Real Talk with Red
Last Updated: 1/10/2022
I'm about to unleash a can of whoopass on this hoe
Some Notes about “Red’s Hall of Fame”:
My Hall of Fame is nice, but the content in the Hall of Fame is not actually my true opinion. It is more or less like a history textbook on Stick Arena. It is an “objective” reflection of the things that most Stick Arena players commonly saw and took as fact. Winners write history and overshadow all the little details and narratives that they don’t want you to notice, and that is exactly the approach with which I wrote the Hall of Fame (well mostly, I’ll explain later).
This is not to say that the Hall of Fame that I wrote is therefore worthless, or that the things that people commonly hold as fact are all nonsense and fake. There is indeed a lot of merit to considering a general perspective that is not my own. And indeed, there is a lot to be said about people who can manage to make it on such a list.
Basically, there are a couple reasons that I wrote the Hall of Fame. For one, it is because I want to show that I appreciate and respect the general perspectives held by common Stick Arena players. I believe that I am perhaps the only person on this entire game that has the attributes necessary for making an objective Hall of Fame: I am fair, I was there for every bit of the Neoteric Era, and I care enough to write it. This leads into my second reason for writing the Hall of Fame: because I demonstrate my respect of the general perspective, I believe this gives me the proper space and justification to write about my own perspective on a separate page - this page.
What is this page for?
On this page, I want to talk about every facet of this game that I explored so thoroughly for years. Whether it be talking competitive strategies, dissecting personalities, answering common misconceptions, giving suggestions, telling stories no one knows about, or just providing my opinions on stuff, I want to document as much as I can while I have the time to write like this. I don’t really have a tangible purpose for this page; I’m not trying to change the way people do things in Stick Arena nowadays, or change the way people think. This page is mostly for me, and for the people that are willing to entertain another brother’s thoughts.
So without further ado, let’s get this started.
I'm about to unleash a can of whoopass on this hoe
Some Notes about “Red’s Hall of Fame”:
My Hall of Fame is nice, but the content in the Hall of Fame is not actually my true opinion. It is more or less like a history textbook on Stick Arena. It is an “objective” reflection of the things that most Stick Arena players commonly saw and took as fact. Winners write history and overshadow all the little details and narratives that they don’t want you to notice, and that is exactly the approach with which I wrote the Hall of Fame (well mostly, I’ll explain later).
This is not to say that the Hall of Fame that I wrote is therefore worthless, or that the things that people commonly hold as fact are all nonsense and fake. There is indeed a lot of merit to considering a general perspective that is not my own. And indeed, there is a lot to be said about people who can manage to make it on such a list.
Basically, there are a couple reasons that I wrote the Hall of Fame. For one, it is because I want to show that I appreciate and respect the general perspectives held by common Stick Arena players. I believe that I am perhaps the only person on this entire game that has the attributes necessary for making an objective Hall of Fame: I am fair, I was there for every bit of the Neoteric Era, and I care enough to write it. This leads into my second reason for writing the Hall of Fame: because I demonstrate my respect of the general perspective, I believe this gives me the proper space and justification to write about my own perspective on a separate page - this page.
What is this page for?
On this page, I want to talk about every facet of this game that I explored so thoroughly for years. Whether it be talking competitive strategies, dissecting personalities, answering common misconceptions, giving suggestions, telling stories no one knows about, or just providing my opinions on stuff, I want to document as much as I can while I have the time to write like this. I don’t really have a tangible purpose for this page; I’m not trying to change the way people do things in Stick Arena nowadays, or change the way people think. This page is mostly for me, and for the people that are willing to entertain another brother’s thoughts.
So without further ado, let’s get this started.
1. On the stats reset in September 2017...
Looks like this was just an all-out bad idea. Because it looks like XGen Studios actually did figure out how to have a leaderboard system going and still let everybody accumulate stats. Why didn’t they figure this out sooner? We could have our leaderboard seasons and still kept our ranks. Instead, we just have a bunch of sad old players, who still make up the majority of Stick Arena’s population anyway as far as I know. Oh well.
Now that I think of it, why can’t they just add the old stats back to all of our accounts? Hmmm...
2. On Ranking in 2018...
So if you’re spending hours and hours just going to urinal or other related maps and getting like 100,000 kills... let me just say that there are definitely better quality ways to spend your free time. If you think about what you are doing just a little bit, I think you would have to agree. You get way more out of actually trying to get good at Stick Arena and being competitive, whether you are a Pitter or an aimer or a 2v2er or a FFA god, than just sitting there doing the same simple action over and over. Even making maps is a cool, worthwhile thing to do that takes creativity, much better than just ranking up. I personally feel that rank doesn’t mean anything anymore; rank lost all meaning when the stats reset. Even factoring in the alters, rank still used to indicate your experience in the game. Furthermore, rank used to be something you obtained voluntarily, with no incentive for finishing high on a leaderboard; only the truly dedicated players had high ranks, giving more meaning to ranks. Nowadays, we have no idea what a rank 4 means or a rank 8 really means, especially considering that there are very few new players actually putting in a concerted effort to learn the game and rank up.
I do understand there are reasons that people still want to rank up though. The obvious reason is that they want to race for Lab Pass and Cred and those “special” spinners every month. Okay, fair enough. But I still don’t think it’s worth it given how ranking up doesn’t really teach you anything and how worthless ranks are nowadays. It’s not like you’re getting real money for this leaderboard stuff.
What I don’t understand is the moderators that still want to rank up and grind kills. It doesn’t make sense to me that moderators are competing super hard in the same leaderboard season as everybody else when they already have access to unlimited spinners, LP, and cred. While it is good to see moderators with great activity on Stick Arena, I really feel that they should be more disciplined and find other ways to remain engaged with the community rather than taking up spots for the Top 5 or Top 10 Prizes every season from the very community they’re trying to serve.
3. On Color Hacked Spinners...
Having spent some time away from the game, I now think the color hacked spinners are being handled perfectly by the moderators. Handing out color hacked spinners as prizes seems to be really working in motivating today’s players to be active and participate in community events. This is even better than just outright updating the game to open up the color wheel for everyone. This is a great example of using what is available to your advantage. Great job, mods.
4. On Community Events in General...
Speaking of things the moderator team is doing great, I think they are doing a great job of setting up events. By having an event every Sunday and alternating between tournaments and playdays, events occur just enough to keep people interested and not so much that each event starts getting boring and monotonous. I haven’t been to these events, but I imagine that people are enjoying them.
Also, the Winter 2018 Map Contest is looking pretty interesting. A lot of people have already made some fabulous submissions, and I’m pretty impressed by some of them. Great stuff.
5. On Tournaments Specifically...
When I was in charge of tournaments, I think I went wrong by always trying to set up some complicated system or season. Just letting the tournaments run by themselves with minimal structure is pretty healthy, as it keeps people fresh, doesn’t concern itself too much with determining who’s better, and doesn’t put unnecessary pressure on people to participate or miss out. It’s just a fun, neutral event. People can decide to be competitive or to just enjoy the tournament. Maybe in 2014, when there were a lot of active pros eager to prove themselves the best over long periods of time, my systems would have been more appropriate. But the tournaments as constructed now are ideal because they reflect the times. It’s 2018, almost 2019 after all.
If there were any suggestions I could make, it would be to throw in a tournament of another type every now and then, like every couple months. Do a dedicated hammer tournament, or an aim tournament, just to throw everybody off, keep things fresh, and maybe get more people involved. I know Pit players would really appreciate a hammer tournament.
Now for some fun - a ranking system:
If you would entertain the competitive side in me for just a moment, a small thing they could add is a ranking system, similar to how the ATP (Association of Tennis Players) ranking system works. This system would have no effect on prizes or anything; it is purely for the curious, competitive mind. Basically, the ATP ranking system works by assigning a point value to each player’s performance in a tournament. Then, the points from their best 19 events are added up, and players are ranked by their totals. So for Stick Arena, you could have the same thing. Have a separate ranking system for 1v1 and 2v2 (calculate points individually for 2v2, do not calculate points by teams). Then, consider a rough point payout like: 1st - 100, 2nd - 60, 3rd - 35, 4th - 20, Everyone else - 5. So each player gets a certain amount of points each tournament. Keep the points recorded somewhere. To rank the players, take, say, the best 5 performances out of the last 10 events and add them up for each player. Once you have your rankings, before each tournament begins you can attach the seeding to each player when you put them in the bracket, and you can put them in the bracket by seeding instead of just randomly shuffling the bracket. The end result is not much different than what’s already happening now; it just gives the tournament a slightly more competitive vibe, and also protects against having stacked matchups in the first round.
If something like this is implemented, that would be pretty darn cool.
6.
Looks like this was just an all-out bad idea. Because it looks like XGen Studios actually did figure out how to have a leaderboard system going and still let everybody accumulate stats. Why didn’t they figure this out sooner? We could have our leaderboard seasons and still kept our ranks. Instead, we just have a bunch of sad old players, who still make up the majority of Stick Arena’s population anyway as far as I know. Oh well.
Now that I think of it, why can’t they just add the old stats back to all of our accounts? Hmmm...
2. On Ranking in 2018...
So if you’re spending hours and hours just going to urinal or other related maps and getting like 100,000 kills... let me just say that there are definitely better quality ways to spend your free time. If you think about what you are doing just a little bit, I think you would have to agree. You get way more out of actually trying to get good at Stick Arena and being competitive, whether you are a Pitter or an aimer or a 2v2er or a FFA god, than just sitting there doing the same simple action over and over. Even making maps is a cool, worthwhile thing to do that takes creativity, much better than just ranking up. I personally feel that rank doesn’t mean anything anymore; rank lost all meaning when the stats reset. Even factoring in the alters, rank still used to indicate your experience in the game. Furthermore, rank used to be something you obtained voluntarily, with no incentive for finishing high on a leaderboard; only the truly dedicated players had high ranks, giving more meaning to ranks. Nowadays, we have no idea what a rank 4 means or a rank 8 really means, especially considering that there are very few new players actually putting in a concerted effort to learn the game and rank up.
I do understand there are reasons that people still want to rank up though. The obvious reason is that they want to race for Lab Pass and Cred and those “special” spinners every month. Okay, fair enough. But I still don’t think it’s worth it given how ranking up doesn’t really teach you anything and how worthless ranks are nowadays. It’s not like you’re getting real money for this leaderboard stuff.
What I don’t understand is the moderators that still want to rank up and grind kills. It doesn’t make sense to me that moderators are competing super hard in the same leaderboard season as everybody else when they already have access to unlimited spinners, LP, and cred. While it is good to see moderators with great activity on Stick Arena, I really feel that they should be more disciplined and find other ways to remain engaged with the community rather than taking up spots for the Top 5 or Top 10 Prizes every season from the very community they’re trying to serve.
3. On Color Hacked Spinners...
Having spent some time away from the game, I now think the color hacked spinners are being handled perfectly by the moderators. Handing out color hacked spinners as prizes seems to be really working in motivating today’s players to be active and participate in community events. This is even better than just outright updating the game to open up the color wheel for everyone. This is a great example of using what is available to your advantage. Great job, mods.
4. On Community Events in General...
Speaking of things the moderator team is doing great, I think they are doing a great job of setting up events. By having an event every Sunday and alternating between tournaments and playdays, events occur just enough to keep people interested and not so much that each event starts getting boring and monotonous. I haven’t been to these events, but I imagine that people are enjoying them.
Also, the Winter 2018 Map Contest is looking pretty interesting. A lot of people have already made some fabulous submissions, and I’m pretty impressed by some of them. Great stuff.
5. On Tournaments Specifically...
When I was in charge of tournaments, I think I went wrong by always trying to set up some complicated system or season. Just letting the tournaments run by themselves with minimal structure is pretty healthy, as it keeps people fresh, doesn’t concern itself too much with determining who’s better, and doesn’t put unnecessary pressure on people to participate or miss out. It’s just a fun, neutral event. People can decide to be competitive or to just enjoy the tournament. Maybe in 2014, when there were a lot of active pros eager to prove themselves the best over long periods of time, my systems would have been more appropriate. But the tournaments as constructed now are ideal because they reflect the times. It’s 2018, almost 2019 after all.
If there were any suggestions I could make, it would be to throw in a tournament of another type every now and then, like every couple months. Do a dedicated hammer tournament, or an aim tournament, just to throw everybody off, keep things fresh, and maybe get more people involved. I know Pit players would really appreciate a hammer tournament.
Now for some fun - a ranking system:
If you would entertain the competitive side in me for just a moment, a small thing they could add is a ranking system, similar to how the ATP (Association of Tennis Players) ranking system works. This system would have no effect on prizes or anything; it is purely for the curious, competitive mind. Basically, the ATP ranking system works by assigning a point value to each player’s performance in a tournament. Then, the points from their best 19 events are added up, and players are ranked by their totals. So for Stick Arena, you could have the same thing. Have a separate ranking system for 1v1 and 2v2 (calculate points individually for 2v2, do not calculate points by teams). Then, consider a rough point payout like: 1st - 100, 2nd - 60, 3rd - 35, 4th - 20, Everyone else - 5. So each player gets a certain amount of points each tournament. Keep the points recorded somewhere. To rank the players, take, say, the best 5 performances out of the last 10 events and add them up for each player. Once you have your rankings, before each tournament begins you can attach the seeding to each player when you put them in the bracket, and you can put them in the bracket by seeding instead of just randomly shuffling the bracket. The end result is not much different than what’s already happening now; it just gives the tournament a slightly more competitive vibe, and also protects against having stacked matchups in the first round.
If something like this is implemented, that would be pretty darn cool.
6.