If that’s true, it sounds like Nintendo took the wrong lessons from the feedback. The problem isn’t really that a Mario game had a story; it’s that they tried to inject story into a game design that doesn’t need it. Disappointing that they extended that approach to the new Paper Mario games as a result.

I don’t really understand why this policy is in place. What is Nintendo afraid of; that deviating too far from their established designs will alienate their fans?

Yeah, it’s just sat in some vault somewhere that nobody can ever, ever see it. I’m hoping it gets quietly pushed out on Disney+ some day, if only because Seth Mcfarlane’s Palpatine is a delight.

This is one of those things that has always been on the periphery of my gaming vision. I actually have the first game downloaded on my PS3, though I don’t recall getting very far in actually playing it.

As a Brit I found Tahani’s line about British sitcoms in The Good Place hilarious.

I think I get what you’re saying. That said, it’s probably a false equivalency to say JKR’s opinion counts as much as a trans person’s does. Like, on this subject I strongly suspect most trans people are more informed on the subject of trans rights than JKR is, and is more trustorthy and valuable as a result.

That’s kind of a simplistic argument. She’s not just some woman who wrote some books about wizards; she’s an enormously popular author with thousands of followers and a massive platform. Her opinions matter not just because they’re toxic, but because the influence of the person spouting them allows them to spread more…

Well, you just saved me 42 minutes.

Hear, hear. There’s an episode of James May’s Toy Stories where he buys an expensive train set at auction and throws away half the packaging while he’s in the auction house, on the basis that it’s a toy and meant to be played with. I think that’s a good philosophy to live with, and if I collected this kind of thing…

Situations like this remind me of a line from the Team Fortress comics:

Yep! The game was called Captain Rainbow and came out on wii back in 2008.

Not necessarily. Apparently Nintendo once published a game where you had to retrieve an... *ahem* feminine product that Birdo was using.

I kind of get what they were going for, but it’s a bit lacking in the execution.

It’s tricky because Shirley explicitly identifies it as a hate crime (which, yeah) so any edit to make him inoffensive throws the episode out of kilter, or makes it seem like Shirley is overreacting which isn’t any better. And you can’t take him out entirely because if I recall, his ‘death’ establishes the stakes…

Apparently there’s two videos attached to Gone with the Wind now on HBO Max, one of which is literally an hour long, that places the movie in a better context. No idea how many people will actually watch them, but I guess you can’t accuse HBO Max of failing in their due diligence.

Ugh. On one hand I can understand why they’d take this decision as Chang dressing up like... that was not good. On the other hand, blackface aside, it’s one of the best episodes Community ever did and they made its wrongness pretty clear from the start. But if I were black, I’d probably have a (legimitately) hostile…

I’ve added some photos in my response to Zack if you’re so inclined...

Ask and ye shall receive:

I’m working on a project for my Lego Ninja Turtles stuff; I’ve built a new lair from scratch, and now I’m building the dock area that attaches to it for the sub. I’m also modifying the Shellraiser set they released several years ago; it’s a fun set, but there’s a lot of little problems that compromise it.

Yeah, but according to the reviews some of the music and cutscenes are missing, along with a few other things. So this is still possibly a better option.