Smurfing

[Misery]

You'll need to elaborate on why it's worse in ranked mode, because I like using an alt simply to practice new weapons in ranked. Plus they get to face/play with someone who is higher skilled. Why always think of the negative, it could be a fun experience for the others.

Believe me, it isnt.

It's one of the absolute most common complaints I hear in online communities for any game. The more popular the game, the worse it is. I've both seen it when watching, and witnessed it in-game (in whatever game it is) *really* often (I do alot of online gaming). Both in-person, and online.

Why is it a problem in ranked? Simple: it wrecks their rank, and there's NOTHING they can do about it. Just because someone is playing at a rank they DEFINITELY arent supposed to be at.

And you'd think that going up against strong players might teach something, yes? Doesnt work that way. You cant learn much from just instantly being obliterated over and over again. There's a reason why matchmaking, even in 1-on-1 games, at least tries to prevent it as much as possible. And notice just how angry people can get when the matchmaking fails to do this, in any given game, as it inevitably will from time to time.

It's at it's absolute worst in games with long matches. The mobas are absolutely notorious for this.... particularly Dota. Get into a match that involves smurfs on the other team, and chances are, you *are* wasting the next 40 freaking minutes (there is no surrender option in that game, because derp, and you are heavily penalized if you quit). AND you'll have your rank lowered (if you're in the ranked mode of the game in question). That sound like a positive experience to you? Ya wont learn a damn thing from it, either, as the only actions you'll witness your opponents do is their sudden surprise attack; you see nothing at all of the tactics used to GET to the point where they erase you. The same goes for this game, since hiding and ambushing are so prevalent, and encounters are extremely fast. Many players just cant process things quickly enough to learn, when that happens. And then the frustration makes that aspect worse.

At least in fighting games your opponent is always in view, but even there.... I'll say, against newer players in that genre, I hold back dramatically, because they'll learn nothing if they dont even get to try things because I just smeared them all over the ground in 10 seconds with tactics they cant understand due to not being anywhere near the level of learning those tactics. They need experience of their own FIRST, before dealing with that, and they'll gain none if they deal with it before then. And again, many are likely to simply quit after that, which is extremely common in any competitive game, if this happens too much.

Seriously, as a rule, nobody likes smurfs, and usually, most players have nothing but contempt for them. And I cant blame them.

And hell, a team game can make it even worse than a one-on-one. If YOU, maybe, are good enough to defend against the smurf, but a couple of your teammates arent.... you're going down regardless. That one is more rare though.

And even if the smurf is on your own team, well.... THAT one leads to some of the most bloody boring matches. Seriously, they're freaking dull. It's like "Okay, WHY am I even here? There's nothing to do because that level bazillion player does it all at once in an instant". That part isnt so bad in games with short matches, but in long matches, well.... I've had a few where I actually started dozing off in the middle of it, such was the boredom. This typically does not affect the chances of victory. It's already a win even if I just stand there, in some games.

Of course, the degree of all of this depends very heavily on the skill level of the smurf in question, and just how far above everyone else they are. Usually though, it's a very dramatic difference, and all sorts of irritating.

 

[TheMH]

In my opinion at least one smurf or alt account is an absolute must-have in Splatoon.

1. As long as you are not S rank, you will need an alt to quad squad with weaker players. Nothing more frustrating than playing with B ranked friends while you are at A and losing all the time when getting grouped against japanese S/S+ teams. It's a little better in duos, though. That was the initial reason I created my alt.

2. You don't want to play with weapons you are unfamiliar with with your A+/S/S+ ranked main account. Trust me on this, you won't have fun and there is no good reason to simply throw away hard-earned rank points. On another note you probably would throw every single game for your team in this scenario which isn't fun for your teammates either.

3. Kinda similar to 2. maybe there are days you just want to play a few matches for fun without caring for your rank. As Nintendo doesn't offer an option to play Zones, Tower or Rainmaker without affecting your rank, an alt is the only solution.

Since I got to S I didn't use my alt that much any more, but I actually want to start learning E-Liter soon and then it will serve me well for sure.

I think there will be only very few players who deliberately create new accounts over and over to screw beginners in C rank for a simple reason: You have to go through Turf War hell Lv.1-10 every time you create a new account before you can join ranked matches :D

 

[Misery]

I think there will be only very few players who deliberately create new accounts over and over to screw beginners in C rank for a simple reason: You have to go through Turf War hell Lv.1-10 every time you create a new account before you can join ranked matches :D

Trust me, that dont stop some people. More than you'd think.

In Splatoon at least that process is pretty fast. In a huge number of other games.... it takes muuuuuuuch longer to get past the initial nasty/problem section that everyone hates when starting out. But it still gets done, often just for teh lulz. Ugh. It amazes me, really, to see the lengths that some people will go to JUST to troll others.

THIS game though isnt nearly as bad about it as others I've seen (not even close). Which is to be expected from something made by Nintendo; if it had a huge amount of trouble with this as I've seen in other games, I'd be very surprised. Just even more reason why I'm liking the entire console over the others right now (though, PC is still my main thing).

 

[JazzCaht]

Smurfing negatively is a problem, but it's too small a kink for it to need a change (You'd probably be doing more bad than good trying to stop it). Besides, it looks like a lot of people use it for constructive purposes, rather than trolling, ego-boosting, etc. Personally, I test my weapons out in ranked as I'm still low ranked and haven't tried to climb to S ranked too much. Mostly because I tend to end up on a lackluster team (Or I just need to git gud). But hey, you never know if this willl become a bigger issue.

 

[Smashling79]

I don't like people who smurf. Feels like they're bullies who just want to beat on players that they know that they're better than. Smurfing is like a champion competitive smash bros player going to a tournament filled with casual 12 year old smashers. Just think what the new players will think if you keep destroying them. Some of them will probably become discouraged and may not want to play ranked splatoon anymore. If you are not playing to better yourself or if your idea of fun is beating on players worse than yourself then that's pretty pathetic. If you want to practice with a weapon, play turf wars. If I was still new to this game and you decided to smurf, you'd better pray that you don't come across a lobby with me and seven other players communicating by skype, because if you barge in and just start wrecking s**t, I'm gonna be telling all my buddies to gang up on your a**.