"Karissa the Destroyer" was a Marketing Hoax

[Kai Zami]

-reads everything-

....

Let me at her...

 

[Gamingboy]

I bet it was a secret level 50 Amiibo.

It was far greater than Level 50. It went above the Level 50 limit, growing and growing until it reached Level 20XX.

 

[Mic_128]

T
Seriously, it's as if the offended people have never been pranked in their whole lives. It was all a JOKE, like whoever thought of this deserves a medal for comedic genius.

Except it wasn't intended as a joke, but a marketing exercise. That's why people are upset.

 

[Wazygoose]

I thought this was funny. Don't think D1 or anyone else "sold out".

By the way, a few statements in the article are written a bit subjectively. I don't think Smashboards is vying for journalistic objectivity or anything, but it'd be nice for articles on the front page to be free from that sort of thing, and they be kept to the forums. Even the much-hated-on Kotaku clearly differentiates between its news pieces and its opinionated ones.

I'm talking about these specifically:
"...should have raised suspicion..."
"...eager to point to a child prodigy demolishing competitive Smashers. The narrative was exciting and unfortunately all to believable for many who are unwilling to acknowledge the huge skill gaps that exist in Smash or in competitive gaming as a whole. Some even savored that an unknown, novice at the game could defeat players with over 10,000 hours of experience and national-level tournament victories."

 

[smashbroskilla]

lol@ anyone getting upset over this. the real question is how did Sky catch this guy walking out the front of gamestop? Why not have your car parked out the back if you're that recognizable?

 

[Bearbuddy4]

Seeing as I put up something along these lines (saying that it was most likely a harmless joke), I just wanted to say, buddy i'm Australian.

Good luck proving i'm in with Gamestop.

I don't actually think alot of people here work for"the man" but I understand what you're saying. Companies do that kind of stuff tho. I'm just throwing my thoughts around. :]

 

[Logsmash]

Except it wasn't intended as a joke, but a marketing exercise. That's why people are upset.

People are upset because businesses are trying to attract customers? Well, that sounds even more ridiculous than people being upset over a fake "child prodigy".

 

[Fire Tactician]

I don't get why people would be mad at smashers who were in on it. It's not like they had malicious intents and we're going to keep everyone in the dark forever. To those complaining about NDAs, my guess is that there will be a commercial down the road where they reveal how the prank worked and say, "This was a raw reaction." It's no different from the Febreeze commercials where they pull a bait-and-switch and put people into good smelling but disgusting cars.

 

[Mic_128]

People are upset because businesses are trying to attract customers?

By lying to them, yes.

 

[Fire Tactician]

By lying to them, yes.

Oh, like the complainers have never played a harmess prank in their lives? High five... too slow! Lying. Tap someone on the shoulder, jump to the other side of them! Lying. Tell someone to roll a quarter down their nose, only to have a black line appear on their nose as they do so. Lying. There was that Carrie movie stunt where a girl pretended to have telekinetic powerso and terrified coffee shop patrons. Lying.

Maybe Nintendo was "lying" about Karissa for the sake of a harmless prank, but they were not lying about the product they were selling.

 

[Reiign]

Stuff like this happens all the time, so to be angry over it really doesn't make sense.

 

[Macdaddy53156a]

I had no idea this was even happening. I hope this doesn't hurt the community. I don't really care cause my college's smash scene is flourishing right now, so I don't need to be concerned about this. But I hope people coming into the scene aren't discouraged, and I hope our trust in figures in the smash community isn't hurt. We're all supposed to be homies ;-;

 

[The Slayer]

Maybe Nintendo was "lying" about Karissa for the sake of a harmless prank, but they were not lying about the product they were selling.

I think it was mostly a Gamestop stunt here. Not sure if Nintendo has anything to do with this more or not know about this to begin with.

 

[ミスティック Speed]

It was fake...?! Well....that's a bummer. -_- This girl was inspirational to me. lol

 

[BobVance_]

I'm honestly not upset about the hoax. I'm actually relieved that this is what actually happened, rather than the reality that a ten year old girl with zero smash experience can stomp all over competitive smashers who have done incredible amounts of practice, research, and have traversed many tournies over many years.

I'm not a fan of the idea that some kid can just be born into and skip what it takes to make it. Call me childish, or sexist, or an entitled competitive smash player. That's just how I feel about it. I didn't want to believe this girl could be anything other than what many would call "scrub material" (I wouldn't use that phrase, because I don't s*** all over less experienced players) and now I don't have to.

So all in all, I'm content. I have no plans to be up in this girl's face about this hoax. Just gonna let it bury itself.

U mad?

 

[chaosmasterro]

Hilarious!

 

[NinthWonder]

The issue lies within the fact that it was a marketing ploy or some sort of exploitation to create a viral video. People feel cheated by the people involved, and for all we know, maybe those people are justified.

I will say that this thing has been blown waaay out of proportion. Could it be a hoax? Yes. Should we really be this upset, especially seeing as it appears Nintendo (at the moment) didn't have a hand in it?

tl;dr This really isn't as scandalous as people make it seem. Feel free to be disappointed/mad/whatever, but there's no need to procreate unnecessary drama.

 

[PillsBuryDopeBoy]

A harmless hoax gets blown way out of proportion.

 

[Mic_128]

Oh, like the complainers have never played a harmess prank in their lives? High five... too slow! Lying. Tap someone on the shoulder, jump to the other side of them! Lying. Tell someone to roll a quarter down their nose, only to have a black line appear on their nose as they do so. Lying.

There's a big difference between pranks for the sake of a joke and a company trying to force a fake vial stunt for the sake of marketing. The fact that it was also done by Gamestop, a company well known for lying and shady dealings (Selling pre-owned games as 'new' for example) is why people are upset.

 

[P1 Jake]

As if it wasn't good enough when it was still a hoax.

*sits on popcorn*
*eats lawn chair*

 

[Zebkeet]

We fake now lol.

 

[shogungari]

God, this is going to be a meme isn't it? Please don't let this be a thing.

 

[Syrek]

The amount of bias in this comment makes me scared for Smash community.

No kidding. It's rather disgusting actually given that we as a community should be inclusive rather than exclusive, no matter what a persons age or sex is.

And the amount of people taking this marketing hoax out of proportion is rather telling of how close minded and set in so many Smash Bros. players are these days. It's a harmless joke yet people are taking it so personally that I'm baffled by the asinine reactions that I am seeing. Heck, I was one of the many who were duped into thinking this 10 year old girl was this amazing child prodigy at Smash Bros. Am I offended that it turned out to be a hoax? No, that would be a waste of my energy, not to mention it makes no sense to be angry or upset at something like this. I thought they did a good job at fooling me and it was interesting while it lasted.

But please, continue to get upset and angry over something so mundane and pointless. Who am I to tell you otherwise.

 

[Deleted member]

There's a big difference between pranks for the sake of a joke and a company trying to force a fake vial stunt for the sake of marketing. The fact that it was also done by Gamestop, a company well known for lying and shady dealings (Selling pre-owned games as 'new' for example) is why people are upset.

Anybody who is upset over this is an idiot. Who cares if the company was trying to make a viral video for marketing purposes? In the age of the internet, that's what businesses do. Don't like it, don't watch. Did they steal money out of your pocket to make this prank happen? No. Did they force you to buy some crappy game that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise? No. So what are you complaining about? Nothing. Quit embarrassing yourselves and this community by feigning anger over something so trivial.

 

[Tagxy]

So smashboards frontpage writes a long article implicating smashers and specifically implicating D1, and long after everyone reads it and has moved on issues an update stating smashers and D1 werent involved? Seriously smashboards front page, you arent a grocery stand tabloid and youre messing with peoples lives get your act together.

By lying to them, yes.

Alright but what else is new. Thats a lot of what advertising is, I guess people are only upset at this specifically bc they got part of the truth which while understandable certainly isnt reasonable in that context.

 

[StarBot]

No kidding. It's rather disgusting actually given that we as a community should be inclusive rather than exclusive, no matter what a persons age or sex is.

And the amount of people taking this marketing hoax out of proportion is rather telling of how close minded and set in so many Smash Bros. players are these days. It's a harmless joke yet people are taking it so personally that I'm baffled by the asinine reactions that I am seeing. Heck, I was one of the many who were duped into thinking this 10 year old girl was this amazing child prodigy at Smash Bros. Am I offended that it turned out to be a hoax? No, that would be a waste of my energy, not to mention it makes no sense to be angry or upset at something like this. I thought they did a good job at fooling me and it was interesting while it lasted.

But please, continue to get upset and angry over something so mundane and pointless. Who am I to tell you otherwise.

It's kinda also upsetting, the Smash community can't except that a young women beat M2K, and D1.

Funny thing is, there is a lot of women and children playing Smash, and seeing the game community spitting all over the poor kid, make me wonder what would happen is a 8 year girl is actually that good in Smash?

 

[Deleted member]

Very sneaky.

 

[NoviceSmasher]

awwh mew2queen is a fake

 

[Spire]

Great PR for Karissa. Good call kiddo.

 

[SanicJan]

Plot twist: The main person behind the scenes controlling Karissa was none other then Tabuu. I mean think about it a young child who played with trophies is Master Hand and Master Hand represents her and Tabuu controlled Master Hand.

IT ALL ADDS UP!

 

[cupcakemayhem15]

.youtube.com/watch?v=didzxUkrtS0

 

[Glottis]

After reading more of the comments here, my guess is that most of the people crying about how they feel cheated because it was a "fake/forced viral video stunt" are kids who are not yet old enough to get how businesses work, and who take everything personal (yes, teenager are kids as well, even if you as a teenager do not think so). Most of the people here taking it in stride seems to be older peeps ("older" being relative here)

Surprise, the vast vast majority of viral videos out there are made with a purpose to sell something, or get your attention in some way.
They are produced.
The only difference is that the ones no one is complaining about, is the ones who did it so well that nobody could tell it was "fake"

You can't get angry at people in marketing just doing their job, which is to garner attention. And you shouldn't get angry at pros taking money either.
They got to eat too, not just play games.
It's not like they sandbagged a final in a tournament and split the pot.
That is bad for the trust in a fighting game community.
They just (allegedly) took money in an outside venture, which in the end garnered attention to a game we love.
Maybe, just maybe, we got some more kids to be interested in Smash thanks to this. How is that bad?!

As i said before, no matter how i see it, this is simply a Win/Win/Win situation.

 

[Zantetsugun]

Not sure how to feel about this. It's a cool story, the idea of a little girl wrecking Tournament-Level players ****. But there's just this air of shadiness to the whole affair.

 

[-Se7en-]

There's no reason to be mad about this, to me it sounds like some Smashers are jealous of this girl even if it was a hoax.

You know why people don't enter competitive smash or they stay casual? It's because of jerks, like the ones you see commenting and just completely doing everything they can with their keyboard to shoot down something like this.

What IF there was a kid who was actually really good at Smash at such a young age? The kid would feel proud of theirselves but when some old jealous jerk comes along and shoots them down it completely ruins the fun.

This girl is like a Smash celebrity right now, and she already has her "haters" but you have people who really wish this was a real thing.

May I remind you that we play this game because it's fun. We enjoy it, but some of you guys really make this community feel like a drag. The community is like a bike, we're pedaling as hard as we can so we can move but people drag their feet so we aren't moving to where we want to be. Where we SHOULD be.

I wish this was true so the few of you who trash this girl would remain jealous. She could have been the golden child or something, we want things like this to occur.

However I guess our community will remain the way it is : the few people who make this fun and the other 98% who are just plain jerks. People bash on Milktea because she sees the flaws in our community and wishes that we would fix them.

I wish we could see more girls at tournies. Otherwise I feel like I'm attending a sausage fest or something.

 

[GroundZero996]

Wasted all those players' time is what it did. Was cheap tho, they hired D1 to grab our attention as to pull a marketing stunt that was built on a complete lie.

It's wasn't a waste of time, they got to play the game didn't they? They faced a good player, didn't they? Who cares who the good player really was.

 

[Flawed]

This just gave ammo to FGC people who say smash is not a fighter and doesn't take skill.

sigh

 

[lordvaati]

I was hoping that someday we would get our own version of LiL' Poison, an 8 year old child prodigy who became one of the top Halo players in the world in early 00s.

but now I see that hope is nothing but a fraud. How shameful.

 

[DarkStarStorm]

Now the real question here is... who was REALLY controlling her character? I need to know.

Mango, doesn't she look sorta like'im?

 

[Coolwhip]

"Don't make me laugh"

-Shao Kahn

 

[Retrolistic]

Dang... Makes me feel bad about myself. lolol