Child-like characters?

[Elgeron]

I love how even if a good and sensible statement is made, people wanna say its because Money. *groan* just, that makes my head spin.
I get your argument, but c'mon, I think its deeper then just money. They even pointed out the problems it would cause.

The thing is that both of us can speculate as much as we want, but it is really impossible to really determine the real reasons behind the decision. Could you, 100% assure me, that if SE could make more money by introducing children without any kind of negative repercussion, regardless if it was moral or not to do so, they wouldn't do it? I would say is impossible for you to do so, just as much as I can't prove that they would introduce them under such (impossible) circustamces. The problems it would cause ultimately lead to them risking the game, which is one of the main sources of income of SE, together with mobile games, and one of their few recent successful IPs, both economically and critically. Look, I do not doubt that developers like Yoshi or his team had strong moral sense and they do feel very personal about the issue, but I think it is important to consider that Yoshi hands are "tied up" to a certain degree about what he can or cannot say or do by SE. I do not even disagree with the decision, it is the most sensible and reasonable one, even if I feel sorry for those that wanted to play as young characters, but I think is naive to think that a company as big as SE, which has quite a questionable history when it comes to some of their decisions, hundreds of people with different believes working together, a company focused on creating products and entertainment, would mainly concern itself with ethical issues when making decisions.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

The thing is that both of us can speculate as much as we want, but it is really impossible to really determine the real reasons behind the decision. Could you, 100% assure me, that if SE could make more money by introducing children without any kind of negative repercussion, regardless if it was moral or not to do so, they wouldn't do it? I would say is impossible for you to do so, just as much as I can't prove that they would introduce them under such (impossible) circustamces. The problems it would cause ultimately lead to them risking the game, which is one of the main sources of income of SE, together with mobile games, and one of their few recent successful IPs, both economically and critically. Look, I do not doubt that developers like Yoshi or his team had strong moral sense and they do feel very personal about the issue, but I think it is important to consider that Yoshi hands are "tied up" to a certain degree about what he can or cannot say or do by SE. I do not even disagree with the decision, it is the most sensible and reasonable one, even if I feel sorry for those that wanted to play as young characters, but I think is naive to think that a company as big as SE, which has quite a questionable history when it comes to some of their decisions, hundreds of people with different believes working together, a company focused on creating products and entertainment, would mainly concern itself with ethical issues when making decisions.

Yes, I could. Especially if they want to have a Western Audience, because of how our culture works over here.
But now that I say that, I can think of how the West is trying to Maintain a Chinese Audience, so they change things that align with their culture. So screw it...in the end it is all about money. Ill concede, I fold. Morals dont matter, the money does.

[Elgeron]

Yes, I could. Especially if they want to have a Western Audience, because of how our culture works over here.
But now that I say that, I can think of how the West is trying to Maintain a Chinese Audience, so they change things that align with their culture. So screw it...in the end it is all about money. Ill concede, I fold. Morals dont matter, the money does.

Don't be so negative, morals do matter. Even if it is done because of money, it just shows that doing the right thing may lead to profit, at least in the long run. Not always, the world isn't perfect, but the fact that this game has being doing well thanks to Yoshi keeping more or less a ethical conduct when it comes to this game, with some mistakes here and there, is proof that it can count for something. I'll say that even if its done because of selfish reasons, doing the right things is still commendable.

Another issue is the question about what is moral or not. As you said, it is moral for Western Audience, but no Chinese, but does that means it is amoral, that it is wrong? The game is after all Japanese, and I think, do not quote me on that, the game is most popular in Japan, and the Japanese player-base had been the main influence for a lot of the development decisions. I think it is a little more complicated that just saying that they are doing the right or wrong thing here.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Morals dont matter, the money does.

Welcome to capitalism.