konnichiwa agreed with but didn't say:
I have been saying this for some time, and it has been misinterpreted over and over again. I've been called an elitist, biased, a hater, whatever....
Nintendo is hurting gaming.
Frankly, what Nintendo is doing right now is appealing to a market that's not us - the longtime gamer - but a market that is *them* - people who don't like videogames - people who play things like DDR, Guitar Hero, and Jane Fonda workout tapes. They shoved us aside with the Wii - in fact, look at Reggies' comments for the past two years - they *are no longer interested* in catering to us.
First, they aren’t hurting a damn thing. The gaming market is growing, and you are no longer the center of it. But traditional games are still out there. You want to keep them out there, just keep buying them, and stop whining because other people are getting games too. Second, last I checked, tons of “real gamers” love Guitar Hero (and please note that DDR and Guitar Hero have NOTHING to do with Nintendo).
At their press conference, Nintendo kept telling us "you're wrong". Over and over, in fact. They told us what to think. They told us "oh, you're wrong, this is gaming for everyone" - they essentially acted like "hehehe you're stupid, you don't get it.”
Maybe you felt that way because you are.
They didn’t tell you what to think any more than did MS or Sony. They are selling their console at E3, not just to gamers, but to their investors, the press and the rest of the industry.
Them saying "you're wrong" over and over (a gross generalization, but not worth debating). That's called addressing your critics, something Sony and Microsoft didn't bother to do. Truth is every company at these events puts their best spin on their situation.
MS glossed over the fact that the Wii, despite supply problems, outsold them. The didn't even bother mentioning their extended warranty because it would draw attention to the fact that their console NEEDS an extended warranty. And then they repeatedly stated "The BEST HOLIDAY GAME LINEUP EVER!!!" like some idiot fanboy on a messageboard.
Sony? We all got the message - EVERYTHING IS GREAT! NO PROBLEM HERE! LOOK AT OUR NEW SUPER LOW PRICES - $499 and $599. MUCH CHEAPER THAN LAST YEAR. Sales? What sales? You don't need to see any sales data... That's not the information you're looking for...
The reality is, they know this isn't gaming for us, they know we don't enjoy these games - but they figure, "hey, if we can tell some Nintendo diehards that we're making gaming *better*, maybe we can drag them along".
So you don’t like Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Resident Evil? Exactly what kind of “longtime gamer” are you? And since when hasn’t Nintendo said they were making games better? Pretty much been the company slogan since E3 started.
Everything they're doing right now is about catering to sales from a lucrative market - a market we've been calling "casuals" - but in retrospect we should have kept calling "non-gamers". Casuals *used to be* a market that pumped their chests for Madden and Halo - what we have here is a new beast entirely.
Non-gamers are people who don’t play games, not people who do play games that you don't happen to like. It is clearly not the correct term.
Anyone who pumped their chests over a video game was never a casual gamer.
And people called the Xbox the “hardcore gamer” console, which again underscores the wrongheadedness of your definition of "casual gamers" as Halo fans (you know, the ones who bought Crackdown or played the viral game just to get a shot at the H3 Beta).
For a minute, just concede that Nintendo doesn't care.
HELL NO! Why would I concede a point to you that is so entirely wrong headed?
Why are they harming gaming? Because they control so many nostalgic series. I had to give this up *a long time ago*. As an early Sega fan, I had to accept that my favorite games - such as Sonic the Hedgehog - were no longer the same. I had to come to terms with the parent company Sega losing their minds - Sonic 3D Blast helped a great deal to drive that reality home, and by the time I played Sonic Shuffle and Sonic Adventure 2, it became easier to accept that Sega was going downhill.
Nintendo isn't dying, they were though, they were dying, losing marketshare, and they found this huge new market with the Wii... and unfortunately, much like Sega, they hold our old favorites hostage. So what do we get? Our best games come with concessions - Metroid Prime 3 will be built around "the zapper", goes back to stacked beams, and features basically a "turbo charged" mode -why? All in the interest of making the bastion of Nintendo's "hardcore" catalog still sell to some of the same people who will buy Wii Fitness.
And here’s the key point you are missing:
Nintendo never stopped caring about gamers. It never walked away from franchises gamers loved. It never stopped making many of the best games of every generation. It was gamers who walked away from Nintendo, dissed their games without playing them, and chose to judge them because of the color of the console. That is what forced Nintendo to look for alternative markets, and now you want to shit on them for doing so.
They are trying to blend the classic franchises into the Wii Sports / Play / Fitness market
Twilight Princess was one of the easiest Zelda games I've ever played, Super Paper Mario was time-consuming, but not exactly *challenging*, and Super Smash Brawl might not feature online gameplay.
And yet Super Mario Sunshine, which many gamers scoffed at without ever playing it, was widely criticized for its difficulty. Gamers today are pussies. Too many hintbooks, too much GameFAQs, too much handholding in tutorials.
There’s a simple mathematical principle: you need at least 3 points to determine a pattern. Twilight Princes was admittedly easy. But howabout you wait and try more games before assuming this is all a pattern? When you sleepwalk through Galaxy, I'll consider that you may have a point.
As for Smash Bros, you are grasping at straws. If it doesn’t have online, I will join you in condemning them, not just for disappointing fans, but for the single stupidest marketing decision since the $599 price tag. However, until it is true, it adds nothing to your case and undermines your credibility.
And that was, by far, one of the worst parts of the show - "maybe you didn't notice that we already have online gameplay?" ... maybe Nintendo didn't notice that PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 have services that are lightyears ahead of what I do on a DS or Wii? I don't feel like I have "the world" in the palm of my hand when I play Mario Kart online on my DS - I feel like I might as well be playing against the AI - I can't identify if I'm really playing the same people again, there's no ranking, I can't talk to my opponents, I can't see my opponents - where is the online social interaction?
And it is something that they deserve to be criticized for. But casual gamers like to play online, too, and there are many traditional gamers (like myself) that don’t much care about it. This is a separate argument.
I feel that Nintendo has realized that online doesn't matter to increase DS / Wii sales, so they're not doing it - that simply they said "building a service like PSN costs too much money, and look at the people buying a Wii, they don't care." I do care, however, it's important for me. I have friends and family all over the world - being able to see their face and hear their voice while I play is vital - it makes it so I'm playing a racing game with my little brother, even though he's in another city - it makes it so I can talk to the other gamers in my Halo clan, even though they're in Denmark. Nintendo's issue isn't that they "don't get it" - it's that their current salesbase says "I can go to YouTube and MySpace on my Wii - Wii does it all!"
And the best way to convince Nintendo to do more online is to support its online games, not to walk away. Try out Strikers. Get Smash Bros or Mario Kart. Show Nintendo that you want this service, and are willing to use it. If not, you only support their reasons for not jumping in with both feet.
Nintendo is in a situation where, quite frankly, we, the longtime gamers,
Please stop. I'm about as longtime a gamer as is possble. I am happy to call you a brother in that regard, but you do not speak for me or the rest of our ilk. We are all perfectly capable of spouting off on the internet when we are unhappy, and don't need you to do it for us.
are supporting them out of nostalgia. If the actual *games* Nintendo is releasing - Metroid, Mario, Smash, et cetera - were the same games, but with new characters and titles, would we be buying them? Honestly, look in your heart and tell me you'd buy MP3 without the "M". This doesn't just apply to Nintendo - Halo 3 *looks awful* by comparisson to other FPS titles coming out this year - it hasn't *evolved* enough - the FPS genre moves and improve so quickly - yet Halo 3 looks archaic. Yet MP3 looks *even more* archaic, and we support it, why? Because it's Metroid. I'm as guilty as the next guy of doing this.
If the gameplay is good, then yes, I would buy them with other characters. It's not as though Mario is the only platformer I ever purchased, or Metroid the only shooter. If the gameplay sucks - hell, if its just medioce, then then I’ll avoid it even if Mario and Co are in it. It's why I won’t touch MarioParty. And, I should add, the same principle goes for non-Nintendo franchises like Halo, Half-Life, Star Wars, and Banjo Kazooie.
But quite frankly you are misstating the truth when you say longtime gamers are supporting Nintendo out of nostalgia. As I said earlier, longtime gamers walked away from Nintendo a decade ago. The were, in fact, the 20 somethings who gave the Playstation it's resounding success.
I'm sorry, this all might not be the level of logic or cohesiveness I usually have
Should be the first sign that maybe you’re talking out your ass.
I have no intention of becoming a fanboy or a hater or anything else,
Yet that is precisely what you are becoming.
but I'm done with Nintendo - I am washing my hands of them. For me it's about more than the games, it's also about the vision behind those games, about what you're trying to do with them. Yesterday's showcase was a disgusting display of chest-pounding arrogance and a clear showing that Nintendo does not view games as art.
"Games are for everyone" doesn't mean you should stop making games for me.
Speaking of chest pounding arrogance…
I always thought, as a kid when I played Gameboy, that Nintendo would grow up with me, and they haven't. Sega and Nintendo, hand-in-hand walked me down a brightly coloured path to living gaming - and now both of them are gone. Nintendo... Sega... gone. I thought they were gone last year, and I gave them one last chance here, I tried to be open-minded, but I can't do it anymore.
In other words, you changed one way, they changed another. And somehow that’s their problem?Hey, when I was a kid, I loved Sesame Street. Can’t watch it now. Well, I wash my hands of Henson Studios for not growing up with me.
Hey - just caught this: Gameboy as a kid? Shit son, you're a second gen gamer at best. When you get into your third decade of gaming, then talk to me about being a longtime gamer.
I cannot accept Nintendo's vision for gaming. I do not support the idea that titles such as Wii Fitness should be showcased as videogames.
The arrogance of this statement is absolutely shameful. Many don’t think games like GTA should be made or marketed. THAT’S THE SIGN OF A SUCCESSFUL MARKET – A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS THAT WILL APPEAL TO A VARIETY OF PEOPLE. The problem is not WiiFit. The problem is that you are so blindly arrogant that you couldn’t see the other games that were showcased in the presentation, and are apparently ignorant of the fact that the presentation is not all there is at E3.
I for one couldn’t stomach the idea of seeing License to Wed. Doesn’t mean I’m going to refuse to see every Robin Williams movie, let alone every one made by Warner Bros.
I'm done Nintendo. You do what you want to do, you will never get another dollar from me. Say good-bye to the tens of thousands I've spent on your products over the years.
I somehow doubt you spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years. And they won’t say good bye to it, as they already have it.
Frankly, it's my finest wish that every other longtime Nintendo fan do the same.
If that’s your finest wish, you are a selfish, spiteful prick. Howabout “I wish fans would continue to support games they enjoy.” Does it even enter your little self-centered cerebrum that longtime Nintendo fans don’t give a flying fuck what you like or wish? Don’t like Nintendo? Fine. Go. No one’s stopping you. Just leave us the hell out of it. Oh, and if for some reason you decide you don’t like McDonald’s anymore, keep it to your own damn self.
Hardcore gamers represent a great deal of software sales
Wait, I thought you were a casual/longtime gamer? Now you’re “hardcore”?
- as long as we continue to support their "blended" market - where they make *just enough* of a hardcore spin on classic franchises to tempt us, they will be able to keep being insanely profitable.
Yes, how dare they try to please everyone. Bastards.
I'm done.
So you’ve said. Yet you go on…
I'm sick and tired of having to hold my breath and pray - Sony this year "got it" - they were humble,
Getting your ass handed to you tends to do that.
they showed games, and they said "thanks for being here guys."
And please don’t ask about the length of our exclusivity contracts.
Nintendo doesn't care. Sonic and Mario standing together in the same game should be enough of a warning sign to longtime gamers - hegehogs and plumbers running down a track together (at the same height, might I add, though Sega keeps changing how tall Sonic is every game, it's getting annoying) is, I believe, one of the signs of the apocalypse.
Nintendo's world has ended, and I'm done with it. Bye, see ya. Time to get a second or third job, because the future of gaming as I enjoy it does not lie in your competively priced "plug-n-play" remote controlled gaming box.
If their world has ended, then you can’t be done with it. You can't leave what’s not there. And if you really think Nintendo will miss your money… well, the market speaks to that well enough.
Now, if I may steer this back to where you started:Nintendo is hurting gaming. In that entire rant, you offer not ONE piece of evidence to support your statement. NOT ONE.
No evidence that the gaming market is declining or losing profit.
No evidence that fewer traditional games are being made
No evidence that Nintendo’s practices are encouraging other companies to water down their product.
No evidence that you as a classic/casual/traditional/longtime/hardcore gamer now have nowhere turn to because Nintendo is ruining the gaming industry.
The fact that you can walk away from the biggest gaming phenomenon in years and still find more than games to satisfy your tastes you than you could ever have found a decade ago completely destroys your initial premise.
The gaming industry is healthy, it is growing, and Nintendo* is playing a big part in that.
You, sir, are an idiot.
*Sony and MS and plenty of 3Ps too, of course, but they're not the subject at hand.
