Comic Workshop arrived on the 3DS eShop this week and, as the name suggests, provides the opportunity to create and share your own comic creations, making extensive use of the touch screen and 3DS setup. We're in the process of our review but, on the surface at least, it appears to offer a neat tool-set for artistic gamers.
There's a bit of controversy on Miiverse, however, as the option to add screenshots to posts has been removed, disabled the day after the app was released. It's not confirmed whether it was publisher Collavier or Nintendo that removed the functionality, but most money is on the latter — the issue may have been the sharing of inappropriate comics or users posting 'selfies' through the app, which is apparently possible. There are a number of frustrated users posting on the app's community stating that the inability to share easily has diminished their enjoyment.
We'll reach out to Nintendo and Collavier for clarification, though it seems this issue could have been resolved by simply never offering Miiverse screenshots. Take this warning on the title's website in the FAQ section, with regards to sharing between friends.
Given that Comic Workshop gives you the opportunity to make drawings without limit and to protect minors, we are sorry to say that is not possible to directly exchange pictures.
That same concern should have surely been flagged for Miiverse prior to launch. In any case, images from the app can still be saved to your SD card and transferred to PC, or shared through the Nintendo Image Share tool. There's also an official online Workshop Gallery; at present it's only available in Japanese, but a version in English will be "available soon".
Are you a Comic Workshop user affected by this, or is this an unsurprising move for screenshots to be removed from this app? Let us know what you think.
Image via Miiverse user OSENATOR.
Comments 76
If posts from New Art Academy or even the simple drawing tools on Miiverse are allowed, it's ridiculous to ban screenshots from this.
I'm starting to feel like Nintendo is spiting its users rather than moderate user-generated content properly. A "report" function on Swapnote and mods on the Comic Workshop community would be far better than not allowing anyone to share anything.
What is the point of the App now if we can't share with other people? Might as well halt it's production and discontinue it because it's new useless. The Apps major appeal was the sharing with friends.
They didn't anticipate this would happen?
If people were really posting selfies then they should just keep that stupid crap on Instagram and other social media that isn't Miiverse. Miiverse is for gaming not for duck facing.
There is something seriously wrong with the way Nintendo moderate their service. I feel like Nintendo think about all the most extreme things that could happen and use it as an excuse as to why it needs disabling/banning.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I bet if screenshots were allowed someone would say "oh that's offensive" and would end up with the whole thing being shut down. Although still allowing image share contradicts what they're doing- either allow it or completely stop it (would rather see it allowed but there you are). It's frustrating. Hoping we'll get an answer soon. The very least they should do is allow you to link directly to the upload on their website though.
I don't know why everyone is having a go at Nintendo over this and also over the swapnote thing.. You should upset with the people who uses these services to do inappropriate things!
@ModestFan93 you can still share with friends. Just not trough Miiverse. I'm fine wth it. I'm the only one of my friends who use Miiverse anyway so they wouldn't see it. Also you're going a bit to far saying it's useless now considering you can still put it anywhere else.
@Great_Gonzalez thank you! Someone who understands it's not Nintendo's fault!
@ModestFan93 You still are able to share it with friends, just not on Miiverse (which I do think sucks too, but at least there are other options). According to their FAQ, you are able to share your work on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Tumblr (I don't think that is working at the moment though), through the Nintendo 3DS Image Share Tool. They are also working on an English version of the Workshop Gallery so that users could upload it to Collavier's official online gallery.
Colors 3D.. Does that let you post screenshots on Miiverse?
I remember the last time there was domestic terrorism in the states... when they interviewed the guy who killed all those people-- he said it was because he saw dirty pictures on a nintendo console and it ruined his life forever. Thanks nintendo for preventing anything like that happening again.
Well IT IS a console for all ages. Do you really think parents would allow their kids to see something inappropriate? It could ruin Nintendo's reputation.
@originaljohn Nah, thank God. Lol
@Great_Gonzalez Agreed. Its the same as with the people who hate on the MiiVerse mods. Just behave yourself. I never had any problems on MiiVerse.
You cant complain about Nintendo being too "childfriendly" and at the same time, be unable to cope with rules made for freakin children...
I hope they are offering refunds to people who purchased it if they took away 1 of it's main reasons to exist 1 day after it released. Swapnote was free so you get what you pay for. But you also need to get what you pay for, or get your money back if you don't.
I remember seeing a forum thread here about some people trolling the Miiverse moderators. It was unrelated to this issue, but it shows to what extent some persons will go to cause issues in the communities.
If the images can still be shared by other means, I don't see what the problem is. There are armchair comic critics everywhere anyway
I think the problem people are having is the clear oversight on Nintendo's part to even allow Miiverse sharing just to do an about face. And obvously it would suck if they disabled it at all in the first place, because sure, you can share your work via Image Share and save the work to your SD card, but your Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr audience is most likely not the same audience as the Miiverse community, where as you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that people are in the Comic Workshop community to look at other people's work. Posting to Miiverse > posting to social media at large.
On one hand, I agree with @Great_Gonzalez that we need to blame the people posting unacceptable images, but at the same time it doesn't make it suck any less. Perhaps a happy medium like this would be that perhaps when developers make games like this they should have to hire their own Miiverse mods? I don't know. I still enjoy this piece of software anyways.
People were posting pictures both normal (still agai nst EULA) and inappropriate, thus the function was removed as the app itself couldn't distinguish pictures from other comic images. Until it can the service will be offline.
People are really getting mad at this? Its the few spoiling it for the many and its not the devs or Nintendo's fault people choose to be irresponsible. Hopfully the Devs will amend the system soon so comic screens can be posted again.
@rjejr Why would they offer refunds? You cant upload screen shots to Miiverse that's it. You can still create and share your comics outside of Miiverse.
I wonder how Collavier feels about Nintendo blocking their profit potential like that. Maybe if they add another spoiler button to Miiverse that says "18+" then Nintendo is absolved!
Well, there goes my interest. Lame. Seriously, just moderate it. Something inappropriate goes up, take it down and ban the offender. Stupid people ruin all the fun.
How about just leaving "protecting minors" to parents ok Nintendo? This really is pathetic and I am embarrassed (once again) as a fan and supporter of Nintendo .
Protection for minors from... GASP!!... Drawings! LOL, pathetic.
@XFsWorld Err why?
@Emblem - "Why would they offer refunds?"
b/c it was advertised as being able to do something that it could only do for 1 day? Now if it was never advertised and people just assumed they could but you couldn't from the beginning, well thats another story, but that' snot how this reads to me.
I once bought a videogame off Amazon for the Wii called "Go Vacation" b/c it said on the Amazon website that there was online multiplayer. Turned out there wasn't. I called Amazon and they changed the description but I didn't get my money back. I was not amused.
Hold on....was Comic Workshop actually allowing you to take real world photographs with the 3DS camera and attach them to your screenshots?
If that's the case, nobody at all should be surprised that Nintendo disabled it.
If it's just drawings that have been stopped, then that's weird....as people draw crazy stuff in Dr Kawashima's Brain Training all the time and share those on Miiverse
I bought the game yesterday actually, after seeing a lot of people posting pictures.
It's a good app, but it's a shame about what happened. I didn't see people post offensive/sensitive things either, but I understand why they did it.
Also, I don't understand why they can't just simply make an update/patch that makes it so you can't post comics with photos.
I still got what I wanted, I wasn't going to share my comics anyway, but I understand why people are disappointed.
No screenshots anymore? Aww, that's a bummer, but I totally understand the reason for it. However, I do remember when I first visited the Comic Workshop website that, in the FAQ section, they had a Miiverse question(strangely, that entire question has been removed, as of recent).
The answer was pretty much the same as the one for sharing between friends, only it said "Given that Comic Workshop gives you the opportunity to make drawings without limit and to protect minors, we are sorry to say that is not possible..." (I can't remember how it was put after that, but I do remember that the first part of the answer was nearly identical to the response about sharing between friends).
It appears that a mistake was made, and Comic Workshop was allowed to post screenshots on Miiverse, when it was never the developer's intention to do so, probably due to its photo-sharing capabilities more than anything else(that may be why Colors! 3D isn't allowed to do this, as well).
Either way, think about what people are getting upset over: Posting shrunken images of their well-made comics on Miiverse that are 400x240 pixels large, to be exact(less than half the maximum size limit for comics on the app), a horrible resolution for detailed comics). And then, more than likely, those same comics would only get washed away quickly in the sea of posts, so all that work goes to waste! I wouldn't wish this on anyone!
It's possible that they dodged a bullet, because if something terrible did go down on Miiverse, knowing Nintendo, they could've shut the whole thing down for everyone! Just be glad that things aren't worse than they are now, because they could very well be.
@Linker2A03 You made a good point actually, something I forgot to mention in my previous post, the comics get horribly shrunken down in Miiverse posts, sometimes it was really hard to read what the heck was being said.
Definitely agree with you, they dodged a bullet, people could have been posting nude pictures among other things.
I hope nothing like this happens with Petit Computer 3D when it comes out...
I'd like to point out that MIIVERSE SHARING WAS NEVER INTENDED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
That FAQ even said that on release day, when screenshots were still allowed. It was a glitch or oversight that it was enabled at first.
@rjejr The main function of the game is to create comics then either print them via SD card, send to your friends or upload to external sites. You can still do all these things.
I have a feeling most people complaining do not have the game or know how this even works.
1. This game was designed without Miiverse in mind and it was added later in development.
2. You can add photos to your comics, this opened the door to add anything onto a community for all ages. Nudity, pornography, violence you name it.
3. Since comics were not originally meant to be displayed publicly this wasn't a problem.
4. People being people posted stuff they shouldn't have and since the feature cannot distinguish this images, the feature has been locked until they find a work around.
I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about. If you all checked out the app's older Japanese community, which never ever had the option for screenshots, they're perfectly happy without it, and they are simply posting a lot of beautiful drawings using the native Miiverse handwritten messaging.
@rjejr It was never advertised and you're making an assumption. Read my previous post.
I've got friends on Facebook whose 13-16 year old nieces / nephews have exchanged or admitted to have exchanged nude pictures on that site.
The fact is, there's too much posted to be properly moderated without community assistance and often, the community doesn't do anything.
It's not that it isn't offensive material, it's that alot of the people viewing it are just as starved for attention as the posters.
The protection Nintendo wants is the 'selfies' which could be so-called 'signed photos'. As in, a photo that contains the person's name or other restricted information. I've heard of a site here in Canada (Nexopia) where 30+ males were hiding their age, meeting and having sex with 14-16 year old girls.
Realistically, as much as I'm not a fan of censorship, I just hate that kind of crap. 18+? You'd kill the app in a day.
I think there are just too many games that are banned from posting screenshots that I now consider the screenshot is not allowed as default for new games and would be very happy if I find screentshot is allowed..
@Emblem They don't legally have to but they should. Just the ethical thing to do. Maybe the EU will have some reasonable protections soon.
This sucks, sharing my Comics was one of the reasons I planned on buying this. :/ Ah well, at least there is other ways to share comics.
Nintendo = Helicopter mom of the video game world.
I'm just glad her brownies taste so good.
tbh this overprotecting from nintendo is so annoying.
Next bit of news will be the return of friend codes. Oh Nintendo, 3 steps forward & 2 steps back. But having the English site up will solve a lot of problems too.
@Ralizah I love that comparison so much XD
@Emblem @BaffleBlend - This is the part of the article I was referring to:
"as the option to add screenshots to posts has been removed, disabled the day after the app was released."
which makes me think it was in the game/app and then it was taken out after people bought it. If someone sells me a car (I don't know why it's always cars, it just is) and then at night they come take back all the tires, so when I wake up in the morning, even if I still have a car and engine, I can't drive my car, then I want my money back. If Nitnedo can find a way to disable part of a program after it has been released then they should be able to figure out a way to refund peoples money if they are affected by this. They don't even have to advertise it, but if somebody is affected enough that they call up and complain to Nintendo then they should get their money refunded.
Why not let users rate content posted. The same way report function works? And just put that in parental restrictions. I'd think it work wonders
@rjejr that analogy doesn't work here. Because it wasn't the tires or engine that were taken; it was a bumper sticker that the previous owner accidentally left attached.
Miiverse was not required, optimal, or even decent for comic sharing. Now get over yourself, use your SD card, and stop acting so entitled.
@eleccross I love you.
Whatever. If you want to share artwork, just go to tumblr, or DevientArt.
No sense whining about it.
HEY! That is my post featured! Very cool ! Sadly, it's such an ugly drawing, compare to my comic MAYBE LOVE?
haha. I've been playing around with this app all weekend and didn't even realize there was Miiverse integration. I tend to skip Miiverse on the handheld as its way to slow and clunky compared to Wii U and the mobile internet version.
They shut down swapnote why wouldn't anyone think they would pretty much shut down Comic Workshop? Nintendo rules with an iron fist. And some people can't seem to be nothing but stupid by abusing these things and wrecking it for the majority. There is a very small number of people out there who just love to wreck it for everyone else.
Thanks a lot, #Nintendad.
@Windy If they were going to do that I would have thought they would have never allowed it in the first place. Maybe they just don't do any real QA any more. (That would make sense judging by how buggy everything tends to be these days).
@Sforzando Looks like someone didn't see the comments above.
It's like the image post was snuck in. I read the FAQ on their website weeks before release and they said you wouldn't be able to posts images to Miiverse. So someone messed up by allowing screen posts in the first place.
I was looking at this game's Miiverse community the day it came out and remember seeing a self-taken photo screenshot of a user in different poses with speech bubbles exclaiming that they could just use actual photos of themselves in their comics instead of drawing pictures.
They used stamps and graphics to cover their eyes to hide their identity, but as soon as I saw that I knew it wasn't going to be long before posting real photos was going to be disabled.
Don't think I've even heard of Comic Workshop.
Would probably buy it if it was released in EU.
@theberrage you try watching a kid 24/7 to see what they are up to, it's not easy.
I'm okay with this, any extra help to keep me and children from seeing some of the trashy junk people post online is appreciated
@unrandomsam That's true. My main point was people who abuse these apps and ruin it for everyone because they have to draw private parts or take a picture of there own. Not that's why they shut this one down. But possibilities were probably there.
Boooooo.
@Galenmereth Need to calm down mister adult
Anyway, the fact that precautions have to be taken to protect the children belongs to the people posting the inappropriate stuff, not Nintendo.
@3Daniel Amen!
With all this moderation and lack of freedom it's hard to use Miiverse. Every time I'm thinking of posting something, I think..."Hm...maybe I shouldn't include the word 'poopsiedoodle', I could get banned." or something similar to that; you get the point.
As someone else pointed out, there are parental options for a reason; it's unfair to the rest of the community for this functionality to be banned because parents aren't using the provided functionality and then are complaining.
"But someone posted a picture of their privates!" THEN BAN THAT PERSON! Don't ruin the experience for everyone just because of one/a few bad apples Nintendo.
The immaturity of people on Miiverse and the misuse of Swapnote are the reason why we're never getting Flipnote 3D.
Just saying.
@Galenmereth
Problem is, not all parents pay attention to this kind of stuff. I can't tell you how many parents buy their kids things like GTA without even bothering to look at the back of the box
These same parents probably could care less about their children having an protection on their Wii U. I'm not about to let my children suffer because some moron doesn't know how to raise their kids so I'm happy for what Nintendo is doing personally
@Galenmereth I tried to make a comment in that Religion=Video Games thread before it got locked, but it'll work here, too. I tried to say, "I can't think of anyone else on this site who consistently makes such high quality posts." I enjoy reading your responses.
i dont blame nintendo for doing this but it is to prevent another swapnote incident, why do people keep posting things that is inappropriate, that stuff is for blogs, instagrams and social medias, not on nintendo consoles. this is why we cant have nice things because people ruin it. i use miiverse to show off cool images and stuff not my schlong or other inappropriate things. wanna do that? use fb or twitter or reddit or imgur.
This has caused comic maker to lose my sale instantly. To have an art program without the ability to directly share images gives me no motivation to use a 3DS-centric art tool. If I have to go through all the trouble to put it on an SD card and share it through my PC, I'd rather just use my PC to create art.
I understand where Nintendo is coming from; however, this is another example of Nintendo becoming too much of a mother bear.
Ha so much for sharing, might as well not share at all.
I get nintendos stance on the situation, however the whole point of the app is to do exactly this.
@Galenmereth Everything you said I agree with. It IS offensive. Nintendo acts like they are the makers of V-Smile or Leapfrog. Under 18 is not their ONLY demographic by a long shot. I'm 23 and a lot of my friends own 3DS's. Do we ever use them? Hardly, but that's a different topic...
to whoever did this: your decision is bad and you should feel bad
Why does this matter? it not like you can read text very well on the comic application when the comic is zoomed out to default. Besides, they're opening a gallery for it soon so it shouldn't really matter
@Tryken
You can still share it with fb or twitter via 3ds image sharing tool
The internet is big enough now that if someone wants to share something that Miiverse doesn't allow, they can go else where. And since the program allows you to save and export your creations to other sites its not like its difficult to put it on another site.
Isn't the whole point of making comics to be able to share them with others? I don't have this game but I draw comics and show them to others to get feedback and improve my works.
Parental Control / Child Protection is a feature of any Wii U and 3DS system. It's part of the initial setup when you first start up the Nintendo console. This automatically ensures that certain content is locked away from kids, like the Internet Browser or games that are only for certain ages. It's a great feature that is always there waiting on the main menu if you skipped it initially. It's easy to handle and it's just a few quick taps to change the settings.
And it should be.... no wait... it IS enough to make it a kid friendly system!
THE REST IS UP TO THE PARENTS!!
I don't know why there's so much interference. The system is perfectly safe already.
Don't understand why these drawings are not allowed on Miiverse when Art Academy is.
Don't know why this app can't block screenshots with real life camera pics (just like TANK! TANK! TANK! does.)
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