LazyFrogRobot MKII
Smash Rookie
There's another thread here discussing about being banished to the quintessential shadow realm of online smash 4, but the point of this thread is to illustrate a much more specific point I'd like to share with you all. If you want a tl;dr, here it is: all of the competent players and competent players who happen to be huge buttholes are sent there, and smash is much more enjoyable as a result of it. Now, if you're genuinely interested as to how masochstic one'd have to be to find such a "toxic" environment enjoyable, read on.
That being said, allow me to describe what "For Glory hell" is, and how to get there. When it happened to me, I was on the Wii U, so keep that in mind, you inhibiting 3DS trash. Some of you may have already been there, so PLEASE share your experience. I want to know I'm not the only one.
When online in sm4sh, there is an unmentioned set of rules that are employed, as well as a report system for players to punish others for things like harassment. Because there is no third party involved, and it is entirely within the hands of the "reporter" to submit false claims of harassment, it can be and IS abused. If someone's exuberantly salty that you styled on them online, changing their name and talking all this good ish, they can report/block you so that they never see you again. As for the rules themselves, they include idling for more than 30 seconds, excessive SDs, and focusing one target in FFAs. Accumulation of all of these infractions and reports will send you to a separate set of servers to only play with people who have also accumulated them, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently(depending on repeated instances of being sent there). The rules previously enforced on the main servers are no longer enforced here.
And thus, you have "For Glory hell," a vacant wasteland that will repeatedly match you with the same few people, some of whom play very annoyingly, play very well, talk loads of trash and have offensive miis, or a combination of all three. Some of you might be familiar of this, because clearly, this system is flawed and leads to a lot of erroneous punishments on people who're just good at the game, or don't want to play laggy matches and SD.
"But Lazy," you might ask whilst shortening my name for convenience. "If that's the sort of people that are there, doesn't it sound like the report system is WORKING?" Yes and no, because as I've said before, there are people here who weren't even aware they were sent there, and currently discuss how to bypass this unfair judgement. If you SD repeatedly because you consistenly find one bar connections on the main servers, if you see someone who's vulnerable in a FFA, or if someone just outright dislikes you, you can and WILL be sent here, and that false accuser will go unpunished. Sure, there's toxic people there, but there's also people there who are much better at the game.
I won't lie, either. I taunt, I talk trash back, and I love it when people get salty. If I style on someone by getting a taunt kill, a very flashy combo, rest assured in knowing that I will mash that down arrow like there's a QTE zombie struggle happening on screen. I love it when people get salty and SD, or when they talk crap, taunt, get bodied, and leave. It makes my blood boil with adrenaline, and call me sadistic if you like, but I love triumphing over petty foes who aren't good sports, and rubbing their faces in the dirt. All of these things are more common on the main servers, so maybe I was reported and deserve it. Conversely, I'm able to take a loss and shrug it off when someone acts stupid, because I admit I have a long way to go. But even despite that...
I had very few laggy matches compared to the main servers, because everyone here either had much better internet to perform well, or we were able to freely SD without penalty if it was bad. My internet isn't the greatest, so I bought an ethernet adapter a long time ago, and would still lag profusely on the main servers with opponents from the same state. Here, I'd fight people in Cali with very minimal input delay. Because the opponents were skilled, I found some interesting setups and went toe to toe with players in intense matches. I FOUND people who were capable of being very good sports and offering genuine challenge, despite the occasional butthead. Never before had I seen such clever option coverage online, never before had I genuinely meant or received a GG online, never before have I had such fun, never before had I changed my name to say "THAT SETUP. WOW," ...until I was punished for playing online. From this experience, I can conclude 2 things:
1) I have no friends. Not even people to play sm4sh with a loser like me.
2) Sm4sh does NOT want you get good at the game.
It really doesn't. Smash itself was always made to cater to the lowest common denominator, because logistically, that is what'd garner the most sales. You know Little Timmy who plummeted down a well headfirst, can only play Dedede, and gets a 78% winrate by rolling his face across his controller and rolling on occasion? That's who Sakurai wants to cater to, and it manifests in flowchart, campy boring online gameplay, because sm4sh is mechanically made to force defensive play and mindlessly throwing out stupid/unpunishable hitboxes. But that's a story for another time.
I was able to enjoy smash 4 because of this, and when the penalty wore off, it was back to campy Links. Back to C-Stick flicking Marios and Macs. Back to side B mashing DDDs. Because we're supposed to grit our teeth and accept that there is NO divide between players' skill levels, despite varying connections, despite experience and comprehension, despite the fact that there's people here who genuinely seek a PROPER ranking system to filter walloping kids, finding more experienced players, or even fighting people who are at their own level.
Well, you know what? If that's the puritan way to play sm4sh by the word of Kami-Sakurai, I'd rather burn in hell again.
That being said, allow me to describe what "For Glory hell" is, and how to get there. When it happened to me, I was on the Wii U, so keep that in mind, you inhibiting 3DS trash. Some of you may have already been there, so PLEASE share your experience. I want to know I'm not the only one.
When online in sm4sh, there is an unmentioned set of rules that are employed, as well as a report system for players to punish others for things like harassment. Because there is no third party involved, and it is entirely within the hands of the "reporter" to submit false claims of harassment, it can be and IS abused. If someone's exuberantly salty that you styled on them online, changing their name and talking all this good ish, they can report/block you so that they never see you again. As for the rules themselves, they include idling for more than 30 seconds, excessive SDs, and focusing one target in FFAs. Accumulation of all of these infractions and reports will send you to a separate set of servers to only play with people who have also accumulated them, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently(depending on repeated instances of being sent there). The rules previously enforced on the main servers are no longer enforced here.
And thus, you have "For Glory hell," a vacant wasteland that will repeatedly match you with the same few people, some of whom play very annoyingly, play very well, talk loads of trash and have offensive miis, or a combination of all three. Some of you might be familiar of this, because clearly, this system is flawed and leads to a lot of erroneous punishments on people who're just good at the game, or don't want to play laggy matches and SD.
"But Lazy," you might ask whilst shortening my name for convenience. "If that's the sort of people that are there, doesn't it sound like the report system is WORKING?" Yes and no, because as I've said before, there are people here who weren't even aware they were sent there, and currently discuss how to bypass this unfair judgement. If you SD repeatedly because you consistenly find one bar connections on the main servers, if you see someone who's vulnerable in a FFA, or if someone just outright dislikes you, you can and WILL be sent here, and that false accuser will go unpunished. Sure, there's toxic people there, but there's also people there who are much better at the game.
I won't lie, either. I taunt, I talk trash back, and I love it when people get salty. If I style on someone by getting a taunt kill, a very flashy combo, rest assured in knowing that I will mash that down arrow like there's a QTE zombie struggle happening on screen. I love it when people get salty and SD, or when they talk crap, taunt, get bodied, and leave. It makes my blood boil with adrenaline, and call me sadistic if you like, but I love triumphing over petty foes who aren't good sports, and rubbing their faces in the dirt. All of these things are more common on the main servers, so maybe I was reported and deserve it. Conversely, I'm able to take a loss and shrug it off when someone acts stupid, because I admit I have a long way to go. But even despite that...
I had very few laggy matches compared to the main servers, because everyone here either had much better internet to perform well, or we were able to freely SD without penalty if it was bad. My internet isn't the greatest, so I bought an ethernet adapter a long time ago, and would still lag profusely on the main servers with opponents from the same state. Here, I'd fight people in Cali with very minimal input delay. Because the opponents were skilled, I found some interesting setups and went toe to toe with players in intense matches. I FOUND people who were capable of being very good sports and offering genuine challenge, despite the occasional butthead. Never before had I seen such clever option coverage online, never before had I genuinely meant or received a GG online, never before have I had such fun, never before had I changed my name to say "THAT SETUP. WOW," ...until I was punished for playing online. From this experience, I can conclude 2 things:
1) I have no friends. Not even people to play sm4sh with a loser like me.
2) Sm4sh does NOT want you get good at the game.
It really doesn't. Smash itself was always made to cater to the lowest common denominator, because logistically, that is what'd garner the most sales. You know Little Timmy who plummeted down a well headfirst, can only play Dedede, and gets a 78% winrate by rolling his face across his controller and rolling on occasion? That's who Sakurai wants to cater to, and it manifests in flowchart, campy boring online gameplay, because sm4sh is mechanically made to force defensive play and mindlessly throwing out stupid/unpunishable hitboxes. But that's a story for another time.
I was able to enjoy smash 4 because of this, and when the penalty wore off, it was back to campy Links. Back to C-Stick flicking Marios and Macs. Back to side B mashing DDDs. Because we're supposed to grit our teeth and accept that there is NO divide between players' skill levels, despite varying connections, despite experience and comprehension, despite the fact that there's people here who genuinely seek a PROPER ranking system to filter walloping kids, finding more experienced players, or even fighting people who are at their own level.
Well, you know what? If that's the puritan way to play sm4sh by the word of Kami-Sakurai, I'd rather burn in hell again.
