Remember the melodramatic chaos that used to be EM user verumbark’s personal threads? The ranting? The ill-worded expressions of frustration that would go on to be called “tantrums” by otherwise reputable members of the community? Well, what if you could have that... except two years more well-adjusted and mature (I hope)? That’s a question you’ll no longer have to ask yourself, because it’s here, despite popular demand: a personal thread by the artist formerly known as verumbark.
Ask me for opinions. Ask me about my favorite things. Ask me about my EM fanfictions. Ask me anything that won’t potentially help you, like, dox me. I dunno. Do Sandboxers do that anymore? I’m no longer hip with the times.
Disguiser is the best role on the site.
16 signed
That’s a fact, regardless of whether you sign this or not. You can sign it if you like signing things, but it won’t change anything if you choose not to.
emil......... listen i dont agree with you but i have to respect the level of dedication because i am so floored by it that i have no idea how to respond
I can assure you I poured my heart into writing that up.
You say Wario never redistributed any of his wealth, but we can clearly see here that that is not the case. Wario has meticulously redistributed the wealth he acquired all throughout his castle:
Wario doesn't believe he should pay taxes as a form of civil disobedience. Because the regimes Wario often lives under are inherently cruel and totalitarian. He morally objects to supporting them through his tax money.
It's true that Wario has allied himself with Bowser in the past, but Bowser is a comrade too. Have you forgotten about Bowser Revolution?
Wario being in on the alliances with corrupt figures just to further his personal desires is both true and false. He's working for his own goals, but his goals are pure. If he worked solely with the intentions of serving his master, he would be nothing more than a mindless slave. The money Wario would acquire from these alliances can further his cause. He even often chooses to act in ways that are detrimental to his "allies".
As for whether anything in Mario games are metaphors, it's generally true that the devs have no intentions other than to make a fun, lighthearted adventure. But, this is not the case for Wario, who was very explicitly created with the purpose of sending a message:
To figure out exactly why Wario represents the workers rising up, we need to go back to his origins: "Wario's design arose from Super Mario Land's design team's distaste of making a game based around someone else's character. The creation of Wario allowed them a character of their own to 'symbolize their situation'".
That's right, Wario's very existence arose from worker disgruntlement. There's nothing more Marxist than having your creation rooted in the discontent of the working class with their faceless superiors.
im sure you copy/pasted that from somewhere but that is very very impressive nonetheless mr emil
but wario does believe in property rights -- just nobody elses except his own! hes characterized as very greedy and doesnt even pay his workers (seen in warioware gold); he seems to be on the "social darwinist" slash "everyone for themself" side of libertarianism in that he believes he is entitled to anything he can steal, up to and including the wealth of others. he never redistributed sh*t, he definitely doesnt believe he should pay taxes, and he allies with members of the ruling class (bowser, occasionally peach) purely to further his own interests (winning at a tournament, acquisition of money)
Wario is definitely not a libertarian (in theory) because he doesn't have the slightest respect for property rights. In fact, Wario may very well be the most Marxist of the Mario characters. In all of Wario's appearances, he only ever outright steals from those who got their money immorally, usually defeating some ancient evil force in the process.
In 6 Golden Coins, Wario steals Mario's mansion, which he couldn't have possibly acquired the funds for without taking advantage of someone, especially in an economy where minted gold is hard not to stumble across.
In Wario Land 1 and 2, he's outright in a feud with a pirate.
In Wario Land 3, Wario liberates a music box's inhabitants from an ancient deity who turned them into monsters, an obvious metaphor for how capitalism turns people into monsters by enabling avarice.
In Wario Land 4, he pilfers a golden pyramid, toppling an ancient deity characterized by their lavishness in the process, a clear-cut metaphor for the upper classes.
In Wario World, I think there was an evil jewel or something. That's, uh, a metaphor for material temptation, something that Wario proves he's above by destroying.
And in Wario Land: Shake It, the Shake King is clearly a metaphor for shakedowns: "a radical change or restructuring, particularly in a hierarchical organization or group". Class conflict and revolution. It's only Wario's "shaking" abilities that are truly capable of rocking the foundations of society when he inevitably triumphs over the Shake King, instilling real change rather than just the shift in power within the same system that the Shake King was after.
I hope I live to see the day when Comrade Wario rallies the masses against our bourgeoisie masters.
I was just thinking about this when I started playing Gris the other day. How some games can be purely aethetically pleasing and receive a lot of praise even when gameplay is lacking. I feel like this is problem both mobile and indie games have sometimes and it does become dull after a awhile idk. Of course the other end is having stick figures and have it all gameplay or FX which is bleh but I certainly consider it a game.. But should games that rely heavily on art be considered games..?
Btw Gris is actually great, gameplay gets better as the game goes and beautiful all the way through.
Is Mario himself a psychotic killer marxist or whatever creepypastas like to claim? No.
Is the universe Mario inhabits a fantastical, psychedelic, paradoxical world with interesting implications and lore? Sure. It's fun to think about on that level alone.
hey sandbox lets have a heated debate about video games, ill list my controversial opinions so that you can argue with me about them and lose
- bowsario is canon - respecting people who play on easy mode is good, actually - mario is a good man, kirby is a good baby, and their games do NOT have any sinister hidden lore whatsoever no matter what matthew patthew says - nintendo should bring back mii games for the switch - fun grappling hook mechanics make literally any game 10 times more enjoyable, including fortnite - on the topic of fortnite: it isnt a bad game, just not great to the level of deserving all the attention it gets - minecraft needs more variety and depth in autogenerated structures (the mansion and ocean temple are two things id like to see more of) - freemium social mmo culture is immoral in that it unfairly targets insecure young kids and pressures them into buying cosmetics by fostering and relying on bullying and elitism in their userbase - mobile games can be artistic but like..... a lot of devs try way too hard to make their mobile games artistic? also 2d minimalism is often overapplied for the sake of an aesthetic and it gets really dull after a while - ditto best pokemon
