Hi guys. Been a while since I've written a Top 10. Been a while since I've written anything. I may have forgotten how to write at all. Let's see. I'm going to clear my thoughts and just write the first thing that comes to mind...



Boogerman is more of a wet fart than the bass emanating from a Sega Genesis sound card.



...Nope. I still got it, baby!




How've you been? Good? Fair? Poor? Excited for all the recent Nintendo announcements? It's been fun to see the engine of Negative World starting back up again, hasn't it? Things were pretty barren for awhile there. But now, with all this news and the release of the Switch so close, it feels like maybe there's a reason to come home to our fair community for the first time in a few months. I know I've been poking my head in more, lately.

So, I've written a Top 10 list. It's less of a proper game article and more of a general appeal to Negative World: I've seen the future of Negative World chat and it is that Discord thing that Brick set up the other day. I feel strongly we should move over to it and I hope to explain why. I know there's a kind of conservative urge we have sometimes to stick with what we're doing, but I can really say I don't see much of a true downside to using Discord over Mibbit. So here's my 10 reasons why we should switch to Discord.

(This isn't so much a Top 10 list as it is a logical progression of 10 points that... you know, what? Who cares. It's a Top 10 list. Let's do this...)

So you have a choice: Throw off the shackles of demonic tyranny or switch to some other app for Negative World chat. I think the choice is clear. Choose this:



Not this:





**********
I'd like to add, at the end here, that the idea to use Discord came from Brick, Pokefreak and Paleo_Orca. So credit where it is due. Also, from Brick's original thread about it:

You can download the Discord app at discordapp.com.

You can join the Negative World Discord chat at: https://discord.gg/EbP2bhm

See you in chat. Maybe we can play some of that multiplayer Kid Icarus Uprising mode again or something. The mind races at the possibilities.

URL to share (right click and copy)

Excellent Top 10 and I agree!

You can't argue with a Kris Top Ten. Especially when you have quotes destined to be timeless gems such as this:

Kris said:

If I want to lay in bed in my underwear and talk to Mr. Mustache, I should be allowed to do that. This is America, dammit.

In all seriousness, beyond the mild annoyance of downloading yet another chat program (poor Skype), I have no issues with Discord as an option. My biggest concern really was if enough people were going to jump to make it worthwhile? Or would it follow in the steps of Tinychat and be tossed on the ash heap of NW history within a month, as Mustache stubbornly clings to Mibbit and we all inevitably gravitate back to what was old, easy, and familiar.

But judging by the frantic thread bumping, not to mention pleading messages from Pokefreak to save him from a ravening American horde, it looks like this one might be here to stay. So what the hell. I'll see if I can get it to run on my tablet so I don't have to muck with my PC's temperamental audio settings.

Anything with Funky Kong gets a vote in my book.

@Shadowlink
Shhh you weren't meant to tell them about the pleading.

@Pokefreak911

Just letting them know I got ya back

@Pokefreak911

How dare you! Don't you even think I'm going to forget about this when we have that big Negative World meetup in Fiji.

@kriswright
I reckon Funky will give us a great deal on flights for that. Seems like the kind of place he would go to.

All I got from this is that Discord doesn't have colored text.

FAIL.

@Zero
But you can give people different coloured names depending on their role. So that's something.

I want to lay in bed in my underwear and talk to you, too, Kris. And I do.

Most excellent article!
Last night was really fun.

Now just edit a pile of ampersands into the thread title for extra exposure. Or @ symbols. Whatever floats your boat.

The main problem I see with this is that it seems like it may be a bit discriminatory against the hearing-impaired.

@Mop it up
We use it primarily as text chat.
You don't need to use voice chat.

@ploot Oh, interesting, that isn't what it sounded like. I know it's a hassle, but I hope people can be respectful of that. Maybe I'll let it run in the background sometime and see if any more spontaneous game playing happens.

One of the things I wish I had addressed now is that Discord shouldn't replace any of the key features of Negative World. I'm against setting up too many standing chat rooms on Discord, as that begins to look like an alternative Negative World forum rather than an alternative chat room from Mibbit. So I don't think it'll have a bad effect on forum traffic, except maybe in a few of the more social oriented ones (the Online Now one and, more sadly, possibly the Community Thread). I think the trade off could be worth it, though, as it'll be easier to game together.

@Mop it up

I wasn't aware until this moment that we had any members of the forum who were hearing impaired. I think we can still be respectful and inclusive in Discord as with any other chat. It is true that voice chat becomes a problem, but I don't know a technical way around that, except to just be considerate and include written comments along with some of our voice chatting. I'm sure we can work that out through experimentation, though. The idea is to bring us together, so I hope that's the spirit we can approach the technology with.

BTW, we were talking just last night about wanting to play some MARIO Kart with you, so I definitely think we're all up for some spontaneous gaming, soon.

"you kinda had to be there to understand why that was so funny."

That's one of the big reasons I don't like chat vs. message boards. Can't always be there, and I'm not going to sit and sift through chats to get inside jokes.

I'd hate to see any kind of chat take over message board time for folks, but if that's the direction things head I understand and wish everyone chatting all the best. I don't have time to sit in a chat room, so I will respectfully bow out.

One has to wonder, for all the people like me saying they don't want it, how many others aren't going to be vocal either way and then not download something just to join in the occasional E3 chat? Is it worth losing these folks? Obviously that is something everyone has to decide for themselves. For me, I'd rather have the lurkers and "Haven't seen you in forever!" members willing to click a button to chat at those big epic events in the Nintendo calendar vs. download programs and make accounts so they don't bother and we never see them. My two cents. Again, all the best if that's what the majority decides, I just won't be there. (Which for a few may fall in the Pro list of switching, lol.)

@J.K. Rikil
What makes it good is you don't have to sit in chat. Basically, you can use it to be alerted to when people want to play a game or whatever.

It's unfortunate people make up their minds without understanding what they're against, but to each his own.

I'm so pro-Discord because I feel it'll reinvigorate the boards by bringing us closer as gamers.

@ploot

I don't play online games much if at all. So the big feature you're pointing out isn't really for me.

I understand what I am against. I am against downloading additional stuff to my computer. I am against creating yet another social account to yet another place to talk when honestly to GOODNESS I'm getting sicker every day of communicating so much online as it is! I have no qualms with Discord or any other place to communicate/organize/whatever. I'm just totally burned out on all this stuff, and I don't want to add more to the already heaping pile I have. It's not worth it to me when what we have, I like a whole lot.

And, again, I am against missing out on people being able to drop in and out easily even if they're not super active members here. If an account/download is going to stop me, how many others will feel the same? To me it isn't worth losing them. If it is worth it to you, seriously, I'm not going to like judge you for it or whatever. You have to make that call for yourself, it's absolutely no thang to me.

@J.K. Riki
Huh? I clearly said I want us to be a closer community. It's never worth losing anyone.
Anyway, I won't go on about how that offended me and just leave well enough alone.

@J.K. Riki

Well, let's start here - this conversation is about adopting a new chat service at Negative World. No one is asking anyone to accept Discord as their personal Lord and Savior. So let's keep this in perspective. This isn't something we have to take some big philosophical stand on. It's just a question of which chat service gives us more bang for our buck. (Buck, in this case, being metaphorical as both services are absolutely free.)

But I have to admit, I personally don't understand your point-of-view against creating a Discord account. To get the obvious out of the way: That line of thinking would keep you from posting on Negative World at all, since you have to have an account to post here. Beyond that, I address the concern in my Top Ten by pointing out how easy it is to set up an account. This is a needless barrier (heck, Mustache is already posting in Discord with his account, and he's usually the holdout on things like this. If he can do it, you can do it). If that's still a dealbreaker, then that's up to you. But to turn around and ask the forum to not update the chat service to something clearly better just because you simply don't want to take the two minutes to create an account is not really fair, either.

You mention feeling burned out on social media - which is something I generally relate to. I'm about an inch from dumping my Facebook and scaling back my social media presence, too. So you're not alone, there. But Discord is just an extension of what you already do at Negative World. It's not like we're asking you to participate in some broader Discord social media environment, like Facebook. Once you sign in, you could use it practically like you use Mibbit, just without the crashes if you wanted. And I'd personally bet money that you'll like it enough to at least play some Mario Kart with us or something.

I'd also just say, personally, that I'd like to see you on Discord with us. I wouldn't write like 7 paragraphs here if I didn't want you there. I know sometimes this place can be combative or people can jock each other a little bit, but it's my sincere hope that Discord could be a way for the community to just play more Nintendo games together. And that's kind of the whole point.

While Ploot maybe could have worded it a little more generously, I think he is right about one thing, though: You're taking a hardline stance on an innocuous product you haven't even used, yet. And that's a total Green Eggs and Ham thing. You haven't tried but you're convinced you won't like it.

I understand it's not about the product, per se, but the need for an account. But from the perspective of someone who used Mibbit extensively for years (not just at E3 or during Directs) and who had no particular interest in Discord until two days ago, your position just makes little sense. This is just simply a better service and the barrier to entry is so minute that it seems pointless to fight it.

Discord is so good. It works great on any platform I've tried it on so far.