Talk:Mother (video game)

Requested move 15 September 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (non-admin closure) Steel1943 (talk) 16:48, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

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Mother (video game) → EarthBound Beginnings – Nintendo officially released the game in English as EarthBound Beginnings two years ago, and now the common name for the game is EarthBound Beginnings. The reliable sources that referred to the game as Mother (including the sources included in the article), now refer to it as EarthBound Beginnings, such as IGN, Polygon, USGamer, RPGamer, Nintendo Life (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/24/earthbound-beginnings-review, https://www.polygon.com/2015/6/14/8779193/earthbound-mother-famicom-wii-u-virtual-console-nintendo, http://www.usgamer.net/articles/hell-freezes-over-as-earthbound-beginnings-hits-the-wii-u-virtual-console, http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2015/061415d.html, http://www.nintendolife.com/games/nes/earthbound_beginnings) No reliable English language source refers to the game as Mother anymore, except as a secondary title. JenniBee (talk) 13:54, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Changed Earthbound to EarthBound in alignment to other articles related to the series. Cheers! Lordtobi (✉) 16:19, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: I fixed this as well. Steel1943 (talk) 16:38, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

• Support - English Wikipedia uses English names when applicable._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 16:08, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Lordtobi (✉) 16:19, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose. Look at the sourcing. The game has had an "English" title since its release, and that is primarily how it is known in English sources for the majority of its history and coverage—as "Mother". For comparison, WP has plenty of other games with release names that differ between regions. We use what sources use most often: the most recognizable (the name most people will call it), natural (reflecting what it's usually called), precise (unambiguously identified), and concise (not longer than necessary to identify), per the naming criteria (article titles policy). The sources linked above were reviews of the 2015 localization by the new title, so of course they would use the title under reviewed, but since then, the game remains known as "Mother". Especially considering how this game's importance is tied to its 20+ year history/legacy in Japan and not its later, official port in the West, this title is unambiguously better known as "Mother" than "EarthBound Beginnings". czar 18:07, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose - The subject of this article is Mother and its entire history: development, prototypes, translations, localization, etc. EarthBound Beginnings is only in reference to the 2015 localized / rebranded version of Mother. Most of the linked articles above use the names interchangeably / just as frequent as each other. The US Gamer article explicitly states E-B is a "rebranded, English-localized version of the 1989 Famicom RPG, Mother." Polygon states "Nintendo brings Mother to Virtual Console as EarthBound Beginnnings". Both these articles refer to the original game (which is the subject of this article) as Mother. The RPGgamer and Nintendo Life links are brief summary pages, not articles. IGN is the only article that calls it E-B consistently but it's a review of the 2015 version so that makes sense in context. Plenty of other sources on page still refer to game as Mother. TarkusAB^talk 18:08, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose Per Czar and TarkusAB. They've both said what I was essentially going to, including noting how even the sources added to support a new name all clearly refer to it by it's original names, in the context of a new port/version. Either way, the original Famicom release is still simply "Mother", that is the name of the topic of this article. The Virtual Console release is essentially a port and a small portion of this article. -- ferret (talk) 18:22, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose English Wikipedia uses English names when applicable - wrong, they should use the WP:COMMONNAME, and "Mother" is an English word anyway, so this isn't really a valid argument. The game is still mostly referred to as Mother by most post-VC release sources, so I don't really see a real reason to change it. All links pointed out in the nom are ones that simply announced it in 2015, and/or a VC specific review on it, where it makes sense to use the newer name. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 20:38, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Comment Earthbound Beginnings is now the more common title. Google trends for "Earthbound Beginnings" vs Mother Famicom now shows that Earthbound Beginnings is now the most common name for the game. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22earthbound%20beginnings%22,mother%20famicom JenniBee (talk) 21:19, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

• The problem with searches like this is that you're tying Mother to famicom to try to filter it (Valid, of course, as Mother is a simple common word). What happens if we replace famicom with NES (The English common name of Famicom)? Now the trends are almost equal, with Mother currently leading. -- ferret (talk) 21:24, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. ~ TheJoebro64 (talk) 21:30, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose – This article is about the original Famicon game, not the English-language rerelease. Checking some sources from the past year, it seems like Kotaku and The A.V. Club still refer to the game as "Mother" first and foremost. The Daily Dot refers to EarthBound Beginnings as "an English version of the first Mother game." Polygon didn't mention the original game in this article. Based on all this, I think it's fair to say that EarthBound Beginnings is simply the English-language version of the game, and not the WP:COMMONNAME of the game itself. ~Mable (chat) 10:27, 16 September 2017 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Mother to Earth Documentary

Hello! I own the Mother to Earth documentary, which focuses on the development, cancellation, and eventual release of Earth Bound/ EarthBound Beginnings. It features invaluable information not really available anywhere else...but how do I properly cite it? If anyone knows, please respond to me here. Thanks for your time. NintenBOUND (talk) 00:05, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

XX Stone

Is the XX gravestone actually Maria’s? It wouldn’t necessarily make sense for it to be hers, given the opening text states that she never returned to Earth. It would make more sense if it was George’s, as he built EVE and the underground lab she dwelt in underneath Mt. Itoi’s lake. NintenBOUND (talk) 19:48, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

that's one of the more deliberately ambiguous details. george could have made a psychic gravestone for funsies for all we know. i'd recommend leaving specifics regarding it out (unless sources pick up on it), and ignore the "it must be maria's because xx means xx chromosome which means woman" argument cogsan _{(nag me) (stalk me)} 11:20, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

American or Japanese Names

Just for consensus' sake, should we revert to Japanese names in article and English in footnotes or leave it at English in article and Japanese in footnotes, because someone only changed the article names to English, without changing the footnotes. Yes I am a nerd -XCBRO172 (How could you tell?) 18:20, 25 March 2025 (UTC)