Topic: RetroActive #13 Poll -- GBA Edition

[vudu]

It's more likely that many of us just want to play Mother 3 more than the other games on the list.

[Sundoulos]

Well, given the disparity between the long history of preferences voiced on RFN (about game advertising, VC, WiiWare, the storage solution, friend codes, the lack quality on-line offerings, the failure to link VC and WiiWare purchases to user accounts instead of Wii hardware, etc.) and what Nintendo actually does, I'd say that to any loyal RFN listeners it's clear that Nintendo isn't paying attention.   

Frankly, I love Nintendo as much as the next gamer, and for that reason, I do wish they would start address some of our concerns in a more timely manner.   

I didn't vote for Mother 3, but I'm interested to hear what people have to say about it.   I only briefly played Earthbound, so I'm not overly familiar with the series.

[Jonnyboy117]

It was pretty much never close.

At one point within the first couple days of the poll (during which about 50% of the total votes were cast), Mario Tennis was winning by one or two votes. After that, Mother 3 pulled ahead and kept increasing its lead. My blog post brought in a dozen or so extra votes, but the trends didn't change.

[Jet Pilot]

Apparently NWR is now endorsing piracy by asking their readers to obtain illegal copies of the game to play along for this feature, as that is the only way to play this game in English.  That's a disappointment. 
 

[NWR_insanolord]

The piracy aspect isn't what bothers me; I know it's technically illegal, but I wouldn't have any moral problem with it in this particular case. My problem is that I don't want to have to play it in an emulator on my computer. I could hook up my Wii remote via bluetooth and use the classic controller to play it, but that's yet another hoop I'd have to jump through. Combine that with the fact I'm getting Dragon Quest IX tomorrow, and that I'm still playing through Puzzle Quest 2, so I really don't feel like starting another RPG right now.

[vudu]

Well, I've been playing the game and I'm loving it!

I'm 6.5 hours into it (just finished chapter 2) and eager to start talking about it.  When are we getting the discussion thread?

[UncleBob]

Apparently NWR is now endorsing piracy by asking their readers to obtain illegal copies of the game to play along for this feature, as that is the only way to play this game in English.  That's a disappointment. 
 

Well, now, technically, one could import the game from Japan, copy the ROM themselves from the original GBA cartridge, then apply the English patch and play it through an emulator (or copy it back to a GBA flash card).  None of that would involve pirating the game (although there could be other issues along the way).

But, yeah, it's crappy.

Like I said before, I really hope this doesn't hurt any of the relationships NWR has managed to forge with the various teams and individuals in the development community.  We're not a big site like IGN or Kotaku, so even ticking off one wrong person can hurt the chances of getting a good exclusive story... and we don't get a lot of those.

[NWR_Neal]

Guess what? It won't. At all.

[NWR_insanolord]

If Nintendo cared about this they wouldn't have let the fan translation happen in the first place.

[UncleBob]

Guess what? It won't. At all.

Can you guarantee that?  Because that's not necessarily the impression I got.

[MegaByte]

Yes.

[TJ Spyke]

If Nintendo cared about this they wouldn't have let the fan translation happen in the first place.

What do you mean? They legally couldn't stop someone from posting a translation guide for a game (although they could stop them from providing people a way to modify the game with it).

[Mop it up]

Yes, Earthbound is a massively overrated game with a tiny fanbase...wait what?

That's contradictory. How can an overrated game have a tiny fanbase? That makes no sense. Besides, the terms "overrated" and "underrated" are pretty silly, because ratings are entirely subjective. Every single game is overrated or underrated to someone.

To me, Mother 3 seems like a sort of remake of Mother 2, which itself was a sort of remake of Mother 1. Therefore, it is a better game by default.

[Crimm]

Yes, Earthbound is a massively overrated game with a tiny fanbase...wait what?

That's contradictory. How can an overrated game have a tiny fanbase? That makes no sense. Besides, the terms "overrated" and "underrated" are pretty silly, because ratings are entirely subjective. Every single game is overrated or underrated to someone.

To me, Mother 3 seems like a sort of remake of Mother 2, which itself was a sort of remake of Mother 1. Therefore, it is a better game by default.

Actually that's not a contradiction at all.  The general perception of Earthbound is far in excess of its actual quality.  However, that perception can be held by people who have not played the game, and have gleaned it second hand.  The actual number of true "fans" can still be quite small.

Also, remakes are not always better by default.  All indications are, and my albiet it limited hands on time with, the remake of Lufia II is inferior to the original.

[Mop it up]

I don't know who you hang out with, but I've certainly never seen anyone create an opinion on Earthbound without first playing it, or regarding it as anything, really. A lot of people have heard of it sure, due to the character inclusions in the Smash Brothers series, but that doesn't mean they assume it's a great game.

No, of course remakes aren't better by default, and that isn't what I was saying. The Mother series is basically the ongoing creation of the same game, so it gets more and more refined with each one.

[vudu]

To me, Mother 3 seems like a sort of remake of Mother 2

Having played the first 15 hours of EarthBound and the first 7 of Mother 3, I can safely state that this statement is completely incorrect.

[NWR_insanolord]

If Nintendo cared about this they wouldn't have let the fan translation happen in the first place.

What do you mean? They legally couldn't stop someone from posting a translation guide for a game (although they could stop them from providing people a way to modify the game with it).

They could have sent cease and desist letters and threatened legal action. If they'd gone through with it and it actually went to trial they might have lost, but the translation team didn't have the means to actually fight Nintendo in court and it would have collapsed, and Nintendo knew that. They purposely chose to look the other way.

[Crimm]

Nintendo could have said the scenario, regardless of language, is their property. Don't assume their ambivalence is a sign of tacit approval of the translators' work. It's just as likely they didn't see it as worth the time, given there is no economic incentive to stop the project. If the game were coming to the west then a move would have been more likely.

[NWR_insanolord]

My point was that they could have stopped it if they'd wanted to, which was meant to back up my original statement that there wouldn't be any repercussions against NWR for this because if Nintendo cared that much about it they'd have stopped the translation in the first place.

[NWR_Neal]

Let me reiterate (I can do this all day if I have to): Playing Mother 3 for RetroActive and discussing it on a podcast and forum will in no way, shape, or form hurt out standing in the game industry. No company will look down upon us. Nintendo won't black list us. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if one of us mentioned this off-hand to someone from Nintendo at next E3 and they were like "Yea, that fan translation is ok."

[UncleBob]

Playing Mother 3 for RetroActive and discussing it on a podcast and forum will in no way, shape, or form hurt out standing in the game industry.

The playing and discussing of the game isn't the issue.

Encouraging individuals to seek out pirated material, however, is a different story.

But if you are okay with that action and feel that it will not change anything, then that's great.

[NWR_Neal]

I guess I'll reiterate again.

Nothing related to this RetroActive will harm the site professionally in any way. Period.

[UncleBob]

And I'll reiterate...

But if you are okay with that action and feel that it will not change anything, then that's great.

[MegaByte]

Encouraging individuals to seek out pirated material, however, is a different story.

But if you are okay with that action and feel that it will not change anything, then that's great.

And I'll reiterate: No such encouragement is happening here.

[UncleBob]

*wink* *wink*

That's all I have to say on this subject.  I think it's a bad call.  It's disrespectful to both Nintendo and the creators of the game.  It's dishonest to yourselves and your fanbase to pretend that you honestly expect the majority of those participating (including yourselves) to do anything but illegally obtain the game.  I like the part where Johnny links to legal options for every other game, but specifically says "If Mother 3 is selected, we cannot help you find the game, only link to the English translation patch."  Not even a link to a used reseller of legitimate Japanese cartridges.  Why?  Because you don't expect anyone to actually import the game.

Dress it up and justify it however you want, but it's piracy and you're encouraging it.
If y'all have no problems with that and feel it won't hurt the site, that's fine.  It's y'alls site, and you can run it however you want.

And I'm done in this thread.