Poor Sportsmanship Online

[Robert Peña]

Since I am in university a good way for me to decompress is to play smash 4 online for the Wii U.

I am a pretty decent player I like to think and when I play as my mains I usually win. But on occasion when I lose I often get people who change their tags to "U SUCK BRO" and other disrespectful actions. I am one that engages in good sportsmanship. Online play is not an adequate test of skill either because of the lag and stage select.

We should play and learn from each other as every player has a unique play style and should be respected. I am frankly disgusted with this and would like to make a formal request to anyone playing online; if you are playing someone and you are winning or losing please be respectful.

If I was not a life long fan of this game I would have quit long ago. I know this post probably won't mean anything but I have seen an alarming amount of disrespect and poor sportsmanship and had to say something. Thank you.

 

[ThatOneDedede]

I have people curse me out through Mic. You're not alone.

 

[Raijinken]

Sportsmanship is useful, but unfortunately video games of all sorts, at all levels of play, are plagued by childish behavior.

 

[FloatingMew]

Whenever people do that I leave. They just want to make you mad and that puts you off your game. What makes me mad is when people leave after they win once, especially Diddys...

 

[David Wonn]

I have witnessed the exact same thing with the name tags changing, but in my case it was against some random Bowser online that I was consistently beating with my Ganondorf. His spammy moves were extremely predictable, and his ever-changing profane name tags just made me target him even more so. :-) Fast forwarding several matches, when he finally managed to get more kills than me on the other players, he left right after that. I just laughed it off. He made my day.

 

[GSM_Dren]

Truly the only way to deal with it is to ignore and leave the room. For glory online means you play with anyone, and that anonymity means there is rarely, if ever, repercussions for rude behavior. Anyone with such behavior probably is not on Smashboards, and is usually a little kid hiding behind mean words. Try to find other ways to play online other than for glory, the Online boards here are a good start.

 

[TimeSmash]

While online trolling/general rudeness is annoying and rarely comical to the individual being trolled, I would hardly say that the online community in either For Glory or For Fun is hardly representative of this community as a whole. If you had more personal experiences with Smashers in general that were negative, you could arguably use them as a representative. However, in an online environment, you don't get to really know anything about the person, who may not actually even be dedicated to this game or its series counterparts. As we have confirmed in recent years, it is very easy for people to play on their more aggressive tendencies online, as they are protected from an actual offline consequence from occurring.

Tl;dr, you can't use some scrubby online people as an actual group to say Smashers lack etiqueete. Trolls will be trolls

 

[Xermo]

For Glory scrubs are by no means a full representation of the smash community. Just block/report them and keep it moving.

 

[Pikalink]

Smash online wise yes. A good portion of the players are kids or bragging "hardcores".
However on Smashboards I met more friendly people than I have in the FG.

 

[Saclam]

For glory is meh anyways,people who brag and leave when they win one match,the endless insults when they lose,dealing with bad connections,stalling and so on.

Here And other sites like nintendojo and anthers ladder are better when it comes to meeting skilled and friendly people.

 

[Quillion]

Look on the bright side, man. At least we don't have voice chat With Anyone.

 

[dahuterschuter]

For Glory hardly reflects the Smash community any more than Xbox Live Hardcore Team Deathmatch represents the CoD community.

 

[Sodo]

I have only met a handful of players like what OP is describing on FG. For the most part, people are usually friendly (doing taunts before matches, changing tag to 'GG' or 'Greatmatch', etc.). I've made a number of friends with people I've played with on FG.

 

[Duck SMASH!]

I admit I get salty and annoyed while playing, especially if I lose to a stupid and predictable tactic (like projectile spam, smash spamming, overuse of grabs)
But part of the frustration is at myself for failing to adapt. I usually resolve it by analyzing my opponent and identifying something to consciously improve (like safe landings and more jabs vs a grab spammer, choosing Falco and/or Mario for projectile spammers, NOT being predictable for smash spammers, etc.)

 

[Wintropy]

It happens, but you get used to it. I'm lucky in that I've never met anybody like that.

I think displaying good sportsmanship yourself goes a long way. I greet every new player with a friendly taunt and use tags to convey positive messages ("GG!", "YOUAREGOOD!", etc.) and let them know that I'm having fun and hope they are too. :3

 

[Sean²]

Okay, this kind of sportsmanship reminds me of another community...

Everyone knows LoL and DoTA/DoTA2, right? Anyone remember HoN?

HoN (Heroes of Newerth) was originally the fastest growing spiritual successor to DoTA - even using most of the same heroes under different names. It was wildly popular at first, but quickly fell into a pit of despair - with a very steep learning curve (with no single player or practice mode to get players affiliated with the MOBA format), an extremely toxic player base filled with trolls who act hateful and intimidating to new players (which is why their scene died - no new players and people quitting regularly), and several other problems regarding the community's attitude. S2 has tried and tried to make their game seem more attractive and even planned on releasing a sequel at some point, but the stigma seems to stick. Some found refuge in LoL, but the community over there has gone downhill as well.

I can't see the Smash community ever getting to that point, but it's a good example to follow what not to become with a rise of an online community. Halo and COD have suffered as well due to the veil anonymity they can hide behind.

 

[GameFile]

Don't take FG to serious...it isn't really representing the Smash Community at all. Often there are just people who are concerned about their awesome FG statistic or beginners who just got into the game. Most of the time when I play FG, I just play there for fun with random characters. When someone is disrespectful via tags, just leave. For competitive play or for training sessions I would rather suggest Anther's Ladder or probably this forum.
As a result you can exchange tips with your training buddies and improve your game - And it's just more fun to communicate with the other one.

That's what I do

 

[TimeSmash]

Jesus, the majority really thinks this small sample size represents the community as a whole? This is how stereotypes form haha.

If anything, the negative experiences one has while playing online could maybe lead to the fact that most people who play online are ****ty. However, online Smashers =/= the whole Smash community, or even serious competitive players. (THE LAG)

Edit: On the other hand, I LOVE seeing stuff like this, and really think it should be done more.

I think displaying good sportsmanship yourself goes a long way. I greet every new player with a friendly taunt and use tags to convey positive messages ("GG!", "YOUAREGOOD!", etc.) and let them know that I'm having fun and hope they are too. :3

 

[GhostUrsa]

I wanted to vote Yes, but didn't only because of one thing. The people who do such poor sportsman like actions are rarely smash boards or any professional smash circuit players. There is no way to educate them on the methods of good sportsmanship. I've been perusing the boards here a long time, and rarely have I seen anyone who displays such manners here. Heated arguments over characters, stages and even games they play, but almost never is it being rude and unruly for the sake of it. I feel that what we are seeing in For Glory isn't truly what the Smash Community as a whole is, but more the dark parts of the internet community bleeding over. (With how popular Smash is, bleed over was always a possibility)

Best thing I can think of is what Wintropy recommended, which is to be a good sport despite all the rudeness. In most cases, sportsmen are usually reflecting what they perceive is what the community around them is like. If they are coming from other online communities that believe this is good, but see that we are more respectful there is a good chance this will rub off as they are surrounded by it.

I know people mention how anonymity is part of the problem, but in Smashes case there isn't any. Our NNID's are tied to our online play, so people are able to report others for misconduct and can very well find out who someone is with a little effort. As we continue to show respect to our rivals as we have done, and call out those who are disrespectful we'll eventually see the toxic parts of the new community members die down. It just takes time.

 

[MajinBuu272]

personally, the worst thing i encountered is people who suicide if the start the match off badly, its very annoying and very unsatisfying

 

[Conn1496]

There isn't a lot of things that I consider "unsporting" in Smash. A lot of things I find annoying, or just straight up stupid, but when people do start acting in unsporting ways, I generally just quit or, if I know I can, give them a nasty taste of their own medicine.

Had a lot of experiences where rubbing it right back in their face will get them to stop. It's just so obvious that to them that keeping the upper hand is the only thing that matters - so any chance you get, I say take that away from them. lol

 

[Octagon]

I hate it when people are doing bad and then they sd on purpose. Seriously, just imagine if you actually make the comeback. Whenever i'm down by a lot i always think how awesome it would be if i made the comeback, and even though its extrememly hard to do in some cases, it's insanely satsfying when you do pull it off

 

[Tino]

The only poor sportsmanship I've seen is people SDing at the beginning of the match. Every time I see that, they get themselves the yellow flag from me.

 

[Sean²]

I hate it when people are doing bad and then they sd on purpose. Seriously, just imagine if you actually make the comeback. Whenever i'm down by a lot i always think how awesome it would be if i made the comeback, and even though its extrememly hard to do in some cases, it's insanely satsfying when you do pull it off

I was fighting a Falcon player with multiple different characters. I ended up losing the first two, but switched to DH the 3rd and started off strong, got a KO on him while I was sitting pretty at 2-stock 17%. I got him on the ledge on stock 2 and he SD'ed on purpose. Like come on. Then he went Falco to try a counterpick and turtled the whole time. After I beat him he changed his tag to "BORING" and left. Sorry I did not run face first into your smash attacks.

The only poor sportsmanship I've seen is people SDing at the beginning of the match. Every time I see that, they get themselves the yellow flag from me.

I only do this if it lags. I don't want to deal with laggy players.