather than a major site like Twitter, Tumblr (lol), Reddit, or 4chan.

 

[PLATINUM7]

It's time to bring up Cacomallow for the (hopefully) last time.

I bet it was real but Nintendo never decided to release the costumes /s

 

[ZelDan]

Who needs CacoMallow when we got the far superior SlayerGeno?

 

[Diem]

It's easy for me to see why there's people who'd rather talk on a Discord server than, say, Twitter or 4chan: You are more likely to be sticking with people who are similar to you, instead of risking being bombarded with stuff like UGH TOUCH GRASS by outsiders who don't share your interests.

On the other hand, I think online chatrooms are too fast-paced for sharing bigger messages like what we have posted today.

I was moreso referring to the shift from forums to Discord servers. Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit are a different beast where there's a greater sense of anonymity, since they're sort of "mega cities," as ChronoBound described them, whereas Discord servers are much more similar to forums in that you have more of a sense of identity and organization there, more of a focus on discourse and response, but instead of a forum, it's a chatroom. And like you say, they're more fast-paced, so they're not a replacement for forums by any means. However, more and more places are doing that as time goes on.

For example, prior to SmashBoards, I was one of the few active users on the humble, uncrowded forums of Metroid Database, the most prominent Metroid fan site for over two decades. I'd only joined around 2014 or 2015, which was around the time I got really serious about Super Smash again after 4 came out, and that's a lot of what we discussed around that time (after all, Metroid was rather... dead at the time), so it was kind of like my SmashBoards before SmashBoards (even though SmashBoards has been around for about as long, I had never really entered into any sort of Smash community until recently).

I'd had some things in my life pull me away from some online interactions, so I stopped visiting the forum as frequently. Most of the small community there as well did the same, since, after the release of Samus Returns in September 2017, there wasn't much cause for further Metroid discussion with no Prime 4 news anywhere. I still had the forum bookmarked in my browser, and would have been happy to return should some big announcement occur that would spark discussion and activity.

One day in 2018, though, I returned to see the forum index replaced with a message saying that the forums were closed down with no ETA on when they'd be open again. For months, if not years (can't remember the exact timeline), I'd return to the page to check if they'd reopened. Then, one day, they revamped the main website, and the link there to the forums instead took you to a page that told you to go to their Discord server instead. I remembered joining it, looking around, and it was just... entirely different from the experience I'd had before. There were certainly more users and more activity, but none of the familiar faces, and none of the kinds of discussions I'd once had. It wasn't the same, not even close. I didn't even bother.

It's especially disappointing, given all that's happened with Metroid recently. I remembered being particularly frustrated that they were closed when Ridley was revealed for Ultimate. I would have loved to chat about that and other announcements since with a more Metroid-focused discussion, with the familiar faces I'd hung out with for a couple years by that point. Instead, the forum remained not just dead, but denied any form of life.

Granted, a mostly inactive Metroid forum shifting to Discord isn't exactly alarming or unreasonable, I suppose. But more and more often, even larger and more active places are following that trend. Eurogamer just shut down their forums and are pushing people towards their Discord instead. And that's just a more recent example of similar occurrences, with forums either becoming less popular or seen as outmoded.

I found a comment from one of the people who runs Metroid Database from last year when someone asked about the forums: "Forums are an antequated form of communication from the old web days. They're unnecessary." When the person who asked the question simply said that they disagreed, the response then was "Cool, noted. We don't have staff or time available to moderate them. Regardless, our forum was dead long before it became inaccessible. Maybe 1 post a month if we were lucky." And more people seemed to agree with that sentiment. I suppose it might be easier to enlist help moderating a Discord than a more complicated forum that people might not be as familiar with, but his tone makes it sound like a total prejudice against forums in general, denying that they hold any merit at all.

Hopefully, SmashBoards stays SmashBoards, instead of turning into SmashCords someday. ...wait, don't get any ideas.

 

[Shroob]

Who needs CacoMallow when we got the far superior SlayerGeno?

Gotta love how Cacomallow was wrong, yet right, from a certain point of view.


Cacodemon and Mallow? Nah

Doom Guy and Geno? Yeah

 

[Guynamednelson]

Hopefully, SmashBoards stays SmashBoards, instead of turning into SmashCords someday. ...wait, don't get any ideas.

Don't worry, Smashcords is already a thing!

 

[Diem]

Don't worry, Smashcords is already a thing!

Wasn't sure if that was already a thing that I'd forgotten was real or not.

But it's good that people who enjoy Discord and chatrooms over forums can have the option. That's the key: options. People who like the forum can have the forum (provided there's enough people to sustain it) and people who like the Discord can have the Discord (provided there's enough people to sustain it).

Chatrooms give me social anxiety, and I often get a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out when to insert myself into the conversation. Yet give me a forum, and... well. I don't shut up.

 

[BKupa666]

This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.

Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.

However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.

Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Introduction

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Ultimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.

In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).

At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.

Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.

In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.

By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.

Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.

There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.

For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.


Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone

I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.

The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.

Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.

Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.


Thoughts On Sora

I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.

There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.

The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.

There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.

It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.


A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread

I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.

Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread, @BirthNote, would also constantly highlight the contributions that various Dixie Kong supporters put out by changing the topic title. This actually helped foster a sense of community without it being a “social club”. It made everyone feel like their contributions were meaningful and that they put forth something worthwhile.

This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.


A Brief Background for Who I Am

There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.

My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.

I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.

For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.

I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.

After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.

With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.

I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.

The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).

When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).

Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.

At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….


Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories

At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.

There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.

There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.

Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:

@Arcadenik: Duck Hunt
@Opossum: Chrom
@N3ON: Banjo & Kazooie
BKupa666 : King K. Rool
@Fuzzy Pickles!: Mega Man
Diem : Dark Samus
@Diddy Kong: (What do you think)
DaybreakHorizon : Sora ; Joker
@Phoenix Douchebag: Simon

These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.

I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.

In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.

The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.

For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.

Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.

Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:

• A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
• A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
• History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
• History and analysis of the Koopalings
• A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
• An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
• An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
• A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.

As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.

As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.

All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.

I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).


The Decline of The Smash Community

The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.

It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.

The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.

GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.

For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.

Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.

Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.

In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.

In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.

In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.

I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.

Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.


Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward

I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.

One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.

A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.

There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).

Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.

Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.

I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.

Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.


What Is Truly Important

I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.

I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.

With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.

I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.

It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.

I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.

It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.


Conclusion

Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.

Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.

In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.

I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.

The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.

I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.

As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.

I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.

However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.

Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.

Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.

Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.

This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.

As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.

Wonderfully written from start to finish. Speaking as a Brawl forum lurker who joined Smash discussion in the months after release, I’ve had the chance to observe the forums through their heyday and several ebbs and flows in activity. In my observation, the ballot represented the dawn of the new speculation era you outlined. It was a Nintendo-sanctioned popularity contest that just so happened to fuel the rise of Smash Twitter and “Smash YouTubers,” decentralizing the fanbase from Smashboards. This was a positive in a number of ways — bringing fans from more backgrounds under the Smash tent, and giving them platforms to get out the vote for their favorite characters, sometimes even with backing from their creators. The flipside, of course, was a gradual shift from deep analysis and camaraderie among regular users to s***posts for clout with faceless hordes. Why try to say something insightful when you can get tens of thousands more likes for a drive-by “haha character is a scrubbo blippo or an RPG sword man lmao”…

A contributing factor was, the number of people actively vested in specific character additions had already started to dwindle. Whether out of personal contentment with Smash 4’s roster, or an urge to talk over those ungrateful louts complaining at the time, people from 2015 onward seemed to stop considering fresh character possibilities to nearly the same degree they did during Brawl, when new candidates rose up as others joined the roster. You’ll still see a few dedicated groups hanging around, the Dixie thread, for one, being a widely admired example, but in general, there doesn’t seem to be the appetite to make the case for why King Boo or Kass or Raven Beak, to name a few, would be noteworthy, fun-to-play Smash inclusions. Individual users’ experiences are sure to differ here, and many older fans (myself included) genuinely are satisfied with Ultimate’s roster. The byproduct, though, is watered-down discourse (“X third-party series sells well!” or “X character can market Y new game!”) that lends itself less to fantasizing about Smash content, but posturing over who guessed the most right and mocking of others for overconfidence or disappointment.

That’s a long-winded, crotchety precursor to me saying, reading through the last several pages makes me smile, seeing how much Smashboards specifically has meant to people over this decade-long release cycle. That was a nostalgic taste of the the forums of yesteryear, and a vision of what Smash discussion still can be at its best self. Make no mistake, the story of what Ultimate became was written on Smashboards, by fans who never stopped believing in the significance of every veteran, no matter how apparently minor, and those who harnessed their years of passion for characters like K. Rool and Ridley in spite of apparent obstacles to make them a reality through the ballot. The last few years have seen Sakurai truly fulfill the remaining untapped potential many of us saw in Smash 4. It’s so poetic to me that, whereas that title wrapped with a stopgap ballot selection in Bayonetta, Ultimate miraculously pulled out all the stops to close on Sora as the actual fan-chosen winner. I hope people can refrain from immediately rushing off for a hit of Smash 6 speculation long enough to reflect on (and maybe really play!) the improbable marvel that is Ultimate.

In closing, I wish everyone in here the best, wherever your personal trajectory should lead you next, in and beyond the Smash community. As suggested in Chronobound’s essay, I’ll be looking to write up a retrospective focused specifically on the K. Rool fan movement sometime in the near future. Until then, you can find me in the K. Rool subforum and Make Your Move competitions. Happy Smashing!

 

[Cutie Gwen]

I've always been bad at these and it's time to say goodbye so...


Goodbye.



...



Nah I can't leave it at that, this is an interesting thing to look back on and while I don't have the energy to give shoutouts to all the cool peeps out of fear I forget people, it's been a mostly enjoyable ride even if at worst I've been shown the inhumanity of the internet because of heartless people, including multiple people who stalked me because that's a ****ing normal response apparantly, but I'll probably look back on what I easily consider the best part of this, having random characters nobody heard of in Smash speculation before suddenly explode in popularity leading to many people suddenly gain love for something they may not have gotten to play otherwise. It's great as in the end, we're all here for our love of video games and sharing that love is what this site and Smash itself were all about. I don't know if I'll be around next time as time is a fickle mistress but regardless who is or isn't here, I'm hoping that people get to enjoy the things they love in the future however dark and gloomy **** will get.

 

[Guynamednelson]

It was a Nintendo-sanctioned popularity contest that just so happened to fuel the rise of Smash Twitter and “Smash YouTubers,” decentralizing the fanbase from Smashboards

I feel like that was going to happen with or without the ballot. Twitter is a vicious beast that devours smaller sites more focused on a specific subject, and it could already be seen with top competitive players leaving this site to focus more on it, Reddit, and Twitch.

 

[Shroob]

I feel like that was going to happen with or without the ballot. Twitter is a vicious beast that devours smaller sites more focused on a specific subject, and it could already be seen with top competitive players leaving this site to focus more on it, Reddit, and Twitch.

Yeah, pretty much.


As social media evolves, boards like these go the way of the dinosaurs. They exist, but they're a shell of their former selves.


I, for one, prefer this kinda social media, since it gives a sense of community instead of the anonymity of Twitter or Reddit, but that's not what the majority really want anymore, it seems.

 

[Guynamednelson]

but that's not what the majority really want anymore, it seems.

It's a shame too, because you hear people all the time complaining about the attitudes you have to deal with on Twitter from people that dislike you're a part of fandom X or whatever. You know where you can get away from that? A forum about Fandom X.

...or a Subreddit or Discord server dedicated to Fandom X.

 

[Shroob]

It's a shame too, because you hear people all the time complaining about the attitudes you have to deal with on Twitter from people that dislike you're a part of fandom X or whatever. You know where you can get away from that? A forum about Fandom X.

...or a Subreddit or Discord server dedicated to Fandom X.

And you kinda just answered the question.


It's just, online forums are an antiquated form of social media.

 

[CyberHyperPhoenix]

This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.

Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.

However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.

Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Introduction

Spoiler: "Farewell" essay

Ultimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.

In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).

At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.

Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.

In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.

By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.

Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.

There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.

For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.


Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone

I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.

The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.

Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.

Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.


Thoughts On Sora

I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.

There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.

The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.

There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.

It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.


A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread

I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.

Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread, @BirthNote, would also constantly highlight the contributions that various Dixie Kong supporters put out by changing the topic title. This actually helped foster a sense of community without it being a “social club”. It made everyone feel like their contributions were meaningful and that they put forth something worthwhile.

This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.


A Brief Background for Who I Am

There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.

My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.

I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.

For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.

I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.

After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.

With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.

I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.

The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).

When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).

Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.

At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….


Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories

At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.

There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.

There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.

Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:

@Arcadenik: Duck Hunt
@Opossum: Chrom
@N3ON: Banjo & Kazooie
BKupa666 : King K. Rool
@Fuzzy Pickles!: Mega Man
Diem : Dark Samus
@Diddy Kong: (What do you think)
DaybreakHorizon : Sora ; Joker
@Phoenix Douchebag: Simon

These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.

I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.

In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.

The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.

For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.

Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.

Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:

• A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
• A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
• History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
• History and analysis of the Koopalings
• A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
• An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
• An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
• A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.

As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.

As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.

All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.

I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).


The Decline of The Smash Community

The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.

It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.

The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.

GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.

For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.

Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.

Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.

In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.

In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.

In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.

I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.

Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.


Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward

I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.

One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.

A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.

There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).

Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.

Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.

I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.

Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.


What Is Truly Important

I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.

I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.

With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.

I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.

It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.

I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.

It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.


Conclusion

Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.

Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.

In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.

I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.

The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.

I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.

As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.

I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.

However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.

Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.

Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.

Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.

This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.

As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.

Popping back in to say this was a great read. Took a while, but your essays were always a treat, and this is no different, being worth every moment of my time. Your stuff has always been a highlight of Smash speculation, and this type of content during Smash speculation is something I'll miss dearly. That said, I'll remain on the lookout for your 'Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories' project, it sounds like wonderful idea that I hope you can finish completely.

That all said, I liked your post anyway

 

[Arcanir]

And you kinda just answered the question.


It's just, online forums are an antiquated form of social media.

Which is a shame really since I agree with you and still feel forums are the strongest of the options when it comes to actual discussion. There's too much of an Echo Chamber to sites like Twitter and Reddit, and while Discord comes close, the nature of it means that sometimes it gets too fast paced for multiple people to keep up. Forums allow more even discussion and flexibility in the topics, which is important since it means you're having an actual conversation on the topic at hand. It's just that Social Media has developed in a way that people don't care for that constant discussion and instead prefer just posting on a whim rather then truly talking to each other.

 

[Shroob]

Which is a shame really since I agree with you and still feel forums are the strongest of the options when it comes to actual discussion. There's too much of an Echo Chamber to sites like Twitter and Reddit, and while Discord comes close, the nature of it means that sometimes it gets too fast paced for multiple people to keep up. Forums allow more even discussion and flexibility in the topics, which is important since it means you're having an actual conversation on the topic at hand. It's just that Social Media has developed in a way that people don't care for that constant discussion and instead prefer just posting on a whim rather then truly talking to each other.

Okay, let's not beat around the bush.


The last thing I'd say about this thread in particular is that it was anything but an echo chamber.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Bottom text

 

[Arcanir]

Okay, let's not beat around the bush.


The last thing I'd say about this thread in particular is that it was anything but an echo chamber.

Oh I'm definitely not arguing against that, my point was more aimed at the fundamental designs of those sites and how they lend to that type of issue. Reddit's voting system is a great example of that as regardless of the points you make if your post goes against the grain you risk getting downvoted and thus left at the bottom of the page. If that happens there's little chance of exploration of the topic you bring up as most will probably ignore it by not being able to see it, and the ones at the top tend to just be the same opinions and those are the ones that get the most discussion. Thus the Echo Chamber is reinforced as the top opinions are the only ones seen and accepted while the unpopular ones are lost in the shuffle.

That said, I'm not trying to dismiss the problems of this site and think it doesn't need improvements. Chronobound outlined the problems very well in his essay and those issues must be addressed as we move forward. There's no point in forums being an alternate means of discussion if it's just going to fall into the same traps of other sites, particularly when those traps are part of the reason we are bleeding fans.

 

[DarthEnderX]

The last thing I'd say about this thread in particular is that it was anything but an echo chamber.

I know. The support for Hayabusa every time I mentioned him was deafening!

 

[ryuryunonoroi]

Aight everyone. The timing for the shutting down of the forum is 5pm PST. You have around 19 hours to say your goodbyes. Make it your best one.

Good that I popped in and caught up with the thread just in time.

I certainly wouldn't call myself the MOST seasoned speculator here lmao. That title is definitely in contention with multiple users here (@Scoliosis Jones and ChronoBound immediately come to mind, and more recently there's @SharkLord and @Speed Weed when he's serious), and I wouldn't even venture to call myself one of the best. I'm simply an essay hobbyist looking to put my philosophy minor to work. On the way I made some right calls, and I made some not so right calls (RIP Lloyd Irving–didn't survive the slaughter ). Ultimately, I just so happened to swing decently this cycle. Nothing more and nothing less.

That being said, I do love giving feedback, so before this thread dies here's what I have to say in regard to the two posts you made:

• I think your biggest problem is that you make too many leaps in logic. It's a common mistake, but you should always consider Occam's Razor (how logically simple is your argument) and whether what you're saying holds up to it.
  • On your post about "information poisoning" as you call it, you make a huge leap in logic by assuming that Nintendo honestly cares what we think. Smash is a game that reaches a far wider audience than fringe speculation sites like here, so why would Nintendo care what we think? How does that harm their internal operations? Answer: it doesn't. We are nothing more than an infinitesimal spec to Nintendo, and they could care less what our community thinks unless we band together en masse through official channels (see: the Smash Ballot)
    • You seem to be on the right track, but automatically assume you're right when there's no evidence to back up your points on this one. Speculation should always be based on evidence; the burden of proof is always on you to back up your claims. If you can't that's okay (we don't have all of the facts and we never will), but you should make it clear that you're making assumptions instead of trying to claim they're fact.
    • There's also the point that leak bait was a known concept long before you posted about it...yet you touted it as a new revolutionary breakthrough. Always make sure that you're the first one to introduce a term before you act like you're the one who introduced it.
  • Your Senran Kagura post is interesting to say the least. You claim that Asuka could be brought in because the creator of her series would ask Sakurai for it, but you never make any sort of statement as to how the creator of Senran Kagura and Sakurai are related.You don't provide any evidence for the core of your argument, and as such it falls apart in the face of any counterargument.
    • It's clear you make more of an effort to use evidence, which is good! However, the evidence you use is outdated or weak, and as such your sources aren't the sinkers you think they are.
      • Sakurai and Kojima's original talk to get Snake in Brawl took place in 2008. It was clearly a special circumstance for a really good friend of Sakurai's, and there have been no reported cases of such a thing happening again. Unless Sakurai and the creator of Senran Kagura have been besties for years (which you don't prove), this claim falls apart entirely.
      • The tweets you use also don't prove anything besides that the creator of Senran Kagura is a fan of Smash...which a lot of game series creators are. What makes this case different? Your evidence proves support, but it doesn't prove likelihood.
      • The points about Sakurai and CERO and Nintendo's recent attempts to appeal to mature audiences are valid, but you also have cases of Sakurai bowing to CERO and the ESRB in Smash Ultimate (see: Mythra's Spirit Battle), and a clear avoidance of risque themes in the game. Nintendo's attempts to appeal to mature audiences in a sexual way have also been halfhearted at best, as besides the examples you provided there haven't been any in recent times. The precedent kind of sides in your favor, but it could go either way.
      • The points Playstation are wholly unnecessary, and serve only as fluff to lengthen the piece. Playstation's policies have no bearing on Nintendo's, and while a shift in corporate culture is interesting, it could be indicative of many things and not just Smash. It's a weak point that does nothing to strengthen your argument, and could be removed entirely to no significant effect.
      • Finally: Don't. ever. use. fan. theories. for. serious. speculation. Fan theories have always been incredibly flimsy at best, and more often than not are completely fake or meaningless (or both). I guess it's neat that Asuka would've fit within such an arbitrary set of criterion, but that's all a fan theory is: an arbitrary set of criteria created by a fan without all of the facts, often requiring some set of mental gymnastics to justify. It's not a strong point by any means.
      • As a side note, I wouldn't recommend going all-in ever unless it's for a funny bet. If you stake your reputation on what you think to be foregone conclusions, your credibility is probably going to take a swirl down the drain (which I don't think you want).

You're certainly on the right track, but I'd recommend some classes or reading up on argumentative writing and logic if you want to be a really good speculator like you seem to want to be. Good thing is you'll have plenty of time before the next cycle really starts up, so there's time for you to refine your skills. Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply and your feedback. Yeah, "leaps in logic" can be a bad habit for me sometimes. If you know anything about the Myers Briggs type indicator that's the intuitive part of me taking the reigns. Sometimes it pays off, though, as I've gotten things to happen that otherwise wouldn't have had I gone the "safe and sensible" route, so to speak.

There was something fairly concrete that I encountered a while back that was strong evidence that Sakurai and Takaki were actually pretty good friends with one another, but I struggled to find it again when looking for it a second time. Searching for it only turned a vague "there's a rumor" post on GameFAQs. Frustrating. Had I been able to dig it back up I would have included it.

Been starting to rediscover a passion for writing and I actually have a few general ideas I want to unload my thoughts on as a sort of warm up. Any free/cheap online resources or other reading materials you'd recommend for improvement to help ? If the topic gets sealed before you have the chance to respond you can always drop the reply on my profile page.

My Mood earlier today

Spoiler

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Me a few hours ago

Spoiler

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A sucker is born every minute, and in that minute, I was the sucker.

If I was that desperate for the track I would have honestly just looked for return policies of GameStop or a similar store that would allow for returns even if the game was a used copy/previously opened, do the deed and get the full money back. (Or probably just keep playing the game regardless if I still found it to be enjoyable.

Also 9.2% sales tax holy **** that's robbery.

 

[GilTheGreat19]

Naa na naa na
Naa na naa na
Hey hey hey
Goodbye…

 

[ShrimpScampi]

I already said a “final” post before Sora was revealed (actually it might’ve been before the direct itself — kinda jumped the gun there lol), but now that the newcomer speculation section is actually closing, I’ll post another one.

It’s been quite a ride speculating for Ultimate. Even if I joined the site partway through the DLC cycle and wasn’t super active, on average I enjoyed it. There were some fun moments (along with some that were not so fun), but the overall experience of speculating and theorizing has been something unique to a monumental game like Ultimate.

Speculation has also introduced me to some franchises I wouldn’t have gotten into otherwise. A fake smash leak with Estelle in it is what got me into Trails, and now it and Ys are some of my favorite franchises. One of my favorite things about the speculation scene is how it can introduce people to new games, and how it gives fans a venue to discuss games or franchises they think would be cool in Smash.

I’m definitely gonna take a bit of a break from Smashboards now that Ultimate speculation is over. I might hop over to the Social thread afterwards, but I’m not sure. Still, it’s been fun discussing with all of you! If we don’t run into each other on another part of the site, best of luck in your future endeavors, whatever those may be!

 

[ryuryunonoroi]

Also, since most of the discussion has drifted into how the internet has shifted away from forums to megasites like Twitter, Reddit and Discord I want to offer some important insight as someone with some background in internet technologies and web design, and who has observed the way the internet has changed over the years. ChronoBound I read through your whole essay and it was an excellent read. But if I may offer you insight into one thing you wrote where you admit to be a bit lost looking for answers:

In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.

In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.

I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.

It's because of smartphones, because smartphones have drastically altered the way we interface with the internet in a fundamental way.

Think about what interacting online was like pre-2007 before the first smartphone, the original iPhone, was even announced. Internet cafes and wi-fi existed, sure, but in the majority of cases, you were sitting at home by your computer. You were taking time out of everything else that was going on around you to browse the web, catch up on posts on your favorite sites and forums, maybe add to the discussion yourself. Going online and participating online was much more of an investment, so the kinds of people who would be active online were more likely to be invested in the communities themselves.

The instantaneous nature of browsing the web and posting on the internet from a smartphone, a device that fits in your pocket and you can easily carry anywhere, and is always connected so long as you have cell service, completely uprooted all of that. What meaningful discourse does a selfie or a picture of a dinner plate contribute? Would anybody think to take a picture of a meal they ordered at a restaurant if they weren't carrying something around that would let them instantly snap a picture of it and then upload it to whatever "megacity" site they were using? What if your typical everyday Karen didn't have instant access to her Twitter account to screech about how a retail worker glanced at her the wrong way? How many of them would be able to sustain that petty rage for long enough to make an angry tweet about it when they got back home? Not many, I would imagine. Interacting with the online world only requires a fraction of the mental investment now than it once did, so those with a smaller fraction of mentality to invest are more likely to interact.

There is also the fact that a smartphone's interface is radically different from that from a full-featured desktop or laptop computer. The previous way of interfacing with the internet just isn't going to cut it with just a touchscreen alone. In many ways, the creation of the smartphone environment was a "clean slate", one that now "megacity" sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter were able to quickly take advantage of and gain a head start on many smaller platforms with their superior developers and resources. This why so many of those large sites have kept redesigning themselves so many times over the course of the last decade or so. And also why so many websites are littered with dozens of third party scripts. They literally have to do this just to ensure that they remain compatible with the vast array of devices that can access the internet now.

Combine this golden opportunity for what would soon become "big tech" to terraform this new online landscape to their liking, with the instant access bestowed by internet through your cell phone, and what you have is a recipe for an online environment built for conditioning the average netizen away from thoughtful, nuanced, intelligent discussion and instead toward instant gratification and posting before your thoughts can settle. The creation of the smartphone was truly an Eternal September Event incomparable to any other. The "anytime, anywhere" internet breeds mob mentality, hair trigger outrage, diminished and scattered attention spans, histrionic attention seeking, thoughtless posting in general, and all manner of horrible negative effects of which a list would take up at least twice the length of the rest of this post if I really took the time to go through everything. And it all comes at the expense of any sort of meaningful dialogue and understanding of one another.

The quality of the internet itself isn't what's gotten worse, this is just a symptom of the tragedy of the commons. It's the nincompoop filters, and thus overall quality of it's users, that has.

TL;DR: Blame it all on the smartphones.