The Dojo in Retrospect: Did it Kill It???

[Rhubarbo]

Now, you read the title and you think that this must be a complaint thread...It's not. Essentially, what I am asking is, would it have been better if the Dojo did not have ANY updates. Would it have been better if we never knew of Ike, Pokemon Trainer, Diddy Kong, Lucas, Sonic, King Dedede and Olimar until release? Would it have been better to wow us with wi-fi, the stage builder, and the SSE later on?

Obviously, since I made this thread, I have to answer yes. The Dojo really kept me happy while anticipating Brawl, but it killed the excitement of learning of my favorite newcomers, and spoiling all these cool features.

The first trailer even shouldn't have shown Meta Knight, Pit or Wario. In their place should have been numerous veterans. Zero Suit Samus could have been shown, and Snake could have been revealed just to build hype.

Now, thinking about it, the Dojo might have even cause a crippled version of Brawl to come out. Think about it, the Dojo built hype, the fans demanded a quick release, Nintendo rushed it. I think if the Dojo was never present, Brawl would be coming out later with more content. Odds are that the Landmaster-character ratio would be lower...

Anyways, even if all we would have received is Brawl in it's current state, I would have prefered that none of the characters would have gotten spoiled. Imagine seeing the first leak and hearing about Sonic...

 

[Fanewgie]

I wouldn't say the Dojo killed it as much as the method of how they revealed the characters. They gave us 90% of our awesome newcomers as starting characters, leaving all but three of the unlockable roster as stuff we already knew about, which made the unlockable roster feel really underwhelming. But when you look at the roster as a whole, it's still an amazing list.

 

[XACE-K]

It didn't kill it for me.

 

[Shuma]

I always Said the Dojo was a stupid idea, why can't sakurai act like a normal developer and release 1 or 2 trailers each year with a **** load of pics AND actual info?.

 

[ICANTCOUNT123456]

Dojo was fun I liked it. I STILL check it, because i need to know how to unlock characters, and only dojo has the REAL (believable) information, to me.

 

[japtar10101]

He used a similar strategy last time with melee....and I liked it that time as well

 

[antimatter]

i didnt go to smash boards or the dojo, and i loved melee. i went to both this time around, and got pissed off. logically, they ruined it for me. therefor, i am not going to either parties if there ever is a ssb4.

 

[zeldamaster2006]

It's good and bad, it made it seem like he had to release it eventually or run out of information to tell us on one hand, but it also did ruin some of the fun. I could never keep away from spoilers though, but I did a surprising job on staying ignorant of the SSE plot.

 

[Chaosblade77]

I agree with Fanewgie, the dojo was a great, but poorly executed idea, as was the roster setup as a whole. Unlock the veterans and start with the newcomers? I don't understand how that is possibly better than starting with veterans and unlocking newcomers.

At least it made the wait interesting.

 

[KeyKid19]

Having veterans like Falcon, Falco, Luigi, Ness, Jigglypuff, and others being UNLOCKABLE (two of those I named are unlockables for the 3RD GAME IN A ROW!!!) ruined things. Why should newcomers be stock characters? The whole point of the "New Challenger Approaching" is that there is actually someone NEW joining the game! If a character has been unlocked before, they should come stock. Any new additions should HAVE TO BE unlocked. That's what brought Brawl down.

You made an interesting point about rushing the game though. Honestly, I wouldn't be nearly as hyped for Brawl if I didn't know everything the Dojo unveiled. It would just be more like a normal anticipated game is for me. But now that I know so much, I want the game right now, and the delays seem all the more unreasonable. Did this result in the game being rushed? I have no idea. It could've though. All in all I'd say the Dojo was a great hype builder but once I have the game it will be less jaw-dropping because I already know most everything included in the game.

 

[Rhubarbo]

The choice for secret and starting characters was really poor. Here is how I would have arranged the roster.

Starting:
Mario
Peach
Bowser
DK
Yoshi

Pikachu

Link
Zelda/Sheik

Samus

Kirby

Fox
Falco

C.Falcon

Ness

Marth

Starting Roster=15 Characters

 

[Eriorguez]

You forgot Pikachu.

Falcon and Ness were starters in Melee. And it doesn't matter, the rooster will be complete in a week at max.

 

[Juicy]

Starting Roster=14 Characters

i agree with that. the game would be SO much better if we had more people to actually unlock rather than getting 92% of the characters to start and then unlocking mostly vets with 2 or 3 people we wouldnt of guessed. all in all though im conent with the game, just not sakurai's "new philosophy" (whatever it is)

 

[jwj442]

The choice for secret and starting characters was really poor. Here is how I would have arranged the roster.

Starting:
Mario
Peach
Bowser
DK
Yoshi


Link
Zelda/Sheik

Samus

Kirby

Fox
Falco

C.Falcon

Ness

Marth

Starting Roster=14 Characters

Starting with all old characters is a really bad idea. I would much rather start with most of the characters unlocked and not have to jump through hoops just to play new characters.

I don't see why it matters so much who's unlockable and who isn't. We'll unlock all the characters within a month or less just like Melee, does it really matter? I'd rather get all the major content like characters and stages easily and quickly and leave the hard challenges to trophies.

 

[Arteen]

The choice for secret and starting characters was really poor. Here is how I would have arranged the roster.
...
Starting Roster=14 Characters

Why would you have all the new characters (Zamus excepted) unplayable from the start?

 

[SinisterLizard]

People who say this are ignorant.

People aren't upset because there were no new characters. How do I know? Because there were plenty of people who said "Now that _____ is in, I don't care how else is in..." months before the final 35 was released. It wasn't that people were expecting even more after the DOJO updates. People would have been just as excited/upset as far as the characters are concerned regardless of whether the DOJO updated or not. People expected certain characters WAY before there was a DOJO, and WAY before other characters such as those mentioned were released. I could show you a list of characters I thought should be in the next smash that I made years ago, and Ridley and Krystal were among those (as well as others).

So stop saying this, you everyone else. It isn't true, and it makes you look ignorant. Also, stop bringing up these topics because I was already learning to be content with the game before I kept being reminded of who should have also been included...

 

[pirkid]

No matter what, I and many others have lived on the Dojo for a few months. It was great for me, and it built up the hype for the game no bi-yearly trailers ever could.

And the point of the Dojo was to act and a Beginner's manuel to random stuff. BEGINNERS.

 

[gunterrsmash01]

i 100% completely agree with this.

 

[SAMaine]

The reason why most of the veterans are unlockable while the newcomers are default, is because most people want to play as the new guys first. Think of how much sucky the game would look if the default roster was this...

Mario
Luigi
Peach
Bowser

Yoshi

DK

Link
Zelda/Sheik
Ganondorf

Pikachu
Jigglypuff

Kirby

Fox
Falco

Marth

Ness

Samus/Zero Suit Samus

Captain Falcon

Ice Climbers

Mr. Game & Watch

And we would find out all the secret characters at release. Sure, Melee had more hidden characters, but only three of them were original ones. Meanwhile, the secret characters in Brawl are the two third-party guests (Snake, Sonic), all four unlockable fighters from SSB64 (C.Falcon, Jigglypuff, Luigi, Ness) and any original unlockable character in Melee save Mewtwo (Marth, Mr. Game & Watch), the two clones from Melee that anyone cared for (Falco, Ganondorf), Young Link 1.1 (Toon Link), Mewtwo 2.0 (Lucario), Fox 3.0 (Wolf), and R.O.B.

Only Captain Falcon really deserved a default character spot over... let's say King Dedede. Way too many default Kirby reps for my taste, though both Meta Knight and King Dedede deserve the spot in the roster

 

[DarthBrittinias]

Firstly, you didn't have to go to the Dojo at all. You chose to go there, and in turn ruin the surprises for yourself. If you really wanted to be surprised, then you should have known better.

Secondly, the dojo updates were a very clever way of building hype for this game. Nintendo is in this business to make money, and they more hype they generate for a game the more copies they're going to sell. They announced the big-name characters early so that people would be excited about it(even people who didn't play Melee), that's why they announced Snake and Sonic. They're both 3rd party characters and may bring in new gamers to this game.

Thirdly, I was glad for the updates. I've checked the dojo every single day since its debut. If I had known everything (or nothing) all at one time, then I wouldn't have anything to be excited about while I waited. As it stands, I've never been more excited for any game as I have been for Brawl. And I think that is due in large part to the dojo updates.

 

[DMAJohnson]

It didn't kill it for me--I wanted to know the full roster the minute the game was announced. When you get down to it, really that's mostly all I care about sans basic gameplay.

 

[bowz10190]

Starting with all old characters is a really bad idea. I would much rather start with most of the characters unlocked and not have to jump through hoops just to play new characters.

I don't see why it matters so much who's unlockable and who isn't. We'll unlock all the characters within a month or less just like Melee, does it really matter? I'd rather get all the major content like characters and stages easily and quickly and leave the hard challenges to trophies.

I agree. For those kids who struggle unlocking things still have a good selection of newcomers as soon as they put in the game. It makes sense to me.

 

[brawlmaniac]

I feel the Dojo was definitely worth it, for me anyway. I really wanted more Brawl info and I'm glad I got it. It would have been cool to see all the surprises like stage builder once I got the game, but I would still prefer to learn as much as possible beforehand.

 

[DAVO]

I think the DOJO was a succes AND a very stupid thing
for myself i loved it , i checked it everyday for the updates and It made me want that game much more a trailer could
The bad part was that people started wanting even more ( imagine this : there never was a dojo , and on jan 31 people discovered that characters like sonic , snake , pit , wario , etc. are in , people would have ****ed theyre pants and we would never found complains about the rooster ) IMO

 

[SU_Remo]

I'm glad the Dojo was there, but it might have been better if it was handled a bit different. I think SamuraiPanda said this in an episode on SMYN, but if certain characters like Snake and Sonic were announced much later, the hype would've been better "scheduled" so to say. Like if we didn't know about those guys, or many of the new character until about Jan 1st, I think the public would've handled this wait better. Instead, we knew about so many new characters in Fall 07 and were starting to hate the Dojo updates for 2-3 months because of the lack of content.

Having the site was pretty cool, and it's great to have a big archive of Smash information, but I think I'd prefer it if I never got myself worked up with hype with the Dojo or even with discussion on SWF.

 

[DeuceBlade]

I loved the character spoilerz :D

 

[J18]

ya know, i wish i had just preordered it and left it alone. cuz since then, i've been obsessing over the game, and really, i think it would've been great to not know anything, but i couldn't help myself. now i've been dying to get this game, and i wish i wasn't. it would've been so great to have it be a surprise. even for character movesets. like sonic, i already know all of his moves, and now he seems less appealing. i really wish i hadn't found out about brawl until release.

 

[Rhubarbo]

People who say this are ignorant.

People aren't upset because there were no new characters. How do I know? Because there were plenty of people who said "Now that _____ is in, I don't care how else is in..." months before the final 35 was released. It wasn't that people were expecting even more after the DOJO updates. People would have been just as excited/upset as far as the characters are concerned regardless of whether the DOJO updated or not. People expected certain characters WAY before there was a DOJO, and WAY before other characters such as those mentioned were released. I could show you a list of characters I thought should be in the next smash that I made years ago, and Ridley and Krystal were among those (as well as others).

So stop saying this, you everyone else. It isn't true, and it makes you look ignorant. Also, stop bringing up these topics because I was already learning to be content with the game before I kept being reminded of who should have also been included...

Learn to read posts before you comment, okay? I never said I didn't like the roster, I said I didn't like how it was revealed. Of course you can't be blamed, there are many bashing threads. Those have been reduced with SP's complaint thread though. Just start to read.

 

[Libomasus]

I actually liked how the Veterans were unlockable instead. Not only did I like being able to play as newcomers at the start to make it feel like a whole new game, but to see the veterans return one by one and crashing the party is pretty cool. Though I can't really say what would have been better since I followed the leaks rather than waiting for the game.

 

[DMurr]

Some things I liked, other things I didn't. I don't like the choice arragement for the roster. In my opinion, all the newcomers besides Zamus, Meta Knight, Wario, Pit and Lucas should be hidden. Unveiling Sonic and Snake was fine, IMO because they built hype. Lucas and the "up until now" deal was smart, I think, because that built a LOT of suspense over whether or not Ness was going to be replaced. Putting Ness back on the secret character list was a really good idea, I think. C. Falcon going back as an unlockable seems unnecessary, IMO. Marth should've been bumped up to a starter..

 

[Norm]

Dojo revealed too much to many characters to many stages the only thing the never really revealed a lot of was the SSE and the Music the impact of finding out all the characters was lessened because most of them were revealed on the Dojo. We knew all most all of the new character and returning charaters there was nothing left to reveal so when it was revealed people though huh where's all the new characters because we all thought if they've revealed this many characters then how many haven't they revealed.

 

[timbers92]

The Dojo did kill a lot the excitement but it won't kill how awesome the game is.

 

[Linkubus]

Eh, I could say it did, since now I know pretty much all about the game. But really, I didn't have to go to the Dojo, or go on SmashBoards, or Brawl Central, etc. It was my choice to look at all the spoilers, so I can't really complain.

 

[Darkpaladin of Chaos]

E for All would have spoiled most of that anyway.

 

[Puffs]

@ thread title: omg really???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

@ topic: You didn't have to check the DOJO, and only hardcore fans check it regularly anyway

 

[Sanjuinuthus]

only hardcore fans check it regularly anyway

I don't own either game in the series and I check the website every morning. Does that make me hardcore?

 

[balladofwindfishes]

they should have staggered the characters a bit and not show the second last starter (dedede) several months before the ORIGINALLY planned release. We didn't need 6 newcomers in the span of 3 months with 3 months left until the game.

 

[Spellman]

The Dojo gave us new stuff to talk about every day, and it made the wait bearable.

 

[NitrousFlare]

IMHO I think it's better to find out little by little than to have the whole game revealed at once by the Japanese release.

 

[Blazer]

It didn't hurt the hype per say, rather it got me all the more eager for the game but, it also caused me to have disappointment in the roster a TINY bit. I got almost all the characters I wanted, but I feel that the game could have been better with G&W, Toon Link, and Rob being different characters. But, that's not the Dojo's fault is it? None of those were released on the Dojo yet besides maybe Toon Link (I'm too lazy to check right now). The only thing the Dojo did wrong was the order of character reveals, and maybe it started too early. Although had it started later, we'd have all died from the first teaser video...

Matter of fact, I don't see how you all can blame the dojo for actually giving us something to talk about, and keeping us from all being completely in suspense over the past few months.