darkSpyro

While going through the forum, I noticed that many members take Skylanders really seriously. Why?

I want to know why Skylanders is so important to you? Why are you ready to fight over authenticity, or to get a specific toy in a store?

I'm curious, explain, I want to understand (and no, this post is not mean in any way, I'm really curious and find it interesting).

Since I was the first to answer this query (in another thread), I'll copy my response here to get the conversation rolling:

Fair enough, Reimu. I like you and believe you to be genuine, so I'll bite.

Whenever something becomes a cash cow, it becomes more serious. The more popular something becomes, the more attention it gets, and consequently, the more serious it often becomes.

Once upon a time, Skylanders was newish, and there were only a few figurines available. It was a joyous time. Scalping was minimal. Custom and Replica Skylander fabrication was in its infancy and not really a factor.

That proverbial honeymoon is over, more or less. The Skylanders community now is inundated with characters, reposes, and a plethora of variants, some rare than others. In that context, we MUST be diligent, observant, skeptical, and yes ... perhaps sometimes even serious. Otherwise, the deluge of fakes and replicas and con-jobs threatens to undermine the credibility of the franchise and its products. Now, we're not law enforcement, and there are obvious limitations to what we can actually control as a community. But the one major thing that we can absolutely do, collectively, is commit to squashing false claims and bad information that stems from rumors, hearsay, and unconfirmed reports.

Now, to each, his (or her) own, of course. There is no requirement to be "serious" 24/7 about Skylanders. I would just ask that our community members understand that it's important to avoid spreading hearsay and false/bad information, because (believe it or not!), people do actually count on this community to be an accurate source of information.

I'll bite too.

I'm not really sure if I take skylanders "seriously". Its not like I'm looking for a pearl hex or shelling out hundredscof dollars for a variant. Some people on here are a tod bit obsessed. I do enjoy collecting them. Unfortunately its an expensive collection unless you know how to cut down prices in some cases. I enjoy the games even when they become repetitive. Its always fun to go back and play it again months later. Its fun getting excited when you find an official release date for a figure and wait anxiously for it. Its like a mini Christmas. I'm just sad that the new game will be released while I'm in Japan. But it don't mean I cant order my figures online!

It's because people have invested a small fortune into the things and now feel they must protect their investment at all costs. That's really all it boils down to. Copious amounts of money got wasted and people want to make sure when they show off their collections they can say it's 100% legit.

When it dies out not a soul will care about it sadly.

It really comes down to if a collector is a chase variant collector. For me I only collect in game variants so it removes a lot of the obsession and headaches. For me a variant that does not show up in game like they look is a waste of money.

In fairness, if i see a blue chop chop from the toy fair and go and buy it off someone from ebay...that item better be the real one handed out and not some "custom" job.

Basically I pay real money so I should get a REAL variant

Despite my critical nature I enjoy the game and the collecting...and the community at times

My critical nature on the overall quality and support program for the game has to gear up to prime time--they rarely answer support related issues when you call and ignore posts on the forum. I'm very passionate about customer service, and that alone is thinking if I want to continue with the franchise over it.

Btw, I think the chasing is WAY MORE fun that the game or figures itself.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Despite my critical nature I enjoy the game and the collecting...and the community at times

My critical nature on the overall quality and support program for the game has to gear up to prime time--they rarely answer support related issues when you call and ignore posts on the forum. I'm very passionate about customer service, and that alone is thinking if I want to continue with the franchise over it.

Btw, I think the chasing is WAY MORE fun that the game or figures itself.

I agree mostly, the fun of the hunt is good but i do enjoy the figures and the box art of them also. Now I don't enjoy every figure, but most yes.

The thrill of the hunt fulfills a primal instinct, similar to back when we had to hunt and gather our food. I see my skylander collection as little trophies.

I understand why some people want every chase variant. I just don't have the funds nor desire. I do try to get all the in-game variants.

I just love hunting for these guys. I've had so many successes with them, especially the variants. I've found 3 in stores, and others were obtained for good prices.

Not to mention; my prototype figures. Those are the most important in my collection.

I am going to get a bit sappy, but I'll share why I am into it.
It primarily boils down to vicariously living, not so much through my kids, but with them. I've loved gaming since I was young, but never had much approval/participation from my folks. It’s a nice feeling to have something you are into as a kid shared with your parent. We always ogle the newest figures, even if we don’t have the cash to get them at the time. We play levels and set up our own little challenges of "only use this Skylander and this ability". Stuff like that.

I also try to make it a bit of a motivator for them and, dare I say it, a learning experience for them. Responsibility for their toys, in that some of these figures are so rare, we cannot really replace them. Getting chores/homework done and they can play a level or two. And even knowing when to turn off the game, they can play 2 levels or so many odd challenges, then we go outside or go to bed, etc.
The hunting for the figures itself is a great treasure hunt activity, teaches them to be responsible with any money they have to burn, and they get to collect something that can be their very own for years to come.

Cutest thing that recently happened, my son was really ill for a couple of days, and I had picked up a legendary lightcore grim creeper for Christmas just a day earlier. I figured he needed a pick-me up cuz he missed out on a school party. When I presented it to him, he perked up (as best he could) and explained to me how special that little plastic guy was. He watched movies with legendary grim creeper for the rest of the time he was home from school, making sure he put the figure “in his apartment” before bed/naps.

All this, and I am just a gigantic kid in "responsible" adult clothing .

I agree with Rooksarii there. A lot of this is about quality time with my son. We read to him every night, but once I bought the Swap Force guide that became the nightly reading. So we've read about all the characters and zones and such. That's good times.

I've never really had a collection of any kind, so it's fun (usually) to go to the various stores around us to see if they got something new in.

Also, some people, myself including, just get a little obsessive over things at times. If it's not this, it's something else.

I find it awesome to see parents creating a bound with their kids with Skylanders. It's also awesome to use it to teach them how to keep their money and earn things. I love to see your posts seriously.

I really like the community, and how passionate it is.

It's kind of like what I imagine marriage is. You're dedicated at first and you're genuinely ready to go through with becoming more committed. But then everything goes to hell and actually makes the relationship worse, because you want everything to be perfect and debate over every speck of dust and you've put a lot into it so you need rewards now. I think the Skylanders community actually resonates with my reasons as to why I tend to avoid a lot of the modern day gaming community, everyone needs to evaluate things in a politically-correct manner, and everything needs to be "news", and plain old discussion about playing a game and having fun with it isn't celebrated like it should be. Remember, guys. We're playing a video game- and what's important to you with Skylanders? Is it arguing over wether scalping is morally okay, or having fun with the game? I won't lie, I dragged myself into that pit numerous times. I really regret it. It isn't fun expected to battle in Wii U fights, when yes I know it sells bad, but just leave me alone! I want to play games, not go on message boards to [insert "hip" thing]. Basically, as you invest more "effort" into a game you expect it to give you more, and eventually you forget that the game is just supposed to be enjoyable, not work for you to complete to get it over with.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

Once upon a time, Skylanders was newish, and there were only a few figurines available. It was a joyous time. Scalping was minimal. Custom and Replica Skylander fabrication was in its infancy and not really a factor.

I miss that. When there was actually decent stock at my stores, and we got restocks, I mean. The "thrill of the hunt" nowadays is frustrating to me... Not because of needing to go out and buy the figures, oh no, but the limited stock here. I don't know if things are different elsewhere but there hasn't been a new release where I am that didn't disappear within two or three days, and after searching long just to find which figure I was looking for, it may already be gone from the shelf by the time I reach the store. I wouldn't mind, I could be patient and check later, but no! We don't get restocks of a figure after it arrives at a store!

I've only seen that happen a few times, and it was more often than not just the filler everyone gets at the end of a game(LightCore Shroombooms, the worthless Jet-Vac/Cynder Singles etc.). I gave up on checking stores and decided to start ordering toys online. I don't have to hassle with the low stock, and will get figures much sooner, which makes up for the extra cost. When I get a new figure, it's a feeling of "good! I won't need to go through more mud for this one", not "I'm so excited to get home and play with it!"(admittedly, the latter is probably my own problem since I try to withhold new figures from myself so I can complete progress like Heroics and levelling on my old ones, and leave the new ones as incremental rewards, I still have a lot to go...).

Of course, SSA had its own unique problems- for instance, keeping track of releases was a mess since I really needed to dig for info on Australian releases, though I felt less of an online presence the prices there were definetly higher, but I feel like it's gotten a lot worse in a lot of ways otherwise. I wish that they would improve their international releases, they already started with Canada(which is right near the US...), and I know that some countries aren't easy to reach, but Japan just got SA in June which is... Really, really slow, guys! (At least they didn't get Beenox to make the Japanese translation I suppose >.>)

All all fairness, maybe this specific sub-forum is not for you, then? This one focusses on the toys, themselves, rather than a game - there is a sub-forum for each game which should be dedicated to gameplay matters.

My son and I are really excited about getting the game and having PVP battles / tournaments, etc.

We are going to track the outcomes of our battles and I am then going to use that data to teach him new ways to use Excel. As a teen, I learned a lot about Excel (that has helped me in business) just by playing around on there with a cool baseball card game that I had.
So, think it will be cool to battle it out in the arena and then for us two math nerds to go to the computer and play with our stats!

Awesome idea, Crocko!

Quote: chaosworrier

All all fairness, maybe this specific sub-forum is not for you, then? This one focusses on the toys, themselves, rather than a game - there is a sub-forum for each game which should be dedicated to gameplay matters.

They're basically just filled with "favourite Skylander" threads and the aforementioned "news"(the spoil the game for me, as I personally prefer to play and discover myself), though. Threads I actually find fun to participate in are rare, many just turn into arguing, go off topic or were never really that interesting, or I plain don't have anything to really contribute to them. And I agree that those forums [the game forums] should be used for gameplay discussion, though many people still use them for posting news on toy releases, which is what I think this forum [TaM] should be used for. The only thread I've stayed interested in for a good period of time was the PVP tier thread, which naturally focuses more on discussing and figuring out together actual gameplay and strategy, and sharing your experiences and discoveries and tests, than other threads, because the idea of it is built on gathering contributions.

Threads I actually find fun to participate in are rare, many just turn into arguing, go off topic or were never really that interesting, or I plain don't have anything to really contribute to them.

Aha, welcome to the internet! <insert fav smilie here>

In another forum, someone was asking how to deal with an insufferable know-it-all at work and my immediate response was to question the value of asking this in a forum skewed with know-it-alls.

So you agree, then. My original point was this forum just shows all the reasons the modern game communities more often than not completely suck. Then you contested against that suggesting I visit the forums meant to be used for discussing the game, like those were more mature or something.

*shakes head* Humans.

Yes, but, no, but, yeah...

But seriously, there is actual conversation on gameplay in the other forums whilst it is rational to expect (next to) none in this one.

And, to clarify, my other example was not a gaming forum (it has a gaming discussion area but that is not its focus).

I am just surprised that more threads don't devolve into Godwin's Law.