I was lucky enough to conduct a short interview via e-mail with local video game collector and film maker, Evan Butler. He's currently running a kickstarter campaign to fund a film about an incredible story about an incredible game. Below, you can get to know a bit more about this film maker, what the movie's about, and how you can support his project.
1). Tell me a little bit about yourself and your love for video games.
My name is Evan Butler. I have a Masters Degree in Forensic Science and work as a private investigator. I've been playing video games my entire life and love the investigative side of video game journalism. I don't consider myself a video game journalist, just someone who wants to find out every secret that a game holds. Sometimes, the best secrets aren't even in the game itself, but are in the story behind or about the game. Those are the secrets I'm most interested in.
2). When did you originally get into the Mother game series?
In 7th grade, one of the other kids in my school gave me a CD with a bunch of ROM's and an emulator. One of the games on the disc was EarthBound, it stood out among the other games on the disc, like Killer Instinct or Shadowrun and it hit that same sort of high that you can only get from grinding out levels in RPG's since I had recently gotten over a severe Pokemon addiction. I went online and saw that a lot of the promotional material for the game were these cool clay model which really fascinated me since I was a huge Wallace and Gromit fan. From there, I just got deeper and deeper into it.
3). What do you think is keeping Nintendo from localizing Mother 3?
I think a lot of the problems is in trying to release it, especially now that there is a professional quality fan translation of the game easily available online. Nintendo realizes that some of the content would not translate over well into the United States, like lots of character deaths, queer/trans characters, and an ocean section of the game where there protagonist, a little boy, gets kisses from an adult male mermaid (merman???) to breathe underwater. Nintendo realizes that they would have to butcher these parts out of the game and that the fans would riot, just look at Fire Emblem Fates. They also realize that they would have to compete with a fan translation of the game for quality, so they honestly took the smart choice and opted out of releasing it. When pressured on the subject, they even have a great excuse, they can just say, "You can just play it online for free." The fan translation of the game honestly was the last nail in the coffin.
4). What do you want non-fans of the Mother series to take away from your film?
There really is two main points to this documentary. One is the story about the specific game, the other is this utterly enthralling look into a hobby that has gotten out of control with people spending five or six figures buying and selling these rare video games. It is insane and people don't even see it. I want to expose it to everyone and maybe let people take a moment to step back and say, "Woah, are these people really paying like a hundred grand on a game?" There's this sort of underground world right below the surface, and I want non-fans of the series to really get hooked on that theme. The specific Mother games are just a convenient way to expose it.
5). Where can we support you in your project?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1168741079/mother-to-earth-a-documentary-about-earthbound-beg Please back or at least tweet out the link. Honestly, just share it with someone you know is a fan of the series. I want to show everyone!
1). Tell me a little bit about yourself and your love for video games.
My name is Evan Butler. I have a Masters Degree in Forensic Science and work as a private investigator. I've been playing video games my entire life and love the investigative side of video game journalism. I don't consider myself a video game journalist, just someone who wants to find out every secret that a game holds. Sometimes, the best secrets aren't even in the game itself, but are in the story behind or about the game. Those are the secrets I'm most interested in.
2). When did you originally get into the Mother game series?
In 7th grade, one of the other kids in my school gave me a CD with a bunch of ROM's and an emulator. One of the games on the disc was EarthBound, it stood out among the other games on the disc, like Killer Instinct or Shadowrun and it hit that same sort of high that you can only get from grinding out levels in RPG's since I had recently gotten over a severe Pokemon addiction. I went online and saw that a lot of the promotional material for the game were these cool clay model which really fascinated me since I was a huge Wallace and Gromit fan. From there, I just got deeper and deeper into it.
3). What do you think is keeping Nintendo from localizing Mother 3?
I think a lot of the problems is in trying to release it, especially now that there is a professional quality fan translation of the game easily available online. Nintendo realizes that some of the content would not translate over well into the United States, like lots of character deaths, queer/trans characters, and an ocean section of the game where there protagonist, a little boy, gets kisses from an adult male mermaid (merman???) to breathe underwater. Nintendo realizes that they would have to butcher these parts out of the game and that the fans would riot, just look at Fire Emblem Fates. They also realize that they would have to compete with a fan translation of the game for quality, so they honestly took the smart choice and opted out of releasing it. When pressured on the subject, they even have a great excuse, they can just say, "You can just play it online for free." The fan translation of the game honestly was the last nail in the coffin.
4). What do you want non-fans of the Mother series to take away from your film?
There really is two main points to this documentary. One is the story about the specific game, the other is this utterly enthralling look into a hobby that has gotten out of control with people spending five or six figures buying and selling these rare video games. It is insane and people don't even see it. I want to expose it to everyone and maybe let people take a moment to step back and say, "Woah, are these people really paying like a hundred grand on a game?" There's this sort of underground world right below the surface, and I want non-fans of the series to really get hooked on that theme. The specific Mother games are just a convenient way to expose it.
5). Where can we support you in your project?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1168741079/mother-to-earth-a-documentary-about-earthbound-beg Please back or at least tweet out the link. Honestly, just share it with someone you know is a fan of the series. I want to show everyone!
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