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Monday, February 1, 2021

KoopaTV's January 2021 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, look at that. 2021 is 1/12 done. (And that rhymes for the first time in 20 years.)

So far, I've had no noticeable trouble writing out “2021.” Usually, when you go from one year to the next, you're so used to writing the previous year (in this case, “2020”) that sometimes you'll slip up, especially during the first month of the new year. Not this time. I've been flawless with my 2021. Does that mean 2020 sucked that much that even my subconscious is done with it? ...Well, some say that 2021 is just 2020, but extended, 'cause it's perceived to still be a crappy year so far.

KoopaTV begs to differ. 2021 so far has been great*. Just take a look at the content on our website so far:

Top Five Recommended Experiences of January 2021


  1. Would You Rather Go Big, or Be Invincible? Super Mushroom vs. Super Star Splatfest! — In what should be the last new Splatfest theme for the next few years, Ludwig explains why the best choice would be to rather have a Super Star than have a Super Mushroom, and how being a Koopa affects his decision-making.
  2. Fact Check: Joe Biden's “We'll have another 200,000 Americans dead by the end of the year” Coronavirus claim — Candidate Joe Biden chose to provide a pessimistic world view/scientific model during an October presidential debate, making a prediction for December 31. Since that time has passed, was his statement accurate?
  3. Welcome to the Fódlan Senate, Raphael Warnock the Warlock — We have an exclusive look at the rise of Raphael Warnock the Warlock (and Jon Ossoff), born into the Commoner class, and now a Senator with the power to make change in Fódlan.
  4. Why I Don't Drink Alcoholic Beverages — Ludwig shares his personal decision-making process for why he doesn't drink alcoholic beverages. You're welcome to agree or disagree with his logic, but do try to understand it.
  5. NEVER AGAIN: Mario's Koopa Genocide in Super Mario Bros. 35's "1st World Count Challenge" — In a news release that was suspiciously timed with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Nintendo celebrated the deaths of almost six million Bowsers. KoopaTV, however, mourns the losses, as well as the hundreds of millions of Goombas, Koopas, and others that were also murdered in the Mario mob's genocide.

Even if an article wasn't on this list, it's still worth reading. Now, let's check out your comments on those articles and more!

*An actual genocide happening early in 2021 isn't great, but the article about it was.

Best Three Comments and One Worst Comment of January 2021


These comments are ordered by chronological order:
  1. “My main issues with this policy are that it puts up an unreasonable barrier to entry, it forces people to brand, and it tramples over the performance aspect of copyright.

    The policy states that if a console does not allow the sharing of footage, then it is not permissible to share raw footage. Every "retro" gamer is *immediately* impacted. It is only within the past generation or so that consoles had the in-built capacity to take videos, and even pros play old video games. Given how many people are introduced to existing franchises through previous ones, Capcom is cutting off free nostalgia advertisement.

    The worst part of this policy is how it discriminates against those with disabilities. There are plenty of people who have difficulty speaking or are completely unable to do so while playing video games, but do upload videos of their gameplay and stream. Forcing people to add a commentary on an already recorded video is bad enough, as it forces extra work on those who can't speak as they play compare to those who can talk while playing. In the case of streaming, which is real-time interaction, this is next to impossible for a one-person team. Any person who is unable to speak has to enlist extra aid just to stream due to these guidelines - something that is not required of their speaking counterparts.

    Even for those without disabilities, there is also the issue of access. Not everyone has a webcam (I don't). Not everyone has a microphone. Not everyone can design a slick-looking overlay or a transition, or any of the graphics necessary to edit footage. I can't draw and I can't design. Now Capcom is essentially forcing anyone who wants to stream to either design a logo, an overlay, and a whole social media presence.

    While some may argue these things are needed to be competitive in the streaming rat race, what this policy overlooks is that not everyone who streams or posts videos does so commercially or for the hopes of fame. There are plenty of people who are no-name and sporadic streamers who like to just put up videos of gameplay for fun or out of love of the actual product. I have no expectation of followers or money, so I let the gameplay footage speak for me, and I don't provide avenues to beg for money or subscribers. Whenever I do broadcast anything, it's because I want to showcase the game itself, not a "subscribe to Nangbaby and give up cash." I'm actually trying to help the company out in my stance. Instead, the company is forcing me to put my own stamp, which then opens me up to being within their "allowable" stamp. It's a trap.

    Then again, even for the abled and those with access, forcing a commentary requirement isn't always reasonable. In the cases of things like RPGs which have tens of hours of gameplay, one can't talk about every single action he or she takes in one of those games. That is an entire genre of games that is essentially rendered unstreamable thanks to Capcom's new policy.

    Finally, though, what is most chilling is that is that it invalidates the idea of copyrighting a performance. Since I'm playing the game, while the assets are theirs, my performance is mine. This is acknowledged by their own policy in that speedruns are okay. If that is the case, then any "run" as long as it is generated by the streamer should be permitted as a performance and thus should not need any editing. There is no need to transform the footage because one's playthrough is the highlight, and in that case editing is actually disingenuous.

    This policy only benefits people who have been streaming commercially for a while and who already have to deal with the red tape that comes with streaming commercially. For the disabled, the disadvantaged, the people who are just starting out, and the people who are not streaming for any form of currency, this new policy is a blow. Why make it harder for the people who just want to play video games?” — Nangbaby
  2. “ez clap ez clap radical liberal raphael warnock DESTROYS alt right conservative american values through the power of MAGIC and KINDNESS, which are directly opposed to the alt right values of HATRED and NOT MAGIC.” — sam
  3. “Koopa don't tell someone it's boring then expect them to read it. Marketing my boy, marketing!” — Health
Nangbaby raised a lot of necessary counterpoints in his comment relating to CAPCOM's video policy that I wrote an analysis about. CAPCOM has put out a statement basically saying that their video policy document is just codifying what they've been doing all along. (As of publishing this newsletter, the video policy document hasn't been updated from its original form.) That means that nothing is actually changing, and to the best of my knowledge, CAPCOM hasn't used the video policy throughout January to justify taking down things they haven't been doing before. For example, longplays of Ace Attorney games remain on YouTube, as well as retro games like Breath of Fire IV that aren't on consoles that allow for natural game footage sharing. (That said, it's clearly a big CAPCOM strategy to constantly port their older titles to new consoles.) Even things that are in blatant violation, like soundtracks, still remain up on YouTube and outside of CAPCOM's Spotify.

But, yes, the policy, if it was followed to the letter, does have some unfortunate implications for disabled gamers and those without means. We hope CAPCOM doesn't punish those folks. I do think their main target aren't those people, but on what's specifically outlined in their IMPERMISSABLE USES section, such as leaking games before they're released or damaging CAPCOM's brand with unsavoury fan works. I don't have sympathy for game leakers, so, yeah, screw them. (I have slightly more sympathy for unsavoury fan works, if only because I've made arguably “inappropriate content” using CAPCOM's intellectual property, and I don't want that removed.)

Now for the other comments. I mentioned the “radical liberal” quote only once in my Raphael Warnock the Warlock art piece, but that's drastically understating what happened in real life. Kelly Loeffler's entire campaign was referring to Raphael Warnock as Radical Liberal Raphael Warnock, like Radical Liberal was his title. My gosh, I'm glad she lost. What an awful candidate. Anyway, sam picked up on that and had fun with me having fun with my article when he made his comment. It amused me.




Health's commenting avatar being Satoru Iwata gives all of his comments a certain really interesting flavour to them. (Though he claimed this month not to know that Iwata is dead...) And he's right on the marketing bit, although I do think there's some merit to REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY. You tell someone something is boring or bad, and they'll want to try it out for themselves. (That's what I'm gonna do with the BALAN WONDERWORLD demo, with my thoughts coming in an article coming soon. ...The game actually is really, really bad.)

Speaking of bad, Health also produced the worst comment of January 2021, and he actually did have some competition on this one:
  1. “The only sort of genocide I'm a-okay with. Koopa must go! We should create a new organization - The KKK! The Koopa Klean-up Krew.” — Health
KoopaTV has an anti-genocide bent to our writing. That shouldn't be controversial, but apparently it is! I strongly condemn the notion that Koopas should be “kleaned up” in any capacity, and so I condemn this comment. ...Obviously, KoopaTV takes particular offence towards treating Koopas this way. Koopas have a vibrant civilisation that should be preserved and maintained, not obliterated. Shame on Health.

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 36 Mid-Round Leaderboard


Despite me condemning Health, he still got a boost from this newsletter, because people who get best comments of the month get +3 points (per comment). Here are the current KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program standings as of publishing:
  1. Lheticus Videre — 35 points
  2. Captain Stitch — 31 points
  3. Health — 22 points
  4. sam — 22 points
  5. ShinyGirafarig — 13 points
  6. SylveonGirl700 – 11 points
If you win Round 36 (decided by the end of February 2021), you'll get a $10 Nintendo eShop card code. You should try to do what you can to win. Winning is extrinsically rewarding, and participating on KoopaTV is intrinsically worth it! This includes more than commenting. You can write guest posts, fill out our Feedback Form and Quiz of the round, and even update our TV Tropes page (just tell us first). That's far from an exhaustive list, so check out the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program page for full information.

Corrections Corner; January 2021


There weren't any corrections made to KoopaTV content in January 2021. Good times.

KoopaTV VS. China; January 2021


There was a Chinese guy on Pokémon Online that couldn't open KoopaTV, but he could open the Chinese Embassy to the United States website. That hasn't been corroborated with anyone else, so it could be a him thing and not a nationwide China thing. Online testing services still say KoopaTV is accessible in China. It'd be nice if a VPN service had servers within China and you could test for yourself, but while it's unclear if China has banned access to KoopaTV, it is clear that China actively hunts VPN servers in China to destroy them. There are VPNs in, say, Hong Kong, and it's unclear to what extent the Great Firewall is active in Hong Kong.

KoopaTV wishes the best for the people of Hong Kong, and the worst for the Chinese Communist Party! We also wish that the new American president not completely capitulate to the Chinese Communist Party. Whatever they do, KoopaTV will continue with our path.



Thanks for making it to the end of the newsletter! Here's looking forward to February also being a good month for KoopaTV. Less genocides, but more great content. If you also would like to see that outcome, you should share KoopaTV to other people! That'll help inspire good things (and may get people to choose a non-murderous path in life).


The last newsletter dedicated to 2020, December 2020, is here.
Next month in February 2021 concludes both Round 36 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, and the KoopaTV VS. China saga.
Last year's newsletter was for January 2020, or the first one for 2020.
Next year's newsletter is for January 2022, or the first one for 2022.

8 comments :

  1. I thank Dr Doug Bowser and his wife, Mrs Toadstool for my awards. Here's to another good month!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2nd place?! I'll have to do better than that, guess it's time for a guest post. I've had a couple ideas but can't decide yet. Oh well, I hope this next month is better than the last, but the death of 3D all stars looms ever closer...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're pretty close to first! The status quo could put you over the edge; a guest post would likely protect that position, however.

      Delete
  3. Slightly disappointed I didn't get a Top Comment this month, slightly surprised that I'm on top of the standings. I guess the slow, steady, approach while trying to condense truth and levity alike into a single worthy comment per day whenever I can is still good for something, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. I assume that means you're happy you got top comment.

      Delete

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