Expectations probably have been too high for what's yet to be revealed, but at the same time there's no reason to get so tilted by other people and their speculations. I've been one to downplay expectations for a while now, but pessimists ruin speculation, Smash 4 speculation ended up being absolutely dire because of them, and in the end they didn't manage to stop the eventual outrage anyways, so what's the point?
There's a middle ground between "well, that's it, speculation is wrapped up, stop talking until release" and "we're getting 8 more newcomers because of this crazy theory" which I think is the ideal point to hit right now.
This is probably what makes it so toxic. People get salty because their most wanted characters aren’t in, but they’re not hyped to see characters who they expect due to leaks.
Case in point: Who was the hypest reveal from August’s direct? The dormant krokodile that everybody thought was in but nobody expected there? Or a third party from a nostalgia-inducing franchise that was leaked several times? Even Richter made more of an effect since we didnmt know he was coming.
Also consider the vitriol directed towards Dark Pit and Duck Hunt/Bowser Jr from last round. Would it have been so strong if they
hadn’t gotten leaked before?
This is why I am not a fan of leaks. We get the info early, and then disappointment follows since we don’t have more. I’d gladly trade knowing too many characters too soon for spacing things out. Yeah, keep our expectations in check. But it’s really hard when everyone will talk about only the leaked characters and keep bringing up fantheories to shut arguments down. There’s also nowhere to go to not get spoiled - to avoid knowing the two from Vergeben, we would have had to have gone offline since around E3 timeframe, and then we wouldn’t be able to say the word ‘Smash’ online without Google/Youtube seeing it and offering suggestions of vlogs where some ******* discusses the leaked characters and puts them in the thumbnail.
If the vergybox theory is it, it’s disappointing because then we know everything already but we have no more news. We’re already complaining about the blog rehashing news from August, but we’ve had Vergeben’s info even longer. The roster’s fantastic, and I’ll really enjoy the game. But the next few months are gonna be just a series of...
“What about?”
“No. The box.”
“Well DLC?”
“No. Vergeben.”
“Spirits mode?”
“It’s cut. It’s not on the box”
I think it’s more that speculation is getting negative. We’re too eager to shut things down, and we never want to hold long conversations about anything other than characters...but we won’t allow character discussion outside of the ones that someone leaked.
