The 'Shroom:Issue 151/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

And now for someone completely different.

Well, hello to readers old and new! My name's Zange, and you'll be seeing me at the start of Pipe Plaza for the foreseeable future. It's really an honor to be here. I remember first stumbling across The 'Shroom back in 2013 or so, and it just totally blew my mind at the time. I could hardly wrap my tiny 11-year-old mind around the fact that all these people got together every month to release this whole newsletter. Fast forward six years later, and I can hardly believe that I'm now directing a team for it. Funny how things work out like that! (Deja Vu, perhaps??) Regardless, I'm really happy to be here.

I would like to give a HUGE shout-out and thank you to for two reasons: 1. For the amazing portrait to my right, and 2. For all the incredible work he's put into Pipe Plaza before me. I'll be certain to carry on all his hard work from here on. Shout-out to the rest of the staff as well for helping to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd love for anyone interested in writing a section to join me! Head to the Sign Up page if you're interested, and don't hesitate to ask me or another staff member any questions you may have! And without further ado, enjoy what Pipe Plaza has in store for this month!

Section of the Month

Interview
Written by:

Hello, 'Shroom readers! It's your boy Superchao here and wait I think I used that line already didn't I? Well, either way, I'm here with another interview! I've been able to rope longtime user Smg2daisy into this - she might not be the most active on the forum, but she's always felt like a solid regular in the community. So I decided you should all learn some more about her that you might have not known!

The Interview: maroon Hello, 'Shroom readers! Welcome to the latest edition of interview, which I hope you're actually maybe possibly reading! navy Well, at least I will be reading, or at least glancing. I like to read the interviews. navy It lets me know more about other users around. maroon Awww, thanks! maroon Anyhow, this month I've decided to grab Smg2Daisy for the interview, as you can tell! navy But now that I think about it again, I can't remember too much about what I read before. I might pay the previous issues a visit again. maroon Reading 'Shroom back issues is always a fun time. navy It is, although the last time I did that was getting inspirations for myself to write for Issue 150. maroon So! How'd you find your way to this little community of ours, anyway? However long ago it was? navy Hmm. It was really silly but let's see. When I was 15, I got my first mobile phone and I was playing Wii a lot. navy I had games such as Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Paper Mario, and Super Mario Strikers. maroon What, no SMG1? navy No. Back then we didn't really have the games in a CD form. navy The Will was not even mine. It's my brother who had it as a reward for getting full As in his final primary school exam. maroon Nice, I'm glad you were able to borrow it! navy So he did the thing, and my parents had to fulfill their promise but buying CDs individually are really expensive. navy We got this little black box (I still have no idea what it is), and we plugged in, and it let us choose different games. navy Whatever games that are inside will be available for us siblings to play. That's it. navy Now that I think about it, that's probably some hacking. maroon Huh. We'll have to study it later, it sounds MarioWiki relevant! maroon Yeah it's gotta be a bootleg, lol navy Sigh, the poor times. Anyway, I enjoyed the games regardless! maroon Well, that's good! maroon So, how'd that tie into MarioWiki? navy I remembered that I ventured into Super Mario Wiki eventually and note that it's the first time I enter the internet, my mind was: Is this official??? maroon Probably for the best it's not. maroon I couldn't talk about F-Zero then! navy And it did look like it's official for me, and I just press random buttons on the top of the main page and... navy Ah, what a mood. navy "Forum" navy Hmm. navy * thinks about all the cringey posts I made and reflects * maroon That's why you should have done what I did and gotten all your cringe out on the wiki under an old name nobody remembers except by a nickname navy Too late. maroon Oh nooooooo maroon Any particular reason you joined? navy Nope! maroon Simple, yet explanatory! navy Everything else was grey if you don't login so I registered. maroon and then you had the problem of never keeping up with posts maroon Maybe that's just me though... navy And then I think I was focusing on the forum because there are people who talk and it's a good opportunity to fix my English. maroon Hey, it helped Tucayo! navy Hmm, recent posted threads? maroon Look at some of his 2009 posts sometime and be astounded. navy Will do that after this! maroon In my defense I used the forum for 13 years and never noticed that navy Too late! navy After a while I stick in the forum, I was obsessed with star rankings... because who doesn't like stars? navy I'd say counting threads took over 90% of my posts! navy Joining the community when I was 15, and I am glad that no one thinks that I am really childish. I think I was. maroon Oh god, the obsession with stars. What a ride that was. navy Well maybe I am, judging from how active I am from the counting threads. But I don't really care about the stars now because they are not visible anymore... navy Sigh, entering a new era of Mario Boards pays the price. maroon It does. Truly, the stars were the greatest loss... let us all mourn. navy But to be fair, a lot of things had changed throughout the years and I am somehow glad that I come back to this community. navy But the ability to keep things up around is another issue, tho. navy Right now, the only game I play is Mario Kart Tour so maroon Honestly, I think half our memberbase doesn't even play Mario games anymore navy Ok but in the entire forum or the active ones? maroon Active ones lol maroon Look at me, I haven't written a single thing about the 'Shroom for Mario in a long time! navy But you are at least, writing fro the Shroom consistently! maroon I am! And it's all about F-Zero. maroon (Reminder to my readers to go vote for who I cover in November!) navy You will haunt everyone who doesn't. maroon I will. maroon So, what caused you to stick around long-term? Rather than one and done? navy I think it's mainly about the people around. It started from people such as DF, Star, and then MK, Geeky... maroon What, no me? navy That's the list after I leave out everyone else who left. navy WELL navy Moderators tend to be busy (That's what I think back then) so... maroon You're not the only person who said their initial impression of me was tinted by me being a mod, lol navy My mind was still like a child so I'd worry if I offended people. maroon Can't blame ya at 15. navy Back then you, Smasher, Tucky were moderators. I guess. maroon Tucky was never a mod lol navy I think I backed out more when Smasher doesn't like how I call navy OH navy Smashie. navy But now I just say it when I feel like it! maroon I think she's fine with that at this point, because it's not being spammed to annoy her navy And I had this mindset of "They are moderators so they are adults who does great things" navy If I am a spammer I will no longer be here! maroon Nonsense, all you gotta do is change your ways in tiiime navy HMMMMM. navy Things escalated for me back in the end of 2016 and 2017. navy that's when my mindset starts to shift away from being a kid. maroon And it worked out well, I'd say! maroon See: your visit here navy And I was in college back then so i didn't paid too much attention to the forum, except Mario Awards, mafia, and Killing Game. navy That was a huge step for me! maroon Killing Game is fun but man am I glad it doesn't happen as often as Mafia maroon would burn out soooo faaaast navy Yes, and I applaud for hosts who did the games. navy 2017 was a ride. I think I gathered up reasons for the US trip for myself. maroon It was a fun time! Next time you gotta stay longer tho navy Visiting people I met online, joining the AnimeFest which was located in Dallas, Texas. navy I will! I can't wait for the food you will cook! maroon Exceeeeellent. maroon How'd you feel about the general change in the community dynamic as Skype and Discord were introduced? navy Was Skype even big for the community back then? navy Skype and the forum somehow exist and not interfere with each other at all. maroon Skype was... A mess. Let's put it kindly. navy It's just a spot for people who become friends from the forum and it's just like Messenger. navy I will never want to login to Skype anymore... maroon I uninstalled Skype years ago when it made me delete all my old logs. navy Hmm, I will check my laptop and see if I deleted Skype when I get home. navy Discord however, is an interesting platform. I think the addition of Killing Game adds up the demand of people using Discord along with the forum. The content still doesn't interfere, but the server based space makes us feel like navy It's just like a community. It's controlled by moderators and you get more interactions with users. maroon Pretty much! It's a microsm of the forum navy The only big perk of forum is that you can search your threads easily, while Discord is just navy Like a river flows, slowly to the sea maroon I like the general accessibility and relative permanent feel of the forum, but that's me and my attachment to it after running for so long navy At least saying "Good morning!" in Discord won't be as weird as saying it in the forum. navy Well, you have watched over it for so many years, that's understandable. maroon Yep. maroon Its wild to think of how big the timescale for MarioWiki is. maroon Especially with the 'Shroom! navy Yeah, it's been over 150 issues now! maroon There was a joke in a 2007 issue of the 'Shroom that makes me 100% certain the 'Shroom staff such as it was at the time thought it was going to be dead by 2015 navy Maybe they are talking about Userpedia instead...... maroon Userpedia needed to have the plug pulled, honestly maroon It was time to let go. navy Sigh, I like that shade of blue in Userpedia. navy But I can see why, even not from the dramas. I think I was typing too much of my personal information in there. navy If that thing keeps up, I might even leak too much about myself. maroon Less from the dramas and more just... It was time to accept it was dead, y'know? maroon Not keep it on life support forever navy I didn't thought that actually, but I was unaware about stuff around so navy Who was giving the life support tho? maroon Anton, less "actively giving it life support" and more "not disabling edits" until he did when it became clear keeping it open was more trouble than it was worth. navy Rest in Cheetos. navy or Chex Mix. maroon You say that like Anton will ever die. I'd say he'll outlast the rest of us on the forum but that's me, I am the Fisher King of the forum navy Fisher King? navy I only know what Chex Mix is because of Anton. So what's Fisher King??? maroon Oh, it's an old term for a thing in stories where someone in charge of a place is directly connected to how alive the place is maroon the joke is that if i ever leave the forum, it will up and die navy Ooooh I get it! navy Porple's always watching. I always have that feeling that porple is always watching the forum along with Poochy. maroon Pretty much. navy Also Anton if you are reading this, I don't mean that you'd ever die. Since you gave Userpedia "life support" I just said that out! maroon it's too lateeeee navy :D navy Discord is also a great place for users to keep connecting, especially since everyone are becoming adults. maroon i can't be 27 yet maroon it's illegal navy How do we legalize it? navy And if you become an adult, you can ummm drink! navy You could just skip time to become 27 tho, to be fair. maroon It's more... I'm 27 already. I feel like I'm 21. Please send help. maroon Maybe if I didn't hang around with all these KIDS navy Being young is a blessing! navy Wait, who are the kids you talk about???? :( navy But you do fit as a fatherly figure for the community. maroon Rose, who is 11 years younger than me maroon what a baby maroon He's also one of my good friends. navy * takes out calculator * navy Rose is surprisingly mature compared to any other 16 year olds out there... maroon Oh, definitely. That's why it doesn't actually feel weird, I'd peg him at 20 if I didn't know navy LOL navy I am liking the community as a whole, especially the ones who are in Discord. I can't count the times of me rambling that all of us should have a meetup! maroon I'd be down for meeting more than one MarioWiki person at once! All of you need to just come to New York. navy And do Jojo poses in front of the Nintendo Centre- navy But if that happens, your house will be a party dance floor... maroon If you're all visiting some of you are staying in hotels. navy I can see it happening in 5 years where everyone plans for this meetup. navy Renting a big mansion to stay in together sounds good too! navy Ah, the dream. maroon The dreeeeam~ maroon So, would you say you're glad, overall, that you joined the communiy? navy Mhm! there were ups and downs, Laughs and tears, but hey, I've come so far and it's continuing so yeah! maroon Well, that's really all someone can ask for, huh? maroon So, on the subject of Mario. Are there any Mario games you really exceptionally like? The ones that go down in memory? navy Super Mario Galaxy 2! navy My name tells. maroon Ha, that's a good point. And it answers in advance the favorite Mario character, too. navy I remember the times when I just open the game, stay on the menu of World 3, World S and just lie on the floor and immerse myself into the music. navy : DDDDDDDDDD maroon What do you like about SMG2, then? navy I was so blown away by the soundtrack! Some of the levels are tough, but I play the game with my brother so we made it through with getting all the Green Stars. maroon Something I have... actually never done myself! maroon I'd have to pull it out but IIRC I have like 200 stars total? navy Hence getting a helping hand, even the helper just... pick up Star Bits. navy That's impressive! Some of the jumps have to so precise to get the green star! navy Mario Kart Wii is where I know Daisy. I am not a cheerful person, so I actually aspire to be as cheerful as she is one day. maroon HI I'M S2D! navy THAT'S ME! navy You imposter! maroon And yeah, the Green Stars were wild. No offense to Luigi, though, but... I definitely preferred it over just Do It All Over Again like SMG1 did. navy That's a lot of time to kill if you do that for real. maroon I did it for real. Hoo boy. navy ... I want to play SMG1 when I come over. maroon You can! maroon You can also play F-Zero GX. If you want to Suffer navy I can give it a try! maroon It's fun! But hard. navy One thing that I found out when I play SMG2 tho, was interesting for me. maroon But somehow I was really good at it. maroon Oh? navy There's this particular galaxy navy Starshine Beach Galaxy. navy When I have to move myself from small planets and it rotates all around, I get dizzy watching it. navy The same thing happened when I tried TF2 navy Dota as well. navy I wonder if it's the third person aspect visuals made me feel dizzy. navy Since then I don't play games and be like the generic game addict playing in front of the computer, which is good, but I just don't get to enjoy those games. navy I have no problem playing rhythm games, kart games, rpg and the others tho! maroon Huh, weird. Motion sick, maybe? navy Perhaps. But I still enjoy the game! Just gotta get over that particular level as fast as I can. maroon I've been there, for different reasons. maroon "Oh, I love this game! Except this one level, that's bad." maroon A shame this means I can't foist Metroid Prime on you, that's a good game. navy OOF maroon Any games besides the obvious SMG2 that were really big favorites for you? navy Super Paper Mario was the one that made me cried (The ending) and that's where I learnt the phrase: "Snap out of it!" maroon Awww. It's always nice to meet a fellow SPM fan. navy I am a sucker for the romance aspect. maroon I understand why that game didn't click with everyone but man did I like it a lot! navy But I literally smh on that gecko. navy Never played TTYD, can't relate to those who don't enjoyed SPM. maroon you should play TTYD! maroon Just move in with me for a month for the sole purpose of marathoning my favorite Gamecube games. navy HMMMMM navy *notes down for possible trip plans* maroon How about any games that just didn't click with you? maroon Mario or otherwise. navy ... Federation Force. navy Well, he asked me to play with him. (You know who, let's not write the name out on the interview) navy I tried. maroon I played Federation Force and I honestly enjoyed it, but considering who it was... yeah, that'd be a damper. maroon Gameplay just not do it? navy It's just it's not gonna be those "Ok I mma keep doing it myself so I can be better" navy You need more people around for you aka teamwork maroon Pretty much! maroon I had a lot of fun playing with randos, actually. maroon I should pull that out and try it more buuuut I bet nobody plays it anymore. navy Yeah so that's a shame. navy I have no idea where that Wii went, and I don't even know how to use the new TV in the house, so! Those go to dust. I sold off my entire 3DS and the games too. maroon Oof maroon Do you have anything left game-wise at this point, lol navy The only thing that remain is the Villager amiibo. navy #villagermain4smash maroon I'm busy maining Captain Falcon navy oof maroon Will he ever get a new game? ...No, but I can believe. navy Well we can always hope! navy But personally, I don't put a lot of myself into the forums. It's busy during the Awards only I guess. maroon That's okay. I don't post that much, I think the important part is general community involvement. navy Which I enjoyed for this year! maroon Awards, discord, forum, wiki, all of it comes together to count. navy Mhm! maroon Hmmm... maroon Any franchises you really want to talk about? Love Live, that kind of thing? navy Are you giving me a chance to spread my religion? maroon Yes. navy GO WATCH TWO SET VIOLIN maroon You wrote an entire section about it! navy Their world tour is coming soon, 2020-2021 and MALAYSIA IS NOT ONE OF THE PLACES QWQ maroon guess you'll have to do what Shy did maroon and make sure you're there for it navy ARGH navy I was so upset that I wrote a long email to tell them why they should come here navy Their team replied so I was so happy! That was the day when you were asking for the interview as well. That was my lucky day~! navy I think Love Live was basically spreaded out to the community. navy And I don't even play All Stars so... maroon And then I got into Love Live literally years after everyone else did lol maroon At least I will always have Honoka! navy I have a Honk meme in my phone ready to send it to you! maroon It's a good solid meme. Thank! navy :) navy Oh, speaking of spreading religions, for K-POP listeners, go check out suggi from YouTube! maroon I have never gotten into K-POP, sadly. But I can think of a couple people you'll get with that hook! navy Hmm, he also sings English songs so navy In fact, his original album is in English! maroon Huh, neat! maroon Big music fan in general, huh? navy Yes! Music really brings joy. This is also why I use earbuds/headphones a lot. navy Although I still have trouble to get myself a really good one. Money problems. navy If people ever have trouble to figure a birthday present for me, you go with good earphones. That won't go wrong. maroon Will dooooo maroon Especially headphones. I like them on both a practical and aesthetic level. navy It's really stylish! navy I think it's easy to figure my passion for music out if you notice Discord. I will appear to listen to Spotify during work! maroon I've seen that all the time! navy : DDDDDDDDDDD maroon Alrighty, so... maroon Would you say... maroon This is the last question? navy Sure? maroon Well, there you go! maroon Thanks for being interviewed. navy Ah, it's a honor to be interviewed for The Shroom. navy Despite of my broken English throughout the years, I still can't believe I reached the level to be able to use the language nicely and to be interviewed. maroon Yep! You've really improved. Hope you enjoyed!

Conclusion: Longtime users don't have to be ones with a bunch of ranks or major things to be worth interviewing - plenty of people who've just been around for a while are good choices. Hopefully, my stint in the interviews this year and last has helped to make that clear! Anyhow, this is where I'm making an announcement: December will be my last Interview - I'm returning to the Odinsleep with regards to interviews afterwards. If you've ever thought about taking the section over for yourself, guess what? Now's your chance!

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:

Hey y'all, YFJ here! In this month's edition of Poll Committee Discussion, I'll be discussing the latest polls from the Committee! Have a look!

Poll Committee News
There really isn't too much to say here, except that we're still a bit worn out from Awards Analysis but are trying hard to keep the polls on the Main Page coming. Our next big project isn't coming for quite some time, however, so we should be able to take it easy for a little while.

With more and more Nintendo games having the addition of Nintendo Labo VR, how do you feel about it? ( and, September 16, 2019)
====Would you like Nintendo to make games (such as Super Princess Peach and Luigi’s Mansion) starring Mario characters that have yet to have their own game? ( and, September 22, 2019)====

====Would you like tracks from the Mario Kart Arcade series to come back in future console Mario Kart installments as retro tracks? (,, and , September 29, 2019)====

Analysis

 * With more and more Nintendo games having the addition of Nintendo Labo VR, how do you feel about it?: About 20% of voters thought Labo VR is fun and adds unique experiences to games, while about 30% of voters thought it was fun but could be used to greater potential. Only 15% of voters disliked Labo VR, either simply tolerating it or wanting it abandoned entirely. The largest plurality of voters were indifferent to Labo VR, which was certainly an interesting surprise. In my opinion, Labo VR is a cool feature, as Nintendo's first dive into VR technology since the debacle that was the Virtual Boy; however, I feel that not enough games take full advantage of it. It's a great opportunity to have immersive first-person sandbox experiences in Nintendo universes, and I'm patiently waiting for Nintendo to unlock its true potential.


 * Would you like Nintendo to make games (such as Super Princess Peach and Luigi’s Mansion) starring Mario characters that have yet to have their own game?: An overwhelming majority of voters went with the second option, stating that they wanted more supporting Mario characters to take the spotlight in their own games, one-off or otherwise. The next largest option, chosen by about 30% of voters, would only accept more of these games if they eventually became their own series, so more Luigi's Mansion than Super Princess Peach. Less than 1% of voters thought that Mario should focus only on Mario, showing the large popularity of the franchise's supporting characters. Meanwhile, only about 8% had an opinion of indifference, either simply wanting more Mario games to be made or just not caring whether new Mario games are made at all. In any case, Luigi's Mansion was undeniably the biggest factor in Luigi's large popularity today, while WarioWare and Yoshi's Island brought Wario and Yoshi to the fame that they otherwise might not have had.


 * Would you like tracks from the Mario Kart Arcade series to come back in future console Mario Kart installments as retro tracks?: The arcade installments in the Mario Kart series have largely remained independent from their console counterparts, but it seems that a majority of voters want to change that by adding arcade-exclusive tracks to the retro lineup. It's understandable why; the arcade installments are quite unique and creative, and it would be interesting to see what could be done if their tracks wound up on a home console. The next largest group of voters are in favor of the idea as long as the tracks are significantly revised, closely followed by another group that thinks that the retro lineup should first be expanded with more console tracks, with both options holding a little over 15% of votes. Only 6% of voters are against the idea and want the arcade tracks to continue to be excluded from the retro lineup, while less than 1% of voters outright dislike the retro track system in general. A little less than 10% of voters had an opinion of indifference.


 * With Mario Kart Tour now released, what are your feelings on the game?: Speaking of Mario Kart, a new one was released fairly recently for mobile devices. However, the largest group of voters has no interest in downloading the free-to-start game, which I find quite surprising. A little over 15% of voters thoroughly enjoy Mario Kart Tour, while about 30% enjoy most of it but feel it is held back by its iffy controls and mishandling of microtransactions and gacha elements. About 7% of voters are neutral towards the game, feeling that every pro has an equal con. About 10% of voters have largely negative feelings toward the game, but enjoy certain elements of it such as the easy portability and its free-to-start nature; another 7% do not enjoy the game, short and simple as that.

That's all I have to say for today. Be sure to check out the next edition of Poll Committee Discussion in November, and have a great and spooky Halloween!