Mischief Makers - 'Possibly the most underrated and widely ignored game on the N64'

OMG yes! I love that game. I didn't realize anyone actually agreed with me. ;)

It's sad that most of these titles reasons they might fizzle fall under:

Nobody between the ages of 13 and 30 actually owns a Wii.

and

If they fuck it up with motion controls.

Go Nintendo.

It's sad that most of these titles reasons they might fizzle fall under:

Nobody between the ages of 13 and 30 actually owns a Wii.

and

If they fuck it up with motion controls.

Go Nintendo.

“I feel like Nintendo’s breaking up with me.”

If we're going with a relationship example I feel as a person who grew up with Nintendo in it's waning years, a more adequate one would be this: Nintendo is like the friend you grew up with. Sure, he was pretty nerdy and kinda funny looking. But you were pretty nerdy yourself and he was a lot of fun and so you remained friends and stuck up for him when other people would make fun of him for all those years. As the years went by though, he started to change. He lost interest in the things you once shared, and took up a lot of strange new more 'active' hobbies. Suddenly he didn't want to just stay in and hang around with you and your little group of close friends. He just wanted to go out to big old parties with all his casual acquaintances. Nowadays you hardly even see her any more. He refuses to come out and admit it but you both can see the writing on the wall. You know it's only a matter of time until you drift apart and stop seeing each other completely. I hope doesn't expect to be able to come crawling back to you when his new friends all get sick of him.

Call me crazy but doesn't Sasuke look a lot like Steven Colbert? I mean like really looks like him. Not just an a superficial, has glasses and similar hair way. The facial features really resemble him. Weird.

Yeah, I think I'll definitely pass on this. I was a little undecided but seeing it stacked up next to Vesperia... I'd rather play through that again.

It's a shame because most of these things are only problems because circumstances, game companies, or gamers make them a problem.

So for those of us who aren't interested in buying new versions of things we already own...I guess we're screwed.

The new Fire Emblem is good news though. I'm glad to see it moving back to hand held after the bloody awful Radiant Dawn. (Although really, it's problems were not because of it's platform). Still, I think it has always been a series better suited to the hand held system.

Random and pointless nitpick:

Your picture from Ghost in the Shell is actually from the later TV series, not the original movie.

I can honestly say that I've never pirated a game. That said, I've pirated a fair bit of other stuff.

The stealing vs piracy debate is of course totally semantic but the fact that comes out of it is key: When you steal a physical item the previous owner loses that item. When you pirate (or steal if you wish to call it that) a game, you are gaining a copy of that game. It's not like with a physical item. If I steal an apple, the seller no longer has that apple to sell. I have cost him. A game company however is still free to go out there and sell the same number of games as ever regardless of whether I pirate their game or not. For that reason I do not see piracy as inherently bad.

However, IP is a tricky thing. There is little to no production cost for individual units but rather a huge initial cost to create the IP. The hope is that once they have created the IP, they will be able to sell enough copies to make up for their cost. That is where the problem arises. What you may cost companies is not a lost item but a lost sale and that can be just as damaging. I have not put them back a step by taking a physical item but really, they have already put them selves back many steps with initial production costs and now are counting on the people who want to play their game to put them forward.

However (again), you have really only cost them a sale if you would have bought the game if you were unable to pirate it. If you did not want something enough or could not afford to go out and buy it, then there was never really any chance of you paying for it so ultimately, whether you pirate it or just do without has no impact on the company. I think that if you can and would buy a game if you couldn't pirate it, then you really should buy it. If not, it's probably harmless to pirate it.

There are a few conditions though:

-Don't delude yourself. This only really works if you're honest with yourself. As soon as people start convincing themselves they can't afford to buy or wouldn't even though they would, this all falls apart.

-Don't let IP be the only thing to suffer. It's not really fair to piss away all your money on stuff you can't pirate and then turn around and go "sorry games, but it looks like I'm broke now. Piracy here I come."

-Recognize that the industry needs your support and you ought to do at least what you can. The one thing I simply cannot stand is people who think someone who buys something they could just pirate is some kind of sucker. No, they are somebody who is willing to spend their hard earned money even though they don't have to because they want to support the people who make the games they love and for that these people deserve our respect.

-At least buy something. It doesn't have to be a lot but something. If you're so poor you can't buy even the odd game here or there, then you probably should stop sitting on your ass playing games and go out looking for a job or something. If games aren't worth enough to you to justify buying even the odd game here or there then you probably ought to go do something you actually give a tiny damn about with your time.

If we maintain a little balance and be aware of what we're doing I think piracy can be beneficial and relatively harmless. Where it becomes a problem is when it spirals out of control. When people pirate anything and everything without even a thought. I do fear that piracy may be becoming like this or already be like this. It is especially concerning since unlike other things such as music, video, etc. I don't really see what the gaming industry can do to adapt.