Source
r/splatoon•
gleepglap

Rant-Question: Why is this sub so dull?

From what I can tell the only posts here that garner any significant attention are pictures of stuffed animals or links to mediocre cartoons.

In the past few weeks I've seen posts that feature in-depth analysis - including with actual data (requiring a ton of work) - that get only a few upvotes and comments.

Discord channels feature lots of active, interesting content about game strategy. It'd be great if this occurred on Reddit as the format betters lends itself to that.

There's an active tournament scene that gets little discussion here. Generally, folks who are "competitive" seem to be friendly and helpful, but get the cold shoulder here.

In short, I don't get why there's a sub for this game that focuses so little on playing the damned game.

Whatever the cause is I'd sure love to see more active game discussion here OR if there's active suppression of such discussion someone take the initiative to create a rival sub (admittedly, I'm too lazy / incompetent to do so).

Posted Jan 10, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

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NoRepliesPlease•

The subreddit was super active when there were a lot of game updates but most people here have been playing the game since 2015 and there's not much to say. This place is going to explode really soon - preview of S2 is just a few days away and it will release in March.

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gleepglapOP•

Appreciate the thoughts. I'd be inclined to agree, but like I said it seems on Discord there's tons of game / strategy discussion.

I'd be glad to just rely on that, but I don't think the medium works as well as Reddit. In Discord someone's good points get buried in the scrolling conversation pretty quickly.

Plus, it'd be cool if the forum about the game had more holistic coverage of the game...may be that changes with 2 as you predict...

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Hawk-SeowShaka-laka-bing-bang!•

I'd be glad to just rely on that, but I don't think the medium works as well as Reddit. In Discord someone's good points get buried in the scrolling conversation pretty quickly.

That's actually been my suspicion of Discord (I don't use it, I only know it's a chat program) and also one of the factors as to why I never got into it for Splatoon. I find giving and taking advice in chat form too transient to be useful, unless you're one of those pugilists who retains knowledge forever once it's imparted to you.

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kellylcNNID:•

I've been here for most of this subreddits life and the answer to your question is that every discussion that can be had has already been had, pretty much. A year ago this sub was a lot more active

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Hawk-SeowShaka-laka-bing-bang!•

I only agree with the part about the sub being more active in the past but I'm not so sure that everything that can be discussed has already been done to death.

Just the other day LockeExile posted that gif of Walleye not being symmetrical. Even better is the recent thread of people not realizing some of the obvious puns in Splatoon, it's not really the most meaningful discussion but point is there are always people who are learning something new each day with regards to this game.

Also, I've looked back at this sub from before I joined and a lot of the more regular commenters from then aren't commenting now, likewise there are quite a lot of new faces in this sub now with which we can still have fresh discussions with.

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PhloxofBirdsNNID: PhloxofBirds•

honestly, the reason why the competitive scene doesn't really post here (or squidboards, for that matter) is a general lack of interest or an outright hostility. a lot of the times, competitive posts and posts asking why there aren't that many competitive posts here are met with silent downvotes (somewhat like what's happening with this post right now), so we just stick to discord. exceptions of course include u/lockeexile, u/bluexenon, and u/rice_bledsoe, as these people often post competitive/analytical posts. i would love to see both the squidboards and r/splatoon communities embrace the competitive scene more though.

4
gleepglapOP•

Appreciate the response and context. I asked this question, in part, because it seems odd to me that this sub is so casual when I'd think the only people left focused on the game are hard-core players. I mean who would be casually interested at this point in the game's life?

So, may be there's a vacuum on this sub now that can be filled by more in depth discussion....

I totally get that Discord is a well used platform. But as alluded to before its a terrible platform for curating meaningful content.

Plus, the game's (western) fan base isn't that big...it sure would be nice if all facets of that base could co-mingle in one place...

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PhloxofBirdsNNID: PhloxofBirds•

honestly, i completely agree. i would like to see it more along the lines of smash, where the amino, reddit, and squidboards live peacefully with discords. that shouldn't kill the casual environment either, and it'd be cool if more artists collaborate with their favourite competitive players and whatnot. merge both the casual and competitive scenes

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Hawk-SeowShaka-laka-bing-bang!•

There are actually two other subs related to Splatoon (no, not the sister-ism ones), namely r/splatoonmeta and r/saltoon. The first was created for competitive discussion and the second to compete with the Dead Sea.

I don't check them much (not subbed either) but the last time I visited them, they were basically lifeless. This sub is the one where most people are active in and even then it's typically a small number, though I expect to see 100-200 or even more active users later this week after Nintendo drops the Switch bomb, maybe even with a sudden burst of subscribers to hit the 30k mark again before they suddenly unsub for whatever reason, which was what happened around the final splatfest.

As for discussion, I think it's a combination of some zealous downvoters (as evidenced in your post itself) with people who just can't be bothered to write stuff in this sub. Sometimes I too, get lazy at replying to some questions here. Either that or it's not my area of expertise.

3
BookEight•

I am a relative noob to the game, and i tend to agree with your assessment. Been playing since November (level 31, still a C-) and i would like to get more competitive, develop, be less casual.

Some subs just dont "take off" , and it has to be acknowledged that it is possible that it is no more complicated than this: the demographic of Splatoon/Reddit may not overlap as much as i'd hoped.

If there are better resources, i dont know them. For now that isOK since there seems to be lotssss of content here for me to consume, it's just that the bulk of it happened 6-12 months ago.

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gleepglapOP•

FWIW - older posts can be helpful, but there were game updates that can make them misleading. Further, thinking about the game has certainly evolved in 12 months.

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BookEight•

Yeah! I should have been clearer: what i meant to convey is that BECAUSE i am a newb, the old posts here are helpful. To change up a gear, i need more traffic, more volume.

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Hawk-SeowShaka-laka-bing-bang!•

What are these mediocre cartoons you speak of, gameplay clips??

1
gleepglapOP•

I appreciate the gameplay clips actually...various drawings of characters / fan art.

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Hawk-SeowShaka-laka-bing-bang!•

Oh, I asked because in my mind cartoons = animations so I thought you might be referring to the gameplay clips.

I know my previous comment might look like I'm being defensive but I just wanted to be sure of what you were referring to.

I'm aware that it's impossible to please everyone, which is why I only upload clips that I personally am entertained by (or consider a little educational, though those are the minority of my uploads) :D

1
gleepglapOP•

No problem. And in retrospect denigrating other content was uncalled for.

It's not a zero sum game.

(I like clips because they're entertaining, and I usually learn from them even when they're just comic)

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