reidman Strikes Back
This is in response to Dookietaker McGee's article, The Pessimist Shoots His Mouth Off. Be sure to read that before trying to make too much sense of this blurb.
First off, this isn't an article written entirely to defend my work on the petition. If it were then I would be an insecure little man and wouldn't have lasted long as webmaster here. The reason I'm writing this article is because:
* People don't understand how much work the petition is
* People don't understand the nature of the petition
* People don't understand the potential of the petition
* Its fun to make jabs at doky
So we'll take it in order. First off, as dokutake quoted me so gracefully in his article, the petition is a buttload of work. People truly don't understand how much work I've personally put into this, not to mention Tomato and the other staffers who check signatures (whichever staffer is still checking sigs every day or so, thank you). I dreaded doing this petition, and Tomato even more so, because he probably knew ahead of time that he'd get pulled into it (although not entirely unwillingly ;)
OK, so the petition is a lot of work which none of the workers really look forward to. Then why do it if, as doku said, online petitions are worthless? First off:
THIS IS NOT AN ONLINE PETITION
Part of the reason that this petition is SO much work is because of that fact; if this were an online petition, I'd zip up our 20 meg signature text file and fire off an email to [email protected] with something along the lines of 'here i want mohter 3 btw will stafox be in it i hate dinosraus?' However, anyone who has been here long knows that's not my style. When I find that something is worth doing, I try to do it well. This petition is certainly no exception.
Much to the dismay of many visitors to this website, I am not stupid. I know that online petitions don't work. I wouldn't waste my time with one either. Here are some facts concerning the petition that should make it clear to even the most pessimistic dookie taker that this is not an online petition, nor has a petition this ambitious been tackled by a group of teenagers:
* Each signature is checked by hand and compared with those around it to prevent having too many duplicates. Will we still get duplicates and false signatures? Yes. In spite of this, does sig checking greatly increase the validity and quality of the petition? I think so.
* Not all signatures are going to be online. Sooner or later I plan on getting a printable form prepared which people can take to game stores or other public places or wherever and collect signatures. I have no idea how many signatures will come as a result of this, but I think that, more than the quantity of sigs, its the fact that we have people willing to collect signatures by hand in the first place.
* With luck, we'll begin campaigning for Japanese gamers to assist us in reaching our goal. The Japanese Mother community is huge, but far less cohesive than we, their English counterparts, due to the lack of a central Japanese Mother site. We cannot count on massive amounts of Japanese signatures, but the fact that we'll be gathering Japanese signatures is yet another sign of quality and dedication on our part.
* This petition will be printed and bound. The petition will probably come to around 400 pages, assuming 30,000 signatures and roughly 75 signatures per double-sided page. The cost for printing and shipping 3-4 copies of this document will probably run around $300.
* Cover art and opening letters from myself and Tomato (one of which I hope Tomato will find the time to write in Japanese for our NOJ friends) will be included with the document. Jonk was thinking about compiling a big fan art collection which we could include as well.
Finally, the real issue. Will it work? I don't know. There are lots of signs and hints that we've picked up on, such as Iwata's interest in the Mother 3 project. For those that don't know, Iwata recently became the president of Nintendo. Obviously, we're going to be sending a copy of this petition to him. Other things work in our favor, such as the fact that lots of work on the game is actually completed, and that lots of money has been invested in this project which will go to complete waste otherwise.
This can be done, people. The EB64 Petition was 10,000 signatures, and it made some waves over at Nintendo. Obviously no tsunamis, but waves at least. 30,000 signatures? Who knows. Maybe signatures don't count; maybe it's presentation, dedication, and persistence. We know for a fact that Nintendo has noticed and recognized Starmen.Net in the past. We've been in their face too much for them to have possibly missed us, and on many occasions they've made it clear (in good and bad ways) that we've been noticed. Perhaps this will be the final straw which puts the thought into the head of one of the higher-ups: Maybe those Mother fanatics are really serious?
In conclusion; doku, you suck. But I do appreciate your honesty. Perhaps your honesty will inspire the surge of interest we need from the community in order to get the 30,000 signatures we're striving for. Pump up, folks, this is the last leg.
If we fail, we fail. If we succeed, then all the better. Either way, we tried. Those of you who have worked, participated, and supported the petition can be proud that you were part of such a massive effort. And for all you who measure effort by what comes of it, please bear in mind that you get what you put into it. Noodle that one for a while, and when you decide what you'll do, feel free to either berate the effort or to join it.
This is in response to Dookietaker McGee's article, The Pessimist Shoots His Mouth Off. Be sure to read that before trying to make too much sense of this blurb.
First off, this isn't an article written entirely to defend my work on the petition. If it were then I would be an insecure little man and wouldn't have lasted long as webmaster here. The reason I'm writing this article is because:
* People don't understand how much work the petition is
* People don't understand the nature of the petition
* People don't understand the potential of the petition
* Its fun to make jabs at doky
So we'll take it in order. First off, as dokutake quoted me so gracefully in his article, the petition is a buttload of work. People truly don't understand how much work I've personally put into this, not to mention Tomato and the other staffers who check signatures (whichever staffer is still checking sigs every day or so, thank you). I dreaded doing this petition, and Tomato even more so, because he probably knew ahead of time that he'd get pulled into it (although not entirely unwillingly ;)
OK, so the petition is a lot of work which none of the workers really look forward to. Then why do it if, as doku said, online petitions are worthless? First off:
THIS IS NOT AN ONLINE PETITION
Part of the reason that this petition is SO much work is because of that fact; if this were an online petition, I'd zip up our 20 meg signature text file and fire off an email to [email protected] with something along the lines of 'here i want mohter 3 btw will stafox be in it i hate dinosraus?' However, anyone who has been here long knows that's not my style. When I find that something is worth doing, I try to do it well. This petition is certainly no exception.
Much to the dismay of many visitors to this website, I am not stupid. I know that online petitions don't work. I wouldn't waste my time with one either. Here are some facts concerning the petition that should make it clear to even the most pessimistic dookie taker that this is not an online petition, nor has a petition this ambitious been tackled by a group of teenagers:
* Each signature is checked by hand and compared with those around it to prevent having too many duplicates. Will we still get duplicates and false signatures? Yes. In spite of this, does sig checking greatly increase the validity and quality of the petition? I think so.
* Not all signatures are going to be online. Sooner or later I plan on getting a printable form prepared which people can take to game stores or other public places or wherever and collect signatures. I have no idea how many signatures will come as a result of this, but I think that, more than the quantity of sigs, its the fact that we have people willing to collect signatures by hand in the first place.
* With luck, we'll begin campaigning for Japanese gamers to assist us in reaching our goal. The Japanese Mother community is huge, but far less cohesive than we, their English counterparts, due to the lack of a central Japanese Mother site. We cannot count on massive amounts of Japanese signatures, but the fact that we'll be gathering Japanese signatures is yet another sign of quality and dedication on our part.
* This petition will be printed and bound. The petition will probably come to around 400 pages, assuming 30,000 signatures and roughly 75 signatures per double-sided page. The cost for printing and shipping 3-4 copies of this document will probably run around $300.
* Cover art and opening letters from myself and Tomato (one of which I hope Tomato will find the time to write in Japanese for our NOJ friends) will be included with the document. Jonk was thinking about compiling a big fan art collection which we could include as well.
Finally, the real issue. Will it work? I don't know. There are lots of signs and hints that we've picked up on, such as Iwata's interest in the Mother 3 project. For those that don't know, Iwata recently became the president of Nintendo. Obviously, we're going to be sending a copy of this petition to him. Other things work in our favor, such as the fact that lots of work on the game is actually completed, and that lots of money has been invested in this project which will go to complete waste otherwise.
This can be done, people. The EB64 Petition was 10,000 signatures, and it made some waves over at Nintendo. Obviously no tsunamis, but waves at least. 30,000 signatures? Who knows. Maybe signatures don't count; maybe it's presentation, dedication, and persistence. We know for a fact that Nintendo has noticed and recognized Starmen.Net in the past. We've been in their face too much for them to have possibly missed us, and on many occasions they've made it clear (in good and bad ways) that we've been noticed. Perhaps this will be the final straw which puts the thought into the head of one of the higher-ups: Maybe those Mother fanatics are really serious?
In conclusion; doku, you suck. But I do appreciate your honesty. Perhaps your honesty will inspire the surge of interest we need from the community in order to get the 30,000 signatures we're striving for. Pump up, folks, this is the last leg.
If we fail, we fail. If we succeed, then all the better. Either way, we tried. Those of you who have worked, participated, and supported the petition can be proud that you were part of such a massive effort. And for all you who measure effort by what comes of it, please bear in mind that you get what you put into it. Noodle that one for a while, and when you decide what you'll do, feel free to either berate the effort or to join it.
