This year's Tokyo Game Show was in an odd space for the yearly convention, taking place in an online format like many events have been forced to over the course of 2020. However, this format has allowed for those within the gaming industry, showing off games like the new Age of Calamity trailer, to have much more personal interactions with fans and players anticipating huge announcements throughout the show.
One of these industry titans, Super Smash Bros. and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakurai, tuned into the program and presented an award to the indie title Baba is You. In his most recent Famitsu column, Sakurai expressed his displeasure with a number of the issues that come with the convention's online format, including negative comments from fans.
According to Sakurai, reading the comments and the ongoing chat from viewers got "rough" to continue watching, prompting the developer to eventually close the comment bar entirely. Sakurai claims that it was due to how commenters "instantly started to mount and self-assert", although he didn't elaborate on exactly which comments led him to ignoring the chat altogether. This isn't the first time the developer has clashed with fans though, with the addition of Byleth in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate resulting in fans bombarding him online with negative comments and messages.
"I felt like the comments tend to get rough. I had the impression that people instantly started to mount and self-assert. I couldn’t stand it, so I did things like closing the comment bar. Unfortunately, there are practically no solutions to this."
His previous experiences with this type of negativity is likely what led Sakurai to his conclusion that "there are practically no solutions" to having these comments snowball throughout either a live presentation or over social media. Considering that TGS took place before the eventual Minecraft Steve addition to Smash Ultimate was revealed, it's likely that these comments were speculative of who may be next to arrive to the game. Whatever the comments were about, the conversation had clearly moved towards to a more critical view, which isn't always a negative, but things can turn sour quickly once the dogpiling starts.
It isn't really a new concept that people on the internet can sometimes lean in on the negative, making it very easy for people to get caught up as the snowballing starts to take effect. Of course, Sakurai has certainly had positive experiences with fans as well, such as his Smash pics of the day where he highlights some star moments from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the developer won't be at risk to more of the same treatment in the future, and without more permanent solutions from social media sites and online platforms, this may still be unavoidable for similar creators.
Source: Siliconera