The 'Shroom:Issue 168/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

I LIVED

Anyways, welcome to this month's Pipe Plaza. We've got some extra special things to share here today. First, we have one more section than usual this month, as Pitohui has written a special one-off section. Yay!

Second, we have the major announcement: Pipe Plaza is expanding! We are no longer just the home for wiki and community news. Pipe Plaza will now be home to ALL basic informational sections!! If there's a topic you're interested in that you'd like to introduce to our readers, go ahead and write it up and send it in! You like boats? Write a section about boats! Have a burning urge to tell people about cool plants and animals? You can do that too! Heck, you could probably even do a section to teach some words in other languages! The possibilities are endless!!!!

With that being said, do enjoy your time here as well as the rest of the month~

Section of the Month

NIWA News
Written by:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to NIWA News, a section where I show the going ons with the wikis in our NIWA group within the last month!

Promotions
 * Frosty was promoted to the rank of Patroller on ARMS Institute!
 * PikaSamus was given the title of Editor-in-Chief on the Fire Emblem Wiki!
 * Eminence and AmbientDinosaur were promoted to the rank of Patroller on Inkipedia!
 * TurtleCrossing and PanchamBro were promoted to the rank of Patroller on Nookipedia!
 * Wynn Liaw has been promoted to the rank of Patroller on the Super Mario Wiki!

Demotions
 * Moydow has been demoted on the Fire Emblem Wiki and F-Zero Wiki due to inactivity.
 * WayslideCool has been demoted on Inkipedia.

Mario Calendar
Written by:

Hey everyone :) Happy March! I’m GPM, and I’m back with yet another Mario Calendar! If you haven’t caught on yet or are new, here’s how it works: there are a lot of Mario games, right? I agree! And sometimes it’s nice to narrow that down to one month! So that’s exactly what I do. I’ll be listing all the Mario games from the month of March! Let’s get into it!

Region Abbreviations

Console Abbreviations


 * March 1
 * 1997 (EU/AU): Super Mario 64 (N64)
 * 2000 (JP): Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC)
 * 2003 (AU): Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (GBA)
 * 2012 (JP): Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * March 2
 * 2012 (EU): Mario Party 9 (Wii)


 * March 5
 * 2007 (NA): Wario: Master of Disguise (DS)
 * 2015 (NA):
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U eShop)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (3DS)


 * March 6
 * 2009 (EU): New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (Wii)


 * March 7
 * 1983 (NA): Donkey Kong II (G&W)


 * March 8
 * 1992 (JP): Mario Teaches Typing (MS-DOS)
 * 2007 (JP): Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
 * 2012 (AU): Mario Party 9 (Wii)


 * March 9
 * 1996 (JP): Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
 * 1998 (NA):
 * Yoshi's Story (N64)
 * Wario Land II (GB)
 * 2007 (EU): Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (DS)
 * 2008 (NA): Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
 * 2009 (NA): New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (Wii)


 * March 10
 * 2017 (EU): Mario Sports Superstars (3DS)


 * March 11
 * 1999 (AU): Mario Party (N64)
 * 2005 (EU):
 * Super Mario 64 DS (DS)
 * WarioWare: Touched! (DS)
 * 2012 (NA): Mario Party 9 (Wii)
 * 2017 (AU): Mario Sports Superstars (3DS)


 * March 12
 * 2015 (JP): Mario Party 10 (Wii U)


 * March 14
 * 1983 (NA): Mario Bros. (G&W)
 * 1995 (JP): Mario's Picross (GB)
 * 2005 (NA):
 * Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GC)
 * Yoshi Touch & Go (DS)
 * 2007 (JP): Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (Arcade)
 * 2014 (NA/EU): Yoshi's New Island (3DS)


 * March 15
 * 2014 (AU): Yoshi's New Island (3DS)


 * March 17
 * 2005 (JP): Donkey Konga 3: Tabehōdai! Haru Mogitate 50 Kyoku (GC)
 * 2005 (AU):
 * Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GC)
 * DK: King of Swing (GBA)
 * 2016 (JP): WarioWare: Touched! DL (DSiWare)


 * March 18
 * 2005 (EU): Mario Party 6 (GC)
 * 2016 (NA): Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (3DS)


 * March 19
 * 1999 (EU): Mario Party (N64)
 * 2015 (JP):
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U eShop)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (3DS)


 * March 20
 * 2006 (NA): Tetris DS (DS)
 * 2013 (JP): Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
 * 2014 (JP): Mario Party: Island Tour
 * 2015 (NA/EU/AU): Mario Party 10 (Wii U)
 * 2015 (EU):
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U eShop)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (3DS)


 * March 21
 * 2000 (JP): Wario Land 3 (GBC)
 * 2001 (JP): Super Mario Advance (GBA)
 * 2003 (JP): WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (GBA)
 * 2015 (AU):
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U)
 * Mario Party 10 (Wii U)
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U eShop))
 * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (3DS)


 * March 22
 * 2010 (NA):
 * Game & Watch: Chef (DSiWare)
 * Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory (DSiWare)
 * 2017
 * (NA/EU): Super Mario Run (Android)
 * (CHN): Super Mario Galaxy (NVS)


 * March 23
 * 2017 (JP/AU): Super Mario Run (Android)


 * March 24
 * 1992 (NA): Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up (MS-DOS)
 * 2013 (NA): Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
 * 2017 (NA): Mario Sports Superstars (3DS)


 * March 25
 * 2004 (CHN): Yoshi's Story (IQ)
 * 2008 (JP): Dr. Mario Online Rx (WiiWare)
 * 2011 (EU):
 * AR Games (3DS)
 * StreetPass Mii Plaza (3DS)


 * March 26
 * 1982 (NA): Fire Attack (G&W)
 * 1998 (EU): Wario Land II (GB)
 * 2009 (AU): New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (Wii)
 * 2010 (EU): Game & Watch: Chef (DSiWare)
 * 2010 (EU/AU): Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory (DSiWare)


 * March 27
 * 2011 (NA):
 * AR Games (3DS)
 * StreetPass Mii Plaza (3DS)


 * March 28
 * 2005 (NA): Mario Party Advance (GBA)
 * 2010 (NA): WarioWare: D.I.Y. (DS)
 * 2013 (JP): Game & Wario (Wii U)
 * 2013 (EU/AU): Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)


 * March 29
 * 2010 (NA): WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase (WiiWare)
 * 2019 (ALL): Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)


 * March 30
 * 2006 (AU): Super Princess Peach (DS)
 * 2017 (JP): Mario Sports Superstars (3DS)


 * March 31
 * 1996 (JP): BS Super Mario USA (Satellaview)
 * 2005 (JP): Yakuman DS (DS)
 * 2010 (NA): Game & Watch Collection 2 (DS)
 * 2011 (AU):
 * AR Games (3DS)
 * StreetPass Mii Plaza (3DS)
 * 2016 (NA/EU/AU): WarioWare: Touched! DL (DSiWare)

And that’s all for March! Honestly, I’d argue that this was a bit of a slow month, but there is one thing I noticed - it seems like the release month of the 3DS! With the release of AR Games and StreetPass Mii Plaza in most regions, it seems that the 3DS came out, unleashing the possibilities for many mario games, such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7! Other than that, there weren’t very many big releases, except for Super Mario 64 in EU/AU and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in NA. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed, see you next month!

Poll Committee Discussion
Written by:

Analyses
How do you feel about Nintendo's decision to exclude Super Mario Galaxy 2 from Super Mario 3D All-Stars?

As soon as Super Mario 3D All-Stars was announced along with the three included games (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy), there was a noticeable exclusion: Super Mario Galaxy 2. In fact, the majority have felt that Super Mario Galaxy 2 would make for a worthy inclusion in the package of 3D Mario games. When it comes down to how this opinion is expressed, the majority believes that its inclusion would represent that said game and the three games are equals in terms of significance, which given how greatly well-received this game was, plays into the reason for wanting the game. A bit less among the majority aren't too fussed about the exclusion even if the added content is nice. Speaking of content, a somewhat smaller group of people felt that three games aren't enough, which could be due to how this game is priced and also because of the belief that the potential of having more content makes the current iteration felt smaller than it should. Finally, there are a group of people who would prefer a version of the game where motion controls aren't mandatory, since games ported to the Switch tend to expand the control options, such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword port.

The minority does not feel that the inclusion of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is necessary for the 3D All-Stars label, with many feeling that the package has enough content, as each game is a large package unlike the individual games in the Super Mario All-Stars (SNES) package. The inclusion of Galaxy 2 was also viewed as a detriment by that group due to its similarity with the first Super Mario Galaxy, so if both Galaxy games were included it would have a feeling of bias towards the games. Moreover, Super Mario Galaxy 2 could be seen as a less impactful game, given how much it derives from the first Galaxy. In fact, it's alternative name could have be Super Mario Galaxy More, which implies that it wasn't intended to be a game on its own initially.

Overall, the desire for more content is tantalising, which is why the poll heavily weighed in favour of Super Mario Galaxy 2 to be included.

How do you feel about Nintendo opting to only make minor graphical updates to the games in Super Mario 3D All-Stars?

In a different poll on Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the question is pertaining to the graphical update for the games. In those games, the resolution has a marked increase from the originals, which weren't HD (high-definition) games to begin with. As such, the games required a graphical update when it comes to being released on the Nintendo Switch. The updated graphics felt minimal, as Super Mario 64 has a 4:3 image ratio and Super Mario Sunshine (and 64) are rendered in 30 frames per second, although both Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy are both wide-screen compatible. A good deal of people (623 votes) are find the changes to be acceptable even if more could be done to correct some limitations the originals had, while some of the others (467 votes) think it is fine. A smaller subset of people (312 votes) believed that additional changes could have been made. On the other hand, a subset of voters (334 votes) expected more for this collection in terms of graphics, preferring an overhaul. Interestingly, there is a much smaller group of people (38 votes) who prefer how the original is shaped, similar to how a Virtual Console game could look since those games stayed close to its original resolution.

How do you feel about the design changes to certain Mario characters in the Super Smash Bros. series?

When it comes to a crossover like Super Smash Bros., in which characters from different series come together no matter the styling, it is understandable when it comes to the decision to change them so that they are a more natural fit with each other. Taking some examples within the Mario series, Bowser has a more realistic makeover while Peach and Daisy's dresses have more frills compared to their standard attire. Although Smash considered certain Mario characters to be their own universes, Donkey Kong fits the criteria for the change, where he makes more realistic primate noises compared to the cartoonish grunts in his own games and the Mario games. The decision to do this has quite a widespread support, where over 40% of voters are interested in not only how some Mario characters are changed to fit the Smash series, but also Mario characters that have relatively minor changes. This is likely to be due to wanting consistency within the characters from within the family, since they are originally cartoony so there is a desire for them to be more in line with the ones that changed. The idea is welcomed by around 3% of voters but it isn't up to their liking, and thus would prefer if they were designed differently with the same mindset.

Even then, a subset of voters at around 14% of them, think that they are fine the way they are, and I imagine that one example that could fit this criteria is Mario, who is very close to his original portrayal that it would do a disservice to him to give him realistic touches. Less voters are keen on making changes to the Mario characters, with around 10% of them preferring to keep them the way they are originally portrayed (such as Bowser, probably), while about 7% being OK with only clothing changes such as Mario's denim textures in Brawl. There is also a crowd who are more oriented to physical appearance changes but not the clothes, only occupying around 2% of votes.

With the way Smash design characters differently, it's interesting to see how characters are portrayed, because there is at least one character (Pit) who pretty much base his design on this philosophy.

Thank you for reading.

A Forum History Module
Written by: With assistance from: and

Forum threads announcing promotions provide a paper trail for the Wiki Staff, the efforts of the Statistics Manager keep the history of The 'Shroom staff up to date, every member of the past Poll Committees are listed in the archive of old polls, and old Awards Committee members can be found in the threads which the past committees used to put the big show together each year. Excepting the old Mafia Hosts Guild, two groups are conspicuously absent from the list of community staff groups with easy-to-find, well-documented histories. Little information exists on the history of the Chat Operators, and the history of the forum moderators is buried in one single fifty-four page forum thread littered with unrelated content.

Today, we turn our attention to those so-called "janitors of the forums," the folks with the red banners (or red stars, if you remember the Simple Machines Forum version of the Boards) called the Forum Moderators. Documenting the history of every single forum moderator out in the history of the Super Mario Boards is a bit too ambitious a goal for this article, so, instead, this piece will take a look at the history of the currently active moderators: the five global moderators, the two local moderators, and the few who formally have the rank of "retired forum moderator." In other words, this is an attempt to piece together the tale, in a more readable format, of how Superchao, Smasher, Roserade, Glowsquid, Fawfulthegreat64, Weasel, MrConcreteDonkey, Gamefreak75, Baby Luigi, and GBAToad came to enforce the rules on the forum.

For those of you who aren't interested in getting into the weeds of these stories, below you'll find a handy summary table listing the earliest point in time, as it has best been pinned down, that these users held a position among the ranks of the Forum Moderators. Please note that the dates in this table are derived in part from conversations with other users, and that some of the users listed may have become moderators at earlier dates. Full explanations are offered in the text below the table.

Background Information: Two Key Events Shape the Forum Moderator Team

To understand the stories behind each individual moderator, it's best to first become familiar with two events that significantly changed the composition of the Forum Moderator team. It's easiest to work backwards, starting with the changing of the guard in 2020 and looking back at The Petition from there.

First, in early 2020, on the 5th of April, to be exact, Roserade and Fawfulthegreat64 were promoted, becoming global forum moderators. Shortly before this, on the 31st of March the same year, longtime global moderators Weasel (also known as MST3K, 3K, or Threek), MrConcreteDonkey, and Gamefreak75 retired. These three moderators left in good standing, and were given the newly-created title of "retired forum moderator". What inspired this changing of the guard? Simply put, the three aforementioned retired moderators recognized that they were no longer as active on the forum, and internal discussion led the moderators to decide to take on a new set of helping hands.

Long before this orderly change, however, The Petition forced a few changes on the moderation team back in 2012. Some of those changes stuck, and others did not, but it's important to understand what happened in order to understand why changes were made at this time. In 2012, there was a regrettable explosion of drama (not helped by the community's members being, on average, younger than they are now) over accusations that a small group of users had conspired against the rest of the community and had started to act tyrannical. This explosion culminated in The Petition, a particularly low-point in the history of the community.

However, the details of The Petition aren't as important as its effects, at least not for the purposes of this article. As readers are told in Forum Update in issue LXIII (63) of The 'Shroom, The Petition led Porplemontage to shake-up the forum moderation team.

"Porplemontage temporarily demotes all Administrators and hides all non-secret boards from people with special ranks. Guests are able to post for a few minutes, but everything except the deletion is undone."

While that particular move was temporary, in the following months, while the forum moderation team had their powers restricted, three new forum moderators would be promoted (though only one of them would stay in the position to the present day). The events in 2012 became a catalyst for the promotion of new forum moderators.

Now, with that background established, it's possible to piece together the stories of the individual Forum Moderators.

Glowsquid

Glowsquid, one of the five active global moderators, is also the longest-serving member of the forum's moderation team. According to Superchao and MrConcreteDonkey, Glowsquid has been a moderator since 2008, having made it through both the 2012 and 2020 changes in the moderation team. Unfortunately, a search of The 'Shroom, the forums, and Userpedia turned up no documented verification of this. The oldest record that is currently known to exist indicates that Glowsquid has been a global moderator since a time prior to January 2012, but pinning down the date of his promotion beyond this with documentation may not be possible.

It seems he made it through the events of 2012 with his position intact, but, as MrConcreteDonkey noted in issue 64, Glowsquid resigned from his position as a global moderator in either late June or early July of 2012. A forum post pins this down to the earliest part of June. Only a few months later, however, Glowsquid became a global moderator once again, specifically on the 31st of August 2012. Since then, he's simply stayed in the position.

Superchao

Superchao has the most direct connection to The Petition, being promoted alongside MarioGuy1 and Mason in summer of 2012, specifically on the 7th of June 2012 as part of the effort to restore the moderation team's numbers. Interestingly, he would be the only one of those three to remain in his position at the start of 2013. Marioguy1 resigned on the 6th of November 2012, citing his own inactivity. Meanwhile, as can be seen here and corroborated in issue LXIX (69), Mason resigned less than a month later, on the 17th of November 2012. Superchao, on the other hand, stuck around into 2013 and beyond, and is still a global moderator at the time of this article's publication.

Smasher

Smasher was the next to be promoted to the team, presumably to help fill the ranks with the departure of MarioGuy1 and Mason. She was promoted on the 29th of April 2013, with her promotion announced in issue LXXV (75), an issue which was, fittingly, themed around then-global moderator Gamefreak75.

Roserade

Roserade, as previously noted, was promoted on the 5th of April in 2020, as part of the changing of the guard on the forum moderation team. What's impressive about this is that he could be called a "forum success story," a user who may not have initially meshed with the community, but came back after maturing and proved to be a very valuable and proactive member of the community. He may have been a handful of a youth as Marioman1213, but, with him having served as the Vice-Chair of the Poll Committee, Sub-Director of The 'Shroom, and a global moderator, it's clear that he's improved over time.

Fawfulthegreat64

Fawfulthegreat64 was promoted at the same time as Roserade, on the 5th of April in 2020, and, much like Roserade, she's another forum success story. In fact, her story highlights the reason that the moderators have moved away from the term "permanent ban" and have adopted the term "indefinite ban." Yes, this forum moderator was once issued an indefinite ban. She managed to demonstrate growth, and was accordingly given a second chance on the forum. Afterwards, thanks in part to her familiarity with "The Marioverse" section of the forums, she was selected to be a global moderator.

Gamefreak75

The best source documenting Gamefreak75's promotion is this Retro Feature that Tucayo wrote in issue LXXV (75). Unfortunately, Tucayo didn't cite his sources, but, according to Tucayo's likely source, Gamefreak's promotion occurred on the 15th of February 2011. It seems, from listings of Forum Moderators on Userpedia, that he made it through The Petition with his rank intact, and, ultimately, he went on to retire in good standing in March or April of 2020.

MrConcreteDonkey

MrConcreteDonkey has the simplest tale, and also the littlest documentation of any of the moderators. He was promoted on the 22nd of March in 2016. His resignation came on the 31st of March 2020, in good standing with the moderation team.

Weasel

Once again, sparse documentation must be supplemented with word-of-mouth. The best documentation available seemed to indicate that Weasel had been promoted in May of 2012, right after The Petition. Superchao and MrConcreteDonkey, however, provided information indicating that Weasel had been a global moderator since mid-2009. He stayed in the position for a little over a decade, also retiring in good standing on the 31st of March 2020

Baby Luigi

One of the two current local moderators, Baby Luigi rounded out the current moderation team in 2020, with her promotion coming shortly after Roserade and Fawfulthegreat64 were promoted. Baby Luigi was made local moderator of the recently-created roleplay board of the forum on the 28th of May 2020. The popularity of the roleplay board and the regular conflicts centered around a few of its members led the Forum Moderators to appoint a trusted individual who was engaged in the Boards' roleplay community the rank of local moderator, so they could better manage the board. Baby Luigi is currently the most junior member of the moderation team, in terms of time served.

GBAToad

To understand how GBAToad became a local moderator, it's necessary to know a little bit about the history of the Mafia Hosts Guild. Created on May 29th, 2011, the Mafia Hosts Guild was created, ostensibly, to regulate mafia games on the forum's once-popular mafia board and to provide support and assistance for hosts and players. The effectiveness of the group can easily be disputed, but, for this article's purposes, all that needs to be said is that the Mafia Hosts Guild, on an annual basis, elected an Ambassador who effectively carried out moderation duties in the mafia board. Over time, the popularity of mafia dwindled, and the Mafia Hosts Guild became less active. Yet, the tradition of electing an Ambassador continued, and, in 2017, GBAToad was elected the Mafia Host Guild Ambassador. On December 30th, 2017, GBAToad put out a proposal to shut down the now-inactive Mafia Hosts Guild and to archive the mafia board. Ultimately, the forum users decided to shut down the Mafia Hosts Guild and rename the mafia board, giving it new life as a board for well-defined games of all types on the forum.

With the fate of the guild and the board decided, there were questions about the role of the Mafia Hosts Guild Ambassador, and whether the new board - now named The Glitz Pitz - would need a local moderator. In a series of three separate posts, it was ultimately decided that the old Ambassador, GBAToad, would be made, at the discretion of the Forum Moderators, the local moderator of The Glitz Pitz. The closure of the guild, the renaming of the board, and the promotion of GBAToad finished up on January 29th, 2018.

That's everything known to this point on the current selection of anyone with a red banner on the forums. Hopefully this puts everything into a more readable format, for those of you who were interested in this information but didn't want to have to read through hundreds of unrelated posts.

Thanks are offered to Superchao and MrConcreteDonkey for supplementing the information in this article with their own recollections, and extra thanks go out to MrConcreteDonkey for writing Forum Update for so long, which proved a crucial resource for this endeavor.