2020 has certainly been an interesting year throughout the entire world. With COVID, remote education, and all the things Nintendo decided to do this year, it's a year that we won’t remember fondly. However, I’m not going to talk about the virus, politics, or anything you didn’t come to see me talk about. No, I’m going to be sharing some details in my life during 2020, the blog, and my thoughts on the video game industry as of late. I will also end this post with some updates on the blog.
I began this year in not the greatest way possible. I won’t go into all of it, because a lot of it is obviously personal, but I'll share some of it. I was having social issues, mainly due to the fact that I was too scared to find new communities to meet new people in. Eventually, me and this one friend went separate ways, not too long after I founded the Magoloth blog. A bit after that I went to this server on Discord, which I’m no longer in due to some disagreements between me and an individual. However, a lot of people that I met there are some of the greatest friends I’ve had. Shoutouts to everyone on my Discord friends list, you are all great people. To anyone who is in a similar issue I was in, or feel like you need to advance forward with your social life, don’t be afraid to take that step, because trust me, there are a lot of great people out there, especially in the gaming community.
I started Magoloth in April of this year. I really enjoy making these reviews, and my most recent review on Koral made me feel like I’ve improved a bit throughout these months. However, these reviews do take a decent amount of time to make, especially since I’m in school. I want to begin making other posts that are more centered around my interests, as well as my gaming life in general. I’m not done making reviews, I just want to make other content. However, I’m considering moving the reviews to be mostly on indie games, especially ones on itch.io, Steam, and Nintendo Switch. I’ll still review the odd game from time to time though not as frequent.
Now the decision to move to more indie content on Magoloth wasn’t thought of overnight. It actually is in line with my recent interests, and perceptions of the video game industry. This year has made my focus shift from Nintendo and the major developers to indie developers. The reason for this does have to do with the lack of interesting games from Nintendo and other 3rd party developers. The only major game that got me excited that was released this year was Crash Bandicoot 4, and that hasn’t been ported to Nintendo Switch yet. I do understand the virus has impacted development in all of the major companies, however, there are other things I’m angry about that COVID had nothing to do with.
Nintendo has done some outright terrible things this year in regards to the consumer, and their fans. We have the Joy-Con Drift lawsuit, which hasn't gone anywhere after the whole situation where it was being reported Nintendo claimed Joy-Con Drift is not a real problem. Nintendo also did a lot in December that angered the fans, such as filing a cease and desist on The Big House, a Super Smash Bros. Tournament, over modding Super Smash Bros. Melee, so it can be played online. This caused a Splatoon 2 tournament live stream to be canceled due to players giving support to The Big House. Now, I have stated in the past that I think emulation is wrong, which I think using an emulator is the only way to play a modded version of Melee. In this scenario, however, I feel emulation should’ve been used in this tournament, so that way players can play in their own homes, instead of going out somewhere, possibly getting the virus. Nintendo also filed a cease and desist on a maker of Joy-Con Shells due to the word, “Joy-Con” being on the shells. This shell was made in memory of Etika, and to help fundraise for a charity that is targeting mental health. It’s is just wrong for Nintendo to do this. You don’t need to take legal action over every little trying, and it’s only going to be a matter of time when Nintendo fans have had enough of this.
There is one more situation that happened in September that angered me more than all of the other stuff Nintendo has done this year. I’m not saying that the other stuff isn’t as bad, they’re all bad, but this one made me lose it on a personal level. The announcement happened in September, during Mario’s 35th Anniversary direct. Nintendo announces Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The announcement itself was fine, and this release had value to it. People wanted this for years, so what does Nintendo do with this high in-demand product? They put it on a digital limited release timer. To my knowledge, this is the first time in history that a normal game was sold digitally on a timer. This enraged me, and I feel that not enough people criticized it at the start. This has the power to make a new standard for video games, a bad one. I don’t want to see video games being sold on a timer, because that prevents consumers from waiting to purchase the game. I don’t make a lot of money, and when I do, I don’t like blowing it on one video game. I might want to buy something else at that time, but I can't do that if I really want Super Mario 3d Allstars. I know that the timer is several months, but the timer shouldn't be a thing at all. Let the consumer buy it when they want to buy it.
I feel like I need to say that I’m not done with Nintendo. Nintendo is certainly a unique company in the video game industry. In my opinion, they are the best company for family-friendly fun. Nintendo games also have that charm to them that I still enjoy. 2020 was just not a good year for Nintendo, but I hope 2021 will be a resurgence for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo as a whole.
I hope this entire world improves in 2021. We went through a year that will be taught in our history books a hundred years from now. Let’s all hope for the best in 2021.
Now the update. The website is getting a redesign at the beginning of the year. I don’t know if it’ll be a major one, but I want to make it a bit more of my current style. I’m also changing the logo, the same format though. Stay tuned for the next post.
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