Smashboards

sometimes I wonder if you realise all fandom have toxic fans. we'd still have toxic smash discourse no matter what

Eh, more like since Brawl where they made a big deal about who gets in.

In 64 and Melee the rosters just existed.

I think Melee did make a big deal of who gets in, but on a more reserved scale and limited primarily to the game itself - the menu theme is written to sound like that of an award show, and toys were swapped for commemorative trophies - however, yeah, it absolutely got way worse with Brawl, and doubled each further game. Meanwhile, heirarchy has absolutely been a thing since 64.

You’re really grasping at straws for this conspiracy theory of yours.

Smash Bros character choices have never been a statement of who the most important characters are or who “deserves to be featured in this award show” and to be blunt, the belief that it is has consistently been a much bigger source of toxic discourse than character trailers ever have.

And if you believe that Trophies were evidence to back up this false claim of yours than you’re just being ridiculous.

If the "false belief" that Smash treating itself as important is what's causing the discourse and not just Smash treating itself as important, shouldn't it be Nintendo/Namco/Sakurai's responsibility to actively squash that misconception? And wouldn't it be in the companies' better interest to squash it if it weren't an intended response and they just coincidentally kept adding in a repetitive protag-sidekick-villain order and only giving megafranchises and relevant hits more than 4-or-so characters?

No. Nintendo/Namco/Sakurai are not responsible for how their consumers act and most people have the common sense to tell that this is the case anyway.

Nintendo and Co. cannot control how people act in response to their product. If a vocal minority on the internet starts to spew ridiculousness then that’s not on them.

The point of marketing, on a fundamental level, is to control how people act and react, it's essentially the non-political off-shoot of propaganda, and appealing to fan demand is a marketing decision and not a creative one. Modern Smash is based entirely, fundamentally, around how people would react to it in the moment, and the evidence is just how intertwined the marketing is with the game itself.