Although Nintendo has not released content updates for “Super Mario Maker 2 (Super Mario Maker 2/Super Mario Maker 2)” since February 2024, the platform has not relaxed its management of player-made levels. Recently, there has been a wave of centralized delisting: a large number of levels were removed at once, and the scale was so large that the community was directly upset.
The reason for delisting points to advertising content, but many of them are just social tags.
Platform regulations do not allow players to upload levels with advertising content. The problem is that a large number of levels that were removed this time are generally labeled with “Team Shell” related labels. The label was originally more like a circle identification within the community, but after it was reviewed and determined to be an advertisement, it became a blanket reason for removal. Because of this, many players feel like they are being cheated.
The community pointed the finger at one name: MT94
After investigation by the player community, it is suspected that the user with the ID of MT94 may be behind this wave of centralized removals. MT94 once ranked second in the global player rankings, but was later found to be suspected of using multiple Switch consoles to challenge each other’s accounts to increase rankings. After the behavior was exposed, he was banned.
Is there a suspected “retaliatory report” after MT94 was blocked?
After the ban, MT94 was believed to have launched a retaliatory operation, reporting a large number of levels with the Team Shell label. Why this label was targeted and why it triggered such a large-scale delisting has not yet been officially explained; but the whole incident seems to be using a loophole in the rules to turn malicious reports into a knife that can chop off other people’s content.
Nintendo has yet to publicly state the connection, but the incident has been brought to light.
As of now, Nintendo has not officially responded to “whether a single user’s report triggered a large-scale removal.” However, for ordinary players, the sudden disappearance of thousands of levels is a huge loss of content; for the platform, this also highlights the eternal dilemma of UGC management. The rules must be able to combat violations, but they must also prevent it from being abused as a tool of revenge.