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Posted at 7:51 PM May 9 2008 2008
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Bonafide
Joined: Mar 2007
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The Six Degrees of Smash: a social experiment
Yes, this is what I was referring to on Wednesday's update.
The six degrees of separation theory states that any two human
beings on earth are seperated by at most six personal relations: a
friend, a relative, a lover, the mailman. Bastardized by the "Six
Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game (and soon to be further perverted here at
All is Brawl!), the theory has never been proven but makes an
interesting social experiment either way.
I'd like to introduce my take on the theory, an experiment/project only
possible through All is Brawl's unique tournament tracking systems.
With the uninspired name "The Six Degrees of Smash," this project aims
to track the connections in our community based on tournament matches.
I've given a special six degrees badge to a dozen members in
the community, who we will call "seeds." Each time a seed plays someone
in a tournament, their opponent will be awarded the six degrees badge
with a "hop count" of 1; this indicates how "far" the player is from
one of the seeds. The next person to meet that account in a tournament
will get the badge with a hop count of 2, and will then in turn spread
it to everyone they subsequently play. You won't spread the badge if
you have a hop count of 6 -- hence the entire idea behind the theory!
-- but at least you'll be connected.
Eventually we'll be able to use this data to map exactly how you connect to the rest of the community. For example, had this experiment been running since I entered the Melee scene, you could draw this connection between myself and Host of the Month Ankoku, who lives 2000+ miles away in Michigan:
- I lost to Ken in doubles at Champ Combo
- Ken lost to PC Chris at MLG Meadowlands
- PC Chris beat Mikey Lenetia at *Pound* 2
- Mikey Lenetia beat Ankoku at University of Michigan Biweekly 1
Pretty neat, huh?
In true All is Brawl fashion, tracking this data involves a special badge and some rules for passing it on:
- Any time you link your account to a tournament entrant, we'll check to see if any of your opponents have the Six Degrees badge. If they do -- AND the tournament in question was in person and took place after your opponent earned his/her badge, AND your opponent's hop count is 5 or fewer -- then you'll get the badge too!
- Similarly, if you have the badge, and the above criteria are met, you'll pass the badge on to everyone you faced.
- The important thing to note here is this is for in person tournaments only. The whole point is to see how our personal connections relate; expanding it to online tournaments just doesn't make sense!
Progress will be slow, at first, but as more people earn the badge we'll start seeing some interesting connections, especially once Brawl starts seeing some national-level tournaments this summer.
I'm hoping this will be a fun, silly way to bring our community together and eventually help us see just how special the personal connections we make really are. *sniff* Should be fun!
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9:14 PM May 9 2008 2008
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Sage
Joined: Mar 2007
     
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Last edited by Delphiki, 9:15 PM on May 09, 2008 |
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