User:Monsieur Crow

“	There are always a million reasons not to do something.	”
—Jan Levenson in The Office

Monsieur Ben Crow
Character info
Smash 64 main	Ness
Other Smash 64 characters	Fox, Captain Falcon
Melee main	Link
Other Melee characters	Samus, Marth
Brawl main	Ness
Other Brawl characters	Wolf, Snake
Smash 4 main	Villager
Other Smash 4 characters	Robin, Captain Falcon
Ultimate main	Inkling
Other Ultimate characters	Simon, Isabelle
Project M main	Link
Other Project M characters	Ike, Ness
Team info
Crew(s)	Oakland University Fuckers
Personal and other info
Real name	Ben Crow
Birth date	October 28, 1994
Location	Michigan
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Rubbish

Skål.

Welcome to my userspace.

I hope you find what you're looking for here.

About Me

I'm this bloke of Korean-Iranian descent, born on the 28th of October in 1994.

I live in Michigan, where I have spent almost all of my life.

I am a licenced pharmacist in the state of Michigan, and I am currently employed as such.

I attended Ferris State University in Big Rapids and Grand Rapids for pharmacy school, and Oakland University in Rochester Hills for my undergraduate years.

I like writing stuff that you may or may not enjoy.

This includes short stories, novellas, visual novels, anecdotes, and more or less anything.

You can read some of my personal writings right here.

I am not terribly good at writing, but I have fun with it.

I usually listen to music of any sort while doing basically anything, with a song collection that currently numbers in the tens of thousands.

You can see and judge my taste in music here.

Although my preferred genres are punk and metal, I am always open to new music suggestions, no matter how mainstream or obscure.

Except for country, of course.

I play video games sometimes.

This should go without saying.

I'm particularly partial to shmups, adventure, fighters, simulation, and visual novels.

I quite enjoy reading, particularly "disturbing" literature, science fiction, true crime, and history.

Some of my favourite books include Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

I am always open to new literature, though, and I always enjoy finding more and more new works to read.

I watch baseball whenever I can.

My favourite team is the Detroit Tigers, and I religiously follow them through thick and thin.

If a good series is on, sometimes I watch association football, ice hockey, and cricket.

My other interests include black tea, billiards, gin, photography, post-Renaissance art, Magic: The Gathering, modern history, Dungeons and Dragons, thrifting, anthropology, gardening, skateboarding, biking, and birdwatching.

I do not live a terribly exciting existence.

On my username

My old username was ReiDemon.

I wanted it to be Rei after the shaman from Fire Emblem, but someone already took it on the forum I wanted to join.

I don't know where I came up with Demon but it worked well enough for years until I got tired of it.

My current username is Monsieur Crow, starting in January 2014.

It was partially taken from the infamous Unreal Tournament 2004 character of Mr. Crow.

I changed Mister to Monsieur because it seemed to flow better.

It later became the basis for my pen name.

Please note that I cannot actually speak French.

C'est la vie.

On the Wiki

My history

I probably first edited this Wiki sometime in 2007.

I made this account in July 2008, and have suffered from numerous hiatuses and returns since then.

For several years, this made me one of the most senior editors on SmashWiki.

Perhaps someday, I'll continue the trend.

I used to be a very active member of SmashWiki, particularly in my later high school and early undergrad years.

My interests and personal time, however, have changed over the years, especially as I began working on my pharmacy education in 2015 and my subsequent pharmacy career in 2019.

At the present, I do not actively edit SmashWiki, and only edit on the off-chance I find something that I feel needs fixing.

Suffice to say, it doesn't happen very often anymore, especially as my interest in the series continues to dwindle.

I do not know when or if I'll ever return to my pre-pharmacy school levels of activity, but I guess I'm still hopeful.

In any case, I'm happy with the work I've done for SmashWiki over the years, and I'm happy to see SmashWiki's continued progression since I first and last edited its content.

On writing

I usually rewrite articles.

Sometimes it just entails a minor change in wording.

Other times, I do total upheavals where the whole page is turned on its head.

Every so often, I bulk them up or cut them down.

Rarely, I create articles from scratch.

Occasionally, I upload images and audio files from the games.

I rarely create tables or templates by stealing code from other pages.

In total, I have made about 6,207 edits.

Note that I am almost strictly a writer and an editor.

I am not much of a data miner, asset scraper, expert coder, or professional gamer.

If you have inquiries about such, you might have better luck asking someone with more expertise than I.

That said, I can certainly try my hardest.

I generally contribute using Mozilla Firefox on Windows 10, but I have taken to experimenting with Mint Linux in my spare time.

I type using an old IBM Model M 122 keyboard.

I will change articles tens of times in rapid succession before I'm content with my work.

This applies to images as well.

I use British spellings out of habit from high school.

I sometimes put dumb jokes, stupid comments, and pointless potshots in my edit summaries.

Try not to take anything I say too seriously.

I will break policy if I feel it will improve SmashWiki, and I have previously done so in the past.

If you have a problem with any of this, too bad.

On images

A majority of my images of the games are taken with emulators like Project 64 or Dolphin.

Some images are taken via the built-in camera functions of the games.

Animated images are created with GifCam.

On sound files

I play the file in Project 64 or Dolphin, then use Audacity to record it as it is being played.

It is not a terribly exciting process.

On criticism

I generally hold users to a certain standard on wikis, and SmashWiki is no exception.

If I feel that your edits are sub-par or if your behaviour is unacceptable, I will not hesitate to call you out and tell you what you need to improve on.

That said, criticism is always a two-way street.

If at any point you feel that I need to fix my own behaviour or actions, I am always willing to listen, provided it comes across as reasonable.

We may not immediately agree, and we may not even change our behaviours, but at least we can gain a degree of understanding.

On mental health

I suffer from a number of mental health issues and despite making strides in this area, I still sometimes struggle with my these.

In these times, I generally become ruder and snippier than usual, and my behaviour can start to become unhinged.

Mental illness, however, is no excuse to act like a terrible person, and I am no exception to this.

In the event I appear to start acting increasingly frazzled, please inform me of what I'm doing wrong, so I can take a bit of time to regather my thoughts.

On communication

If you need to contact me, drop a line on my talk page.

If you absolutely must contact me outside of SmashWiki, I can be reached on Discord at Monsieur Crow#4144, as well as Steam.

For the sake of transparency, however, I would much prefer to keep Wiki matters on SmashWiki.

Other bits

I have rollback.

There's really not much else to say.

On the games

The original is kinda fun.

Melee is still my favourite.

Brawl is okay.

Smash 4 is pretty neat.

Project M is cool.

Ultimate is flawed, but fun.

In the present, I own all of the Smash games except for Smash 4 on Wii U and Ultimate.

I play and enjoy both casualfag and tourneyfag rules.

I have taken part in local tournaments, primarily in Melee, Project M and Smash 4.

I never placed well, but I had fun.

On netplay

I can play both Melee and Project M online.

I don't find Smash as enjoyable as I once did, but it's fun to shake off the rust every so often.

I am also available on Steam.

I'm always down for some Tekken 7 or Melty Blood.

Contributions

I have uploaded this many images and sound files.

Pages I created:

• Collection
• Sticker Center
• Japanese tier list
• Language
• Zero-to-death combo
• Crush
• Gameplay modification
• Challonge
• Chest
• SSBMRank
• SSBBRank
• Sheilda
• Smasher:Scamp
• Exploit
• Netplay
• Stage striking
• Gallery
• Facebook
• Unity Ruleset Committee
• Sponsor
• Setup

Policies I created:

• SmashWiki:Ownership
• SmashWiki:New game procedure
• SmashWiki:Neutral Point of View
• SmashWiki:Manual of Style/Words to Watch

My projects:

• Expand / change the scope of the fan game article.
  • With the rise of "official" games that emulate Smash and have developed their own fledging competitive scenes, like Rivals of Aether, Icons, Slap City, Brawlhalla, Brawlout, etc., I feel this article is a time capsule of a time when Super Smash Flash was the only Smash clone out there. I feel the best option would be to create an article for "platform fighters", with an appropriately small scale.
  • On that note, Super Smash Flash 2 has gone from "experimental sequel" to a genuine "cult game", with its own tournament scene and side events at major tourneys. Given that we have articles on Brawl-, Project M, etc. and other mods that have been played at tournaments, it feels silly to not mention SSF2 in any capacity.
• Expand the gameplay article as to give a better idea what the core gameplay of Smash is like, from selecting characters and stages to what actual gameplay entails.
• Propose / draft "SmashWiki is not the National Enquirer". While several smashers have extensively documented criminal actions to their names, like Inui and Overtriforce, I feel that it's important that users remember SmashWiki isn't for sensationalism, unfounded rumours, and the ilk, especially without any reliable sources.
• Update the gameplay modification page. Good Lord, this page is a flaming pile of awful now, with arbitrary and useless categorisation, messy prose, confused wikimarkup, unnecessary detail for the modding process, and a number of mods that frankly aren't notable in any capacity (seriously, what the fuck is even a Smash 2?)
• Heavily condensing the intros for fighter pages. Finished.
• Setup Finished.
• User:Monsieur Crow/Unity Ruleset Committee|Unity Ruleset Committee Finished.
• SmashWiki:Be Bold, a guideline. Rejected.
• SmashWiki:Neutral Point of View, as to replace SmashWiki:Neutral tone guide. Accepted.
• SmashWiki:Manual of Style/Words to Watch, an add-on to SmashWiki:Manual of Style. Accepted.
• A rewrite of SmashWiki:New game procedure Accepted.
• SmashWiki:Ownership, my first proposed policy Accepted.
• Gallery
• A partial rewrite for our tier list page
• making this Wiki more equally focused on all three games; on some articles, it seems that the focus is primarily on Brawl, such as Stock. No longer needed.
• A partial rewrite for our Announcer article Finished.
• A total rewrite for our Results Screen page Finished.
• A template for SSBM pages Lost interest.
• Collection Finished.
• Making a complete list of Notices for Melee Finished.
• Language Finished.
• Sticker Center Finished.
• Our "Did you know?" page, by providing information at least once a week. Lost interest.
• Commercials. Our current article lacks information. And YouTube tags are terrible. No further interest.
• Some sort of template for SSB4 pages. No longer interested.
• Challonge Finished.
• Updating items articles to be more standardised and to have better formatting.
• Netplay Finished.
• entire pages for the Melee fighters. It took me about three years, but I finished it.
• Removing character matchups from 64 and Melee pages.
  • Updating the character matchup articles themselves.
• Intros for Brawl fighters, with a higher emphasis on the NPOV. Not needed anymore.
• Records, specifically the Melee section. Most relevant information added. I'd like to see some tables in there, though. Requires Smash 4 information. Pretty sure this is done.
• Opening movie. I see no reason to summarise what happens in a movie that anyone can watch. No longer interested in this.
• Gameplay. This article should cover what the gameplay of the games are, not the aspects of it.
• Results screen. Not that it's of poor quality, but I feel the structure is too inherently limited to allow for good expansion. Finished.
• Pause - Add "In tournaments" section Finished.
• Announcer. At the present, the article feels too cluttered and features too much unneeded fluff. Finished.
• Moonwalk. For a technique that's pivotal in some matches, this article is pathetic in its coverage. Fixed.
• Egg. Disorganised mess is disorganised. As it turns out, this is a symptom of a larger problem.
• This section of the Kirby universe. I own Kirby Air Ride, and I can tell you there are a lot more similarities than there may seem. Someone did this while I was gone. I don't know who, but thanks anyway.
• Unlockable. We have a List of unlockables as well. I fail to see the point of having both.
• Polish up the Melee articles. Some inconsistencies in them are irking me. No longer a priority.
• Revamp our items articles. Some of them don't even have "Origin" sections, and all of them effectively mix the introduction with "Operation".
• Adventure Mode. This article reads more like a half-baked walkthrough rather than an encyclopaedia article. Beaten to the punch by Toomai.
• Giga Bowser. See above. Rewritten, thanks to someone else's undo.
• Find a way to include a link to Home-Run Stadium in Home-Run Contest. Additionally, clean-up in both articles is needed. Not needed anymore.
• Fix stupid coding errors I made in some cquote tags. Seem to be fixed. Thanks, guys.
• Add an "Explanation" or similarly-titled section to our Event Match articles to describe what the matches are references to. No longer needed.
• Add some more info to our Debug menu article. I'd like to make it a tad similar to a guide on the menu. Finished while I was gone. Thanks, Serpent King.
• Training. This article doesn't seem to be sure on what it's covering. Finished.
• Make [[Category:Retired Smashers]]. Lost interest.
• Make it so that Camera covers all aspects of the camera, and, if needed, make a separate article for the mode.
• Create an Options page. Beaten to the punch by Queen Junko.
• Some videos for our new YouTube channel Computer is bad. Not gonna bother until I get a better graphics card. Computer improved thanks to King of Fighters XIII. Videos are possible, but not a priority. Yeah, this is never happening. Sorry.
• Try to make Zelda/Sheik have some actual content on it. Making it a disambiguation page doesn't seem correct. Perhaps Sheilda is a better choice of pages? Finished.
• Undergo a massive character rewrite project. I know it's in our interests to provide information on the base character, but the information wildly varies from "quite vague" to "more in-depth than fifteen articles put together". Other problems regarding inconsistencies, such as details on tier placement, are also present.
• Create a bot similar to Wikipedia's PNG Bot.
• Create a bot that can automatically alphabetise categories on pages. Probably unnecessary.
• Create Chest. Done. Didn't even need to draft it.
• A template for crew and/or sponsor pages. Might be a bit unwieldy, since most pages are relatively empty, but I'd want to avoid a mess like these pages.

I also suggested some Smash Arena fights.

• All-Star Rest Area (SSBM) vs. All-Star Rest Area (SSBB). All-Star Rest Area (SSBB) won. I wanted All-Star Rest Area (SSBM) to win, but I suppose you can't win everything.
• DACUS vs. Wavedash. This fight was used for "The Spiffy One Fifty". Wavedash won in a surprising reversal. Sorta like Turkey versus Croatia in Euro 2008.
• Jeff Manning vs. Dean Harrington vs. Pat Cashman. I like Dean Harrington as a voiceover the best, but Pat Cashman appeared in one of my favourite television shows as a child.

Assorted bits of insanity

• An attempt to decipher Japanese and the truth behind the rumours of Super Smash Bros.
• In which IRC users are given a super power, from a bygone era.
• A Hall of Fame for articles that are just too good to be forgotten.
• My unbiased opinions about IRC regulars, from a bygone era.
• Lists of stuff I like.
• A repository of minds.
• An unbiased look at Super Smash Bros. 4 newcomers.
• Pieces of old pages.
• The amiibo collection.
• An essay about me and Rayquaza07
• An essay about what it takes to be an admin
• A list of characters that have won a major tournament
• Some arguments for and against a ban on wobbling
• A list of characters that have appeared in a fighting game outside of Smash

External links

• Studio 934, my blog where I post things sometimes.
• My YouTube channel, where I upload things sometimes.
• My Steam page, where I play games sometimes.

Au revoir.

--- Monsieur Crow, Author Extraordinaire