Plumber Loses Job

It’s getting harder to find good help. Well-know plumber Mario has been fired by Nintendo.

” A newly-uploaded profile … of everyone’s favorite Player One describes Mario as having worked as a plumber in the distant past, suggesting he’s a plumber no longer.”

“But to remove Mario from his plumbing origins is a disservice to the fans who fell in love with Nintendo’s hero long before his days of racing, playing tennis, or flying through space. Mario is a video game hero we can all relate to—one that gets his hands dirty under the occasional sink.”

— “Mario is no longer a plumber,” Jean-Luc Bouchard, Quartz

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Top image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Video Arcades: Game Over

Laura June of The Verge has written a fine article on the history of video game arcades:

“For Amusement Only: the life and death of the American arcade,” Laura June, The Verge

Good timing. Atari Inc., which produced “Pong” and” ‘Asteroids,” just filed for bankruptcy.

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Herman Cain’s Tax Plan IS a Game, After All

Critics, especially those who can do math, think Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan is just a catchy slogan. Jon Huntsman thinks it’s the price of pizza. Nonsense. The 9-9-9 plan is just a game. A computer game. Sim City 4, to be precise.

As reporter Amanda Terkel first realized, when players participating in the city simulation begin planning taxes for their mock municipality, the game setup starts commercial, industrial, and residential taxes at 9% rates, remarkably similar to Mr. Cain’s. Gamers use the 9% defaults to figure out rates that will actually work because, even in cyberspace, “9-9-9” doesn’t cut it.