Alan (Who Is Awesome)

“Today we are sharing decisions that will impact Phil Spencers across our organization. To position Phil Spencer for enduring success, we will end or decrease work in certain Phil Spencers across the business, following Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of Phil Spencer to increase agility.”

The entire gaming industry has been disproportionately impacted by his bummer, kowtowing decisions.

Spencer is a rank-and-file corporatist, a visionless guy who led with endless layoffs and industry destabilizing mergers & acquisitions, never by example.

His lasting legacy will be of trend chasing, for maximizing profits (streaming, subscriptions, influencers, etc).

Link’s Crossbow Training clears both eras by a mile 😎

OKAY, that’s a wrap!!! Thanks for looking through random swag boxes with me!!

Um.

Is this something…? I have a few of them #Pokemon

Damn!! Iykyk!
#SmashBrosInvitational

Sorry for stealing your Comic-Con menu, Blizzard!!!

Nintendo gave me these cool bookmarks when I visited NOA headquarters (okay, they gave every visitor these just let me enjoy it okay)

I’m 100% certain I have the world’s only Professor Layton Cafe merch set 🎩

(Those are unopened tea bags!!)

Ah yes, here’s where I kept my unfolded Super Mario Bros 3 Happy Meal boxes… 🍔

Damn these are probably worth something right??

lol

ANYONE NEED A WONDERFUL 101 MASK???

Soooooo much freaking E3 swag 🫨😵‍💫

“How many different toys for the Pokemon promotion, boss…?”

“….57.”

Okay NERDS, I recently moved, so I’m doing another episode of “Looking through Alan’s old game media boxes”!

I picked this random box. Let’s see wtf is in it 👀 📦

They are ""scored"". It's their portfolio. You're thinking of a writing portfolio.

2/2 If & when Nintendo scales down what's possible — from a game making philosophy — it's bc they are eminent designers that harbor an OBSESSION with curating experience.

Kudos to us pushing their games to the limit, but we should at least endeavor to understand their work, even when we disagree.

I know this tweet is cynical, it's a common accusation often leveled by Smash Bros and speedrunner fans in particular. (I'm both.) But it reminded me of @ibogost.com's book about play.

Remember: "Play" isn't doing what you WANT, it's doing what you CAN with whatever is at your disposal. 1/2

Wait do you take pitches in 2026 👀

I sincerely can't tell if this quote by Tanabe is breathtakingly creatively bankrupt, or fucking baller.

I am dead fucking serious when I say THIS is what a REAL journalist is supposed to ask when they speak to the CEO of a controversial company.

You fucked the bread.

Absolutely nothing escapes Nintendo’s deft hand. This project is the one collab that lets an appreciable amount of light in. That’s just my opinion though!

Oh it's DEF not as burdened as the Pokemon operettas! Nintendo clearly loves Metroid for Metroid's sake more than it wants to make Metroid Tennis.

I WILL go out on a limb though... given Retro's very unique position at Nintendo, it's the one game most influenced by NOA, and to me, it really shows.

Same thing that usually burdens projects at this scale: it had to commit to "player trends" (open world) - probably due to market research. It has to connect to MP3 & MP5. It has to sell amiibos.

Like Pokemon, elements exists to buoy more than narrative & gameplay. Some works but imo not in concert

I find MP4 excels in art direction and production in typical ways that make Nintendo games singular. Bravo.

But I also find it burdened by Nintendo's corporate needs in ways Metroid, Super Metroid, and MP1 weren't. Conversely, Animal Well's atmosphere clears it by miles, for example.

recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen AI for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen AI for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good. and at my job, it seems like each department says that AI can be useful in every field except the one that they know best. It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen AI will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence lies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don't. By magicmosshka, yesterday's

the discourse on what jobs are acceptable to replace with generative AI reveals a lot about what we think of other people's jobs