This June was an important month for Nintendo. At E3, they stole the show by showing that they, and the Wii U, weren't dead in the water. Prior to them winning the hearts of gamers across the globe at E3, they were in some hot water over a game that came out just a few days before. That game, Tomodachi Life, became the center of a world of drama that was not only unnecessary, but also filled with misguided rage spurred by professional antagonizers who hijacked a meaningful cause.

For those who don't know of the game, Tomadachi Life is the Nintendo equivalent to the Sims. Released in Japan in 2013, the game was revealed to be heading to the U.S. in the Nintendo Direct back in April:

In the game, your Mii is your avatar that will live a digital life. In the game, your Mii does all those real world tasks that you try to avoid so you can play more video games. Then comes the point when your Mii can get married.

And here comes the rub.

In the game, male Miis can only marry female Miis. That unfortunately leaves out a group of players who would prefer a same-sex marriage. Most people wouldn't bat an eye with the lack of same-sex marriage, and a few would chalk this up as another "well that's a shame" moment and go kick rocks. In the end, there are only a handful of games that do have some sort of homosexual love allowed, and while it may increase in the future, it's unlikely that a company that's a bit uptight, like Nintendo, would come around on this matter anytime soon.

However, there was a glimmer of hope. Last year, a glitch was discovered in the Japanese version of the game that would corrupt your saved game. Oh and it did a little thing by letting Miis of the same sex get married and even let men get pregnant. That glitch was just enough for some people to start asking Nintendo about adding same-sex marriage to the game. I mean if it can be glitched in, of course you can make it officially part of the game. That's how we got combos in the Street Fighter series after all. That glitch was soon patched by Nintendo because in the end, it was a glitch. 

This is where Tye Marini comes in. In early May, he started a campaign called #Miiquality in hopes to persuade Nintendo into releasing a patch after the release of the game that would allow for same-sex marriage to happen. He made an earnest plea in his video about wanting to marry his real-life fiancee in the game and that by not getting married in the game, he would be missing out on gameplay that was available only to marry Miis. Most importantly, he didn't Nintendo. 

He understood that the game wouldn't come with the option for same-sex marriage, but maybe it could come in an update after game's release. Hell, he even recommended that people buy the game so that Nintendo makes a sequel that could include it. 

Nintendo did decide to address the Miiquality campaign and gave this less than ideal response to the Associated Press:

"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of 'Tomodachi Life,'" Nintendo of America Inc. said in a statement. "The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that 'Tomodachi Life' was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary."

Now for rational adults, this simply means that Nintendo wanted to create a game without going into certain social matters because let's face it, it's Nintendo. You're about as likely to see them put gay issues in their games as you would see Mario tell Bowser to go "fuck off."

Due to this response from Nintendo, unfortunately, Tye Marini's campaign was soon to be hijacked.  

The first to hijack was Samantha Allen who had this to say about Nintendo over at Polygon:

"Behind all the corporate jargon and flowery public-relations language lies hatred, pure and simple...The beating, bigoted heart of Nintendo's statement is this: Nintendo does not care about its lesbian, gay and bisexual audience...Nintendo made its choice today. And while the words in its statement distill down to the most basic form of hatred, the assumptions that inform that hatred are more troubling still."

This kind of language is complete overkill on the matter. For professional antagonizers like Samantha Allen, it becomes less about providing a well-thought-out case and more about simple name calling and hate to the people they think are their "oppressors." They would rather accuse a whole company to be bigoted and hateful to get a response from the company instead of appealing to the public's sense of fairness. Like I mentioned in a previous article, professional antagonizers have the motto of  "DO IT OUR WAY OR ELSE!"

Another antagonizer is Ian Miles Cheong - Editor in Chief of Gameranx, an outlet that we reported had done their own form of propaganda in 2012 - wrote a piece for the Escapist Magazine that also had its share of accusatory language:

"The justification provided by Nintendo is flimsy at best, and arguably bigoted at worst."

After numerous complaints, aka about a dozen, Nintendo did offer an apology where they said they will make changes for future games:

"We apologize for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game's design, and such a significant development change can't be accomplished with a post-ship patch. At Nintendo, dedication has always meant going beyond the games to promote a sense of community, and to share a spirit of fun and joy. We are committed to advancing our longtime company values of fun and entertainment for everyone. We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players."

There you have it. Nintendo apologized and all is right in the world. Right?

Let me introduce you to Casey Malone and his review of Marion Kart 8 for Paste Magazine. Here's one choice piece from the review:

"The other notable omission is in the cast of characters’ diversity. After 30 years there are still zero Mario characters of color, a problem that Mario Kart 8 highlights by lining up all the characters on a single screen. When it comes to human characters, Mario Kart 8 is overwhelmingly white. Of the 29 drivers, 14 are human (including Toad and Toadette), and every single one of them is white. While it’d be atypical of Nintendo to introduce new characters into a Mario Kart game, it’s also where the deficit is the most obvious, and during play I found myself disappointed that Nintendo’s stable of characters so painfully fails to reflect the diversity of its audience."

And where did this complaint about diversity come from? Check out the explanation from his Tumblr:

"After the recent conversation surrounding Tomodachi Life and after reading this article on race in Animal Crossing, maybe this stuff was on my mind, but I thought about what I saw on the screen, and formed the opinion 'Nintendo can do better than this.'"

That's right, it's time to jump on the "social justice bandwagon" because why wouldn't you review a game based on its own merits when instead you can judge a game based on criticism on another game by the developer.

So where are we now?

Well we're at a point where Nintendo is seemingly back in the good graces of gamers everywhere thanks to their showing at E3. They survived this backlash, but professional antagonizers are waiting to jump right in with their accusations. We're going to see more writers like Samantha Allen and Ian Miles Cheong who would rather bash and spew hate than activists like Tye Marini who offer calm and rational protesting. As the Civil Rights Movements has taught us, hatred towards the opressors always works when fighting for your rights.

Oh wait.