Project Seeking Interviewees: Smogon Tiering & Voting Process

[Mister Fellows]

(This message has been approved by the ou forum mod team)

Hi fellow Pokémon showdown enthusiasts!

I’m Mr.Fellows, a Dutch student who is writing his thesis right now. I recently got fascinated by how people form complicated social structures in gaming communities. With Smogon being one of them. The players took the game and fit it to their needs. Also it is sort of a political community with the way that you can vote in the suspect tests. With scientists having a rough time understanding internet culture and trying to figure out how to integrate it into governments I thought it would contribute to research internet communities.

So if you want to help me, I need to interview a couple of people. I want to learn about what you know about the tiering system, if you participate in meta-game discussions, what you value as a player and what you think about the approach Smogon is taking.

I want to speak to both competitive tournament players, (casual) ladder players and members of the tiering councils. The interviews will take about 40 min to an hour, you need to be over the age of 18 and further information is in an introduction letter I can send you.
If you would like to speak with me, send me a DM in Discord or on Smogon.

I’m really curious and thank you for reading this,
Mister Fellows (aka. Turtlon)

 

[Mister Fellows]

I still need to speak with a couple more players. Anyone is welcome, but I am a bit short on the more casual player's perspective. I am curious what you think about the tiering, if you participated in a suspect test or not and why. Hopefully there are still some people who would want to chat. However if you are a tournament veteran who always votes, don't go away I need you too! As long as I meet my number requirements ;)

A curious,
Mr.Fellows

 

[toshimelonhead]

It was a pleasure chatting with you! Did you get everything you needed for your project?

 

[Mister Fellows]

Deadline is this on Friday, I still need one interview. However if I'm not getting that I'm subsituting it with a forum analysis. Using articles on the site and such. I think it's allowed, but an interview would be better. But I got all the info already, only thing thats missing is more opinions of the casual player base.

Since the voting requirement makes it so some casual players can't vote I want to learn about how they feel about that.

 

[leng loi]

I'd be down to do an interview if you still need.

 

[ausma]

I’ll answer any questions you need answered too!

 

[Mister Fellows]

Thank you both, which one of you would you say is the most casual player? With ausma 's array of badges I suspect leng loi would fit that description better.

 

[leng loi]

Thank you both, which one of you would you say is the most casual player? With ausma 's array of badges I suspect leng loi would fit that description better.

No shade to Ausma but I think she'd agree that she's the more casual player.

 

[Mister Fellows]

All right, thank your for the quick response!