Super Smash Bros. Story Tags

The Super Smash Bros. tag needs no introduction, given how messy of a tag it is due to it sometimes being used as a Nintendo tag and it being applied on posts which don't appear to have anything to do with Smash. But one of the earliest decisions reached for it was the decision to not have individual game tags (topic #7418, affirmed in topic #15981), due to the nature of fanart generally just pairing characters from the games together, sometimes fighting sometimes not.

At the time of that decision being reached, Brawl was about three years old, and was basically the first instance in the franchise to have a story mode. Wii U and 3DS didn't have a story mode even if it added new things such as the Master Core to the background mythos of the franchise. It wouldn't be until Smash Ultimate that another story mode was added.

Now, nearly twenty years removed from Brawl, I think it is worth discussing the prospect of making tags for Subspace Emissary and World of Light, as art depicting either mode is difficult to find otherwise. The one previous instance of Subspace being tagged was post #410927, depicting a scene atop the Subspace Gunship which isn't even tagged scene reference, so you'd only be able to find it if you were to search super_smash_bros. ganondorf or super_smash_bros. bowser.

I generally agree with the logic behind not tagging the individual games, and even if we had "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" and "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" tags, it'd probably be hard to find art of the story modes, so these would be tags specifically for these modes in the same way that we have Magolor Epilogue, Star-Crossed World, or, to a lesser extent, Meetup in Bellabel Park.

Personally, I would be in favor of having tags for the individual games to tag elements that are original to Smash Bros and exclusive to those games.
The only risk is of course people just tagging a game because it has characters introduced to the game, I assume that is the reason we didn't use these tags originally, but I feel like exactly the fact that we haven't had these individual tags for so long would make it less likely for people to do that, and it would probably be mostly restricted to Ultimate anyway, making it a bit easier to clean up (people might tag Ultimate when Kazuya or Joker show up, but I doubt most people would think of tagging Brawl because Pit is there).
And if we did get these tags, I think story mode content would be the majority of it, the only other thing that could really get tagged under it would be specific final destination (smash bros) or battlefield designs.

LightSolas said in forum #449826:

The only risk is of course people just tagging a game because it has characters introduced to the game, I assume that is the reason we didn't use these tags originally, but I feel like exactly the fact that we haven't had these individual tags for so long would make it less likely for people to do that, and it would probably be mostly restricted to Ultimate anyway, making it a bit easier to clean up (people might tag Ultimate when Kazuya or Joker show up...

Ehh, I don't know about that. I think that sort of thing still happens for the other fighting games which do have individual entries, though there is definitely a recency bias in which tag to use.

And if we did get these tags, I think story mode content would be the majority of it, the only other thing that could really get tagged under it would be specific final destination (smash bros) or battlefield designs.

The King of Fighters series is the closest counterpart tag-wise, and I'm skeptical that it's used purely for story mode content, putting aside official art and gameplay references.

...but I doubt most people would think of tagging Brawl because Pit is there).

On your Pit example, Roy was named as a similar example years ago for Melee.

Rampardos said in forum #71251:

There wasn't a need. There's not really a lot of art for the whole series (only 241 posts) let alone the individual games. The vast majority of the images are of Brawl, and the few that aren't are most likely ambiguous.

What's more, it would be difficult to tag, especially with popular stages returning in later games. A Melee tag would pretty much be for Roy, the only Melee specific character who gets a decent amount of art, and even then only eight of the thirty-three smash brothers pictures of him don't include Brawl characters.

And the debutees of Ultimate too;

AngryZapdos said in forum #155209:

The only characters that could definitively receive the super_smash_bros._ultimate tag are those that were introduced to the series in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. - the Inklings, Princess Daisy, Ridley, Dark Samus, Simon Bellmont, Richter Bellmont, Chrom, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Ken Masters, Incineroar, Piranha Plant and Joker. However, if any of these characters also appear in a future Super Smash Bros. game then we would have the same problem.

When Princess Peach has occasional-yet-consistent taggers tagging her with Super Mario Bros. 1, or Rosalina with Super Mario Galaxy, despite them having long since transcended their debut games, meaning they'd just be tagged with Mario (series), you'd absolutely see folks tagging the individual Smash games irresponsibly.

In theory, I don't hate the idea of story mode tags for Smash Bros. games, but in practice, and given how much grief those damn games can cause me on any tagging system website ever, I expect most people to be irresponsible, whereas the people tagging things like Magolor Epilogue are usually small yet dedicated people I can trust to not fuck up with the sort of thing, while Smash Bros get no such benefit of the doubt from me.

Which is a shame, as the story modes are things worth searching for I feel. The only way this works is if we use stuff like subspace emissary and world of light instead of the actual games themselves in order to remove all ambiguity as to why the tags would exist. But that does break current procedure regarding game tags and carries its own problems (would Tabuu and Galeem being there automatically qualify for those tags?).

Knowledge_Seeker said in forum #449913:

The only way this works is if we use stuff like subspace emissary and world of light instead of the actual games themselves in order to remove all ambiguity as to why the tags would exist.

Yup, that's why I was suggesting the narrower story mode tags, to prevent the issues that'd inevitably, in my eyes, come from a Brawl or Ultimate tag.

But that does break current procedure regarding game tags and carries its own problems (would Tabuu and Galeem being there automatically qualify for those tags?).

Yeah, this is the main thing I was thinking about as well, but less because of characters automatically qualifying for it. I think it makes sense that, say, someone searching for Subspace Emissary would want to see not just posts about the story, but the unique enemies that remain exclusive to it, so not just Tabuu, but also the Subspace Army, the Primids, etc.

My concern in this regard stems from Spirit (Super Smash Bros.), because they are tied into the story and gameplay of World of Light. Do they automatically qualify for the tags?

Damian0358 said in forum #449924:
My concern in this regard stems from Spirit (Super Smash Bros.), because they are tied into the story and gameplay of World of Light. Do they automatically qualify for the tags?

Definitely not, and unless I skipped something, I don't think any of the images in that tag right now does either, with maybe the exceptions of post #3328449 and maybe post #3316675. Most of them are either tied to gameplay mechanics or to playable characters possessed by them.

And speaking of tag misuse, why is Mythra (Xenoblade) being tagged so much with Spirit (super smash bros.)?

EDIT: Nvm, I remembered why now. Mythra was added as a spirit first before becoming a playable character through the season 2 DLC. And for her spirit art, her legs were covered up with a pantyhose.

I personally think the spirits would be fine there, as most of the tag is full of the spirit-posessed fighters or referencing the gimmick, which is the whole point of this hypothetical tag: to cache references and images you normally wouldn't see due to the size of the main umbrella tag.