I decided to just do a little post about how the hate about Ridley helped more than anything if you consider how trends work. Please be notified that I state my personal support experience on my most wanted as I found it to be a good example, but it has to do with popularity by talk which is related to Ridley.
With how much controversy it got, this could (and as a joke should) be his punchline:
Ridley isn't too much for anything!
I swear the main arguments are the word "too" with any adjective. Too big, too much like a boss, too complex, too clear of deconfirmation, too hard to do, etc...
It's even became to a point when a new one came: "too controversial". Because honestly, I kinda understand the one who says that with how talked it is. Might be annoying if you don't care (tough, it;s not really a reason for Sakurai to smash his desk while saying "NOPE, forget about it because he has too much attention").
If Ridley has too much behind him, then what's the problem?
Because it would be if it was insufficient. I mean when there's so much stuff to talk that it's "too much" is positive right?
I think you got it now. My point is that there's so much talk about anything he has from source material that the final complain is always "too much anything". It's like he would be so impossible to be in smash because he would have "too much" where having more than enough is actually better than having just enough. Ironically, people don't seem to understand that talking so much about him created the opposite effect intended: he's more popular because of the talk.
I got active here because of the direct (like seriously I don't know why I really seemed like someone who didn't give a crap of him on August 20 and now I do care). Imagine if there was no too big, no shokio video, no clone assumption...he would just have supporters left to talk.
My theory is that the hate around him helped him more than anything. It's kinda like being subject to devil advocate more frequently, your argument become more and more solid and you're more determined to want him in.
If you look at other characters that only had decent popularity with a considerable chances, you will notice that not much is complained about them. I should even say not much people bring up those complains. That, you might think it's good because he wouldn't be hated that much, but not really. That would be because of not caring enough to have substantial hate group. I learned this with my own support. Unless you try to bring the character more talk and opinions, there's nothing left to do. And when I say nothing, I mean it. Thee's not much interest showed, there's no debates and talk which means that there's a stall in overall opinion since not much care enough.
I say this because the MOMENT I tried, it worked. Before, like when I joined as mostly more lurker than poster, I had to do some research on general opinions and popular arguments because that would help me later. Paper Mario was "secretly" my most wanted because I wanted him a lot, but I found him so silently talked that I was even ashamed to even tell why I think he would be worthy in itself. I did mentioned it, but I was so scary that I even told the opposite of my belief. So, it was more me not making any effort and just watch.
It progressively vanished and I did ended up being the OP of his thread. Here's the big problem: there's still no talk. It took 9 bumps for the thread to live and some have months of time gap. However, with how much people I saw to even mention liking the idea, or had to perform search, it shouldn't happen. The moment when the thread became to have enough activity to survive to the sal leak talk until 4 fe reps was when I started to advertise it.
Here's how trends works: when an idea emerge from any person who is willing to innovate, there should have enough people that show positive reaction early for the idea to spread into the majority. The thing is, the idea needs to be PRESENTED before for that. Think about chorus men, the sal leak made a lot of people aware of them and so, the one who liked the idea talked about it which made quite a bit of support.
When I installed my support material (my sig is the best example), there was more talk overall. How it passed from almost no talk to sometime bring up? Because the idea wasn't presented to enough people. It's like you would want him, but you don't know because you didn't hear about the idea enough. That's how it began for the thread to be more on the first page...
To get back to Ridley, the same effect happened. If you repeat too big every time, thee's a lot of people that would be aware and tempted to check if the argument makes sense. This does imply that the one who don't think so look deeper and realise that they want Ridley. If that argument didn't exist, not much people would be aware of the idea in smash context because it won't be that much talked. Which means that there would be less chance to get a boost in popularity and more of a stall.
In melee, there was a supporter base. Arguments emerged which is countered and spread by supporters. This spreading leads to other neutral people to think about it which makes either more supporters or more haters depending on their opinion on it. By having more speculators in general, you have more chances to talk and debates. It's a snowball effect that would keep repeating until it gets boring enough.
It turns out that the next installment, brawl, didn't do that because of the SSE controversy. In fact, it made even more supporters because of the desire to see this change. I just want that you think about it and tell me in the most global perspective possible what did the shokio video changed on his speculation? It's even more global than hates: it's more speculators which means more supporters and haters. By having more, more talk again and it snowballed.
All this to say that the reason any tease should be made is to intentionally do that. Sakurai did bring more speculation and the direct was a mass of them. A direct about smash and teasing him in those advertising conditions was so broad that the whole internet knew. That's a huge snowball indeed.
It did bring more hate, but also supporters due to the deny of hating when presented. I just want to remind you that in the end, I would never sit in front of my keyboard for 5 hours in a row while listening to sanctuary guardians in loop for the sole reason to type my complete opinion on Ridley if it wasn't for Sakurai. And apparently, that same text directly influenced at least one person that is talking frequently in this thread as of now. Again, more talk, more people, even more talk, snowball.
Which is why I want to remind you that I hate the word "troll" in this context, but use the following "ingenious way to control trends". That's really the base of marketing: more people know and speak = more popularity when presented with the good side.
TL;DR, Sakurai is a genius because he control trends exactly what I figured out when I wanted to have a thread on first page more often: present the idea and advertise it so more people know = more talk = even more people hear about it = snowball effect.
Which is why we wait so much...
Let's see what people think about this because It's so ironic to say that the existence of an argument based on false belief helped him.
?!
