silverdamascus

Aaaaand, another live service becomes a dead service.

Companies could at the last minute, retool their games, get something that used to be an online only service and make it offline only, sell the game as something that only has local multiplayer, or even better, allow players to make their own P2P servers so they can keep playing the game online even if there is literally only 30 people still playing.

But no, killing the game and making it lost media is way better, next step: Streaming, so players won't even be able to make their pirate servers.

Edit. Should have read the article, they are doing this, allowing the game to be played without official servers, this is what should be done more often, but not all games have the same luck.

@ketrac It has real multiplayer now.

Mario Kart Tour greatly improved over the years, it's not complete garbage.

The best thing about that game is that the gameplay is unique from the other Mario Kart games, think this game like a mix between Tony Hawk, Mario Kart and Gran Turismo, this game is all about stunts and combos to get the best score, and it also works like a RPG where you need to unlock and upgrade more racers, karts and gliders to improve the score, unfortunately, that means some Pay-2-Win aspects but the game is still chill on that.

Plus, loot boxes, well, pipes, were removed recently, due to government regulations, but still.

@RobynAlecksys Hey, after the scandal happened in 2021, I decided to boycott Activision Blizzard, but not forever, in 2023, maybe I will go back to buying games by them because if I wanted to be coherent, what would I buy? Not just videogames, everything.

The phones, tablets and computers we are using right now had and will have slave labour in the mining, manufacturing and recycling.

Billy Mitchell is the Dick Dastardly of videogame competitions.

He is talented, he could win legitimately, but he cheated anyway and ruined everything.

@DTFaux Respecting people with a disease is one thing, claiming that the disease is cool like a tattoo or a punk hair, and you shouldn't cure it, is another thing.

Welcome to the modern world where even fat people are considered oppressed, even though millions are still starving.

There was never a time where fat people were enslaved or arrested, or forbidden to vote or marry, just for being fat, we don't see fat people lynched on the streets just for being fat either, but no, "fatphobia" is totally a thing, fat people are just like black people.

@Dom_31 They made Abra and Alakazam cards, but no Kadabra cards, Abra evolves directly into Alakazam.

Edit. I think I was wrong, I don't remember where I read this.

I won't accept the excuse that this is something small.

The Switch Online version is not a remaster, it's just a ROM, there are filters, but they didn't change the actual code, this release is supposed to be the same exact experience as the original game, that's why the online mode still has a split screen because the online mode is 4 people on the internet in different places, sharing a virtual N64 like they are in the same room.

@Bratwurst35 I know that money is not enough to make something like a movie or show good, talent, skill and passion is required, and I know that at heart, Game Freak is still an indie studio and they don't want to hire hundreds of workers.

But money is still a very important part of making big productions, the Pokémon franchise is the biggest media franchise in the world, so I think they could pay big bucks to outsource 3D models and animations to have all the 1000+ Pokémon available in the games.

And the problem with Game Freak really is not money, it's that they are not used to making 3D open-world games, they just recently entered the PS3/360 generation.

While I want Game Freak to make more original titles and not live on just making Pokémon games, seriously, stop making original titles until the main Pokémon games live up to being the biggest media franchise of all time.

Go back to not just Scarlet and Violet, but also Sword and Shield, and fix most of the glitches, and please, complete the Pokédex in all those games, I know there's over a 1000 Pokémon, but here, money is not an issue.

Wow, they surpassed Crackdown 3 as an even worse downgrade.

For the people who claim that physical media is superior, nope, it's not perfect:

• It can be lost, broken or stolen.
• Even if you take care of it, it does not last forever, cartridges and discs will someday stop working, even if never used, and floppies are ephemeral.
• Recent discs are not made to last, made with cheap plastic.
• Preserving the software means nothing without the hardware to run it, many classic consoles and computers are breaking down and can't be fixed, while modern consoles are much more fragile not all consoles can have those clones.
• It takes space, not everyone can have shelves full of games.
• Older games can have physical copies around, but they may cost a fortune, maybe even more than a new current gen console, in recent years, videogame collecting became a very expensive hobby.
• Arcades are a big example of physical media that doesn't work, they are expensive, they are rare, they are big and only rich people can have them at home, they are hard to fix, and many classic arcades were never ported into home versions, or had inferior ports.
• And most important, in many cases nowadays, physical media is just a fancy digital purchase, it may be just a download code in a box, or you still need internet and servers to play the good or complete version of the game, get DLC, play online, or just play at all, many games require internet and servers working even if you buy physical.

For personal use, physical games still have a lot of advantages over digital games, but they aren't a godsend, and neither physical or digital media are good for videogame preservation, the only option is piracy.

@johnedwin False, nowadays, many Switch games released in physical copies, still require a download to play them, meaning that if you don't have internet, or Nintendo shuts down their servers, you can't play that game.

Such a scenario seems unlikely, but that means your physical game is a fancy digital purchase regardless, you still don't really own your game and rely on companies keeping their services forever.

This Mario Kart has problems, but it's not that bad.

The reason why trying out this version of Mario Kart is worth it, is because the main gameplay is different from other Mario Kart games because it's a score attack game, think Tony Hawk + Mario Kart, the Pay2Win elements come when you need to upgrade your characters, karts and gliders to earn a bigger score, and you need those scores to progress, but these upgrades do not affect your speed and other stats.

They should have done this earlier.

Ash Ketchum was a very hated character for years, I didn't watch the new episodes to know if he was redeemed or not, I don't think that winning a Pokémon League will erase all his previous mistakes, but even then, the actual Pokémon games keep having new protagonists, there was no need for the Pokémon anime to have the same protagonist from Gen I all this time, replacing the main character constantly is something the Pokémon anime should have done whether Ash is a good character or not.

While Nintendo constantly releases good games on this service, they are coming too slow.

There are months where most games are good, but we still feel cheated since most people don't care about the games and they are giving us stuff that was on the bargain bin even in the 1990s while the classics are ignored, even when they do give us the classics, the slow rate of these games still annoys.

The biggest problem is that when Switch 2 comes, the library will likely reset, unless this time they won't, that's why the games are coming even slower than the Virtual Console.

@Nikhogan I like the Cuphead TV series, but yeah, it's not faithful to actual 1930s cartoons, it is more similar to modern cartoons, not just in tone and humor, but also animation, the game is drawn on paper frame by frame, the show is made on computer using 2D puppets.

It's like the game was actually made in the 1930s, while the show is a reboot that tries to be faithful to the original but isn't.

@Giancarlothomaz There are some small rumors of another Crash game, but the game that is pretty much confirmed is a multiplayer game, not Crash 5.

Maybe we will have two Crash games revealed today, but this is not likely.

@Giancarlothomaz Nope, Crash 4, his last major game, was released in 2020, while the mobile game was released last year.

In fact, there was a strong rumor that Crash 4 was cancelled due to low sales of Crash 4 and the multiplayer game based on Crash 4 was canned due to Toys for Bob having to work on Call of Duty, but now it seems they are free again and will finish Wumpa League, even though the original version of the project had to be scrapped.

@RareFan I loved Crash 4, despite some problems here and there, it's the best game of the series for me.

What do you mean again? When he was released?

Also, a bunch of statements saying "Super Smash Bros. is a trademark of Nintendo, it's characters and elements are copyrighted and trademarked by Nintendo and other companies like Konami, Sega and Capcom, this tournament is an independent event and it's not in any way affiliated or endorsed by Nintendo and it's partners" and they should get away with it.

While it seems like Panda Global was a mess, and Nintendo had a reason to not be affiliated with them, my point stands, if you want to make a videogame tournament, you should not need permission from the company that made/sells that game, even if you are making money from the tournament, even if the organizers are corrupt and may be tarnishing your brand.

And there are probably no laws stating that you need permission.

No one is too big to fail, if Nintendo, Pokémon Company and Game Freak don't act to improve future games and fix the current game, eventually people may get sick and sales will plummet.

Since when you need permission from the company that made/sells a game to make a videogame tournament of that game?

There are probably no laws saying you can't do that, but the punishment is the process, not the veredict, Nintendo will keep sending these people cease and desist letters and lawsuits until they mess with the wrong person that decides to go all-in and finally win, setting a precedent.

@nhSnork The difference here is that my point stands, if you want to make a videogame tournament, a license from the company that owns the copyright of the game should not be necessary, even if you are profiting a lot of money from that tournament.

And there are probably no laws that will support Nintendo's case, but who cares, the punishment is the process, not the veredict, if Nintendo decided to sue everyone that made a tournament of their games without a license, they would probably lose all of the lawsuits, but most people wouldn't even try and would just give up.

It's the 2020s, from now on, actual exclusives will probably only exist from Nintendo.

It's a bit of a shame, games like Sonic the Hedgehog were made just so they could be exclusive, but it's a small price to pay, if you want to watch a movie from Disney and a movie from Warner on DVD, you don't need two DVD players, one from Disney and one from Warner.

@Itakiteacher I get your point, I am not against copyright and trademark laws, copyright is important to make sure if you work on something new, other people won't copy your work to make sure you can get your money, but one thing is preventing people from selling unlicensed copies of a game, another thing is an unlicensed tournament of a game, as long as everyone paid for legit copies of the game, it's fine, advertisment and decoration for the tournament will require a few copyright and trademark violations, but they should count as fair use.

Imagine if someone decides they own football, basketball, hockey, baseball, so you can't make a tournament without a permit from the people or groups that own them, you can't own these sports, handegg games are being controlled by EA for years since NFL gave them an exclusivity, but you can make your own handegg games, just without the teams, players and brands related to the association, while Nintendo deserves rights over the Super Smash Bros. franchise, alongside the partners that own much of the source material, no one should need a permit from Nintendo to make a Smash Bros. tournament, and the current law likely allows an unlicensed tournament but Nintendo doesn't care since the real punishment is the process and not the veredict.

@Itakiteacher Making a videogame tournament without permission from the company that owns the copyright of the game should be legal even if the tournament is profiting from it, using the copyrights/trademarks of the company like a big poster with the characters and logos from the game should fall under fair use.

And maybe it is legal, but the legal system works in a way where it's not worth it trying to win a lawsuit against someone bigger than you even if you are going to win.

I'm still following this story, but from what I understood, the point stands.

The creator of this tournament could be even a genocide financier and using the money from the tournament to fund one, it's the police that should stop him, not Nintendo by using their copyright/trademark powers, if you want to make a videogame tournament, you should not need a permit from the developer/publisher who holds the copyright to the game.

@Coalescence As long as there are people wanting a character, but going too far into their love for the character, to the point of harassing Sakurai, and people fighting against this, or just wanting to ruin everyone's fun, trying to prove by any way necessary that the character will never ever join Smash as playable, Smash will always have drama.

After people saying that characters like Ridley, Simon, K. Rool, Hero, Banjo, Terry, Steve, Sora and many others were never going to join Smash as playable, and they joined anyway, maybe the community should learn to stop saying characters like Waluigi, Geno, Bandana Dee, Isaac, Ashley, Reium and Shantae will never be in Smash, but of course, Now It's Different®.

Also, can a lawyer in the house answer about the legality of you can't make a videogame tournament without the copyright holder of the game allowing it? If a lawsuit happens and they lose, a terrible precedent is established.

And what if it's one of those games that the developer is dead for decades and we can't find the copyright holder?

Even the Nickelodeon All-Star game gave more respect to the community than this franchise.

Sakurai seems like a guy that really loves his community despite so many ungrateful jerks, but he has to do what Nintendo tells him to do.

One more thing, there was a time in the late 1990s days of PC Gaming and the first major games that could be played with other people on the internet, where you could make your own servers, if the company stopped supporting their game, who cares, you already have the game and you can make your own server to play online with friends and randoms.

Companies realized that this model where you will own nothing and will be happy is better for them, gamers even stopped demanding this, and this led to more and more service-based games where internet and servers became a requirement for playing the game, even on single-player.

@EarthboundBenjy This is not just about mobile games, this is happening on many other games on PC and consoles that follow this service instead of product model, where the game requires a company supporting a game and if they stop, the game can't even be played at all, even Nintendo did this on Switch with Super Mario Bros. 35 despite the fact that the game could be supported with Switch Online subscriptions.

This can be solved by unservicing more games, instead of killing the game entirely to a point no one can even play it, turn the game into an offline game that you don't need constant connection to servers to play it.

Release an offline version on Switch, or even an offline version for mobile works.

@jowe_gw Languages like spanish, portuguese and french are gendered languages, the separation between male and female words is more than just the pronouns, many words like adjectives and articles are divided between male and female versions, even things that aren't alive like a car or a chair are called he or she, these languages will require a complete overhaul to become gender neutral, this is too much to ask to poor countries that already struggle to teach kids and even adults the regular language.

@jowe_gw White europeans going to native land, forcing the natives to change their culture and their language, this is not OK, but white americans telling latinos to change their culture and language, say words like "latinx" and "latines", this is OK?

Remember that these countries do not have the first amendment and actual laws forcing these changes in the language can totally happen.

And pay attention that I'm not talking about the game, my birth language is much more precious than a game.

@BabyYoda71 No one said that here, I'm talking about other discussions, other websites.

@BabyYoda71 Many people say that digital games suck and physical is superior.

And I'm not talking just about the Switch, I'm talking about everything.

@Pillowpants Big boxes for small discs and cartridges are kinda important to make sure we won't lose the box and to make them fit all the other boxes in the shelves, Switch boxes are already really small compared to other consoles, including the Nintendo ones.

Since physical media is something to keep, not to throw away like plastic cups and spoons, there's nothing wrong with using plastic for stuff that is not supposed to be thrown away, in fact, things that we keep should get strong plastic that lasts, the excuse of using weak plastic for the environment does not apply to electronics, it's just to make sure we will buy another, and then we will throw away the old one, causing the environmental damage.

Again, for the people who claim that physical media is superior, nope, it's not perfect:

• It can be lost, broken or stolen.
• Even if you take care of it, it does not last forever, cartridges and discs will someday stop working, even if never used, and floppies are ephemeral.
• Recent discs are not made to last, made with cheap plastic.
• Preserving the software means nothing without the hardware to run it, many classic consoles and computers are breaking down and can't be fixed, while modern consoles are much more fragile not all consoles can have those clones.
• It takes space, not everyone can have shelves full of games.
• Older games can have physical copies around, but they may cost a fortune, maybe even more than a new current gen console, in recent years, videogame collecting became a very expensive hobby.
• Arcades are a big example of physical media that doesn't work, they are expensive, they are rare, they are big and only rich people can have them at home, they are hard to fix, and many classic arcades were never ported into home versions, or had inferior ports.
• And most important, in many cases nowadays, physical media is just a fancy digital purchase, you still need internet and servers to play the good or complete version of the game, get DLC, play online, or just play at all, many games require internet and servers working even if you buy physical.

For personal use, physical games still have a lot of advantages over digital games, but they aren't a godsend, and neither physical or digital media are good for videogame preservation, the only option is piracy.

@Azuris One thing people often ignore, is that copyright in USA lasted 28 years, but you could renew once, most works were never renewed since the copyright holders didn't care or died.

When movie and music companies like Disney and Warner asked for longer copyrights, instead of getting the option to renew twice or thrice, they abolished the renew option while making the duration way longer than 56 years.

If the old system was in place, many classic Atari and NES games would be ours now due to companies not going to renew them, only the games still making money would be protected, we would be even allowed to make sequels and adaptations to them.

@ThePizzaCheese Copyright laws need to be revised for the internet, the revisions we got were to make copyright more draconian.

We have a tool that can make a million copies of something in minutes, but it's illegal to use it unless the creator of that thing allows it, internet is a place to share things, copyright is artificial scarcity.

The excuse is always respecting the small creator, artists need to eat and pay their bills, while the real benefactors are billionaire companies that can profit on the work of people who are already dead.

Copyright is like capitalism, democracy and taxes, another thing that shouldn't exist but we have no better option, I don't think copyright should be abolished, but needs to become way less strict.

@ThePizzaCheese You can't prove that every single pirated copy is a lost sale, just because someone pirated something, it doesn't mean that if piracy didn't exist, they would just buy it.

You are talking about the money I would get and I didn't, but I can't prove that I was going to get the money for sure.

My point stands, you steal something, it is not there anymore, you make a copy, there's two of them and the original is still there, you can argue that thanks to copies, you are not getting your money, but it's not the money you had, it's the money you were going to get and you can't prove you were really going to get it without the piracy.

@ThePizzaCheese This is why copyright laws need to be revised, if you are not properly distributing your intellectual property, then sharing it on the internet should be classified as fair use.

Especially since this leads to lost media, if fans don't make their own backups, many games may disappear forever, especially since copyright lasts 95 years in USA while the actual carts and discs don't last that long, and many games are not even available on used copies since you can't resell your downloads.

For those who don't get it, SteamGridDB doesn't even provide games, they just provide art to make your Steam account pretty, this was made because not all Steam games have proper artwork, and then because people can add shortcuts to games not on Steam on their Steam account.

They aren't sharing any Nintendo games, just artworks for those who emulate them, if you pirated Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, they just provide you a digital cover.

@Ryu_Niiyama Piracy is not stealing, if you make something and someone takes it away without your consent, that's theft because you don't have it anymore, but if you make something and someone makes a copy of it, you still have the original.

Copyright is important to protect the work that people make, imagine spending 3 years writing a book, then everyone can share it for free and you don't get any money, but this is a motte and bailey situation because copyright laws became too draconian and they are made to benefit companies, not people, they need to be revised, and the most important part is reducing the deadline for expiration, public domain is also important because you can't own ideas, getting something that someone else made, and making it different, or even better, is also creativity.