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So, an HD re-release of Skyward Sword got announced for the Switch at the most recent direct, and they announced that the game would include optional button/stick controls to use in place of the motion controls. That's certainly a good addition, and there's been plenty of discussion about it. However, neither it nor anything else in the announcement addressed what, for me at least, was the biggest issue with the motion controls in Skyward Sword; the issue that kept me from playing Skyward Sword the first time around and raises a larger issue about gaming: (From the announcement): "The joy-con controller in your right hand is the sword", "The joy-con controller in your left hand is your shield" So... what if you're left-handed? For context: as a left-handed person in a world where 90% of the population is right-handed, I have had to grow used to using right-handed objects in everyday life: for just one example, I found a way to use right-handed scissors (or as a right-handed person would call them, scissors) with my left hand without it being awkward just so I wouldn't have to pay absurd amounts for "scissors designed for both hands" that look no different from normal scissors. However, when it comes to playing video games on consoles, handedness is usually not an issue: the main effect of handedness is on things involving precise motion and hand-eye coordination: writing, sports, using a pair of scissors, etc., and a standard controller has none of that: it's pressing buttons and tilting a control stick while relying more on the physical feedback of the buttons and the stick than on the visual feedback of the game, so me being left-handed has virtually no effect when playing most consoles. Console gaming was generally the one area where my handedness didn't matter at all. With the Wii and the DS, however, it was a different story. The DS Zelda games: Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, accommodated being left-handed: the game right away asked if you were left-handed or right-handed, and it adjusted the UI on the touch screen accordingly. More than that, almost every aspect of the gameplay utilized the DS pen, so there was never a situation involving having to use the control stick and the DS pen at the same time; something I heard was a major issue with Kid Icarus: Uprising to the point where Nintendo released a right control stick attachment (and of course, that attachment costed money rather than coming with the game, so there was a whiff of that "double-priced scissors that both hands can supposedly use equally"). Nintendo remembered to be inclusive towards the left-handed. Plenty of Wii games, such as Wii Sports, also took left-handed players into consideration. The design of the Wii remote also took it into account: the Wii remote and nunchuck were symmetrical and could be held easily in either hand. And yet, for Skyward Sword, left-handed players got nothing. The game was designed around motion controls that favored being right-handed, and there were no options to alter the controls. Every time I went to the store and came across Skyward Sword on the Wii, this is the thing that ultimately kept me from purchasing it. Now, with this HD re-release, I was really hoping that would finally be addressed, but, while it's certainly possible that the game may have a "left-handed mode" that simply wasn't announced, the trailer could not have leaned more towards being right-handed if it tried: not only those descriptions of the combat above, but also the special themed joy-cons they announced with the right joy-con being the sword and the left joy-con being the shield. The worst part is that the Switch re-release could actually end up being less inclusive than the Wii version if this is ignored: I know of a number of left-handed players who simply played Skyward Sword with the Wii remote in their left hand and the nunchuck in their right; it was awkward for them because motion controls rely entirely on visual feedback and Link's using the sword and shield in the opposite hands, but it was something. The equivalent for the Switch version would be swapping the very asymmetrical joy-cons and awkwardly holding them in the opposite hands. This is a problem that even occurred with Super Mario 3D All-Stars: in the Wii version of Mario Galaxy, handedness didn't matter one bit. However, for the 3D All-Stars version, all the motion controls were mapped to the right joy-con. A Wii game where handedness didn't matter became a game that disadvantaged the left-handed when ported to the Switch, and unlike the problem with the camera controls in the 3D All-Stars version of Mario Sunshine, Nintendo has yet to fix this. You would think that Nintendo would want to be as inclusive as possible for its audience even from a simple business standpoint; that was certainly the reasoning behind all the handholding in late Wii-era games such as this one. Adding to this, when it comes to Skyward Sword and handedness, it isn't just the controls that bother me: the left-handed like myself have hardly any representation in gaming. For the longest time, Link was the only left-handed hero of any noteworthiness, and he had been left-handed since the very first Zelda game (though for that game you'd have to look at the artwork to confirm it due to sprite-mirroring in 8-bit games). Then Skyward Sword changed that; he was made right-handed to mirror the motion-controls and cater to a right-handed audience, and though the 2D Zelda games that have come after have kept Link as left-handed, Breath of the Wild: a game with zero motion controls and with no animations or programming ported over from Skyward Sword, had a right-handed Link. At E3 2016, in response to questions about this, Eiji Aonuma had this response: "In terms of right-handedness of things, when we think about which hand Link is going to use, we think about the control scheme. With the gamepad, the buttons you'll be using to swing the sword are on the right side, and thus he's right-handed." There's no way to describe this statement except as complete bogus; the attack button's been on the right side of the controller since the NES, yet Link has always been left-handed. Adding to this, in another interview in 2017, Eiji said this: "It is a matter of chance that Link is left-handed in the first episodes, for a reason that we could not really explain today" It was most certainly not chance; the reason is that the series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, favours his left hand and enjoys adding left-handed characters in games. He made Bowser Jr. left-handed, he made Rosalina left-handed, etc. So, one thing we aren't getting from Nintendo about the reason for why is the truth, and I think the reason for that is simply that there was no reason they made Link right-handed in Breath of the Wild, and now after being asked, they're just trying to make it sound like there was a good reason. They've even gone so far as to say that Link is "ambidextrous" and I honestly think they don't realize what they're doing: they're reducing the number of noteworthy left-handed heroes, not just in gaming but in pretty much all of fiction, from one to zero, and that's a real shame. Anyway, these are my thoughts. Sorry this is a bit long, but I wanted to mention everything I could about this and cover all my thoughts on this. What are your thoughts on this?

A little backstory here: On this Spyro fansite I once created this Survivor style general trivia challenge game. Didn't host but it was still really fun to do. Even after I left that site, I loved the idea. Here's my proposal: This game is based on the honor system. That means that looking up answers is not incouraged, but no one could really stop you. The game operates on Days. There will be 12 or so Days where a member from the losing team is eliminated until the merge occurs. Then it shall be one large team with individual invincibility. People will be voted off each day, except for possibly one or so non-elimination days. Contestants will send their votes by PM to the hosts. This of course means any hosts will probably need a good inbox or something. Looking to have around 10-12 competitors. Also would like to have a host, but it'd probably be a pretty difficult job. They'd get all the credit if this goes well. I know I've had this go well before, but it was never thanks to me. Teams will be randomized I guess. Contestants: 1. Franziska 2. Power Master 3. Draco 4. Glaceon Mage 5. Icemario 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 and 12 to be added if space is needed. Host: Baldrick Teams: Team *host choice #1*: Team *host choice #2*:

So, whenever I'm reading a wiki on Fire Emblem, because hey, what else am I going to do with my time? Get a life? Pfft, no! Anyway, whenever I read an article about a unit the player obtains, it describes them as playable. Is that right? Now, I don't mean that in the sense of if that's morally right, as that would fall under your conundrums of philosophy. No, I mean, from a textbook perspective, isn't it incorrect to call units in FE playable? You do indeed control them to an extend, but it's more like you tell them where to go and what to do, in my eyes, rather than controlling them to do that thing. You know what I mean? In my opinion the FE player is the strategist, which begs the question of if you play as the tactics character, but (Awakening loosely not withstanding) even then you don't seem to 'be' any unit in particular, you just command the whole army from your little aerial perch outside the fourth wall. Thoughts?

I'm not sure why I decided to create this topic, but I did, and now it's here, so deal with it. I guess I've just been playing a lot of Pokemon recently, and I even watched some episodes of the anime, and it got me to thinking; what were my favorite Pokemon anyways? So, thirty minutes minutes spent analyzing the over 700 Pokemon (but not really because I don't care about Unknown) later, and I came up with a list. But CLEARLY my list is flawed and filled with serious Gen. 1 bias because I'm OLD, so I'm curious to see what your favorite Pokemon are! There are no wrong answers except Unknown. Oh yeah, here's my list. It's full of serious Gen. 1 bias. 10) Chansey This picture says it all, who can't like Chansey (I will ignore all yes')? Chansey was ridiculously hard to get in the original Safari Zone, so when I found out you could get one in Unknown Dungeon, I was ecstatic...Of course, I never used it, but that's beside the point! Then Chansey became super bro in the newer generations thanks to Eviolite, which is just swell. 9) Garchomp Admittedly, I'm not really into the newer generations as much (mostly...because of lack of effort, I'm hoping to get X &/or Y &/or Z though!), but sometimes a new design can even catch an old fart like me by surprise. I mean, it's a freaking land shark, that's like the best thing ever. Also Garchomp was so good that it was considered UBER, which is bro, although I'm not sure if that's changed recently or not. Either way, land shark. Bad ass. 8) Eevee Eevee is wonderful. He's like the "X" of Pokemon, with infinite potential that becomes more and more apparent as the generations go by. Plus, he's Gary's starter Pokemon in Yellow version. Sorry, let me rephrase that again. MOTHERFUCKING GARY OAK's starter Pokemon in Yellow. That's like, all of the bonus points right there. Not to mention most of the time when you get Eevee (except in HG/SS where they fucked it up), he's usually a fairly high leveled bro who can exceed even your starter, provided the right initial investment is there. And he can fill all of the gaps in your party lineup, no matter what it is! 7) Latios Latios has like, the best typing ever. Psychic types are awesome. Dragon types are awesome. Latios is awesome. Also didn't hurt that he was the bro member of my team when I was playing Pokemon Online. His design is also pretty neat, and as I do like Blue over Red, a reason why he's here on this list instead of Latias...not to mention the whole Pokemon Online thing and being a higher tier. Clearly there is no place in my cruel heart for second place! 6. Charizard Do I really need to say anything? This guy was the reason I bought Pokemon Red in the first place. Just seeing his profile plastered over the box art was enough to get my 8 year old self begging my parents to buy a Game Boy Color for this game. Not to mention he was one of the few Pokemon Ash fully evolved in the anime, and fairly early one at that! Charizard's so rad. 5. Mewtwo Back when I first played Pokemon, it took me like forever to get to the Elite 4. Constant resets, running around for hours to get an Abra, getting lost in every dungeon for at least 5 hours or more (including Mount Moon), and even a few complete do-overs when I realized I wanted a different starter! But yeah, the whole Pokemon Red endgame is really well done, and I felt like I had accomplished something by the time I finished it (mainly, wiping my victory in that smug jerk, Gary Oak's face). So I was totally surprised that there was an endgame, because games didn't usually do that! And Mewtwo was at the end of it! And he was freaking ridiculous! IT WAS SO AWESOME GUYS ALSO HE WAS COOL IN THE ANIME MOVIE WHICH WAS ALL PRETENTIOUS BUT I LIKED IT ANYWAYS SO THERE FUCK YOU 4) Articuno Articuno is. There's just something about it that's so graceful and majestic and also more importantly he starts out with Ice Beam, which is the coolest move in Pokemon...I was so mad that it barely features in Gen 2 or the Gen 1 remakes. SO MAD. 3) Pichu Bet you weren't expecting a Gen 2 Pokemon this late in the list! And Pichu at that, rather than Pikachu! To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure why I like Pichu so much. I can give you like 50 reasons for Pikachu, but like, 0 for Pichu. I'm not sure I've ever got one in the games! Maybe it's just because he was so adorable in SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH, or because he's like Pikachu but MORE KAWAII. I dunno, man. 2. Dragonair Dragonair really nails that whole mystic thing that dragon type pokemon (used to) have going for them. Earlier in the game, you see Ekans rather frequently. You know, the Pokemon whose name is SNAKE backwards GUESS WHAT ARBOK IS KOBRA BACKWARDS AND MUK IS KUM BACKWARDS SO CLEVAR. But then you see Dragonair, who resembles a snake (it even has the little rattle at the end!), but isn't...it's something more. Which is why I like it so much. 1) Mew Best Pokemon ever. I'll write a detailed reason later, running out of time! Remember to post your favorites, I'm looking forward to them! Unless they're Unknown! I'm dreading those!