Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 450 ft Archie Andrews, Big Bird, Bread

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice.

All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - LAW Fodder, Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

If you feel that a character has been over or under-ranked, or if a new development has come up that would affect their contest strength, you may nominate them for a re-ranking. You may nominate one character per day for this, and 3 votes are needed to get them on the slate. One character with 3 votes will come up for re-ranking today.

Re-ranking Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6dx-tu-FD1rCxbX69eQwEzE7x1F6nNRNFochYHu1dc/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 449:

Cactuar (Final Fantasy) is Low Fodder
Phantoon (Super Metroid) is Low Fodder
Scyther (Pokemon) is High Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Shazam (DC Comics) is now Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Archie Andrews (Archie Comics/Crossy Road)
Big Bird (Sesame Street)
Slice of Bread (I Am Bread)

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that was fast

let's see what everyone thinks

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Nominate Michael Scott (The Office)

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Nominate Skee-Ball (Skee-Ball)

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Archie Andrews (Archie Comics/Crossy Road) - Low fodder
I've got no personal connection with this franchise whatsoever but it's pretty longlasting and recognizable. I do question the extent to which its readers overlap with gamefaqs users and whether the latter will care. I don't actually have much idea who reads Archie though so perhaps I'm wrong and people here have widely read Archie? I know they've also had some success making live-action teen drama shows out of the franchise recently but that definitely feels like an un-gamefaqs type of thing.

Big Bird (Sesame Street) - Low fodder
I don't think we've had a poll on what percent of the site has children since 2010.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3879-do-you-have-or-plan-to-have-children
I'd kinda guess not all that many got around to it in the intervening decade based on the nature of the site and this:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7506-do-you-have-a-significant-other
I figure way more people are going to have a serious significant other without kids than kids without a serious significant other. So maybe ~25% of voters have kids? So most voters are gonna be going off their own childhood experiences with Sesame Street rather than re-experiencing it as a parent. For people like that, I think Sesame Street's appeal is broad-based but pretty shallow, kinda drowned out in memories by less educational childhood entertainment generally from at least a little later in childhood, and it's not likely to rate high at all among people's favorite TV shows. On the other hand, basically everyone who spent their early childhood in North America knows who Big Bird is? And that minority with kids at least might have some greater appreciation for the show? But, at the end of the day...It's gamefaqs. I just don't quite see the stereotypical "gamefaqs nerd" voting Big Bird over almost anything they sorta recognize.

Slice of Bread (I Am Bread) - LAW fodder
Joke characters in general ain't what they used to be. I also think it's extremely helpful for joke characters to be from widely recognized games and this ain't that.
also people on a low carb diet might antivote it!

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agree with Axem. Big Bird is very well-known but I don't think people will care too much for him.

It might be worth taking a look at other Sesame characters though. Nominate Cookie Monster, Count Von Count and Oscar the Grouch

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Yeah, agree with Axem and halfsilver. I thought about Slice of Bread > LAW because it's such a simple joke to get and not remotely overdone, but at the end of the day, obscure joke characters just aren't this site's forte in the slightest.

I'll also fourth Michael Scott (whoops, my bad for not conducting more than a cursory check yesterday).

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Rip

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It will just be a picture of a slice of bread. People dont even need to know what game is from. They wont see an obscure joke character, they will just see bread! Everyone knows bread. The bread factor!

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Day 451 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78963003

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