Nintendo has a real problem on its hands with Mario Maker. Left and right, creators are seeing their levels removed from the online servers without an explanation. David âGrandPOObearâ Hunt, a speedrunner who makes a living streaming games, is the latest victim. All of his levels have vanished.
(We last featured Hunt after he pulled off an amazing Mario Maker trick.)
As Hunt prepped for an appearance at this weekâs speedrunning event Californithon, he discovered his Mario Maker stages had disappeared.
âWow, all of my levels just got deleted off of Mario Maker,â he tweeted earlier today. âAll my stars are gone.â
When a stage is deleted from Mario Makerâs servers, you cannot change it and re-upload it. You have to build the level again, from scratch, and hope Nintendo doesnât find it a second time. And because Nintendo doesnât provide creators with feedback on why a level is removed, itâs a crapshoot.
Hunt, who estimates heâs spent more than 100 hours uploading levels, is telling the truth: his Mario Maker profile is bare.
Stars are equivalent to âlikesâ in the Mario Maker community, a way for players to recommend a stage. Nintendo regularly deletes unpopular stages, making stars a precious commodity. It keeps your stages alive.
âStreaming Mario Maker is 90% of my stream, which is 90% of my overall income so far in 2016,â Hunt told me today.
Itâs not hard to imagine why this is so distressing, then.
After the levels were deleted, Hunt got on the phone with Nintendo customer support. He recorded the conversation and uploaded it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrV66xN0w8
The customer service representative didnât have much to offer. His account hadnât been flagged for inappropriate activity, showing no marks of cheating or level infringement, common reasons levels are taken down.
âI donât see that youâve been flagged for anything regarding cheating or whatnot,â said the rep. âMostly, if you are accused of cheating, there would be some notes on your account but there isnât. At this time, it doesnât look like we have a resolution for you. I can forward this to our Knowledge Team [another group in Nintendo] and they can investigate it for you.â
The phone call ended without any resolution.
As with every one of my stories on this topic, Nintendo didnât respond to my request for comment.
This isnât the first time Hunt has run into the same problem.
In mid-January, Nintendo removed his âPile of Poo-POOgatoryâ level from the online servers. A Kaizo-influenced stage, it was one of his most popular. For more than 30 minutes, Hunt patiently talked to various Nintendo customer service representatives about his situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSnpTROdghM
The Mario Maker community isnât only policed by Nintendo. Players can report stages, too, and itâs ripe for abuse. Creators who stream levels have to be especially wary of trolls; all it takes is a few people reporting a level to have it taken down. And as you can imagine, getting it back is a nightmare.
Pile of Poo-POOgatory was flagged for language. On the phone, Hunt argued this was unfair, as his online handle is poo-related, and his other levels that included the word âpooâ hadnât been taken down.
âYouâre deleting something because of my name,â he said.
(His Nintendo Network ID does not include the word âpoo.â)
âI completely understand where youâre coming from,â said the rep.
After putting Hunt on hold, the rep returned with an answer of sorts.
âI know that this is something of a gray area, honestly, looking at this,â said the rep. âWhat I can do, if you want, is I can forward the level to be reviewed by the [administrators]. Theyâll be the ones to actually decide if the contentâs returned to Miiverse. However, if I do that, they will also be reviewing their other submitted levels, as well.â
Hunt offered to change the levelâs name, if that was the root of Nintendoâs problem, but the rep said it wasnât possible to do that. The way the system works, they explained, was that once a level is removed, the only way it comes back is if Nintendo decides the level, name and all, is acceptable.
The sympathetic rep said thatâs âthe way the system works at this point.â
The rep offered to pass on Huntâs feedback, to hopefully influence âhow we handle stuff in the future,â but said it wouldnât change overnight.
There was one problem, however. If the rep escalated Huntâs request, it would require Nintendo to examine everything heâs created. This would mean looking at his other levels. If they decided to reject Pile of Poo-POOgatory, they might reject all of his stages. Hunt took the risk.
A week or so later, in the middle of a stream, Hunt got a call.
âWe were able to get your level returned to Miiverse,â said the Nintendo rep.
Overjoyed at the news, Hunt thanked them for their help.
Unfortunately, the good news didnât last for long; the level stayed offline. Days later, Hunt was informed by the same rep that he spoke too soon, that âit was a design decision that it [the level] couldnât come back, they were very sorry and would change how levels were taken down in the future.â
That was in the middle of February. A little over a month later, all of Huntâs levels are gone, even the ones that didnât include joking references to poo (i.e.OOP fo elip: doesnât feel right).
Understandably, Hunt feels targeted. Heâs worried the way heâs publicly called out Nintendo for their policies (or lack thereof) means heâs been punished for speaking out. Unlike other Mario Maker creators whose levels have been removed, Hunt has a video trail documenting his experience.
âThis hurts, in some ways, my standing in the community,â he said. â[Making] me just looking unaccomplished, etc. I know that stuff is silly, but thatâs the economy we live in as streamers.â
Youâre going to kill this community, Nintendo.
