Convincing People to Try EarthBound

smacking people with a cartridge while saying “THE POWER OF NESS COMPELS YOU” usually works for me.

I don’t normally like to do this unless it really jives with someone’s interests–usually I’ll wait until a friend shows interest in it themselves. It took about two years before this happened, but one of my friends asked to play Mother 3 with me and now we’re playing through it a second time together.

I find it more effective to hit them over the head with a cracked bat.

I had the same problem trying to convince people to read Homestuck (which was even more difficult due to the length). I found that the best method was simply showing them the comic itself and letting them see for themselves why people like it so much. It was though since, like earthbound, the beginning was no where near as good as the later parts of the comic. of homestuck If they still don’t want to play it, just let it go and hope that some day they’ll give it another try.

SPEAKING OF Homestuck, let me tell you about Homestuck. For those who haven’t read it yet, please give homestuck a try. It was heavily influenced by Earthbound (home=Earth stuck=bound, and is full of references and parodies of various other video games. It also gets really awesome after the first couple acts.

Like I said though, the best way to convince people is to show them it and hope they’ll understand why you love it. Therefore, rather than just telling you, please just give it a try yourself. The comic itself is here: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/
The fan lets read (makes the comic more like watching a tv show, including voice acting) is here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2B850DF581F84A0B

I’ve always been of the opinion that recommending it is fine, but being overly pushy of it tends to get annoying quickly. Just saying something like, “Hey, I think you might like this game I like called EarthBound” and leave it at that unless they ask further.

Really though, this applies to anything you want to recommend, not just EarthBound.

Someone I knew was getting a SNES emulator to play some RPG’s like Chrono Trigger & FF6, so I said to him “You should get Earthbound too” so he did. He started playing it and he said he loved the atmosphere when he went into the cave the first time. He got all the way to the beginning of Lumine Hall and I think he stopped playing. When I asked him about it he said that he didn’t want to continue because it was so good and he wanted to draw it out. That was months ago and I seriously think he didn’t play it again or have any intention to. He said he loved the game, but I think he just said that to shut me up…I probably scared him away because of it 🙁

The only time I will recommend Earthbound to someone is if I’m convinced they’re the sort of person who’ll actually like it. I’m no preacher.

I managed to convince a friend who played it back at release and didn’t really love it (blasphemy!) to give it another try when it hits VC…actually wasn’t very hard, either. I think he was one of those who were biased against it at the time because Chrono Trigger and FFVI “looked better,” but that kind of thing doesn’t really matter so much anymore.

I also have at least one other Wii U owning friend I think I’ve convinced to try the game at release…it’s really not that difficult to get somebody to support a cult classic FINALLY getting a re-release at (what should be) a low price point, IMO.

One does not simply convince another person to play EarthBound OR read Homestuck. They’re the sort of thing others will get really tired of you constantly bringing up. Homestuck more than Earthbound, since Homestuck pretty much has the worst fan community I’ve seen (maybe on par with the Sonic fan community in terms of terribleness?), while the EarthBound fan community is pretty sweet. 😀

“Let me tell you about EarthBound.”

I was hanging out with one of my friends, and we were bored, and didn’t really know what to do, so I suggested we play EB. He couldn’t put it down; we played it for at least 6 hours straight, on multiple occasions, until we got through the entire game.

Just tell them a bit of the story that wont spoil anything important. I said Earthbound had 4 regular kids with psychic powers traveling through the world that had great music and was really funny.

I’m in middle school, and I convinced my best friend to try it, now he wants to buy it for his Wii U soon once it rereleases.

So I was listening to the podcast and then realized at the end of their brief history of the series that the podcast was released just before the announcement of EarthBound on VC. It’s still absolutely mind blowing looking back and seeing how unrealistic it seemed then for a re-release.

Also I’ve tried convincing people to play EarthBound and it’s really hard. You have to hook ’em with something like your advertising it or something! But maybe don’t tell them “This Game Stinks”. Maybe Itoi would have a bright idea for an advertising hook.

“Hi! Billy Mays here for EarthBound, the revolutionary new role-playing game for the Super NES! Join four ordinary children with superpowers, baseball bats, and gadgets, as they venture to save the world from the evil Giygas!”

In all seriousNESS though, I would show the differences between EarthBound and other RPGs at the time. For example, in Final Fantasy VI (III US), you have a drawn out list of protagonists with some sort of problem. It’s kin of boring to see them deal with their own problems. In EarthBound, you have four kids, three of them which have psychic powers, in a land that totally parodies America. Their focus is one thing and one thing only: collect all the melodies, kill Giygas. And don’t forget the NPCs and enemies: they are insanely hilarious and over-the-top. Beating the metal out of an animate signpost that’s out for blood has never been more satisfying.

Also, there were a few articles written by Hardcore Gaming 101 earlier that talk about the Mother series. They talk about what EarthBound is underneath the surface. In reality, there are several didactic articles aiming to explain EarthBound. Those might be helpful in convincing other people to play it.

I told my Uncle that he would like because it’s like sci-fi mixed with real world things because those are things he likes. I say, regardless of if it is Earthbound or sushi, just name some things about it that they would like and use that to describe it to them.

I would ask them if they played Smash Bros and if they know a kid named Ness. I will then tell them that the game he is from is Earthbound and I will tell them to try the game. I will also tell them that the game is really great if you know what you’re doing. That’s how I got into the Earthbound (Mother) series was because I got inspired by Ness being in Smash Bros.

I usually tell people all the pros and some of the cons they’ll find in.

This usually works to me but if it doesn’t, I just leave them alone.

I think the ridiculous resale prices on eBay have done more to convince people to play this game than anything mere individuals could do.

lock them in a room with only this game and nothing else and just hope they don’t call the cops. after about an hour come back and ask how they liked it.

•i have been convincing kids at my school that earthbound is going to be on wii & wii U at the end of the year… YAAY EARTHBOUND CREDIT

•though most kids own a 3ds and they know about it from nintendo derect vids and ssb. also kid freaks out when i say earthbound thinking i got the vc version

I told my friend about Earthbound how its Ness’ game and all.(Since he has SSBB) I told him about it I even sang the 8 Melodys form MOTHER 1 it was kinda embarrassing to sing it. (P.S.(I) I have brawl to Ness is my main character)

If it seems like something they would genuinely be interested I just say why I think that. I haven’t tried to force it on anyone before, although it’s come up before and I’ve explained what it is and why I like it (without trying to sell them on it).

When people ask about my Mr. Saturn tattoo it’s a good way to bring up the game

I always seem to have difficulties with convincing people that something, be it a video game or something like Homestuck, is totally worth their time (in my opinion) and that they should give said thing a chance.

I’m the kind of person who hops from fandom to fandom on almost a weekly basis, like one week I love OFF or Cave Story, and the next week it’s Kingdom Hearts, so my friends usually shrug off my recommendations really quickly. I finally convinced a friend to read Homestuck by telling them how great it was, (and rambling about the characters) but none of my friends are as big of RPG fans as me, so I doubt EB is something they’d enjoy… …It’s a very text-heavy game.

Then again, who ever thought a person like me who hates shooters would like the Starfox series? You never know.

I’d say not to try to oversell it and tell them it is end all be all of RPGs. Be realistic with expectations you give them and what to expect.

For me, people:

a) have already played the game before I met them, or

b) aren’t RPG fans at all.

Then again, maybe the fact that I never shut the hell up about a game is what drives them away.

@Someone Else

And don’t forget about Hetalia fans… Oh, ship, did I say that out loud!? o.O

Dance on a street corner wearing a Ness costume with an oversized head.

…Or would that be too subtle?

When it comes to video games, I keep it super simple:

“This game is awesome. You should play it.”

I am a firm believer in a concept I label as “discovery through gameplay.” I strongly feel that telling someone about a game will ruin their enjoyment of whatever you just told them. If I go up to someone and say, “Earthbound is a great game, you get to ride a bike in the second town!” then it’s highly likely that when they get to Twoson and get that bike, they won’t enjoy it as much as someone who jut played the game and discovered the bike on their own.

This actually causes to me to be quite an “irregular” gaming fan. I REFUSE to watch trailers, interviews, sneak peaks, or read articles about games that are coming out. I just wait for them to come out and play them if I want.

Unfortunately, this tactic requires some credibility. For instance, if mi amigo, TheLawnMowerMan, told me a certain NES/SNES game is awesome, I would play it instantly. However, if Michelle Obama said Wii Sports is awesome I would probably have zero interest in investigating myself.

@Someone Else

Ah, a case of the internet hate ‘bandwagon’.

I’ve been playing Sonic since I was a little kid, and I hate to see him get hate. I liked him more than Mario in fact.

True, there are ‘those’ Sonic fans (mostly Furries) who draw annoying fan characters and what-not but they are NOT the worts fandom ever. The worst fandom EVER is tied-in between Bronies and Yaoi fangirls. Trust me on this one.

*worst

@LakituAI

Damn you for mentioning that cursed name 😛

My friends in high school saw how much I enjoyed EarthBound and asked what I liked so much about it. So I told them that they should check it out and see for themselves, they did, and enjoyed it. Maybe not as much as I have, but all in all, it was a good time. 🙂

To be honest, I’m rather childish. I usually just dare people to try it out, and specifically I tell them to tell me what they think of Giygas… >_< That's how I got my best friend into it, and then we became MOTHER fans together… We actually made others interested talking about it too. XD

They way I have convinced people to play is by giving them the resources to play it. That means I, sadly, utilize the flashdrive, since some of my friends cant afford Earthbound or even a SNES to play i.t I would give them a quick breakdown of the plot, saying how its funny and serious at times. I’ve had two people converted, now…. I’m just waiting for a miracle to happen to get my SO to do it. ^_^

I know that this is off-topic, but is anyone else having a hard time convincing himself or herself to buy a Wii U? I keep going back and forth on the decision. There aren’t enough good games out for it yet (including VC stuff, actually). I know that SNES copies of EarthBound are expensive and scarce–though I still own the copy I purchased in ’95–but $300+ seems like a lot of money to spend on a Wii U to me. I want to support the series, but I don’t know… $300 for one game?

Tomato. I think your way sounds about the best way to go about it. Calmly suggesting they try the game is far more effective (in getting anyone to do anything really) way than anything else. “Here’s this game. It’s pretty fun.”

Let the sugestee get interested. If they really want to try it they will. If they don’t, they won’t and there’s not much else you can do other than force them. And who wants to be forced to do anything?

@Max_H

I agree completely. Other than Pikmin 3 and the ‘new’ Zelda game; I’m not interested in the Wii U at all. What I would suggest is to get people you know that own the Wii U to buy the game, and thus support the series. The other alternative is to just wait for a price drop. It will happen sooner than you think.

include a private key that can only be decrypted by playing the game to Threed

@Vukadin

Glad I’m not the only one! I’ll definitely keep my eye out for a price drop. Other than that, I’ll probably just tell other people to buy it.

Telling people they have to play it or that they don’t know what their missing usually turns them off. You have to get them curious about it to investigate it for themselves. Just tell them it’s an RPG about saving the world from aliens. Avoid anything gimmicky sounding like “you have psychic powers instead of magic” or “it’s not your typical RPG, it takes place in modern times.”

I got King DeDeDe to play it… and he’s stuck on Giygas, LOL.

I had heard about the EarthBound series from a school friend back when the translation patch had just been released, but he talked about it/referenced it in the middle of class so much that it weirded me out. A few months ago, Duane and Brando released a version of Happy Happy Village’s theme with lyrics, and it was so wacky and bizarre that I became curious on my own, just like @BlueStone talked about.

I’ve found that with all of the fandoms that I’m into, it has always begun with a very precise, hard-to-replicate mix of curiosity and boredom. If one of those factors is off, then I’m just like “ehhh” when somebody tries to talk me into checking something out.