FreakyVoiceDude
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2007
- Messages
- 117
When I say online culture, I'm aware that Smash isn't WoW, having no overworld, interaction or even a full chat feature. Rather, I'm talking about what happens most of the time when you start up a match with random people. What characters will be more popular? What stages will be used? What rule sets will be ignored or overused? What's the average age group and skill level you'll run into?
Snake, will be an extremely used character across the board. He's basically Sony's visiting Mascot, the 'hardcore' wannabes and fans will use him exclusively. On the other end of the spectrum, the average gamer will shy away from female, cartoonish, or simply awkward looking characters based on looks alone. Give the average teenager a choice, he'll go with the ninja guy with the guns and bombs. Likewise, expect Bowser, Ike, Samus and other generically badass characters will be picked for the visual appeal of the average gamer.
However, let's face it, Nintendo is a family company. Who went out and hunted Wiis? Parents. A large fraction of random players online will be younger than you, and that's even if you're around fifteen. Expect a LOT of kids playing their favorite characters, which with the demographic will probably be Pokemon, the Mario Party crowd, the bright and colorful ones they'll grow to hate after puberty sets in. For every few action-character teenagers, expect at least one seven-ten year old thinking the point of the game is to hop around the platforms. If they know how, they WILL disconnect when the other player plays it like a fighting game. If they're smarter but not all there, they'll probably just jump around evading you with the occasional missed attack. Imagine a four player match of you, some five year old running off the edge, and two others that are just running away from you and doing double jumps for fun. At worst, you'll get the violent little tykes that just rush you like dogs without any comprehension of the game's finer points. Feel free to show them your moves, either they'll learn from you and become better gamers or get fed up and go search 'boobs' on Youtube as most grade school runts do nowadays.
I imagine most won't bother moving the rules around. Stock or time will be standard, even if they're options I can't imagine Coin or other modes catching on. Tourney players will set it to the usual rules, easiest way to spot them.
Truly not sure how the stage options work. If the host picks, they'll either go with their favorite all the time or hit random. Expect the cooler-looking stages to take dominance over the tourney-friendly ones, namely space stages, castles, etc. Doubt Smashville will appeal to most people with it being so simple and unexciting.
The average skill level overall, will at first be overall bad. As time goes on, the obsessed folk will take their thrones as untouchable, and a year later the original bad players will have either improved or stopped playing. On the other hand, there could be a steady stream of new players since this is THE Wii game to buy.
And finally...There will always be the one weirdo, playing as Zero Suit Samus, trying to get the other players to check 'her' out so 'she' can beat them. A rather logical strategy, but eyebrow-raising nonetheless.
Snake, will be an extremely used character across the board. He's basically Sony's visiting Mascot, the 'hardcore' wannabes and fans will use him exclusively. On the other end of the spectrum, the average gamer will shy away from female, cartoonish, or simply awkward looking characters based on looks alone. Give the average teenager a choice, he'll go with the ninja guy with the guns and bombs. Likewise, expect Bowser, Ike, Samus and other generically badass characters will be picked for the visual appeal of the average gamer.
However, let's face it, Nintendo is a family company. Who went out and hunted Wiis? Parents. A large fraction of random players online will be younger than you, and that's even if you're around fifteen. Expect a LOT of kids playing their favorite characters, which with the demographic will probably be Pokemon, the Mario Party crowd, the bright and colorful ones they'll grow to hate after puberty sets in. For every few action-character teenagers, expect at least one seven-ten year old thinking the point of the game is to hop around the platforms. If they know how, they WILL disconnect when the other player plays it like a fighting game. If they're smarter but not all there, they'll probably just jump around evading you with the occasional missed attack. Imagine a four player match of you, some five year old running off the edge, and two others that are just running away from you and doing double jumps for fun. At worst, you'll get the violent little tykes that just rush you like dogs without any comprehension of the game's finer points. Feel free to show them your moves, either they'll learn from you and become better gamers or get fed up and go search 'boobs' on Youtube as most grade school runts do nowadays.
I imagine most won't bother moving the rules around. Stock or time will be standard, even if they're options I can't imagine Coin or other modes catching on. Tourney players will set it to the usual rules, easiest way to spot them.
Truly not sure how the stage options work. If the host picks, they'll either go with their favorite all the time or hit random. Expect the cooler-looking stages to take dominance over the tourney-friendly ones, namely space stages, castles, etc. Doubt Smashville will appeal to most people with it being so simple and unexciting.
The average skill level overall, will at first be overall bad. As time goes on, the obsessed folk will take their thrones as untouchable, and a year later the original bad players will have either improved or stopped playing. On the other hand, there could be a steady stream of new players since this is THE Wii game to buy.
And finally...There will always be the one weirdo, playing as Zero Suit Samus, trying to get the other players to check 'her' out so 'she' can beat them. A rather logical strategy, but eyebrow-raising nonetheless.
