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impertinence on 05 June 2015
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Fusioncode said:
impertinence said:

As a player who never plays shooters and not very often play online at all I am excatly the target audience for this decission  and I can tell you, they are spot on. Voice chat is a huge turn off for me, and even though it would be an option to turn on and off, knowing that I would go into battles deliberatly not enabling voice chats while some of my random team mates would expect to use that as a tool would be a reason not to get the game at all for me.

The reason why I enjoy Splatoon as much as I do is because it levels the field a bit for a player like myself and experienced shooter fanatics. And that is an absolutely essential thing if they want the game to have the kind of crossover appeal that they are hoping for.

You know, I never thought I'd see the day that people would actually argue in favor of having less options but here we are. Thanks for making my decisions for me Nintendo. I hate the idea of having to choose between whether or not to use voice chat. It took too much brain power. Luckily Nanny Nintendo is here to make sure I never have to make any decisions at all. They get to decide everything for me. I can't wait for Splatoon 2 where Nintendo actually disables the game after 8 PM because it's bedtime.

Aaah, I see. We are now somehow operating in a universe where Splatoon is the only videogame in the world?

In the real world Splatoon offers and increase in options not a restriction of options. The game fills several gaps in the video game landscape and as a result it seems to have found some success in that market. You see, there are already numerous other video games available that do include online competitive first person shooter experiences, and yes most of them also have voice chat. And yes, for me personally, and I happen to know that this applies to other people as well, the exsistence of voice chat and a hyper competitve online environemt is a deterent and not a selling point. So what Splatoon offers is a casual version of this online environment that removes some of the barriers of entry for a player like myself and as such it now presents an interesting option for me that was not available before.

And here comes the point: People like me are the target audience for Nintendo with Splatoon. It might be a surprise, it really shouldn't be, but Nintendo is not going for the 'hardcore' market with this game, they are going for a crossover market. They want to bring in people who enjoy Mario Kart and hopefully draw in a 'hardcore' shoter enthusiast or two. So for all of the hard as rock online shooter experts out there who simply can't be degraded to play a game WITHOUT voice chat: Don't buy the game, it really is that simple. Not every game is made for you.