Despite Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's character roster being as wildly large as it is, the demand for more and more characters never seems to end. If you find yourself regularly browsing Nintendo-based communities such as this very site, you'll no doubt have come across a number of people expressing their desire to see their favourites make the big time.
It's nice to see such passion, even if it can be a little exhausting at times, but Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada has seriously had enough. The industry veteran had a small rant on social media this morning, accusing several Twitter users of being "spammers", making a point of muting them, and going on to say that he'll be personally talking to Smash director Masahiro Sakurai to make sure their requests aren't approved.
He says, "developers don't negotiate with spammers and terrorists".
Of course, it's hard to know exactly how much Harada and other developers have to deal with when it comes to this kind of 'spamming' - we heard saddening tales of fans harassing Sakurai-san over the inclusion of Waluigi last year - but some of his words do seem a little excessive.
Still, in other messages shared just a few hours later, Harada said, "We listen and value opinions, requests and feedback. However, spam due to a large amount of tagging and replying interferes with normal communication... The spammer's voice is sometimes misunderstood as a majority in the internet community". We can definitely appreciate that, at least.
We think the "just one tweet is enough" comment probably says it best.
[source twitter.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 62
Sigh, some people are never satisfied with what they’ve got and feel developer’s are just there to fulfil their desires. Not surprised someone eventually snapped.
This was bound to happen,
Nintendo tells people that Nintendo looks at what is popular...
Well people will spam stuff to make it look "popular"
Same. One of the first comments I read under Switch related YouTube videos always is: „(Insert random character) for Smash!!!” Annoying as fudge.
"The spammer's voice is sometimes misunderstood as a majority in the internet community" Sad but true.
Fair play to him.
People abusing Social Media like this should be banned
Mind your language - Octane
I think it's kinda neat. These people have essentially ruined any chance of what they want to happen themselve,s which is ways amusing (though frustrating for any non idiots who wanted the same). Might have been a little overblown, but it makes a change for a dev to just say "no" rather than putting up with constant harassment and addressing idiots with an apology or "I understand..." message they may not particularly even believe in.
I got pretty lucky. I got my two most wanted character in the game: King K. Rool and Banjo & Kazooie.
I think most people have gotten their most wanted characters anyway. The only big ones that are left are Geno, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, and maybe Shantae.
At least in this example, none of the 4smash accounts wanted to tag the accounts of developers. They were doing their own thing, and one person randomly decided to tag the developers without the rest knowing. So when the replies kept coming, the developers kept getting the replies. Just wanted to clear that up.
I can understand the disdain for spammers, but "terrorists"? Where'd THAT come from?
I riot until I get Plok! Just kidding, I buy Smash on launch day everytime but then get bored after a few hours of gameplay. Hype gets me everytime.
Just not my type of game and any time I spend on it now is listening to the soundtracks.
Maybe if he actually replied to any of them they might have shut up, but then twitter is used by poeple like him for notoriety not talking to people.
But I do think his comment is funny.
@FX102A Nintendo never stops sending more characters to Smash Bros., therefore, it's ok to never stop asking for the ones you want.
The real problem is acting like a jerk because the character they wanted didn't make it in, or a character they don't like or don't know gets in, and spamming requests these people did.
Considering the Smash Community is one of the most toxic gaming communities out there I'm glad someone called everyone out.
Guy needs to chill out.
Japanese devs are NOT afraid to take a gigantic s*** all over obsessive fans.
And I love it.
As a big Tekken fan, it's not something I'm even that bothered about seeing
I'm one of those old fuddy duddy's that think Smash should consist of nintendo based characters (or largely nintendo based anyway)
Already feels weird enough to me, having ryu, ken, solid snake, bayonetta ect. in the game
Sonic I can make the exception for though
Terrorists? Seriously?
I was agreeing with him until I read that part. What a joker.
Who cares about Tekken anyways
Great, now we’ll NEVER see a Tekken on Switch. 😞
I had a sliver of hope for it.
@JaxonH I care about Tekken. It's one of the best fighting game franchises in history. Anyway, I don't think he was calling the fans terrorists. He was just adding that they don't negotiate with terrorists. Probably a reference to how those in law enforcement/government officials don't negotiate with terrorists.
"Navi for Smash!" (Any attack button you press just makes everyone else read useless information about the button you pressed. You continue this until everyone else commits character suicide just to end the match.)
@JaxonH I saw it as a take on many government's stance and comments saying they don't negotiate with terrorists.
After seeing how certain people behave across the Internet, I say the guy deserves to rant a bit.
he said nothing wrong, just a language barrier issue. definitely don't agree with the tone of this article and the "writer"
It must be annoying with like 1000 requests every day.
There is so much, you just need to ignore 100% of it.
@Chunkboi79 In this case they weren't doing anything toxic. All the smash fan accounts were having fun when someone just randomly tagged Masuda and they didn't know. That's why he got so many notifications, they kept going not realising Masuda is getting spammed.
Don't take anything from here at face value, they didn't do any research on this incident they just followed the crowd.
Someone snapped! I think his comments are pretty hilarious actually, I’m sure it’s infuriating for them.
@Manah yea i agree. this is a huge problem on the internet and it happens with more than just video games. it starts to get real scary when the subject is political
Kids with phones.... And thats what happens.
I even saw requests for power rangers for smash hahaha.
I love bandai namco.
@Tao i think this was actually a poor way to handle this. when you’re a large profile (read, not some random peon) person on twitter you should expect a large amount of traffic. Some, probably most of it, will be duplicates. Still you should maintain your cool and kindly point them to some request form. Granted people shouldn’t spam but you also shouldn’t talk to customers this way.
While it's bad to spam and all, I doubt that this put any of the characters of the blocked fan accounts out of the running. I don't think a whole character's chances would be rendered null and void because a few people from the fan-base keep on spamming on twitter. It was probably meant to scare away any further harassment.
@JaxonH I think he was being lighthearted in likening the IRL policy turned almost-meme thanks to Hollywood of "we don't negotiate with terrorists" to "we don't negotiate with spammers." I don't think he was actually calling spammers terrorists, just linking the policy meme in a cheeky way.
@TheLightSpirit You do realize that was clearly a joking parody on the 'we don't negotiate with terrorists' line, right?
Well I hope they don’t choose to outright not include the characters those spammers requested simply for that reason, but rather just ignore them and pick who they’re going to pick. I don’t want to see Sora’s slim chances removed entirely due to some idiot spamming the demand...
@TheLightSpirit people can joke in anger, sarcasm is used a lot when people are upset. I do that when I’m mad. I’m pretty sure the “and terrorists” part wasn’t serious.
Oh yeah, what are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Well go ahead, do your worst...
It's sad that Namco is the company behind the game but they only had one rep. Sakurai definitely needs to add 2 more, Nightmare from Soul Edge, Lloyd Irvine from Tales, or any of the Baten Kaitos or Xenosaga characters would be awesome for Smash Ultimate.
Apart from Banjo DLC characters so far ive found to be underwhelming. Was Joker really iconic enough for Smash? More so than Alex Kidd or Dr. Robotnik?
There needs to be some female characters to balance things out a bit too. Why not Terra from FFVI or Pyra/Mythra from XC2?
And some of the ‘joke’ characters like Mr. GnW or ROB are really nice touches. How about Captain N?
If only the same could be said of the whiny Animal Crossing fans.
Keep in mind that this is just Harada being Harada and doesn't necessarily deconfirm a Tekken character showing up in Smash. A few years back, Harada told PC port beggars to kiss his ass when they inquired about a PC port of Tekken 7, just a few months before showing up in Microsoft's E3 2017 presentation with announcement of a Steam version of T7 to go along with the already announced PS4 and XBOne version.
Not going to lie,while people shouldn't be spamming, sense nobody really likes it. At the same time it's sad that 7 random twitter users started this drama. I don't even know why they went to harada sends you know how he respond on twitter and know sakurais going to get into this random drama,too. Harada just needs to stop focusing on twitter because he gets into drama way to easily on twitter. Probably focused spamming him because sadly they knew he was going to respond and not just block them. I get why, but still it's only 7 people, not the entire smash community. See why I'm not into the smash community that much.
People that take offense to this obviously don’t know much about Harada. I mean, c’mon, the guy wears a shirt that says “Don’t ask me for shit!”. He’s a modern day badass, plain and simple.
I know it's unrelated but How many people are asking for Reimu in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Then?
Are we certain this wasn't a joke? I mean terrorists? Really? Does he realize what that word means? If he's serious then he needs some thicker skin. That said if I were to ask for any Namco character, it wouldn't be anyone from Tekken. I would personally ask for Klonoa. That's just me though.
"Awww, our games are so popular that fans are asking us to make partnerships and it's annoying please stop tormenting us". The level of professionalism shown in those tweets is abysmal. You cannot engage in any type of animosity against your fans and whine like a drama queen. Just mute them in silence. I understand the notion of respect is different in Japan but when you reach international fame you have to accept these things.
That's just sad...
(Hatsune Miku for Smash)
Personally I'd prefer Soul Caliber characters anyways. Maybe we should start tweeting or emailing that developer.
The fans who do this are idiots and his reply makes him look like a whiny baby.
From an adult perspective it looks like one child bugging another child and getting a silly child's response.
He’s absolutely right.
....
....
Bonk For Smash.
Bahahahaha, hell yes Harada. It's a shame half the commenters here don't know much about Harada or the reps in the fighting game community in general; all of them are deeply ingrained in fan affairs and have all thusly developed very sarcastic personalities. Harada even competes in Tekken tournaments. Even when delivering a point, there's always a bit of banter.
Hooray! Its about time someone told people to knock it off. I applaud the man. Seriously people they're not your personal servants that you can just order around.
@nin10dobot Have you seen how nasty and demanding some types people can be on the internet? They're like a cross between spoiled children and high school bullies who think that if they scream and pester enough, they automatically get what they want. Then if they don't, they'll harass and make threats.
@Tempestryke agreed
Seems like totally justified and overkill stepped into the teleporter together again. Might want to step back and say a less hard no to extra publicity for your franchise, even if you never do it.
@TheLightSpirit Saying trolly, exaggerated things like likening fighter requests to terrorist attacks are things that developers like Harada and especially Hideki Kamiya have been doing for god knows how long
Really surprised people are still getting offended by this but hey I guess it's your first time hearing of this guy if you're that angry about it
@nin10dobot A language barrier, definitely. The equivalent word in their language doesn't have the same associations it does around these parts.
Is it too late to ask for Ivan from Devil's Third?
@Onion
Yes, Klonoa! While Tekken might make sense for fighting game crossovers Klonoa makes more sense for Smash as the majority of it's roster have no fighting game associations whatsoever... plus isn't Klonoa rumored to be making a comeback?
This is why having a personal social media account that's not tied to your business decisions can be distressing due to want to communicate with the public about things other then your IPs.
But it just get filled with questions about your IPs and what will happen with them.
Based and redpilled
So... no LEGO Jedi, then?
its not going to be wauluigi so stop.
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