5 ms·

One thing that irks me with this era is the conflation of "North-America" with "the World". Records, tournaments, and championships were only announced, solicit

by 3np 5y ago

One thing that irks me with this era is the conflation of "North-America" with "the World". Records, tournaments, and championships were only announced, solicited, and held across USA+Canada, in English. The same can be observed in the referenced "King of Kong" documentary, the "Nintendo World Championships" (organized only in NA by Nintendo of America), and the "Classic Tetris World Championship". They should just call it for what it was: North-American records.

mbrameld 5y ago
I mean, by that logic we really can't call anything a world record until we know the results of everyone who has ever done the thing. That not feasible, so instead we just call the best performance that is known to the public and verifiable the world record.
- cinntaile 5y ago
  I think he means there are other known records that are higher but that are outside of North-America.
  - pasquinelli 5y ago
    if that's the case then i wish he told us about those.
- saurik 5y ago
  But if that argument were sufficient, I could replace "North America" with "Santa Barbara" and achieve the same result, which I am sure everyone would agree is absurd. Somehow--and I realize appreciating the value of nuance can be difficult--there is some fuzzy boundary where you actually feel like the terms have meaning and the statement isn't lying. My maybe-naive assumption is that the original statement of having the tournaments be advertised, solicited, and maybe even held in various places around the world would make that feel comfortable.
- tpoacher 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure he's referring to stuff like the "Baseball World Series", where in fact the US tends to have a hard time beating Japan whenever they're pitched against each other in actual international events like the Olympics (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58130125 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58130125) It seems to be a uniquely American thing, as far as I know. I've never seen any other country characterise their competitions as "World" instead of "National" competitions. (I'd be happy to be given a counterexample if one exists).
  - mb7733 5y ago
    A key detail you omitted: >Major League Baseball chose not to pause the season to allow its biggest stars to play in Tokyo, with the Americans made up of minor league players.
    - tpoacher 5y ago
      Yes, in the last Olympics. The article also covers dozens of olympics prior, where the US also failed to win gold. And even so, the point still stands. You can't call your national competitions "world" competitions as a country, and then send sub-par delegations and lose nationally at the world stage. I don't want to give the impression I'm getting any glee from this. It's just to point out the whole thing sounds so silly to a non-American.
      - benglish11 5y ago
        The MLB World Series (and the MLB in general) has the best baseball talent in the world. It is not only made up of American players. The best from the Caribbean, South America, Europe and even many from Korea/Japan come to play in the MLB. In my memory the MLB has never released players to play in the Olympics. There have been several World Baseball Classics which have pitted national teams against each other and the competitive teams are mostly made up of MLB players playing for their native country. Just because all of the games are played in USA and Canada doesn’t mean the players don’t come from all around the world.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
DizzyDoo 5y ago
John Cleese had a joke about the Baseball World Series where he would quip "I notice you didn't invite Belgium this year."
- emerged 5y ago
  Belgium knows what they did.
naoqj 5y ago
Can't you go to NA and participate in the Nintendo World Championships?
JimTheMan 5y ago
This happens so often online, that I just assume it is an American thing to just entirely forget the entire World outside themselves and maybe Canada.
serverlessmom 5y ago
I felt embarrassed for forgetting to write "World's" in the headline. Turns out I was just thinking globally :p
monkeydreams 5y ago
And then there's the whole "Miss Universe" thing...
bradwood 5y ago
"this era"? It's still happening today!

by 3np 5y ago

mbrameld 5y ago

I mean, by that logic we really can't call anything a world record until we know the results of everyone who has ever done the thing. That not feasible, so instead we just call the best performance that is known to the public and verifiable the world record.

cinntaile 5y ago
I think he means there are other known records that are higher but that are outside of North-America.
- pasquinelli 5y ago
  if that's the case then i wish he told us about those.
saurik 5y ago
But if that argument were sufficient, I could replace "North America" with "Santa Barbara" and achieve the same result, which I am sure everyone would agree is absurd. Somehow--and I realize appreciating the value of nuance can be difficult--there is some fuzzy boundary where you actually feel like the terms have meaning and the statement isn't lying. My maybe-naive assumption is that the original statement of having the tournaments be advertised, solicited, and maybe even held in various places around the world would make that feel comfortable.
tpoacher 5y ago
I'm pretty sure he's referring to stuff like the "Baseball World Series", where in fact the US tends to have a hard time beating Japan whenever they're pitched against each other in actual international events like the Olympics (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58130125 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58130125) It seems to be a uniquely American thing, as far as I know. I've never seen any other country characterise their competitions as "World" instead of "National" competitions. (I'd be happy to be given a counterexample if one exists).
- mb7733 5y ago
  A key detail you omitted: >Major League Baseball chose not to pause the season to allow its biggest stars to play in Tokyo, with the Americans made up of minor league players.
  - tpoacher 5y ago
    Yes, in the last Olympics. The article also covers dozens of olympics prior, where the US also failed to win gold. And even so, the point still stands. You can't call your national competitions "world" competitions as a country, and then send sub-par delegations and lose nationally at the world stage. I don't want to give the impression I'm getting any glee from this. It's just to point out the whole thing sounds so silly to a non-American.
    - benglish11 5y ago
      The MLB World Series (and the MLB in general) has the best baseball talent in the world. It is not only made up of American players. The best from the Caribbean, South America, Europe and even many from Korea/Japan come to play in the MLB. In my memory the MLB has never released players to play in the Olympics. There have been several World Baseball Classics which have pitted national teams against each other and the competitive teams are mostly made up of MLB players playing for their native country. Just because all of the games are played in USA and Canada doesn’t mean the players don’t come from all around the world.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

DizzyDoo 5y ago

John Cleese had a joke about the Baseball World Series where he would quip "I notice you didn't invite Belgium this year."

emerged 5y ago
Belgium knows what they did.

naoqj 5y ago

Can't you go to NA and participate in the Nintendo World Championships?

JimTheMan 5y ago

This happens so often online, that I just assume it is an American thing to just entirely forget the entire World outside themselves and maybe Canada.

serverlessmom 5y ago

I felt embarrassed for forgetting to write "World's" in the headline. Turns out I was just thinking globally :p

monkeydreams 5y ago

And then there's the whole "Miss Universe" thing...

bradwood 5y ago

"this era"? It's still happening today!