@MeloMan “Obviously it's to keep from having to physically load the game on there which keeps costs down for devs, but I'm just trying to get the biggest picture of their advantage here...”
I think this is the zero sum. The developers (EDIT: publisher) pays less per product. The consumer gets an inferior product. I don’t believe there are any advantages for the consumer over full physical, and that cost-saving on physical media storage is the only advantage for devs.
@HeadPirate The standard Japanese Switch 2 is almost exactly the same markup over the Switch 1 when compared to the US.
49,980÷32,978=1.5155… compared to 449.99÷299.99=1.50002. So roughly 52% more in Japan as opposed to almost exactly 50% more in the US.
For Japanese consumers, who are paid in yen, it’s very comparable. The reason it looks cheap for American consumers is that the yen is still weak against the dollar compared to five years ago (though things have taken a wobble in recent weeks).
This is almost certainly the main motive behind creating two consoles for the Japanese market: a Japanese language-only version and a ‘language unlocked’ version — presumably equivalent to that sold overseas. It stops foreign buyers snapping up ‘cheap’ Japanese consoles, while also ensuring that Japanese consumers don’t have to pay a significantly higher markup over the Switch 1 compared to other countries.
As someone planning to get a ‘language unlocked’ version, I’m not particularly happy about having to pay ~40% more for the privilege, but I can’t deny there’s a degree of logic.
Like, you don’t have the advantages of full physical (functioning game on the card, low memory footprint) or full digital (ease of switching games without replacing carts)?
“Boycott” and its cousin “hard pass” are very dramatic terms for something entirely unremarkable: continuing to not own something you currently don’t own.
“Boycotting” is not an action: it is an inaction. And generally, doing nothing doesn’t make much of a statement (with some exceptions).
Consider me going to a supermarket to get some orange juice. Needless to say, nearly everything in the supermarket remains unbought — everything except the OJ. Would I be “boycotting” practically the entire contents of the supermarket in this case? Not in my head, but in effect, yes.
The packet on Salt ‘n’ Vinegar crisps near the checkout? Unbought. Wild watermelon flavoured mouthwash? Unbought. XXL incontinence pants? Hard unbought. That fluid which I think has something to do with dentures but I’m not really sure? Super hard unbought. And as for all the supermarkets I didn’t go to? Well, not even the orange juice got bought there. That’s gotta be the hardest of hard passes.
Did the message get through to these companies? No. Firstly because there was never a message. But even if there was, it wouldn’t make much difference.
I’m not saying that Nintendo’s pricing will have no effect on sales, nor that I particularly like it.
The console itself I can stomach: not cheap, but more technically impressive than I was expecting. Given that it’ll get a lot of use over a long time, I’ll take that over a cheaper console that doesn’t feel like much of a step-up from the Switch 1.
The game pricing I’m less comfortable with…
Will I be “boycotting” games because of it? No, but I’ll be buying fewer games, more selectively, as each purchase feels like more of a financial hit. Realistically, I’ll probably pay stupid money for Mario Kart because I really like and want Mario Kart.
…But that’s less money to spend on something like Metroid, which I might have considered if the games in general were priced lower. I would never consider myself “boycotting” Metroid. If anything, Mario Kart would be a worthier target for “boycotting”. But I want Mario Kart a lot and Metroid only a little, so it’s the latter that will remain unbought.
Metroid fans might be irritated because my lack of purchase means the series won’t get prioritised going forwards; meanwhile buying Mario Kart only encourages Nintendo to push game prices higher.
…And they’d be right.
But I don’t buy games for Metroid fans.
I buy them for me.
Children are senselessly burning alive in Gaza and Ukraine and the world’s most powerful man has teamed up with the world’s richest man to accelerate the breakdown of the systems that sustain all life on Earth. I’m not going to lose sleep because user @SamusIsHot3627 is annoyed that I didn’t buy Prime 4. They wouldn’t otherwise know because I wouldn’t usually announce it.
“Boycott” is a satisfyingly simple label; it allows one to feel that one’s inaction isn’t entirely impotent. There are patterns to people’s purchases which are naturally influenced by pricing, but these are best thought as interconnected gradients — not as a simple ON-OFF switch.
Personally, the pricing has definitely influenced what I will buy and when, but ultimately I am only a single pixel in a much larger picture, and the difference between what I “boycott” and simply “don’t buy” broadly doesn’t matter.
Never really understood the campaign against weapon degradation. All weapons are just variations on a theme, and no one is so unique or precious that you can’t find another just like it with little effort.
Weapons are ultimately consumables just like arrows and even food. One of the core elements of survival games (a genre the Switch Zelda games heavily draw from) is using one’s resources wisely.
If I pick up a farmer’s rake and immediately chuck it at an enemy, it will shatter instantly. If I want another I’ll have to go find one, or use a different weapon (hopefully more wisely) instead.
I can’t have my rake and yeet it, too.
EDIT: Turns out I was thinking of the Farming Hoe and/or Pitchfork. There is no rake.
@DwaynesGames @Wisestfool Thanks for the responses, guys. I suppose most retailers already know they’re going to sell through their stocks in the early days, so creating some goodwill along the way is an added bonus!
Very naive question here, but what financial incentive do retailers have to combat scalping? If the only thing retailers want to do is sell consoles, then does it matter who they sell to?
@Baker1000 The Japanese Switch 2 is just over 50% (49,980÷32,978=1.5155…) more expensive than the Japanese Switch 1. The US Switch 2 is almost exactly 50% more than the US Switch 1 (449.99÷299.99=1.50002).
The yen is weak compared to the dollar, so pretty everything in Japan is currently cheap to Americans. Japanese consumers are paying almost exactly the same markup for the Switch 2 as Americans.
How much of that 10x more graphics is graph and how much is ics? Coz if it’s 5x more graph and 5x more ics then that’s actually 5x5=25x more graph-ics in total but if it’s all just ics and no graph then what’s even the point?
These are the questions Digital Flandery should be anskwering.
I am fully in support of more ooph-inducing Kate Graysian strap-lines. They feel like a small victory in a world where AI is quietly homogenising everything.
Stings a bit to have to pay ~40% more for the multi-language version as opposed to the Japanese region-locked version, but even then it still comes out cheaper than buying a system from the UK.
I suppose this stops Japanese consoles being pinched by international scalpers (weak yen = cheap console), or the Japanese market having to pay international prices when the yen is working against them.
It’s probably actually a decent compromise. But I will take this opportunity to grumble anyway.
TIM CROOK IS NOT A RACOON HE IS A RACOON DOG AND HE IS NOT A RACOON DOG HE IS A MAN IN A SUIT AND HE IS NOT A MAN IN A SUIT HE IS A VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION OF A MAN IN A SUIT DRESSED AS AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC RACOON DOG FROM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SERIES OF VIDEO GAMES OMG WHY CAN’T PEOPLE GET THIS RIGHT!?
Because it’s the written form of a vocalisation (like ‘ahh’, ‘oh’, hmm…’, ‘umm…’, etc.) rather than a word referring to a specific action/object/concept/etc., it’s difficult to ‘translate’ it in the way one could translate ‘猫/neko’ to ‘cat’ or ‘pomme’ to ‘apple’.
What does one mean when one says “aah”? Potentially many things.
Nevertheless, I think the interpretation of ‘ほうほう/hōhō’ as a ‘vocalisation in response to something one finds in intriguing’ is on point. All that remains is so find an appropriate ’match’ to express the same sentiment in English.
“Well now… (that’s interesting)” seems to fit the general vibe, but many good/better alternatives have already been posted.
All we know is that Sakurai knows something we don’t. Which is nothing new, really. I don’t really see how people are specifically reading ‘Kid Icarus’ into this…
Really @Olliemar28, this article should come with a warning of its own. That’s some fairly explicit imagery right there. I hope the poor Wii U consented.
Japanese games should stick to classic Japanese themes like those found in golden-era JRPGs: tales of elves and goblins and wizards and citadels and knights and knaves and kings and queens and princes and princesses and…
Could someone give me a better idea of what the ‘plastic wrap’ in this case refers to?
Is this just the transparent plastic film used on box sets and other larger items, or does apply individual packs of cards?
If is does apply to individual packs, then I’m forced to conclude that either each booster pack has a separate plastic wrap distinct from the pack material itself, or that the pack material is the plastic wrap in question. That is, they open each pack for you at the point of purchase.
“There’s no such thing as a tailwind. Either you’re pushing against a headwind or you’re having a good day.”
Originally a cycling quote, but there’s a broader truth in there somewhere.
Fair fortune lets us to move unimpeded and thus feels invisible. Luck saves us time, but the time saved barely registers as it was never experienced in the first place. In contrast, facing wave after wave of misfortune can feel like wading through an ocean of treacle. But considerably less delicious.
Imagine you’re trying to get a rare item with a 2% drop rate and you get it after 5 monsters. The odds were against you: there was a 90%+ probability this wouldn’t happen so you should really count yourself lucky. Yet you’re more likely to just smile and move on to the next grindy-ass loot-hunt without giving it much thought.
Let’s say the next grind is for an even rarer item with a mere 1% drop rate.
You take out 100 monsters. Nothing. You feel irritated. You plough through another 100 monsters to no avail. You curse the heavens. You are about to give up, but decide to defeat one more demidragon before going to bed. Finally, on your 201st try, you get the diamantine draco-dust or whatever you were hunting for. Relief courses through you, mixed with righteous indignation. How could you have been forced to spend so much time in the depths of the dank, dreary dungeon defeating hordes of demidragons? Seriously, what are the chances!?!?
Ignoring the rhetorical nature of the question: about 13%.
So yes, you were unlucky. But that streak of unluckiness should be contrasted with the first case in which you got the 2% drop-rate item after just 5 monsters. The odds were over 90% against you then. Yet how much time did you spend basking in the warm glow of that particular streak of luck?
Probably not as much time as you spent feeling aggrieved about the second case.
You could use this example as the basis for a piece about how human psychology and intuition are mismatched with the mathematical realities of probability and statistics.
But I think the more interesting psychological question is, what drives the desire to the grind in the first place? What were the goals of the game’s creators, and how do they align with those of the player?
Whenever I read about a great grindy gaming goal that someone has set themself, I can’t help but think of Hetsu’s gift from BotW: the player’s reward for tracking down all 900 Korok seeds and maxing out all the stashes.
It’s a polished turd that does nothing.
A slap in the face to players who dedicated so much time to game? Perhaps. But perhaps those players needed a slap if they were expecting anything more.
BotW has plenty of things to collect, but it wasn’t conceived as a collectathon. The reason the devs scattered 900 Korok seeds around is not because they wanted to you scour every corner of the world for them, but so that whatever corner of the world you find yourself in, there is something to discover — a pleasant surprise.
Really, that’s all these rare drops amount to: a pleasant surprise.
All of which is to say…
If you find the grind unpleasant, bereft of all surprise, then giving up such vain pursuits of loot could well be wise.
“Hey babe, why don’t you come back to my place? We can get cozy on the couch and admire my 1,972 piece LEGO Super Mario: Mario Kart - Mario & Standard Kart LEGO set until sun rises.”
But really Jim, could you not have blurred some of these pictures out? Mario’s exhaust pipe is sticking out for all the world to see.
I die a little inside whenever I hear a game’s problems attributed to ‘lazy devs’.
It’s almost never the case that those developing the game simply ‘couldn’t be bothered’.
For larger teams, you potentially have unrealistic timeframes, poor work flow, out of touch management, lack of communication and a million other issues that can arise when trying to get something as complex as large group of people (sometimes spread over multiple countries) working on something as complex as a modern video game.
For solo devs and smaller teams, many of those issues are avoided, replaced instead with the pressure of wearing a million different specialist hats while juggling a hundred different balls.
Problems can arise in either case, but it seems misguided the point the finger at ‘lazy’ devs who have often sacrificed their health and sanity to get these projects out of the door.
Hope the Agency for Cultural Affairs didn’t forget to SMASH that Subscribe button, hit Like, and butt-stomp the hell out of that bell icon so that it stays notified whenever new content drops.
The fact that series is over and there won’t be new content any time soon notwithstanding.
@MSaturn It’s fun to roast Gibson but Fender has had its fair share of sick burns, too!
Putting Stratoclysmic pyromania to one side, I’m with you all the way. There’s a healthy amount ninetees/noughties nostalgia around at the moment which seems ripe to capitalise on… but perhaps easier said than done.
The timing of these controllers is curious though, isn’t it? It makes you wonder if something is brewing…
I’d love to see Nintendo being Miiverse back. But there’s no way that they would (or should) do so.
That said, I hope the Switch 2 has some sort of whacky Nintendo-flavoured social feature. Stick a step-counter and proximity sensor in a Joy-con and you have the social pedometer function of the 3DS but without the bulk of having to carry the entire system around.
Basically, what Gavin said: StreetPass 2 or something like it!
It would take an awful lot to loosen that stranglehold. I doubt this move is specifically anti-VISA, as the majority of Japanese card purchases come from VISA-affiliated cards anyway.
@jojobar I felt quite similar. I loved Celeste and really enjoyed Towerfall, but seeing the trailer for Earthblade just reminded of all the competently-made-but-somehow-uninspiring Metroidvanias that I’d fallen off before.
This whole thing makes me wonder how many great games really started off with the intention of being ‘epic’. Celeste might well have become worthy of that description, but it began life as a simple prototype made for a Game Jam. Splatoon was refined from a few featureless tofu cubes. Smash (probably the most epic fighting game in terms of sheer scale) had similarly humble beginnings.
It seems to me that many products which became something ‘epic’ grew from a very small seed, which was a nevertheless strong enough as a core idea to sustain the entire project. Aiming for ‘epic’ as a goal in itself probably doesn’t lead to much more stress, frustration and disappointment unless you’re… I dunno, Michelangelo or something (and I’m sure even he suffered setbacks).
I don’t envy the dev team working on the follow up to Celeste, but I’m glad they’ve freed themselves from the shackles of the sunken cost fallacy. Hopefully they can all find something less epic but more inspiring to work on!
@ancientlii I think the main message is that climbing a mountain (either literally or as a somewhat one-the-nose metaphor for overcoming personal hardship) is really freaking… hard, and that you often need to fail a dozen (or even several hundred) times before you succeed. In that respect, the whole ‘dying a lot’ thing seems pretty on message.
If you collect lots of strawberries you are pictured eating lots of strawberries at the end. If you collect only a few strawberries then you are pictured eating only a few strawberries at the end. I’m sure we all have personal definitions of “being shat on” but this doesn’t come under my mine.
I’m also not sure what the issue is with being taught a core mechanic (air dash) by a crow early in the game. The scene takes about 3 seconds and equips with you a move that is necessary to play the rest of the game.
Comments 2,900
Re: Switch 2 Game-Key Cards Won't Make It Easy For Physical Collectors In Japan
@MeloMan “Obviously it's to keep from having to physically load the game on there which keeps costs down for devs, but I'm just trying to get the biggest picture of their advantage here...”
I think this is the zero sum. The
developers(EDIT: publisher) pays less per product. The consumer gets an inferior product. I don’t believe there are any advantages for the consumer over full physical, and that cost-saving on physical media storage is the only advantage for devs.Happy to hear if there’s more than that, though!
Re: Nintendo Won't Have Enough Switch 2 Consoles To Satisfy Demand In Japan
@HeadPirate The standard Japanese Switch 2 is almost exactly the same markup over the Switch 1 when compared to the US.
49,980÷32,978=1.5155… compared to 449.99÷299.99=1.50002. So roughly 52% more in Japan as opposed to almost exactly 50% more in the US.
For Japanese consumers, who are paid in yen, it’s very comparable. The reason it looks cheap for American consumers is that the yen is still weak against the dollar compared to five years ago (though things have taken a wobble in recent weeks).
See here: https://www.chartoasis.com/usd-jpy-forex-chart-5-years-cop0/
This is almost certainly the main motive behind creating two consoles for the Japanese market: a Japanese language-only version and a ‘language unlocked’ version — presumably equivalent to that sold overseas. It stops foreign buyers snapping up ‘cheap’ Japanese consoles, while also ensuring that Japanese consumers don’t have to pay a significantly higher markup over the Switch 1 compared to other countries.
As someone planning to get a ‘language unlocked’ version, I’m not particularly happy about having to pay ~40% more for the privilege, but I can’t deny there’s a degree of logic.
Re: Switch 2 Game-Key Cards Won't Make It Easy For Physical Collectors In Japan
@FishyS But still a downgrade from full-fat physical, right?
Re: Switch 2 Game-Key Cards Won't Make It Easy For Physical Collectors In Japan
Oh dear…
This is… this is quite bad, isn’t it?
Like, you don’t have the advantages of full physical (functioning game on the card, low memory footprint) or full digital (ease of switching games without replacing carts)?
Re: Major French Retailer Says Switch 2 Pre-Orders At "Historic Level"
@BaronLaw Lots and lots of Mario Kart. And consequently, lots of blue shells, too.
Re: Major French Retailer Says Switch 2 Pre-Orders At "Historic Level"
“Boycott” and its cousin “hard pass” are very dramatic terms for something entirely unremarkable: continuing to not own something you currently don’t own.
“Boycotting” is not an action: it is an inaction. And generally, doing nothing doesn’t make much of a statement (with some exceptions).
Consider me going to a supermarket to get some orange juice. Needless to say, nearly everything in the supermarket remains unbought — everything except the OJ. Would I be “boycotting” practically the entire contents of the supermarket in this case? Not in my head, but in effect, yes.
The packet on Salt ‘n’ Vinegar crisps near the checkout? Unbought. Wild watermelon flavoured mouthwash? Unbought. XXL incontinence pants? Hard unbought. That fluid which I think has something to do with dentures but I’m not really sure? Super hard unbought. And as for all the supermarkets I didn’t go to? Well, not even the orange juice got bought there. That’s gotta be the hardest of hard passes.
Did the message get through to these companies? No. Firstly because there was never a message. But even if there was, it wouldn’t make much difference.
I’m not saying that Nintendo’s pricing will have no effect on sales, nor that I particularly like it.
The console itself I can stomach: not cheap, but more technically impressive than I was expecting. Given that it’ll get a lot of use over a long time, I’ll take that over a cheaper console that doesn’t feel like much of a step-up from the Switch 1.
The game pricing I’m less comfortable with…
Will I be “boycotting” games because of it? No, but I’ll be buying fewer games, more selectively, as each purchase feels like more of a financial hit. Realistically, I’ll probably pay stupid money for Mario Kart because I really like and want Mario Kart.
…But that’s less money to spend on something like Metroid, which I might have considered if the games in general were priced lower. I would never consider myself “boycotting” Metroid. If anything, Mario Kart would be a worthier target for “boycotting”. But I want Mario Kart a lot and Metroid only a little, so it’s the latter that will remain unbought.
Metroid fans might be irritated because my lack of purchase means the series won’t get prioritised going forwards; meanwhile buying Mario Kart only encourages Nintendo to push game prices higher.
…And they’d be right.
But I don’t buy games for Metroid fans.
I buy them for me.
Children are senselessly burning alive in Gaza and Ukraine and the world’s most powerful man has teamed up with the world’s richest man to accelerate the breakdown of the systems that sustain all life on Earth. I’m not going to lose sleep because user @SamusIsHot3627 is annoyed that I didn’t buy Prime 4. They wouldn’t otherwise know because I wouldn’t usually announce it.
“Boycott” is a satisfyingly simple label; it allows one to feel that one’s inaction isn’t entirely impotent. There are patterns to people’s purchases which are naturally influenced by pricing, but these are best thought as interconnected gradients — not as a simple ON-OFF switch.
Personally, the pricing has definitely influenced what I will buy and when, but ultimately I am only a single pixel in a much larger picture, and the difference between what I “boycott” and simply “don’t buy” broadly doesn’t matter.
Re: You Can Finally Repair Weapons In Zelda: BOTW And TOTK On Switch 2 (Sort Of)
Never really understood the campaign against weapon degradation. All weapons are just variations on a theme, and no one is so unique or precious that you can’t find another just like it with little effort.
Weapons are ultimately consumables just like arrows and even food. One of the core elements of survival games (a genre the Switch Zelda games heavily draw from) is using one’s resources wisely.
If I pick up a farmer’s rake and immediately chuck it at an enemy, it will shatter instantly. If I want another I’ll have to go find one, or use a different weapon (hopefully more wisely) instead.
I can’t have my rake and yeet it, too.
EDIT: Turns out I was thinking of the Farming Hoe and/or Pitchfork. There is no rake.
…Fork’s sake…
Re: Japanese Retailer Is Asking The Public How To Combat Switch 2 Scalpers
@DwaynesGames @Wisestfool Thanks for the responses, guys. I suppose most retailers already know they’re going to sell through their stocks in the early days, so creating some goodwill along the way is an added bonus!
Re: Japanese Retailer Is Asking The Public How To Combat Switch 2 Scalpers
Very naive question here, but what financial incentive do retailers have to combat scalping? If the only thing retailers want to do is sell consoles, then does it matter who they sell to?
Re: Nintendo Of America President Says Tariffs "Not Factored" Into Switch 2 Price
@Baker1000 The Japanese Switch 2 is just over 50% (49,980÷32,978=1.5155…) more expensive than the Japanese Switch 1. The US Switch 2 is almost exactly 50% more than the US Switch 1 (449.99÷299.99=1.50002).
The yen is weak compared to the dollar, so pretty everything in Japan is currently cheap to Americans. Japanese consumers are paying almost exactly the same markup for the Switch 2 as Americans.
Re: Elden Ring's Switch 2 Physical Version Seemingly Tarnished By 'Game-Key Card' Release
@Skunkfish @Mana_Knight The same pun is also in the title of the article!
Re: Elden Ring's Switch 2 Physical Version Seemingly Tarnished By 'Game-Key Card' Release
@Zuljaras Thank you for taking the effort to inquire about this.
Re: Nvidia: Switch 2 Has "10x The Graphics Performance Of The Nintendo Switch"
How much of that 10x more graphics is graph and how much is ics? Coz if it’s 5x more graph and 5x more ics then that’s actually 5x5=25x more graph-ics in total but if it’s all just ics and no graph then what’s even the point?
These are the questions Digital Flandery should be anskwering.
Re: Hands On: Rock Surfing And Boulder Bashing - 'Donkey Kong Bananza' Is Brilliantly Bonkers
This looks to have all the big, dumb, beefy, joyously cartoonish physically of Jungle Beat and I couldn’t be happier.
Smashing! Just smashing!
If I’m not mistaken, that game was made by the team that went on to make Galaxy. I wonder if some of the same staff are working on this…
Re: Please Make Sure You're Wearing Trousers When Using Switch 2's Mouse Controls
But how will I get the full experience in Waifu Simulator XV: Dungeon Lovers Uncovered ~ My Sweetheart is an Enchanted Dragon ~ Untold Future Edition?
Re: Uh Oh, Switch 2's Home Screen Looks Just As Bland As We Feared
Putting the 'meh' in 'homehscreen‘
I am fully in support of more ooph-inducing Kate Graysian strap-lines. They feel like a small victory in a world where AI is quietly homogenising everything.
Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Priced At $449.99 For The Base Console
Stings a bit to have to pay ~40% more for the multi-language version as opposed to the Japanese region-locked version, but even then it still comes out cheaper than buying a system from the UK.
I suppose this stops Japanese consoles being pinched by international scalpers (weak yen = cheap console), or the Japanese market having to pay international prices when the yen is working against them.
It’s probably actually a decent compromise. But I will take this opportunity to grumble anyway.
Re: The Duration Of Tomorrow's Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Has Been Confirmed
@MrHaggi Absolute blad lad.
Re: Random: Fantasy Life's Animal Crossing Parody Starring 'Tim Crook' Is A Good Laugh
TIM CROOK IS NOT A RACOON HE IS A RACOON DOG AND HE IS NOT A RACOON DOG HE IS A MAN IN A SUIT AND HE IS NOT A MAN IN A SUIT HE IS A VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION OF A MAN IN A SUIT DRESSED AS AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC RACOON DOG FROM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SERIES OF VIDEO GAMES OMG WHY CAN’T PEOPLE GET THIS RIGHT!?
Re: Hang On, Are People More Excited For Tomodachi Life Than Switch 2?
Thing is, Switch 2 doesn’t have ears.
Well, I suppose it does, if you count Joy-Con as ears.
…And they basically are ears, aren’t they? Ears with twiddly bits and fancy sensors and a camera button. But still ears.
…So there goes that argument.
Re: Listen Up, Mii Are Officially Back And They Now Have Ears
MAMMA MII-EAR!!!
Re: Random: Chances Are You've Been Pronouncing 'Balatro' Wrong
It’s not nin-JAH-la:
It’s NIN-jala.
It’s not ba-LAH-tro:
It’s ‘BA-latro’.
It’s not ma-RI-o…
It’s-a me, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-rio!
It is, however, ‘ma-RI-a’… these things aren’t exactly consistent.
Re: Random: Sakurai Sends Fans Into Meltdown Ahead Of Switch Direct
Because it’s the written form of a vocalisation (like ‘ahh’, ‘oh’, hmm…’, ‘umm…’, etc.) rather than a word referring to a specific action/object/concept/etc., it’s difficult to ‘translate’ it in the way one could translate ‘猫/neko’ to ‘cat’ or ‘pomme’ to ‘apple’.
What does one mean when one says “aah”? Potentially many things.
Nevertheless, I think the interpretation of ‘ほうほう/hōhō’ as a ‘vocalisation in response to something one finds in intriguing’ is on point. All that remains is so find an appropriate ’match’ to express the same sentiment in English.
“Well now… (that’s interesting)” seems to fit the general vibe, but many good/better alternatives have already been posted.
All we know is that Sakurai knows something we don’t. Which is nothing new, really. I don’t really see how people are specifically reading ‘Kid Icarus’ into this…
Re: Nintendo Direct Confirmed For Tomorrow, 27th March 2025
I think Nintendo will keep announcing Directs until the NL homepage is just a sheer wall of countdown timers.
Re: Random: Xenoblade Chronicles X On Switch Has A New 'Sex' Warning, But Why?
“digging out our old Wii U out and blowing off…”
Really @Olliemar28, this article should come with a warning of its own. That’s some fairly explicit imagery right there. I hope the poor Wii U consented.
Re: Random: Lego Mario Kart Fan Creates Astonishing Real-Life Track
Mario wins by killing absolutely everyone.
Re: Japanese Charts: Game About Picking Up Girls In A Dungeon Enters The Top 10
Is it wrong to pick up grills in a Home Depot? Cuz BBQ season is just around the corner and I wanna know where the best deals at.
Re: Sakurai Says Japanese Developers Should Avoid Trying To Appeal To Western Tastes
Japanese games should stick to classic Japanese themes like those found in golden-era JRPGs: tales of elves and goblins and wizards and citadels and knights and knaves and kings and queens and princes and princesses and…
…wait.
Re: Pokémon Center Singapore Sticks Its Middle Finger Up To TCG Scalpers
@Araquanid Thanks a lot for clearing that up!
Re: Pokémon Center Singapore Sticks Its Middle Finger Up To TCG Scalpers
Could someone give me a better idea of what the ‘plastic wrap’ in this case refers to?
Is this just the transparent plastic film used on box sets and other larger items, or does apply individual packs of cards?
If is does apply to individual packs, then I’m forced to conclude that either each booster pack has a separate plastic wrap distinct from the pack material itself, or that the pack material is the plastic wrap in question. That is, they open each pack for you at the point of purchase.
Both of those options seem a bit off…
Re: Opinion: Against All Odds - Why Does RPG RNG Hate Me?
“There’s no such thing as a tailwind. Either you’re pushing against a headwind or you’re having a good day.”
Originally a cycling quote, but there’s a broader truth in there somewhere.
Fair fortune lets us to move unimpeded and thus feels invisible. Luck saves us time, but the time saved barely registers as it was never experienced in the first place. In contrast, facing wave after wave of misfortune can feel like wading through an ocean of treacle. But considerably less delicious.
Imagine you’re trying to get a rare item with a 2% drop rate and you get it after 5 monsters. The odds were against you: there was a 90%+ probability this wouldn’t happen so you should really count yourself lucky. Yet you’re more likely to just smile and move on to the next grindy-ass loot-hunt without giving it much thought.
Let’s say the next grind is for an even rarer item with a mere 1% drop rate.
You take out 100 monsters. Nothing. You feel irritated. You plough through another 100 monsters to no avail. You curse the heavens. You are about to give up, but decide to defeat one more demidragon before going to bed. Finally, on your 201st try, you get the diamantine draco-dust or whatever you were hunting for. Relief courses through you, mixed with righteous indignation. How could you have been forced to spend so much time in the depths of the dank, dreary dungeon defeating hordes of demidragons? Seriously, what are the chances!?!?
Ignoring the rhetorical nature of the question: about 13%.
So yes, you were unlucky. But that streak of unluckiness should be contrasted with the first case in which you got the 2% drop-rate item after just 5 monsters. The odds were over 90% against you then. Yet how much time did you spend basking in the warm glow of that particular streak of luck?
Probably not as much time as you spent feeling aggrieved about the second case.
You could use this example as the basis for a piece about how human psychology and intuition are mismatched with the mathematical realities of probability and statistics.
But I think the more interesting psychological question is, what drives the desire to the grind in the first place? What were the goals of the game’s creators, and how do they align with those of the player?
Whenever I read about a great grindy gaming goal that someone has set themself, I can’t help but think of Hetsu’s gift from BotW: the player’s reward for tracking down all 900 Korok seeds and maxing out all the stashes.
It’s a polished turd that does nothing.
A slap in the face to players who dedicated so much time to game? Perhaps. But perhaps those players needed a slap if they were expecting anything more.
BotW has plenty of things to collect, but it wasn’t conceived as a collectathon. The reason the devs scattered 900 Korok seeds around is not because they wanted to you scour every corner of the world for them, but so that whatever corner of the world you find yourself in, there is something to discover — a pleasant surprise.
Really, that’s all these rare drops amount to: a pleasant surprise.
All of which is to say…
If you find the grind unpleasant, bereft of all surprise, then giving up such vain pursuits of loot could well be wise.
Essay 100% complete.
Where’s my reward?
Re: Leaked 18+ LEGO Mario Kart Set Is A Better Build Than We Expected
“Hey babe, why don’t you come back to my place? We can get cozy on the couch and admire my 1,972 piece LEGO Super Mario: Mario Kart - Mario & Standard Kart LEGO set until sun rises.”
But really Jim, could you not have blurred some of these pictures out? Mario’s exhaust pipe is sticking out for all the world to see.
Re: Pokémon Almost Became A "Gritty" Baseball-Themed RPG In The West
“So we have this Japanese monster catching RPG which we want to make it more appealing to a Western audience… any ideas?”
“How about we turn it into a sports game — specifically a sport that that’s very popular in Japan but most Western countries don’t give a crap about?”
“Like American football?”
“What? No! No one gives a crap about that in Japan either!”
“Mölkky?”
“The Finnish stick throwing game? That’s only just been invented and won’t be popular here until it inexplicably blows up in a few decades!”
“How about baseball?”
“Japan’s most popular sport? Perfect! The international audience is gonna love it!”
Re: "I Felt Totally Overwhelmed" - Balatro Dev Releases Development Timeline
I die a little inside whenever I hear a game’s problems attributed to ‘lazy devs’.
It’s almost never the case that those developing the game simply ‘couldn’t be bothered’.
For larger teams, you potentially have unrealistic timeframes, poor work flow, out of touch management, lack of communication and a million other issues that can arise when trying to get something as complex as large group of people (sometimes spread over multiple countries) working on something as complex as a modern video game.
For solo devs and smaller teams, many of those issues are avoided, replaced instead with the pressure of wearing a million different specialist hats while juggling a hundred different balls.
Problems can arise in either case, but it seems misguided the point the finger at ‘lazy’ devs who have often sacrificed their health and sanity to get these projects out of the door.
Re: Spyro's Stylish 'Year Of The Dragon' Skateboard Statue Is Now Available To Pre-Order
This missed out on the actual year of the dragon by a few months. It’s now the year of the snake! Where is my $50000 Trowzer statue?
Re: Masahiro Sakurai Receives Award From Japanese Government
Hope the Agency for Cultural Affairs didn’t forget to SMASH that Subscribe button, hit Like, and butt-stomp the hell out of that bell icon so that it stays notified whenever new content drops.
The fact that series is over and there won’t be new content any time soon notwithstanding.
Re: Rock On! CRKD And Gibson Team Up To Launch Two New Guitar Controllers
@MSaturn It’s fun to roast Gibson but Fender has had its fair share of sick burns, too!
Putting Stratoclysmic pyromania to one side, I’m with you all the way. There’s a healthy amount ninetees/noughties nostalgia around at the moment which seems ripe to capitalise on… but perhaps easier said than done.
The timing of these controllers is curious though, isn’t it? It makes you wonder if something is brewing…
Re: Rock On! CRKD And Gibson Team Up To Launch Two New Guitar Controllers
It may say ‘Gibson’ on the headstock, but the fact the headstock is still attached to the guitar is irrefutable proof that it’s not a real Gibson.
This is was a real Gibson looks like:
Re: Looks Like Kirby's Epic Yarn And Princess Peach: Showtime! Dev Good-Feel Is Hiring
@JohnnyMind I agree, it’s nice to have some good feel news for a change!
Re: Former Nintendo Sales Lead Claims Retailers Know "Nothing" About Switch 2 Price
My dad is Nintendo and I can confirm that Walmart Canada is the last people that he told the price of Switch 2 to. 👍
(Right after Lady Gaga, who was the second to last people he told.)
Re: Nike Has Gone Bananas With These Donkey Kong Country-Inspired Trainers
It’s finally here
And smelling brand new
It’s the first version of the DK Shoe
Re: You May Be Due A Refund As Nintendo Alters Tax Rate On Select Museum Gifts
I don’t know how anyone in their right mind could consider Pull-out Pikmin Cookies “non-essential”.
And as for New Horizons Polvorones…
quickly googles what a “polvorone” is
…why, I don’t think I could survive without my daily dose of New Horizons Polvorones.
I believe a full apology and a lifetime’s supply of polvorones is in order!
Re: Rumour: Placeholder Retail Listing Suggests Switch 2 Price Might Be Cheaper Than Expected
I can do this too HOLD MY BERE
ehem…
The Nintendo Switch 2 will cost 12345 of a currency of your choosing.
Re: Opinion: Miiverse Was Fine, But Does Anybody Really Want It Back In 2025?
I’d love to see Nintendo being Miiverse back. But there’s no way that they would (or should) do so.
That said, I hope the Switch 2 has some sort of whacky Nintendo-flavoured social feature. Stick a step-counter and proximity sensor in a Joy-con and you have the social pedometer function of the 3DS but without the bulk of having to carry the entire system around.
Basically, what Gavin said: StreetPass 2 or something like it!
Re: Netflix Reveals 'Devil May Cry' Opening Credits Ahead Of April Launch
Nothing screams turn-of-the-millennium ‘TUDE more than BIZKIT, PIZZA and a gun-slingin’ DUDE.
HOO-HAH!
Re: Japan's Switch eShop Will Soon No Longer Accept Overseas Payment Methods
@Lightsiyd I’m not mistaken the top 4 most popular credit cards in Japan are all VISA.
It would take an awful lot to loosen that stranglehold. I doubt this move is specifically anti-VISA, as the majority of Japanese card purchases come from VISA-affiliated cards anyway.
Re: Opinion: The Hyped-Up New Pokémon TCG Set Is A Total Bummer To Open
May as well play poker at this point if you’re going to blow so much money on a card game.
At least then you can pretend you’re James Bond sipping a martini opposite Tuxedo Luigi.
Delusional perhaps, but no less so than thinking you’ll get rich off Pokémon cards.
Re: Celeste Dev Makes "Difficult Decision" To Cancel New Game Earthblade
@jojobar I felt quite similar. I loved Celeste and really enjoyed Towerfall, but seeing the trailer for Earthblade just reminded of all the competently-made-but-somehow-uninspiring Metroidvanias that I’d fallen off before.
This whole thing makes me wonder how many great games really started off with the intention of being ‘epic’. Celeste might well have become worthy of that description, but it began life as a simple prototype made for a Game Jam. Splatoon was refined from a few featureless tofu cubes. Smash (probably the most epic fighting game in terms of sheer scale) had similarly humble beginnings.
It seems to me that many products which became something ‘epic’ grew from a very small seed, which was a nevertheless strong enough as a core idea to sustain the entire project. Aiming for ‘epic’ as a goal in itself probably doesn’t lead to much more stress, frustration and disappointment unless you’re… I dunno, Michelangelo or something (and I’m sure even he suffered setbacks).
I don’t envy the dev team working on the follow up to Celeste, but I’m glad they’ve freed themselves from the shackles of the sunken cost fallacy. Hopefully they can all find something less epic but more inspiring to work on!
Re: Celeste Dev Makes "Difficult Decision" To Cancel New Game Earthblade
@ancientlii I think the main message is that climbing a mountain (either literally or as a somewhat one-the-nose metaphor for overcoming personal hardship) is really freaking… hard, and that you often need to fail a dozen (or even several hundred) times before you succeed. In that respect, the whole ‘dying a lot’ thing seems pretty on message.
If you collect lots of strawberries you are pictured eating lots of strawberries at the end. If you collect only a few strawberries then you are pictured eating only a few strawberries at the end. I’m sure we all have personal definitions of “being shat on” but this doesn’t come under my mine.
I’m also not sure what the issue is with being taught a core mechanic (air dash) by a crow early in the game. The scene takes about 3 seconds and equips with you a move that is necessary to play the rest of the game.
Re: Analyst States That Switch 2's Price Won't "Really Matter" For Early Adopters
So what he’s saying is I’m a blind fanboy and I’m going to buy it no matter what? Is that what he’s saying? Huh?
…Cos he’s got a point.