Spiders

@Sjmaster It’s because modern Japanese animation was inspired by Disney in the 60s and 70s. Anime before World War II doesn’t have that look. They are not “caucasian”.

@Tomasmeza I feel you, but we could agree or disagree on that. Like I'm arguing, I have no idea what it feels like to be "represented", but from the outside, diversity in media felt a lot better in the 90's and 00's as just a natural progress of changing demographics. Again, I don't know what it feels like today for minorities, but from the little bit of TV I watched this year the minority representation in commercials felt like young, rich ad execs on Twitter carefully crafting the politics of their ads, as opposed to the "why not?", color-blindness style way it was done 10 and 20 years ago.

It's really personal preference I don't know enough about it from the "represented" side to have a strong stance. I really only care to point out that a "represented majority" does not have the same psychology as a "represented minority".

@eaglebob345 That's a really narrow view of "straight white men". A big part of Trump's success was that the Democrats in the US marginalized poor white people in places like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the South. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance is a great book to read about this, as it illustrated how swaths of the "white" population have more in common with the American Black culture than the elite, media representations would have you believe. I think we're all being divided by power here, and the elites are selling this racial division as a distraction.

@Damo The pay gap between men and women can be explained by job selection. Women dominate in service industries that rely on tips. Global power positions can be explained by this too. Women who have or want children have a harder career path. The health care industry is dominated by women, just like STEM is dominated by men.

@Pirate1 I think it's happening right now, and maybe not at the speed that people who take issue with it would like. The technology to develop games is becoming cheaper and more accessible, as are the means to distribute them.

As far as what "we" can do? I'd say the media — especially outlets who write think pieces like this — need to do a better job highlighting these games and promoting them. I have to do a lot of digging and research to find games from other cultures. I just dipped into the rabbit hole of Chinese games and Chinese indies, for example. I had no idea about their rich history and I feel like I missed a whole alternative world of games. Where was the think piece article on Chinese Parents, or on the upcoming Rewinder?

@Damo What does that mean though... pro-male? The discourse around maleness, masculinity and gender has been very anti-male for quite some time now. Not to say any of it is or is not legitimate, but I don't see exactly what can be called "predominantly pro-male" honestly.

@Tomasmeza That's not a fair argument. The fact that the Western media default has been historically straight, white, and male does not mean that straight white people have ever felt represented as such. Almost by definition, representation is a minority position, and being the "default" is, by definition, a non-representative position. It's a placeholder value.

I'm not saying that representation isn't an issue, and I think it's weird for people to be against it wholesale, but you're not asking for something that someone else already has. Meet people where they are.

@nessisonett You're strawmanning Thomas Sowell's argument. His call out of the academic and political grift of "Climate Change TM" in the book 'Intellectuals & Society' is spot on — regardless of what you think of actual global warming science. I disagree with most of what Sowell says, but he's a powerhouse thinker and if you disagree with him you still have to grapple with his ideas — you shouldn't dismiss him out of hand.

@Mando44646 I don't think there's an agenda here, but talking about these issues in this way is definitely agenda-adjacent. All of this language comes from CRT and academia — which does have a political agenda (for better and worse) — and is being mainstreamed by outlets like this.

My biggest issue with this way of talking personally is how it gaslights all the progress that has been made already, as if this generation discovered racism and was the first to address it. I also find the conversations around Japanese developers as very tone-deaf. Arguing that they should serve Western markets based on Western principles is tantamount to economic colonialism.

Big shout out to the writer for mentioning Dandara. I think it's among the best examples of true diversity — our goal should to support and empower diverse creators and leverage our global markets and technology. Demanding Western devs like Ubisoft meet intersectional quotas does not get you wonderful and truly diverse games like Dandara, Raji, and Chinese Parents.

I do want to call out the writer calling the old Punch Out! game problematic. It's easy to look back and say they were using negative stereotypes — or, more accurately, saying that they were negative representations because they were stereotypes.

We loved those characters. Balrog/M. Bison is a great example of a character who may have started as a joke/parody character, but yet here we are 30 years later and the character is a beloved mainstay of the series. He lasted. He also begot a fighting game archetype and paved the way for the DeeJay (a Caribbean fighter), and the objectively best black character in gaming history, possibly in all of fiction, Dudley.

To say they are problematic is to say we are wrong for loving those characters, and that doesn't sit well with me. Especially in context of the FGC, which has the most diversity in gaming on both sides of the controller.

@PoliticallyIncorrect I’m just teasing you I’m old too haha. Have a good one too!

Gameplay looks good, but it can’t touch Critter Crunch and Puzzle Fighter II Turbo in the cute department.

@PoliticallyIncorrect. Qix, Tetris, and Dr. Mario all had VS. modes (aka puzzle fighting). Get some lion’s mane old man;)

@Uncensored Totally agree. In fact, I think EVERY franchise should attempt a “Breath of the Wild” deconstruction/reconstruction. Stop pruning the same branches, and transplant the original seeds in modern soil.

@tendonerd DQ gets pretty dark though. I think “dark” is really relative. Yakuza is considered a “mature” series, for all it’s chicken real estate agents and karaoke jams.

I wonder if they are prepping us for new creative. The team is getting old, and the composer is — well — controversial to say the least. More immediately is he’s getting old and not really doing much new work for the last few titles.

There needs to be some kind of torch passing and new blood eventually, and now seems as good a time as any.

Really impressive! Especially considering there is a free version.

I’m ready for a new Donkey Kong look. The 2D-ification of Rare’s designs are really nice, but I think the next game (assuming it’s not DKCR 3) should monkey around with the style.

@Sev_07 Don’t know why you @ed me but good to know!

@Thatsalie Sony and Xbox also have stick drift issues. It’s an industry wide problem — not “Nintendont”.

FWIW I think Steam Deck looks awesome and does well.

@BulbasaurusRex I don’t see why not. Sword Art Online was only about SAO for half a season. I’m sure there‘s other examples, especially in manga/anime.

LABO was a ton of fun, though maybe not in the traditional video game sense. Would have been a great pandemic release... hindsight, eh?

So exactly the same rumor as last year with zero new insight or information? Nintendolife getting the SCOOPS!

@eve The games I mentioned absolutely do not use dedicated servers. Hi-Rez looks like it does, but from the complaints about Smite, it just reinforces for me that "dedicated servers" is a buzzword term that doesn't mean what it did decades ago.

Why can't you play Splatoon 2 on your internet connection? That's terrible! Have you tried using port forwarding on your router?
Splatoon 2 uses:
TCP: 6667,12400,28910,29900,29901,29920
UDP: 1-65535

Hope this helps!

@Kainbrightside From your mouth to Nintendo's ears!

Ever since the Necrodancer x Zelda game, I've been dreaming of Nintendo partnering with indies on their franchises. Team Cherry on Metroid is a slam dunk. My latest "dream team" is having Prime/3D Metroid title from the Subnautica dev Unknown Worlds. Have you ever played it? It nails so much about what makes Prime special for me. Exploring and alien world, the sense of isolation and dread, the exploration-upgrade-exploration loop, scanning your environment for insight, etc. I think they could do something great with the Metroid IP.
Maybe when Nintendo gives you and I the keys to their franchises, I'll pitch it haha.

@Wexter Again, you make great points, but I feel like these are the same kind of arguments about only one side of the trade-offs that were made when Switch was announced. Nobody was sure who it was for, and then 80 million people showed up to the party.

@Joekun I’ve only gone back to the PS3/XBOX360 era games I missed and have had no problems yet. I picked up the original Deus Ex for like 2 bucks and am hoping I have no issues when I eventually get around to it.

@BloodNinja Plus the fact that Steam Deck puts a problem for all Linux gamers to the forefront is really positive.

@Kainbrightside Metroid has that kind of schedule after Prime’s success - Prime 2, Zero Mission, Hunters, Pinball... as a fan it was great but I don’t think it was good for the series’ health.

@Mr-Fuggles777 Yeah but we all underpaid for Hollow Knight, didn’t we?

Look at it this way... you’re paying $32 each for all 3 games. Easy to justify with the value HK and Ori brought;)

@SwankyKong64 Not for me! Steam downloads take for...ev...er.... for me. Have no issues with Switch (in Sleep mode), PS4, or PC Gamepass. Not sure why — maybe router port settings — but I don’t think it’s inherently faster than any other storefront.

@BloodNinja The compatibility issue has to do mostly with Anti-Cheat software that relies on Windows OS, so some games like Destiny 2 and Apex can’t run on Linux. Valve says they’re working with a company to fix, but we’ll see.

@NIN10DOXD Valve acknowledged issues with Proton and anti-cheat software and said they’re working to solve before Steam Deck releases...so we’ll see.

@Wexter That’s not entirely true either. You can use a USB-C cord or a third-party dock, and it uses SD cards just like Switch that are super cheap.

You’re right that Steam/PC file sizes are not optimized for storage like Switch games are and that could be a headache for a handheld device, but again you’re assuming that every PC game is this AAA, 4K texture having monster.
DOTA 2 is 9.8 GB, Civilization VI is 4GB, Valheim is 1 GB, Rimworld is 300 MB, etc.

PC players play games like Rocket League, Among Us, Dead Cells, etc., too!

Games like GTAV are going to be a problem out of the box for sure, but SD cards are very cheap — it’s hardly a dealbreaker.

@eve That’s not true at all. Dedicated servers are rare. Call Of Duty, Overwatch, Destiny 2, Battlefield, and Apex Legends are all P2P.
Microsoft does dedicated servers for Halo 5 and maybe their other multiplayer titles, but they are in the server business and are the exception, not the rule.

Dedicated servers are a thing of the past. You got it all backwards.

@Joekun Fair points, but a nice thing about digital on PC is that the stores aren’t tied to console generations. You really have your games forever.

@RadioHedgeFund I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I got into PC gaming because I can’t afford a new console, and my 5 year old PC is decent enough (maybe about a PS4 Pro equivalent?). The game prices are better for indies generally, I can play older games, and I can play new games on Gamepass.

PC gaming is my budget option because I had the hardware. I think that’s the case for a lot more people than the loud minority that is rig obsessed and can spend thousands on gaming.

Like @Geonjaha said, many great games on PC are suited for portable play. In fact, all the games I’m playing or recently played on PC (Dragon’s Dogma: DA, Subnautica, Hypnospace Outlaw) are also on Switch.

@vio If there was a 50-60 version of Splatoon 2 with Octo Expansion, I think it’s worth it for single player. More playtime than Kirby or Yoshi.

But yeah, I’ve got about 1,200 hours on Splatoon 2 and haven’t finished either single player mode.

@Agent_5 Me too! I don’t think I gasped like that since the Twilight Princess reveal haha

@Wexter We'll have to wait and see to settle our argument. From what I understand, the Steam Deck should be crushing most games by dint of targeting an 800p screen. The IGN report said medium and high settings at 800p, but we'll have to see how games actually run. All that said, my gut feeling is most new releases will run on Steam Deck, and games on both will run better on Steam Deck than Switch. If it succeeds, Steam Deck can become a performance target that's going to be a lot easier to hit for developers than Switch/ARM.

How Steam Deck performs docked is another matter — I have no idea how that hardware will perform outputting to 1080p or 4K.

If that's the case, I think you're right that a lot of the hidden costs and technical aspects make this more niche than a Switch, but I think it's closer to Vita territory with a lot more upside than Sony's last handheld.

You make a lot of great points I agree with in isolation, I just can't back a claim that Nintendo hasn't left some lunch on the table and Valve isn't going to gobble it up. The price is really strong, especially and as price of entry to PC gaming.

I don't think it's a Switch killer but I think this hurts Nintendo.

@eve What does that have to do with anything? Most online games are P2P with matchmaking servers. It still cost money, and publishers still shut them down.

@Agent_5 Nintendo EPD is a big umbrella team, but it looks like the principles are from Animal Crossing and New Super Mario Bros. I don't know why I had the Mario Kart team in my mind.

My point still stands... Animal Crossing has had multiple titles release concurrently with Splatoon development, and even makes more sense as that series will likely never have multiple entries on one console.

I don't understand people's take on this either. You're right - it will have been around 5 years between Splatoon 2 and 3. We used to wish for Nintendo to be this timely with sequels. I was not expecting one, but I'm over the moon about it!

@Wexter I think you have to imagine whatever segment of gamers was clamoring for a Switch Pro have to be looking at the Steam Deck.

I think you’re being disingenuous about the games it’s going to run. They showed off Portal 2 and featured (but did not show) Doom Eternal and Control. Steam Deck should be outperforming PS4 (albeit at 720p) and be able to play most current PC releases. We’ll find out more for sure soon, but Steam Deck is not a throwback machine for Dragon Age: Origins and P4Golden (but it can be)... more likely it’s running Dragon Age Inquisition and Persona 5 Royal.

I agree with you that it’s not a Switch killer, but I’m not as sure as you are. Nintendo can’t carry hardware alone, and Valve is offering a really intriguing solution to the rest of the puzzle, namely portable indie games and 3rd party titles. It really depends what you want a Switch for. I think if it was just Nintendo games, the Gamecube and Wii U would have been more successful.

@RadioHedgeFund These are really great points and I agree with the fundamentals regarding Nintendo’s secret sauce (stealth handheld games), but indies are crushing on Switch without that philosophy.

And let’s get real, Valve just announced the Switch Pro.

@swoose This! Splatoon practically pioneered the "content-drip" model that's been monetized by Overwatch, CoD, and F2P games, all without extra costs to the player or a predatory F2P model.

I don't understand the double standards casual fans hold this series too — almost every game could be considered "another season" by cynical people.

@blindsquarel I was making a joke, but if you need me to be spot-on, why would we need Pikmin 4 and Breath of the Wild 2 — two hugely anticipated sequels — would fall under your logic.

You're operating under the fallacy that every game being developed is taking resources from another game. That's not strictly true. The Splatoon team was made up of mostly Mario Kart developers, and Nintendo had no problem putting out a new Mario Kart game on Switch (despite there already being one).

Their are many reasons for a Splatoon 3 sequel on Switch, but I'll give you the big ones:

1) Splatoon is a phenomenon in Japan. Right now, with no more updates and support, the player base is stagnant, and players are moving to Apex Legends. A new game with another round of post-launch support can get these players back.

2) Splatoon does not have any MTX elements or multiplayer DLC. The only way to justify long-term support is to make another game. Will this be the model in the future? For all we know, Splatoon 3 could be going the way of Fortnite and Apex and adopting a "seasons" model. Even if they wanted to do what you are suggesting, they'd need to make a new game.

3) Nintendo is updating it's online code from a decades old solution. A ground-up version of Splatoon would benefit greatly from this. This is not important to everybody, but for the community that still playing this game, it's huge. Hell, if they re-released Smash Ultimate but with rollback netcode I'd gladly pay $60 again.

4) Splatoon 2 has a lot of issues that can't be fixed by content updates. The performance on Switch both online and off are a step back from the Wii U version. It needs a better optimized for Switch code base. If Nintendo has the resources to make a better game for the current generation why wait?

@NintendoDad Spotify has a selection of audiobooks and a many podcasts - some are the modern day equivalent of old radio dramas. Not sure what is all in the free tier, but check it out!

@Bret I’m anti-woke culture and I loved Black Panther. It having a story about and reflecting on black culture does not make it woke. I wouldn’t put it anywhere near Disney/Marvel’s worst offenders.

@CupidStunt Me too! All the positive articles coming out from devs saying Gamepass was huge for them gives me hope. I just subscribed to Gamepass on PC (I don't have an XBox) and I've got about 6 indie titles downloaded — games I wouldn't be able to afford to support otherwise. If just downloading, wishlisting, or playing becomes real "support" for these devs and kinds of titles, I think it's possible.

@kingbk Gamepass rocks, and definitely has it's place in the future. Xbox can be considered a "streaming box" with vestigal legacy hardware attached to it. Performance is the only issue that holds the things back for "dedicated" gamers, and both Gamepass and PS Now allow downloads.
There is some future version of this that could be successful. Stadia blew it, but there's no reason someone else couldn't do it well. I think the '$400 console / $60-70 dollar per game' model is a lot less future-proof.

@CupidStunt I understand the fear, but the inverse is just as likely to be the case... because the financial pressure is distributed across the network rather than on any single title, it can allow developers to take more risks and worry much less about padding out for a "full-price" experience.

Really, it's going to be Microsoft's (or any service's) internal metrics that determine the marketplace and what devs are going to be incentivized to do. We'll likely want some kind of insight into how they choose their titles so we as gamers can still affect the market.

Is there somewhere saying it's a cloud streaming service? Maybe it's downloads like Xbox Gamepass. Someone is going to need to give Microsoft some competition in that space before they run away with it.

One thing is for sure — Nintendo didn't go for a Netflix app as-is, they're certainly not going to allow one if there is streaming games on it too.

@PoliticallyIncorrect What was it? Can you paraphrase so as not to get it removed again?

@blindsquarel Why is it unneeded? There are 3 Metroid Prime games to play already, why do we need a fourth?

If you don’t care, don’t care quietly. Some of us are very excited for a new entry.