Luigi’s Balloon World Is Now Available In Super Mario Odyssey

Yay! Downloading now.

Is this the first Mario game with online multiplayer?

I just wish that they made the jump rope challenge less jumps! 😭 Haha

I'm still on the fence on this one.. will have to give it a try a see

It is a Free update after all so nothing really to complain about

I'm only interested in the knight costume. It kind of reminds me of Arthur from Ghosts n Goblins.

New costumes and filters are nice. I don't think the Balloon minigame is for me.

@Nincompoop it might be the first traditional mario to get it. Obviously Mario Kart has it.

The closest I can think of was Mario 3D Worlds where you would play levels with other people’s Mii’s performing the actions they did as they completed the levels which gave a sense of multiplayer.

I like some of that “multiplayer” feel within the game. Like the leaderboards.

It’s the same as the notes in bottles in Windwaker HD. I love a bit of Hunan interaction in solo games.

Welp, time to grind for coins on them costumes again...

Hmm. Might think of going back to Odyssey, specially considering the fact I got bored of it in 6 hrs. This might or might not make me play the game after all.

Unlikely to pull me back. I absolutely loved the game but after seeing almost everything it offered (in terms of the worlds) I had enough for the time being.

I was hoping for some additional world DLC but Nintendo is more likely to put those ideas into a new game.

Which isn’t really a bad thing i guess.

Can you make a useful article and go through what comes in the update or break anything down. Not everything needs to be an ad cashgrab YouTube link. You need actual articles to keep websites from dying.

@bound4earth That is so true.

@bound4earth Balloon World, 3 outfits, some filters for snapshot mode. It's all in the article.

@bound4earth where’s the YouTube link

Edit. All the info’s in the article

Yay...!

@bound4earth You're conflating two different articles. One is 'New Odyssey Update Has Gone Live'. The other is 'Here's An In Depth Look At The New Update'.

They can't come at the same time, unless you're expecting Nintendo Life to have been given early access to the update. Which as far as I know, isn't the case.

@Yasaal You are right, the game is pretty boring... it's got nice graphics but it's still the same old Mario platforming game. This type of zoom out 3d platforming started with 3D World on 3DS with stereoscopic 3d. On Switch you can't gauge the distance without the stereo 3d, it's hard to play... and the camera is annoying. It's not a fun game to me. Dunno why it got 10/10 everywhere.

@Nincompoop - Yeah the 3D is a pain in the butt. It slows the game right down. Almost the only reason I screw up in this game is because I misjudge the 3D.
Normally 3D platformers bore me after two minutes, but I stuck with it because it's Mario and it had some good ideas. But I prefer a nice fast-paced and accurate 2D Mario.

That tagline makes me want a Switch Balloon Fight sequel (a real sequel, not VC) more than I did before.

This update is not for me, but I am still thoroughly enjoying Odyssey. In fact, the longer I've played, the more I've come to appreciate it. I'm finding the post-game to be a much more rewarding experience, and it's enormously satisfying being able to go back through the kingdoms one by one and clear them 100%.

I got this game weeks ago and still haven't played it yet! Must give it a whirl.

Glad it's finally out for those still playing. Don't think it will pull me back in after getting 700+ moons Im probably done with the game unless they release some really substantial dlc

@OnBeingHuman All you have to do is stand to the side of the rope going upwards. Don't stand right in the center. This will give you much more time to make jumps

I’ll give it a download later today.

It's actually more fun than I thought it'd be, give it a try, guys. And it gives LOTS of coins. They took the game's most tedious part (grinding for coins at the end) and made something fun out of it.

This is nice and all, but man, this game is just begging for real DLC. Maybe we'll hear something about it at E3.

@Nincompoop You're kidding, right? The game is far from boring, I'm still playing it and love the explorational part of the game.

Most. Addictive. Game. Ever. People in Japan may even put down Splatoon 2 for a bit. The most "just one more try" game I've ever played. And I don't even like it.

This game has no offline, online only, which I really wanted, and Luigi only hides 1 balloon for you to get coins, not 1 in each world, just 1 the first time you play, so it's just slot machines. Very addictive slot machines.

And they won't let you leave. Every time you are done Luigi tells you "bonus coins" in a new world. And the screen keeps telling you when you get new coins from people not finding your hidden balloon. And so many people have hidden balloons to find. And you get a coin bonus each time you rank up. And for finding 2 in a row. I've yet to find 3 in a row I can't swim and went to Lake Kingdom, bad move. I'm level 8, not sure how high it goes but way higher than that.

But they made this so well, I'm really impressed considering it's nothing I wanted.

15 balloons to choose from.
Each balloon shows you time, distance, direction and coin reward.
You can tell your friends your balloon code. Yes ugh codes, no one will use them but they are there.
You can see the balloons before you choose. Cheating I suppose. 😆
Your Mii face is on the balloon.
Stat page with all your everything, I don't know what half of it is.

My advice to everyone, hide a balloon in each world, then sit back and collect your coins. Don't start looking, you'll never stop.

If they make this with real money Nintendo could open it's own chain of casinos.

Oh, it didn't auto-downliad, no notification on the Switch menu, just an update notification when I started the game, took 2 minutes, so it isn't huge, only 279MB.

Luigi laughs maniacally happy about the coins you give him, reminds me of the guy Moneybags in Spyro. Luigi and his floating casino. I guess if his feet never touch the ground he isn't gambling in those territories, that's one smart casino maven right there. And popped balloons destroy the evidence.

@Nincompoop I suppose it happened since it's a Mario game. It didn't bring anything new but it revolutionized the things it already brought to us in previous titles. I expected something new and didn't get it. Doesn't necessarily mean the game's bad, but I didn't like it much...

I forget where I read or heard it at (it might have been the Nintendo Power podcast interview with director Kenta Motokura and some producers). But they were asked if more DLC is on the table for Odyssey (I think kingdoms was specifically mentioned). They didn't exactly give a no for an answer. It was a really coy "We can't talk about it" right now and this was after discussing this particular DLC. So I am hopeful we'll see more

@MH4 I thought that was precisely what this update added to Odyssey. A Balloon Fight mode/minigame. Playing hide and seek with balloons? Ehhh. Still not interested in Mario.

@Krull agreed, I’ve been having so much more fun after beating Bowser! I mean, the place you land after that (which I won’t name as I wouldn’t wanna spoil the surprise for anyone who still doesn’t know) is what excited me the most throughout the whole game; it even had me literally yelling and laughing in joy lol

@rjejr I’d upvote your post 3 times if I could, because:
1) it made wanna try this mode I’d never been interested in;
2) it taught me the word “maven”, which sounds pretty good;
3) the general, almost delirious tone 😂 I had genuine fun reading you describe Luigi as a shady gambling mastermind 😂

I just need that knight armor.

@clvr Luigi as a shady gambling mastermind is the best part. As long as he doesn't sexually harass Peach or Daisy he has a long lucrative career ahead of him. Well until he runs out of helium anyway, there's a worldwide shortage.

I was kind of amazed myself that I liked it b/c I wasn't going to b/c I wanted at least an offline component. I wanted Luigi himself to hide 3 balloons in every world for us to find, no online. Then I wanted to be able to hide balloons for my kids and them for me. But this has none of that. And the first few balloons I couldn't find, and all the coins I lost, I really hated it. But then I took a second to figure out the nuisances, seeing balloons before you start, the distance and direction. It's not random at all. Next thing I knew I was ahead 1,500 coins, it's very generous - ie addictive - with the rewards at the beginning, Luigi was practically throwing them at me. It's easy to get suckered in. (Funny, I typed "sucked", auto correct changed it to suckered, very apropos.)

I guess my biggest takeaway was just how much effort Nintendo put into it and the online leader boards. It's no where near as simple as "find the balloon", they could have simply made the time 30, cost 10 and reward 50 for every balloon, but I've seen the cost as high as 85 with a reward of 540 and the time ranges from 9 to 40. That's gambling with your coins. They really put some effort into it.

Obviously it isn't going to be for everyone, there's no game there, it's slots or poker or dice, but it sucks you in. If I hadn't finished the game months ago I'd play more, but you really need to know the intricacies of each level to get good. I watched my son crush it rolling and long jumping, rocket flowers, I was just running around like an idiot. 😛

@rjejr I was interested in it anyways. But your review really wants to make me try it now. This is the kind of descriptive, user review I like to see when it comes to new games or DLC

Oh man, yes! I can't wait to try Balloon World, and that neat Sunshine Outfit! shine get jingle (Yippee!) Also, the photo filters are great. I shall make a coin with a Shiverian on it. Forget bitcoin, meet the floofy.

Can you hide balloons in pipe warps and secret rooms?

@rjejr man, that first paragraph 😂

Also, I find it funny that nearly all of your walls of text (and Thanos’s, too, to be honest) teach me something new, be it a new word to add to my vocabulary or some weird fact like that thing about helium.
Is the world really running out of it? Why don’t people talk about that (or maybe they do but I don’t hear them lol)? It’s always “we’re running out of gas, gotta move on to GPL or electricity”, but I’ve never heard about the scarcity of helium. I guess the world just doesn’t give a crap about balloons and blimps lol

@UmbreonsPapa "user review I like to see"

Good, so you won't mind seeing it more often when I copy and paste it into all forthcoming articles on the subject later today - Luigi's Balloon World Review; Luigi's Balloon World What Did You Think?; Soapbox: Is this the DLC SMO Really Needed?; Luigi's Balloon World is Out, What other DLC Would you like to see SMO Receive?

@rjejr I'm not gonna lie, this made me chuckle. NL isn't the only one guilty of it. But there's no lie told there, lol.

It's it pretty sad that you can't do this offline. Imagine the fun of hiding balloons with siblings or friends than going to find them... I guess you could is one person hid them, you excited the game and restarted with a new user... Not convoluted at all.

@clvr Yeah, when Thanos and I get started things turn into University papers as we try to sway each others opinions, almost always unsuccessfully, but it's fun trying.

Helium shortage may or may not be real but I'm not one to let the facts get in the way of my jokes.

Real
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i26/Helium-shortage-looms.html

Not real
https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-inflated/

There's also been a worldwide cement/sand/concrete shortage since 2004, blamed mostly on Chinese overbuilding, but I've yet to work that into a joke, but if you need any extremely boring cocktail hour conversation material, well here ya go.

https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0817/p03s02-usec.html

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/538472671/world-faces-global-sand-shortage

So the next time somebody makes a parallel to the number of grains of sand on the beach, tell them not for much longer.

Its really good being playing all day!. Sort of like a make your own moon location. Except for 2 rules you can't hide it in a secret area someone hasn't got to yet eg moon rock secret levels. and 2 you can't make you moon come out once certain tasks have been done on the level. Also the time you take hiding it is the time everyone else has to find out so say you took 10 secs then everyone else has 10 secs too and you can add secs to your hiding and finding times by collecting coins so you can have more than 30 secs if you wish.

I wish they added a quicker way to earn money... tired of spamming the slippery slope level in Bowsers Castle, just to get the overpriced costumes....

@chucknorris078 balloon world is excellent for farming coins earned about 30,000 or so now.

Oh really I haven't played it yet. How long did that take?

Balloon hide and seek honestly sounds pretty fun to me.

@OnBeingHuman want the tip I found online? Use the scooter.

It sounds crazy but once you manage to get the scooter in the center and start jumping, the jump heights are static and it doesn’t move until you hold accelerate. After an hour of failing I looked up tips online, found the scooter one... boom. Cleared it on the third try. And during a second playthrough found it just as easy, the only hard part is getting the scooter in place, once you get started it’s simple, just tap A when you see the dust cloud from the rope hitting the ground.

@rjejr “But worldwide, helium is about a thousand times less lucrative than gas, so even though removing (inert) helium makes the gas burn better, companies don’t usually bother to take it out. “Normally, it’s an afterthought,” says Samuel Burton, assistant field manager at the Federal Helium Program”
I told you no one gives a crap about blimps and high-pitched voices 😉

On a serious note, though, thank you for you thoroughness, I’ve learnt quite a lot (more or less) useful information today 👍🏻

Also, of course don’t let anything get in the way of your jokes lol
Probably it’s my tendency to find almost anything funnier in English, but the way you word your sentences never fails to crack me up a bit 😁

@clvr "tendency to find almost anything funnier in English"

I feel the same way about English accents, which is why Alex's NL videos are so hilarious. Monty Python, Benny Hill, I'm pretty sure it was all funnier due to the accents.

Can we just praise Nintendo for releasing free DLC, in a world where almost every game company is trying to take all your money they are still handing out free stuff in a game that had plenty of content to start with.

@rjejr well, as you can probably see by my spelling and such, I’ve always leaned towards American English (funny cause I was gonna write “leant”, and then remembered various dictionaries list it as the more British form), due to the fact I’ve been self-teaching it for 10+ years via music, games, TV series and the likes, so I tend to prefer the American accent and use a lot of strictly U.S. terms.

That said, English in general has got a way of being way funnier than Italian in certain situations, especially “neutral” (as in “not necessarily meant to be funny”) ones.

For example, I love American comedy cartoons (BoJack Horseman, Rick & Morty, Archer, Regular Show, Big Mouth, etc.) but a lot of them are almost unwatchable in Italian if you know how they are in English. BoJack is still good, they did a great job translating that, but Rick & Morty in Italian is utterly garbage in comparison to the real deal. Archer I didn’t even try to watch in Italian, but I’m willing to bet that’s nowhere near as effective.
I mean, even the simple line “Danger Zooone!” cracks me up, even though it’s got nothing inherently funny (especially after the 57643th time you hear it).

I think it’s just each individual language is more attuned to certain kinds of comedy; as I said, a lot of stuff that made me laugh in English wouldn’t have in Italian.

To make it clearer: I especially love the way English lets you slip in a ggod amount of “snarkiness” and/or irony even when you’re not explicitly joking, simply by wording your sentence appropriately. Your previous comments are good examples, as you no doubt possess this skill, if we wanna call it that ahahahah

Example: “Helium shortage may or may not be real but I'm not one to let the facts get in the way of my jokes.”
This pretty much sums up what I’m trying to say, only with the pro of not being a wall of text 😉

Edit: I forgot you mentioned Alex: yeah he fits the description, he’s a good example of a guy that makes stuff funny even when it inherently isn’t.

@rjejr you are so right about the 'just one more', my son has just had about half a dozen last go's 😂 it's worth it to see him bouncing about with joy when he finds a balloon. And I do mean, literally, bouncing about. I can see his feet dancing uncontrollably out of the corner of my eye as I hear the timer run out... It's his last go, by the way 😉

Yes. They would be stupid not to have another tie in dlc. Using the existing assets there is so many ideas not utilized. I'm ok with a SMO 2 or a big paid DLC that adds a lot of content.

@OnBeingHuman Try the jump rope in Final Fantasy IX and get back to me.

@clvr I get what you mean by languages. I prefer to play all of my JRPG games with Japanese voice acting because they are so emotional and get so into it. Not to say there isn't also a lot of great English voice acting as well, the big names like Troy Backer and whoever does Kratos are great, but some of those JRPG get the worst voice actors, some of them are unbearable.

And that ironic snarkiness I think is partly from being a New Yorker, we're a sarcastic lot. People from the South and Midwest tend to be a bit more straightforward. I'm actually almost incapable of writing without sarcasm, hence my over abundant use of emoji, mostly this one.

I can write without it, I was in college and grad school, but that was so long ago, now I'm just old, grumpy and winging it.

@MartyFlanMJFan It's kinda nuts, there's no reason to ever stop. And I'm not even that addictive of a personality, I usually don't care about such things, but Nintendo put some thought into this one. They must have had an entire room full of pigeons playing this, trying to figure out how to keep them going.

I do think they missed out by not having Luigi hide at least 1 balloon in each world though, just to get you started. Though 3 would have been better, Bronze, Silver and Gold, no wagering, just finding. The wagering is out of control.

@StephenYap3 No need to grind. Play Luigi Balloon world and you'll get thousands of coins fast. It's fun!

@StephenYap3 I played a bit of this last night and it's actually a good way to get coins for the new costumes while also giving the new mode a try. I only played for an hour or so but ended up with enough coins to buy all but one of the new costumes and I'll probably give it another bash today to earn the rest. Don't see me coming back to this game just for this mode but it's a nice free addition.

I don't see the point in it at all it's such a let down, I got the knight outfit after an hour of it being out and that's all I want.... Huge shame ... It's a lame way to get coins, there is a part in game where I go and I can farm around 1000 coins in less than 10 mins lol

@rjejr the same goes for me when I watch anime or play Japanese games. Heck, I’m even playing Zelda in Japanese, which isn’t exactly the most Japanese or cutscene-heavy game you can find. As you said, Japanese VA tend to “exaggerate” emotions, and that matches the expressions you see on the screen; in my experience anime in English or Italian tend to be a lot more cringe-inducing due to the disconnect that there is between the exaggerated emotions on screen and the (by comparison) plain voice tone of the character. Not always, not everyone, of course, but it often gives me that impression.
Also, I noticed American VA have a completely different approach compared to Italian ones: ours tend to be more theatrical, in a sense between Americans and Japanese, while American VA often reproduce the kind of intonation and such that you’d be more likely to find in an everyday conversation. Not sure if it’s clear ahahahah

Tried it last night. Its a fun addition.

Played it last night a couple of times... Probably won't play it again. I still haven't found a reason to revisit this game in months. My 8 year old son has recently gotten into it again though, and that makes me happy.
I feel like this game was more about passing the baton to the next generation of Mario fans. I know it had some some fun nods for the older Mario fans, but this game never felt like it was aimed at me for some reason.

@clvr I played Zelda BotW in Japanese. I watched both my sons play in English and it's so much better in Japanese. I really don't like the English voice actress for Zelda herself, and she does most of the voice talking.

@rjejr I’ve watched a couple of cutscenes in both Italian and English, and yeah, they’re just not as good. If it were The Witcher or another WRPG it’d probably be better, but no, Japanese is the to go for me.
Also, a thing that makes me cringe about the Italian (and Spanish too, actually) is the fact they pronounce Hyrule exactly as written, not with the correct English pronounciation.
I mean, if the Japanese say “Airuru” it means the correct pronounciation is the English one, but in Italian they say (more or less) “Ee-roo-lay”, which is how you’d read it if it were an Italian word. It’s hard to explain why it’s SO cringe-inducing, but believe me, it is.

@clvr “Ee-roo-lay"

I don't even know if I know the correct pronunciation of Hyrule but in my house it's always been 2 syllables: High (or Hi) rule. That rule probably needs to be spelled phonetically as rool, like gruel without the g. Ok gruel is a bad choice, it's an odd English word, cool, like in cool as ice, yeah that's better. HI-rool. I suppose it actually makes sense, as in "ruling from on high, or High Rule". Yeah, lets' go with that.

If I were pronouncing it as an Italian word with my broken New York Italian accent it probably would be hi-rool-AY with an emphasis on the AY. "Hey, whatsamatta wif you? Here eat this Hyrule, you'll be betta in no time." That's my Queens accent, it's probably better with a Brooklyn accent.

@rjejr let’s add “gruel” tp the list of words you’ve taught me 😉
And yes, the right pronounciation is in fact “high rool”, which is not only the most intuitive pronounciation from an English standpoint, but also how the Japanese try to pronounce it; if it really were “ee-rool-ay” they’d pronounce “ee-roo-ray”. The thing is, I’ve always called it that, so it blew my mind to hear it pronounced like you would read it in Italian in BOTW.
Also, about the “-ay” you’d stress: it actually isn’t that sound, itms weird cause the letter E in Italian doesn’t really have an analog in English, as you seem to not be able to pronounce the first part of the sound “ay” without an “ee” following up. The letter E has two sounds in Italian: one is exactly like the first E in “better”, while the second is what I tried to explain above; something very similar to how you pronounce the letter A, only wothout the final “ee” (which means only the first of the two sounds).
And well, a thing I’ve never understood is why the stereotypical Italian pronounciation of English you hear in movies and such is nothing alike what an Italian speaking English sounds; granted, we Italians are very ignorant about English, the average level really is appalling and the average pronounciation makes my ears bleed, but it doesn’t really sound like you hear on the television.
If you’re curious and want some examples, I’d recommend searching YouTube for press releases held by Italian football coaches in the UK: try Antonio Conte, Claudio Ranieri or (worst of all) Walter Mazzarri. If you’re in the mood for cringing, look no further 😉

@clvr "the stereotypical Italian pronunciation of English you hear in movies and such is nothing alike what an Italian speaking English sounds like"

I'm pretty sure all Hollywood Italians are based on New York mobsters, not Italians speaking English.

And for everybody over 30, we all learned our Italian accents from Father Guido Sarducci. (AKA Don Novello's SNL character)

30 years before Trump he was recommending to Reagan to nuke Canada.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/don-novello-monologue/n9170?snl=1

@rjejr ah I see, I’ve always wondered where that came from.
Honestly I’d never heard him before: I don’t think he’s known here, but my age probably also has something to do with it ahahahah
Unfortunately the link doesn’t seem to work, it says it’s not available where I am 😕

@ShadJV I FINALLY got it!!! I did it without the bike... no idea how I did it! 😂

@clvr "Unfortunately the link doesn’t seem to work, it says it’s not available where I am"

Yeah the "World wide web" is a bit of an exaggeration. It's more like "America and what we let the the rest of the world see".

Almost nothing ever works on my tablet though, so I know the feeling.

@rjejr ahahahahahahah 😂
Well, to be honest I don’t get that issue a lot, though I use my phone 90% of the time as I don’t own a PC or a laptop.

Soooooo, shall we keep this comments section going for another week? 😂
Seems to me we’ve taken control of it by now ahahahahah

@clvr "Soooooo, shall we keep this comments section going for another week? 😂
Seems to me we’ve taken control of it by now ahahahahah"

Oh, this is nothing for me, I've had a conversation going in one article since June of last year, it's basically our own discussion of tv shows and movies, whatever we want. Guess they'll shut it down eventually.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/06/thejwittz_to_host_world_premiere_of_new_hasbro_nintendo_game

@rjejr woah, that’s a really long time! 😄
I mean, by now NL probably has to ask you permission before taking the thread down ahahahah

@clvr I think the guys running NL realize if they do lock the article - ie no more comments - we'll just go somewhere else. That conversation was actually a continuation from a much longer thread, but I lost where the old thread was so took it back up there.

But what's really strange is that the same guys who own and run NL also own and run PS, but they are nutty insane over at PS, I rarely even post there any more b/c the guys are nuts.

Look at how well this thread is going, then read post #35 sucking all of the air out of the room.

http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/moss

@rjejr not the first time I’ve seen them shoot down perfectly civil discussions on the basis of derailing, actually. Also, how is that derailing if you’re discussing the viability of VR under the review of a VR game? Shake my head.
The funny thing is they do that and then let disasters like the Meral Gear Survive review comment section happen. Have you seen that? Simply crazy. There was a dude who signed up only to call everyone a “Koji drone” and insult people for not liking the game and wasn’t even banned.
It happened to me too, to have my comments deleted or be told to shut up without rhyme or reason, really; though to be honest I must admit the situation there seems to be quiter now. It’s been a while since I was called out by the PS police patrol 😂

@clvr PS police patrol

I stayed away for a few months b/c I couldn't' take it anymore. I hate a lot of things in this world, well most of it really, but hypocrisy sets me off. I really don't like that they can write an article about Ntinedo or Switch or Wii U whenever they feel like it, but one mention of any of those in a comment and it's immediately admonished with "This is a Sony site, we dont' talk about those other systems". Meanwhile Xbox articles are all over the place. I can't abide by hypocrisy and "the rules only apply to you, not us" mentality.

But I recently went back anyway b/c I bought a PSVR and didn't know where else to go. Well I'm going to 2 other sites but neither has clicked with me yet. So I'm back but trying not to post, which is hard for me as you can imagine.

And yeah, the MGS review was fun. I didn't post in that one, they were having enough fun w/o me. I actually seriously considered making a new account so I could post w/o being singled out, but I decided that was cowardly, and there are still a few people there I'm cool with. I decided if it ever really gets so bad I can't post then I should stop going there entirely.

@rjejr yeah I hate it as well, I don’t like being treated like a fool.
Also I called you on the other thread ‘cause it’s funny you mention that and then a crapstorm happens in here ahahahahah
Well, Damo behaved exactly like Sammy and Robert do when they’re at their worst, and it’s just unacceptable. Speaking of which, maybe you’ve missed it, but last week or so I saw Sammy attacking personally YummyHappyPills (you know the guy, don’t you? He used to be called BLPs); the guy said something about his mental health, and all Sammy could do (obviously) was take the chance and belittle him, almost insultingly. It’s disgusting.

@clvr BLPs and sammy have a history. Not a long history, but a cats & dogs (fighting all the time) history. I think they should just ignore each personally, but what do I know. I try to steer clear when those two go at it and make like Switzerland as I'm friendly with both for years now. I got into it w/ damo a couple of years back so I try to ignore him now and I assume he prefers it that way. He's smart and I'm assuming a good guy but I think he's a little too thin skinned for social media, he doesn't handle criticism well at all. Not that anybody really does so I can't fault him for that, but in my mind it's different when you run a site as opposed to just being part of the peanut gallery, you get held to a higher standard, and I think that's fair. Of course in 2018 there's no such thing as standards, just speaking your mind on twitter or wherever, so it's all gone down the tubes.

When I was younger, like last year, I'd try to get involved and settle people down, but I just don't have the time or energy any more, it's like nobody wants to be civil so why should I bother? I mean just look at damo's nonsensical attack the other day, berating some guy for only having 199 followers or whatever. Well if that guy can't criticize Alex b/c he isn't "worthy", then you know what, everybody on there saying they like Alex has to be thrown out the window unless they have as many followers as Alex. You can't thank "nobodies" when they are nice, like their opinion matters, but tell somebody their opinion doens't matter b/c they dont' have enough followers. Any 2nd grader can see the flaw in damo's argument, but I can't be bothered. Either all our opinions count, or none of them does. They'll need a disclaimer for every article - "Please only comment if you have at least 2,000 followers or more." Its just stupid broken logic.

@rjejr that’s exactly what grates me, the constant use of double standards to fit one’s agenda.
And as you say, Damo’s been exposed as has Sammy in the past, but unfortunately the internet’s collective memory is comparable to that of a goldfish, so everyone gets indignant while the ruckus is still going, but when the dust settles everything’s back to normal and nothing matters anymore. That’s the internet.

“When I was younger, like last year” 😂😂😂
These are the kind of things I was talking about earlier in the thread ahahahahah

Also, I appreciate you specified the meaning of “dogs and cats”, that was very mindful of you as of course idioms can be pretty opaque; in this case, though, it’s literally the same in Italian: “sono come cane e gatto” literally means “they’re like a dog and a cat” 😄
Just thought I’d let you know as you seem to be quite a curious person who enjoys discovering new things (as am I), and maybe it’ll prove useful down the line (though I highly doubt that ahahahahah) 😄

@clvr The dogs and cats explanation wasn't so much about the culture as the generation. I can't recall the last time I heard anyone say that. Kids are now raised to all get along, everyone wins, no fighting. Cats and dogs are more likely to be pictured walking down the street hand in hand than fighting. Fighting is for humans, the animals gotta play nice. Kids cartoons are freaky weird these days on Nickelodeon but nobody is shooting anybody in the face with a shotgun or blowing them up with dynamite like Bugs and Daffy, Tweety and Sylvester or Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad my kids aren't bullied like I was, most of my childhood was pretty unbearable, but kids need to toughen up a little bit, find some middle ground between old school bullying and modern day coddling. Though I suppose worried about being shot and killed every day going to school is violence enough. My childhood wasn't that unbearable.

@rjejr I’m not sure I can relate to you on that, as I’m from a different generation and also don’t have kids 😅
But for what it’s worth, even though I’m only 22, I really don’t understand nor really like the newest generations (2000 or so). From my perspective it seems that many kids nowadays don’t receive real parenting, but are instead constantly exposed to the internet, social media and such; I noticed that a lot when I worked as a waiter last summer.
But then again, I’m not a parent so I certainly don’t know how it works.
From my perspective, though, it seems to me that some of my friends and I have been raised in a certain, maybe a little old-school manner, while a lot of other people I know (especially younger) were “spoiled” more. I don’t really know how to put that, but I feel like my parents taught me certain principles and values that are not that widespread nowadays; but I’m certainly grateful for that.

On a side note: “Though I suppose worried about being shot and killed every day going to school is violence enough.”

I saw you mention this in another thread, and I was curious: is it really that bad over there in New York? Does it feel unsafe?
I’m genuinely asking as I come from a radically different place: I’m not American and my hometown has a population of 6/7k people 😁
Even the city where I study is tiny, as it’s got 220k inhabitants (?).
Honestly, how do I say that without sounding stupid?
It holds 220k people?
I feel “inhabitants” sounds horribly out of place ahahahah

@clvr It's not New York, it's my Twitter feed. Things seem to be coming to a head with this last mass school shooting. It is finally nice to seem some people actually talking about it for a change, but at the same time it's a bit overwhelming. Columbine was nearly 20 years ago now, and other mass shootings are pretty far in the past, but it seems like the past year it's just been one after another - Florida night club, Vegas, Florida high school. Plus the bombing at that Grande concert over in England. And the assorted suicide bombings and truck/car crashings. It's on a monthly basis now. And I don't see it stopping anytime soon.

And your parents did an excellent job raising you, you're aware of some of the issues going on here and over at PS, many people your age would just be part of the problem. Not that it's all an age thing, but we do tend to mellow with age.

@rjejr hey, thank you!
It’s a nice compliment, really 😃

Back to the other topic, I’ll admit I’m not the most up-to-date guy out there regarding news, but I feel there’s some kind of inquietude over there that’s not so present here i Italy for example.
But then again, the U.S. are freaking huge and have a lot of really big cities, and I probably should also take into account the different nature of your gun laws compared to how it works here.

@clvr Well that's one for you, I thought inquietude was a typo for ineptitude. I asked my wife, she has a Masters Degree in creative writing from NYU (it's a big college in NY) and she didn't know the word either, which made me feel better.

But it's a great word, and I think I'll be using it. I'm really surprised I didn't know it, feels like a word I should have come across in philosophy classes in college, I was big on all that stuff back then, existentialism, nihilism, zeitgeist, alienation. And all that Freudian psychology stuff too, and Jung's Collective Unconscious stayed with me. (Ok it's late and I'm tired and just rambling, I'll stop now.)

And right after I wrote that another shooting on a college campus in Michigan, I think some student shot his parents to death, I've been avoiding it.

But yeah, seems to be a US thing, like no health insurance. I'm waiting for US Spring myself. (Like Arab Spring a few years back.) As much as I think we need stricter gun laws, and actually following the ones we have, we do have some, at the same time I'm worried once gov't does start taking guns away it's only a matter of time before it's like 1984 over here. Though the state by state legalization of marijuana will help keep the masses in line. It's all bread & circuses, Ceaser got that one right. Trump wants to send packaged food to the millions on food stamps. If it weren't so sad it would be funny.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/12/food-stamps-trump-administration-343245

OK, I think I've lost the plot.

@rjejr Hey, I’m glad I could teach one word for once! 😄
To be honest, I wasn’t really sure it was a word at first ahahahahah
The thing is, if you speak a Latin language and have a decent enough ear, oftentimes it suffices to take the word you wanna use and “Englishize” it a bit 😆
That’s probably due to the fact that 2/3 of English words come from Latin (according to Merriam Webster), despite it being a Getmanic language. In fact, the word I wanted to translate was “inquietudine”, so I thought “hey, if it exists in English it’s going to be ‘inquietude’, let’s look it up” and I found out that it exists indeed.
Back to the Latin words thing, I often notice English native speakers bewildered by a lot of words I find very simple, and that’s exactly because I use them in my own language and so it’s only natural for me to think of those when speaking English.

On the other topic: yep, “panem et circenses” is such an enduring truth it still works nowadays.
Take Berlusconi for example: he ascended to power exactly for those reasons, as he owned televisions, radios, newspapers and even AC Milan, which is one of the most famous and glorious clubs in the history of football (well, it must be pretty famous over there too, right?).
Though to be honest I’ve never really understood this food stamp thing: is it a service that offers food for a low price to homeless and/or very poor people?
And correct me if I’m wrong, but what Trump wants to do is give away canned food instead of tickets that entitle you to a hot meal?

@clvr “inquietudine”

OK, that was doesn't even look like a real word to me so it must be Italian. I wouldn't have even made a guess, I just would have Googled it straight away, so good choice with your guess on the English version, which I was wrong about, but close enough that the sentence made sense to me.

"Food stamps" are what they are called by most people, they used to get sent in the mail is tiny booklets of stamps that poor people used to go food shopping, not prepared meals. My parents got them when I was a kid for a few years. About 43 million Americans get them, but nobody ever talks about why 15% of our population needs food assistance, we just like to assume they are all lazy and gaming the system.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/21/donald-trump/trump-43-million-americans-food-stamps/

I think a few years back, maybe a decade or more ago, they switched from actual paper food stamps to debit cards. Now Trump is advocating boxes of food, which most sane people assume he knows a guy who either manufactures the boxes or owns a canning plant to can the food in. Somehow it's supposed to save money, boxing and mailing all of these boxes rather than adding money to a debit card every month, but nobody has exactly explained how.

“panem et circenses”

I like it even better in Italian. We'll never have a true revolution in this country, too much of both to go around. And failing that, drugs. And failing that, pit the "others" against each other, white vs black, straight vs gay, men vs women, Christians vs Muslims, Democrats vs Republicans (who are almost old white men, more same than different anyway) Pro-Life vs Pro-choice, Pro gun vs anti gun. The 99% are never going to overthrow the 1%, too busy fighting each other.

I know of AC Milan, and a few of the other big ones, South American teams are pretty big here, Brazil mostly, but Man U is the big one. I'm not even going to spell it out more than that and just assume everyone knows Man U.

@rjejr yep, it is a word, I can assure you ahahahah
It just probably doesn’t sound as you think, it’d weird me out too if I were to pronounce it as if it were an English word 😄

About the food stamps thing, it really is crazy that 43m people = 15% of the population needs food assistence. It’s a huge number.
And also yes, if that’s how it is it sounds pretty fishy for Trump to want to go back to actual foof instead of credit cards; it’s hard not to think he’s got friends with which to exchange favors. See, I don’t know how it works over there, but rest assured that when talking about politics with an Italian, they’ll likely be (other than pretty uninterested) really really disillusioned, and they’ll tend to always think of some conspiracies or stuff like that. It’s just that we’ve been bent over backwards for 20+ years by our politics, so noone trusts them and we’re always ready to expect the worst.
Some of the most important elections in the last 15 years were held a couple of days ago, and still people (including me, obviously) didn’t even know what to vote or, worse, if anything could come out of these elections.
Oh, and we’re already accepting bets on when these clowns will go down; see, I’ve recently found out the average duration of an Italian government is something like 1,3 years. Little more than a year.
The future does look pretty grim indeed.

I don’t wanna be an a**, but actually “panem et circenses” is Latin 😆
But I can get why people abroad (and especially anglophone people) tend to mix up the two, as Italian is the closest language there is to Latin.

And yep, once again I agree with your take: I’ve heard many times over the years people foreshadowing the long-awaited revolution here, but the thing is it’ll never happen.
At least, I don’t think it’ll happen in any of the major first world countries, unless something really incredible happens.
It won’t because nowadays we’re all a flaccid (did that again, take an Italian word and cut off the termination 😆) mass of indecisive, ignorant, self-centred and self-righteous idiots.
I mean, just look at the uprising that’s going on in the Switch Gold Points rewards article comment section: we’re all sooo good at complaining for the pettiest of things, but can’t recognize the really important ones when they’re in front on us, or at the very best we look at them and shrug.
I think it’s the combination of two factors that made us like that: having a lot of expensive commodities and services we’re to used to and won’t let go of; and the general mind-numbness that’s so widespread nowadays, thanks to the constant news bombardment (which makes even the most tragic of news “normal” and old in two days’ time) and the dissociation due to the social media and such.
But then again, that’s just my take and I’m just a little cynical b*stard ahahahahahah

Of course you can leave Man U like that, you could even have said MUFC and I’d have understood ahahahah
Actually, it’s been my favorite football team since I was a small child, the one that made fall in love with football (thank you Ruud Van Nistelrooij 😍), though to be honest my first club is Juventus. I don’t know if I have to explain this, but since American sports work so differently, I will: I love Man U but I can’t consider it my first club as I’m Italian, so my favorite team “has got” to be Italian, sorta.
That doesn’t stop me from having at least a club I like from each major football league, though.

I knew Man U is pretty much the most famous club in the world, but I didn’t know Brazilian clubs are that known over there. To be honest I’d have bet the likes of Juventus, Real Madrid or Bayern München were more famous than, I don’t know, Palmeiras or Flamengo.

@clvr "but actually “panem et circenses” is Latin"

I'm pretty sure my brain knew that, the "et", as in "et tu Brute'", gives it away, not sure why I said Italian, but you're right, they are pretty close.

And you may want to go back and edit the word right before that before some police drone comes and finds us. You'll know the word when you get
there. 😛

I do also know Real Madrid, but there are more, way way more, South Americans in the US than Spaniards, so Brazil is more likely to be on TV in a bar. But I have no idea how soccer conferences work around the world, in the US sports are kind of simple, MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL. Soccer around the world is more like college basketball in the US, lots of regional conferences with teams playing each other a little bit, but then all coming together each March so bars can sell a lot of beer and chicken wings. Soccer is like the metric system, the whole world uses it but us. 😆

From the US perspective the recent Italian elections didn't end well, fascists one, Rome is a slum, but I think the media realizes they can't say anything too negative b/c our government is a shambles so saying anything bad about anybody else would be the pot calling the kettle black. I also canceled my newspaper delivery and cable TV so I'm really not following anything besides on twitter these days, I'm succumbing to the stupidity of the masses. If it's true ignorance is bliss maybe I'll find out. 😊 Though I'd settle for calm, calm would be nice for a change.

Switch gold points. Yeah don't get me started. The 5% is nice for digital purchases, I'll give them that. They never should have canceled Club Nintendo though, I have so much swag, unless they had something better planned, not so so so much worse. They can't win.

@rjejr Edited 😉
And that’s correct, “et” is “and” in Latin (and French too, but the “t” isn’t pronounced), while in Italian its “e”. The whole thing in Italian would sound something like “pane e spettacoli circensi”, but it’s a bit tricky to translate as “circenses” in Latin is a masculine plural noun, while the analogue in Italian (“circensi”) is an adjective that can’t be used as a noun, so I added “spettacoli”, which means “shows” or “performances”.
See, I’ve studied Latin in high school as it’s a standard subject in most high schools here in Italy, and I can tell you that translating it to Italian is way trickier than it may seem.
The grammar is quite different, and it’s way deeper than that of Italian (which is no slouch), and understanding it is often more an act of interpreting than plainly translating.
If you,ce studied it (or ancient Greek, for example) yourself you’ll surely get what I mean, but it’s pretty hard to explain. It was not taught as another language you’re trying to learn to communicate with other people; I didn’t get it at the time and I didn’t enjoy it, but now I understand how it can help one’s logical and lateral thinking.

A wall of text and I’ve only addressed one point 😅😂
Good luck reading it when all is said and done ahahahah

About football (or soccer, as you say 😛): it was pretty obvious why South American teams are better known than most European clubs, silly me 😁
I know you have Conferences, regular seasons, play-offs, drafts, salary caps etc., but I don’t really watch sports other than football so I can’t really wrap my head around all this stuff 😁
Here in Europe the various national leaugues are pretty straightforward affairs (maybe used improperly but it sounded well to me ahahah): each country has its league with an amount of teams that is usually 20 or 18; each team faces every other team in the league twice in the span of 9/10 months, for a total of 36/38 matches per team. Winning a match nets you 3 points, a draw means one point each, and losing obviously gives no points. The first team wins (duh), and the first teams have access to European cups; the number varies, but for example first four teams of each of the 5 major leagues (UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France) get to take part to the Champions League.

“our government is a shambles so saying anything bad about anybody else would be the pot calling the kettle black.”
Yep, I remember that when Trump was elected one of most common comments was “ha! Look who’s laughing at us for Berlusconi now”.
Which, truth be told, is very sad, as it’s not like we’re one to talk 😂

Well actually I used to think Club Nintendo was pretty lame in its final years, so I don’t really miss it that much. But I bet it was a lot different over there.
The new thing is actually nice per se - who gives you anything these days? - but the way it’s rigged towards digital purchases is indeed offputting. I mean, 60 cents for a 60€ game?
To be honest I’d be happier if we were given no reward program, but a storefront with constant uber tempting sales like the PS Store instead. That would make me buy more digital games (and games in general).

@clvr Yeah, sorry about the soccer football thing, no slight intended. Even if that sport did get popular here it's only getting popular as soccer, the NFL is too well known, soccer is never going to be called football here.

Well maybe not "never", if the Caucasians stop breeding and the influx of immigrants gets past Trump's wall it could be football, well more likely futbol, in a few decades.

I took a few years of Spanish and a couple of German, but nothing really stuck. We're still big on English first, and only, over here. My one son is taking Spanish, the other Italian, but you can only get so fluent learning 45 minutes a day. So no greek, latin, or anything else interesting. Both my kids can read Hebrew, but they don't understand what they're reading. It's really pronunciation, not reading, but nobody ever called it that during their 5 years of religious instruction. 😛

Club Nintendo was good over here, I got a lot of cool stuff, some good digital games. They should have just canceled it, no mention, build up or hype for My Nintendo, then just announce it when it was open for business. It would still be a worthless mess, but a non-anticipated non-Club Nintendo replacement worthless mess. It would just be something pathetic that we all ignored, like the Wii U DDP, digital deluxe promotion. Most people forgot they had it, just used it, but nobody really complained about it because it just was. Who knows, maybe 2 or 3 years from now it will be good. Or just go away and not be replaced.

So both our governments are messed up, China just made theirs President for life, yet people keep on voting. There's a joke in there about getting the leadership we deserve. 😉 Of course our President had 2 million less votes, so not all of us deserve it. I voted for a different person who I thought was qualified rather than just popular, I'm weird that way. Knew she didn't stand a chance, but my conscience is clear. 😆

The US will have a good President and we'll all be playing futbol and speaking latin before Nintendo starts having good sales. Star Fox Zero on Wii U is still $50 on the eShop. Who is buying that? Make it $15 or $20, try to get a few sales before the Wii U eShop shuts down. It would be $5 on PSN, $3.50 with PS+. It's like they have absolutely no comprehension of "supply and demand".

@rjejr no problem man, I was having a slight at you Americans 😛
Well I think it’s great your kids are learning foreign languages, and I’d advise you to have them keep studying (if I may, obviously) for a number of reasons: first of all, pre-pubescent kids are way more receptive and their brain is a lot more malleable, so that means learning something at that age is likely to have a bigger impact and influence their proficiency in that field of study. I consider myself lucky as I started learning English by myself when I was 10 or so, and that has impacted big time on my language proficiency. You can trust what I’m saying as I’m currently studying Psychology and hopefully will get a degree next year 😄
The second reason that springs to mind is the fact everyone speaks English: as you said, you anglophone people tend to rest a lot on your laurels so to speak, because if everyone speaks our language why care learning another one? And that’s exactly what may (or may not) give your kids an advantage in the future when they’ll be looking for a job. Over here it’s very common to study a second language (99% English), and often even a third one at school, but still the Italians are horrible at languages, believe me. I’m in a very lucky minority, and I’m sure my “talent” (if we wanna call it that) will certainly be helpful one day when looking for a job to settle down. Well, it technically already has in smaller jobs I’ve had, for example having to serve all foreign customers in the bar I used to work at; it was a win-win, actually, as I really enjoy practicing my English or Spanish whenever I can (as you probably have already understood) 😄

Yeah you kid, but trust me Nintendo is never going to be that consumer-friendly. The DDP was a plain joke, I’ve never even thought of using it, but at least this system will be put to use; I think it technically is exactly what I wanted from them, it’s just their generosity (or lack thereof) never ceases to amaze. But then again, the only thing we’re entitled to when buying a game is, well, the game, so I guess I can’t complain.
Certainly it wouldn’t hurt to implement some kind of constant, heavy discounts, but if they didn’t when they were at their lowest, I doubt they will now that people buys everything Ninty throws at them.