S02E05:Super Smash Bros: But in Another Timeline Pt.2 Exploring a Parallel Universe: Nintendo's Modding Marketplace & The Future of Gaming

Ever wondered about a parallel universe where Nintendo pioneered a marketplace for video game mods? Let's kick things off by exploring this intriguing timeline - a world where innovative game developers were able to showcase their work, adding a whole new spin to your favorite games. You're promised a fascinating journey through this alternate universe, where creativity, collaboration, and a sense of community took center stage.

The conversation doesn't end there. We're going to delve into the potential economic implications of modding marketplaces. Frustrated by the missed opportunities in our timeline, we'll take a look at the future, envisioning a world where modders are rewarded financially for their creativity. By envisioning scenarios where game enthusiasts could create unique skins for popular games and sell them for a profit, we're entering the realm of an entirely new digital economy. So, gear up for an exciting trip to the future of gaming. Remember, the future isn't as far off as it might seem!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Wasteland Party. Ayo, I'm back. So I guess we're gonna call this the Super Smash Brothers episode Second part. Yeah, the second part. So you know how I said I was gonna go on this big rant and well, it's just gonna be long winded and convoluted.

Speaker 1: 0:28

I tried my best to organize my thoughts for this, because I think this is already a concept for you guys. I noticed that you guys recently had this thing called the Unreal Engine 5 come out and you can share assets and you can sell assets and it's very user friendly with indie developers and like it's really cool. But I had something like this, but that was a lot more professional, a lot more streamlined and, weirdly enough, nintendo was the one to actually start this, at least in my timeline. So one thing that's been bugging me is the fact that you guys don't have a modding marketplace. By a modding marketplace is basically like, how can I describe it? Imagine, like this is where it started from, started with the Super Smash Brothers Melee the ones that were actually able to connect to the internet at the time. So a lot of early developers or aspiring developers and aspiring video game artists and creators all of them were able to put their talent into the marketplace, and it was just called marketplace and it was nothing special at the beginning, but what it did was it gave these poor modders that just love the game and wanted to add more to it a place that they can be able to be creative and add stages, characters, skins even to the game. And all of this was done with the very friendly like I said, very friendly licensing practices of my timeline.

Speaker 1: 2:32

You see back where I'm from, even though capitalism still existed and people wanted to make money. People wanted to make money in smart ways. So let's say, you are good at software engineering or software development and you made, let's say, a really cool skin for Mario. You put him in his overalls and fancy mustache when he was jump man. Right, you would be able to make the skin and, of course, other people would do that too. Other people would make the skin copy you. But because you knew the code and you were able to do it on your own, you could submit your skin of Mario to the people who own it, which is, of course, nintendo, and they would, of course, approve you. But depending on the quality of the things that you churned out, you could do an option to be paid or an option to give it for free, and it's cool because you got rewarded either way.

Speaker 1: 3:50

So another thing of my timeline was that online handles were a sort of permanent thing, so by the time the internet came out when it did come out people took it very seriously. People knew exactly the potential of the internet and companies were creating profiles and in my timeline if you wanted a profile it would be synced to your name and all the things that you interact with. Of course, your data would be private and it would be protected under US law, but it allowed you to have one profile to just browse the internet with, and it did a good job at not only keeping people honest on the internet but to keep people friendly on the internet. Your internet here in this timeline is chaotic. It's chaotic and it's weird. It's like, wow, I have not seen such weirdos in all of the timelines I've ever jumped. You got you. People have the craziest things going on here and I'm not going to go into any examples because I don't want to discriminate against anybody. But my god, you people are out of this world. But you know that's off topic yet again.

Speaker 1: 5:20

So back to the origin of the marketplace. So in my original timeline there was a period where piracy and modding for video games became so rampant that Nintendo, of all people, proposed an online database similar to an online store, but here you could sell your mods or give them away for free. You see, back then Nintendo saw the dangers of piracy and prepped for it. They're pretty smart, like the way they are here, except they weren't suing people like crazy, they just prepared for worst case scenario, and it also helped that they pioneered a thing called a buddy software that behave like an antivirus, as anti-spyware for your console. Basically, it would scan your files all the time for unofficial mods and malware that were not greenlit by them and delete them. You needed the buddy software to enable modding and with that you'd be able to get official mods and official licensed user created things. So the way it worked, like I said, you would submit something, you would get approved and you could choose to either give it for free or sell it, and most people didn't sell things because some other person would just copy it and give it away for free.

Speaker 1: 6:52

It was it was. It gave a very friendly and charitable atmosphere in the gaming community. So Microsoft and Sony saw this and copied them, as they always do. There were so many mods that all the prices were very reasonable. For example, in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, the highest rated skin for Mario was his 64 bit look and that only cost 50 cents. The gaming community, a sort of like exactly what it was, a marketplace like this. These hubs were like forums and marketplace is put together and they were very streamlined, very professionally made.

Speaker 1: 7:39

You could go anywhere like pretend that since we're still on the subject of Super Smash Brothers, I'll tell you about all the other mods from all the other games eventually, with time. But since we're still on the subject of Super Smash Brothers, you could just literally fill up your entire screen with tiny little squares of all of the characters that were made for at least ultimate. That's the most recent one in your timeline. So that's the one I'm going to use. I'm not going to spoil for the new Smash that might come out and it might match the one that I saw on that, one that one really take the cake of. If you guys were impressed by Ultimate, just went until you see the next one, but anyway. So pretend you wanted to go and you want it.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Let's say you wanted to get Amy Rose from Sonic, right? So there would be a version of Amy Rose that someone would use the tools that were in the Smash Brothers database and make an Amy Rose from scratch. Or you could download or buy a skin of Sonic that uses Amy's skin. Or some other people go crazy and use King Dedede's skeleton to be Amy's because they both have a hammer. The possibilities were endless, and it makes money move within the gaming community so much that it just made more people invested in it. I just feel really frustrated that you guys don't have that, or at least you don't have it yet.

Speaker 1: 9:30

I'm very hopeful for all of you and I hope it happens for all of you, because I've seen some spots where it's showing that it could happen, with Bethesda's little modding marketplace and these Battle Royale games and these free to play games that are making, I guess, cosmetics more and more ready, available for people, and it's only a matter of time before they start making, or allowing people to make, skins and pay them. That's one of the things that we have in my timeline too, where in these really high profile games, if you were to create a skin that looked really nice and you uploaded it and you sold it for like a dollar. Not only would you get reputation, but you would get paid too. And well, I can tell you from just saying that my original timeline or economy was pretty stable, but I'll go ahead and leave it there.

Speaker 1: 10:35

So please, if you can follow me on the social medias. I try to make an account with everything so that it'll be convenient for you to follow me. I'm not really good with it because I'm new to it. It's very different. I'll try to adjust to it, but for now I'll leave you guys with this. There's always a better version of something as long as somebody can conceive it. Bye, everybody.