Let’s be honest here for a moment. When it comes to video game companies, there are ones that you can feel do no wrong. When those companies do something wrong and all of a sudden, it feels like a major shock to the system. Nintendo is rather infamous for being a three steps forward, one step back kind of company with how they handle things with their fans at times. Look at their policies on gaming competitions, fan-made stuff featuring their properties, and more to get an idea. The Pokemon Company recently reacted to a certain duo’s statements about the Nuzlocke Runs of their franchise and it got a lot of people raising eyebrows.
If you don’t know, Nuzlocke Runs are when gamers follow certain rules beyond the basic ones of the game in order to make their runs more difficult. In this case, you release all the Pokemon you have that faint in battle because they are “dead.” Furthermore, you must nickname all your Pokemon so that you have a deeper connection to them, and more difficult rules may be included depending on the run you decide to do.
The former hosts of the Nintendo Minute show Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang were doing a new episode of their podcast that they set up after the end of Nintendo Minute and noted that one time they wanted to do a Nuzlocke Run. At first, this seems rather harmless, but the duo noted that The Pokemon Company was not a fan of it at all. The two recounted how the company stated that they felt doing something like that was on the same level as a Rom hack, or a game that abuses the base code to make what they want. Naturally, the two hosts were shocked by this because a Nuzlocke Run may be an unusual way to play a Pokemon title, but it’s not illegal in any way.
The hosts later would go on to note that they were seriously pressured into not doing this, and said that there were other content creators who lost their Nuzlocke Runs due to interference from The Pokemon Company.
But now, the company themselves has come forward and said it, “does not have any issues with fans or creators playing the video games with Nuzlocke rules.”
So, who do we believe here? Well, Kit and Krysta honestly have no reason to lie about what happened. They had nothing to gain from it even with no doubt some bitterness about what happened to the Nintendo Minute.
What’s more, game companies in the past have had to tried to save face when it comes to their attempts to block gamer content that they feel is needed but gamers think is stupid to try and stop. Either way, this seems like a strange thing to have an issue with given the current state of games. There are plenty of other hills to die on.
Source: Eurogamer
