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StarTopic Nintendo Direct Speculation |ST3| Speculate Chronicles 3

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Magic-Man said:
Mario Kart DLC should gave ended the Feburary Direct instead of Xenoblade. What a terrible way to end a great presentation smh
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stop-it-get-some-help.gif
 
If Nintendo had announced they weren't doing a regular Direct in June we'd have had mainstream websites going to press on how Nintendo are running scared without E3 and without Zelda, never mind whatever gets said by the cranks making a living on YouTube churning out shit.
 
When you actually try to make content with integrity, you understand how shitty click bait is. I'm working on a research paper right now at my uni, yada-yada-yada references and everything, obviously that is an entirely different standard. But a significant amount of videos pretend to seem legitimate or about a quality rumor, then 1 minute into the video you realize it's trash, but they got the click which is what they care about.

Click bait trash goes over 10 minutes and references absolutely nothing of any substance. The justification for making the video? Well obviously it's money, but the Youtuber wont say that, so it's a quick 5-second, "there's this new rumor floating around (I.e. trash post with trust me bro) that's so bizarre I decided to make a video (and we all know they contemplated that for a long time...jk)". Then they monetize a small rumour because the value of their audiences' time is not taken into consideration, or they simply don't care
Zelda theory videos are fine, because it's creative speculation that is explicitly speculative, forums are fine because nobody is trying to make a dime off of your time, but click bait tries to frame itself as legitimate to make a dollar.

I agree with Nate completely obviously.

We on Famiboards could probably create a weekly thread, with only one post, can be read in 2 minutes, that could summarize a week's worth of Nintendo news.
 
Magic-Man said:
Xenoblade X killed the Wii U by existing. Don't believe me? Just look at the total sales numbers before and after it came out!
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That's because the game wasn't anime enough. It's all thanks to xenoblade 2 anime style if xenoblade is a successful series
 
Ignore the fact that Xenoblade 3 is in my recently played games on Switch please! I just played it to see how bad the graphics were!
 
Awesomegames23 said:
When you actually try to make content with integrity, you understand how shitty click bait is. I'm working on a research paper right now at my uni, yada-yada-yada references and everything, obviously that is an entirely different standard. But a significant amount of videos pretend to seem legitimate or about a quality rumor, then 1 minute into the video you realize it's trash, but they got the click which is what they care about.

Click bait trash goes over 10 minutes and references absolutely nothing of any substance. The justification for making the video? Well obviously it's money, but the Youtuber wont say that, so it's a quick 5-second, "there's this new rumor floating around (I.e. trash post with trust me bro) that's so bizarre I decided to make a video (and we all know they contemplated that for a long time...jk)". Then they monetize a small rumour because the value of their audiences' time is not taken into consideration, or they simply don't care
Zelda theory videos are fine, because it's creative speculation that is explicitly speculative, forums are fine because nobody is trying to make a dime off of your time, but click bait tries to frame itself as legitimate to make a dollar.

I agree with Nate completely obviously.

We on Famiboards could probably create a weekly thread, with only one post, can be read in 2 minutes, that could summarize a week's worth of Nintendo news.
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And forums/fans should speculate on anything they see fit. It's just that blatant bullshit doesn't need to be turned into a daily/weekly video report by outlets. If the rumor happened to be real.... cool. You'll discuss when confirmed. Not every rumor needs to be discussed just for the sake of it because nothing else is happening.
 
WARNING! Controversial take incoming!

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a great Metroidvania, even tho the last area and
boss aren't that good but I still think its unfairly overlooked. I wanna see a sequel.
 
NateDrake said:
Does Nintendo need better communication? Yes. But their communication, or lack thereof, was not the focus of this discussion. It was on the reliance of forcing rumors into existence citing patterns & discussing them daily for clickbait content, using 4chan or random posts as "evidence" of something happening and then continuing the discussion into the next week with a "rumor" that was never a rumor and was only ever founded as speculation, at best.

Why the fuck was a 5G Lite a rumor outlets felt the need to cover? Because it has Nintendo & Rumor in the headline. It's tabloid reporting.

If Nintendo says, "We have no Direct this summer...", you are then treated with months of "Nintendo HAS NO GAMES" content -- even if Nintendo went to Twitter for weekly drops. The Direct format is brilliant marketing but it has taken on a life of its own & Nintendo can no longer control it. Fans & communities can speculate and wonder; but content creators & outlets should not be forcing rumors about when a Direct is coming into their weekly lineup solely for traffic.
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Totally agree and I apologize if I came across as overly critical - I just think that Nintendo has more of a responsibility to shape expectations then they often take a role in, and as their silence is IMO the root cause of why this runaway culture has been able to take hold, I think it'd be worth addressing and using your platform to levy that criticism their way. I know you have in the past in regards to other Nintendo events so it just kind of strikes me as odd to not take it one step further back and recognize the root cause of the symptoms. Obviously people are going to try to shape the narrative however they want to generate outrage, but I think so long as Nintendo does their part in communicating clearly, it becomes all the easier to ignore and shun those bad actors. Their audience disappears once Nintendo is at the forefront saying the opposite of them through official channels and through their actions. In a vacuum, they can simply run wild, and people will listen in the absence of anything from Nintendo.

KC Hazel said:
Yeah, this is what I was thinking but also didn't wanna start a big debate lol. If Nintendo said no Direct, the Youtube videos would just be asking what's going on at Nintendo? Is this or that canceled? etc etc.

There is nothing Nintendo can do or say to prevent this type of behavior, and it's really not on them to communicate every little thing. They really can't cater to people who are too invested like that, because they'll never be satisfied.
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You (and similarly minded posters) may be right, but it's hard to know when we've never seen Nintendo make a concerted effort to change the narrative and stamp out this kind of bad faith discussion. At the very least it wouldn't kill them to try - as I said before, it's as simple as a few tweets, especially now that it seems to be their primary platform for marketing and communication. And once they do that, suddenly the discourse is free of all this absurd nonsense, and the community can easily weed out the charlatans and the sensationalists as the trash tier creators they are, starved of any legitimate audience who's simply there because there's nothing else to hear.
 
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NateDrake said:
And forums/fans should speculate on anything they see fit. It's just that blatant bullshit doesn't need to be turned into a daily/weekly video report by outlets. If the rumor happened to be real.... cool. You'll discuss when confirmed. Not every rumor needs to be discussed just for the sake of it because nothing else is happening.
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I agree 100% with you buy you can't let it get to you. It's YouTube. Lots of slimy people looking for that click revenue and I can only promise you it will get worse. It always does. That's the trend. This shit is woven throughout history. It's basically the new tabloid. Like when you are checking out at a grocery story and you see the "Big foot caught on tape" headlines on the magazines on the corner rack.

Best you can do is just do you. Discuss the topics you want to discuss, share the information you want to share and if YouTubers and junk websites want to mislead and push an agenda then so be it. Can't stop it. Just got to ignore.

The people that appreciate your content will know how to get the information directly from you.

As far as internet forums, Twitter, etc. I just think we're all a huge collective of individuals with various lifestyles, living conditions, medical and mental problems, etc. You're going to get people who are unreasonable or get upset or annoyed easily or say something dumb here and there. Hell I've made my mistakes. It's the way it is. Anywhere you go.

Just got to ignore the stuff you don't like and focus on the positive people and quite frankly, have fun with the discussions and conversations. T

I think we've all been through some shit with Covid-19, inflation, war, politics, global warming and other shit to add to the anxiety but I enjoy engaging in the community and yeah people could be nicer and less negative but just focus on the positives, the good people and good conversations. That is all any of us can do. Oh and enjoy some videogames and your summer! 😊
 
ElisaurusWrecks said:
They continually refuse throughout that episode to hold Nintendo accountable for stoking this culture, which Nintendo no doubt benefits from in mind share, when they have the sole power to put an end to all of it.

Nintendo is so fond of their tweets now - all it would have taken was a single "Sorry, but please do not expect a June General Direct this year. We have other things coming!" And all of it would have been abolished. No clickbait, no blatant falsehoods, no creators shoveling garbage - it's already a known that it is not happening. Expectations are managed. It's an easy and clear end to years of prior precedent and it takes less than 260 characters.

We don't just need to demand better content creation - we need to demand better communication from Nintendo. Hell, there's a lot of things Nintendo do poorly for which we should expect better. They're a great gaming company, but they are not faultless and should not get a pass for some of the dubious ways they treat their consumers and their fans just because there's lower hanging fruit benefitting from their poor management.
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Imho Nintendo doesn't have to do that so a minor percentage of its customers is satisfied.

Let alone the fact that all this speculation creates content that is basically free marketing for Nintendo. 10 channels speculating about potential Nintendo News is still marketing for Nintendo
 
ElisaurusWrecks said:
Totally agree and I apologize if I came across as overly critical - I just think that Nintendo has more of a responsibility to shape expectations then they often take a role in, and as their silence is IMO the root cause of why this runaway culture has been able to take hold, I think it'd be worth addressing and using your platform to levy that criticism their way. I know you have in the past in regards to other Nintendo events so it just kind of strikes me as odd to not take it one step further back and recognize the root cause of the symptoms. Obviously people are going to try to shape the narrative however they want to generate outrage, but I think so long as Nintendo does their part in communicating clearly, it becomes all the easier to ignore and shun those bad actors. Their audience disappears once Nintendo is at the forefront saying the opposite of them through official channels and through their actions. In a vacuum, they can simply run wild, and people will listen in the absence of anything from Nintendo.


You (and similarly minded posters) may be right, but it's hard to know when we've never seen Nintendo make a concerted effort to change the narrative and stamp out this kind of bad faith discussion. At the very least it wouldn't kill them to try - as I said before, it's as simple as a few tweets, especially now that it seems to be their primary platform for marketing and communication. And once they do that, suddenly the discourse is free of all this absurd nonsense, and the community can easily weed out the charlatans and the sensationalists as the trash tier creators they are, starved of any legitimate audience who's simply there because there's nothing else to hear.
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Nintendo does have a responsibility -- as does any publisher or company. It simply wasn't the discussion time for their role to come up. I wanted to focus on content creators spurring rumors for the sake of it and turning a marketing stunt (let's be honest... all Direct/Showcase/Presentations from companies are just a stunt) as an endless stream of clickbait rumor solely for the fact that there is silence during a typical busy pattern of time. Discussing the responsibility of companies to relay news and expectation is something we have explored as a future topic but are unsure the appeal of the subject matter.
 
TheBlade said:
Imho Nintendo doesn't have to do that so a minor percentage of its customers is satisfied.

Let alone the fact that all this speculation creates content that is basically free marketing for Nintendo. 10 channels speculating about potential Nintendo News is still marketing for Nintendo
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You're right, and they absolutely do benefit from the free mind share of this sort of crap being vomited out onto the internet. That's just another thing I mentioned in my criticism of them.

The fact that Nintendo allows this sort of thing to exist through their silence and then profits off the poisoned well of discourse it creates is pretty gross to me. Just another reason I never expect them to actually improve their communication. They'd rather just stoke the flames so the gaming community at large always has their name at the forefront of discourse.
 
0
Pokemon, Splatoon, hardware.

Voting hardware until it happens. Eventually I'll be right

Also I'm pretty excited about Pokemon. I feel like I don't know much about this game. How will multiplayer work? Is it just people joining your world to catch pokemon or are there co-op battles as well? They also showed crouching; Is this a hint at throwing pokeballs to catch like Arceus, or just adding a new requirement to sneak up on some wild pokemon before battle?
 
NateDrake said:
Nintendo does have a responsibility -- as does any publisher or company. It simply wasn't the discussion time for their role to come up. I wanted to focus on content creators spurring rumors for the sake of it and turning a marketing stunt (let's be honest... all Direct/Showcase/Presentations from companies are just a stunt) as an endless stream of clickbait rumor solely for the fact that there is silence during a typical busy pattern of time. Discussing the responsibility of companies to relay news and expectation is something we have explored as a future topic but are unsure the appeal of the subject matter.
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If you are going to explore that topic, now, coming towards the end of the atypical and uncommunicative summer, seems like a decent time, before a normal Direct mollifies the fanbase into greater ambivalence towards Nintendo's chronic communication shortcomings.
 
ElisaurusWrecks said:
Totally agree and I apologize if I came across as overly critical - I just think that Nintendo has more of a responsibility to shape expectations then they often take a role in, and as their silence is IMO the root cause of why this runaway culture has been able to take hold, I think it'd be worth addressing and using your platform to levy that criticism their way. I know you have in the past in regards to other Nintendo events so it just kind of strikes me as odd to not take it one step further back and recognize the root cause of the symptoms. Obviously people are going to try to shape the narrative however they want to generate outrage, but I think so long as Nintendo does their part in communicating clearly, it becomes all the easier to ignore and shun those bad actors. Their audience disappears once Nintendo is at the forefront saying the opposite of them through official channels and through their actions. In a vacuum, they can simply run wild, and people will listen in the absence of anything from Nintendo.


You (and similarly minded posters) may be right, but it's hard to know when we've never seen Nintendo make a concerted effort to change the narrative and stamp out this kind of bad faith discussion. At the very least it wouldn't kill them to try - as I said before, it's as simple as a few tweets, especially now that it seems to be their primary platform for marketing and communication. And once they do that, suddenly the discourse is free of all this absurd nonsense, and the community can easily weed out the charlatans and the sensationalists as the trash tier creators they are, starved of any legitimate audience who's simply there because there's nothing else to hear.
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Nintendo communicates plenty of things. They can't respond to every Youtuber that makes a dumb video to kill every rumor before it gets out of hand. Just like we saw earlier in this thread with that video asking if the Mario Kart DLC was canceled a week ago, because they were getting impatient. Stuff like that is just...people trying to get clicks. Nothing Nintendo has done even remotely suggests the Mario Kart DLC is canceled, but it wont stop youtubers from making videos like that.

I agree that Nintendo could have said something regarding E3 this year, but usually Nintendo is pretty open with communication. It's the entire point of Nintendo Directs. People are just so impatient that they now need Nintendo to communicate about their...means of communication (Nintendo Directs).

Maybe I'm just old school or something but I don't need Nintendo to constantly remind me that games they've announced are still being worked on, or that Directs are still happening. We've had a good idea of Nintendo's lineup for 2022 at the very beginning of the year. I'm not sure what else really needs to be expected from them.
 
NateDrake said:
Nintendo does have a responsibility -- as does any publisher or company. It simply wasn't the discussion time for their role to come up. I wanted to focus on content creators spurring rumors for the sake of it and turning a marketing stunt (let's be honest... all Direct/Showcase/Presentations from companies are just a stunt) as an endless stream of clickbait rumor solely for the fact that there is silence during a typical busy pattern of time. Discussing the responsibility of companies to relay news and expectation is something we have explored as a future topic but are unsure the appeal of the subject matter.
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Throw me on the list as somebody who this would appeal to greatly. It'd be great to hear a wider discussion on the topic from you and MVG's perspective, and I think having it on your platform would stoke a much wider discussion that's worth having.
Rooster said:
If you are going to explore that topic, now, coming towards the end of the atypical and uncommunicative summer, seems like a decent time, before a normal Direct mollifies the fanbase into greater ambivalence towards Nintendo's chronic communication shortcomings.
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100% agreed. If done later when it's less poignant, then plenty of fairweather Nintendo fans who rarely hold the company accountable in their discourse will simply dismiss the conversation.
 
I've always thought it was tough to find an objective way to decide if a company's marketing is fine or not. How something is marketed can seem different to many people. I personally think Nintendo is doing fine right now. Lots of news, just in smaller doses spread out. But some don't like that, and that's totally fine. I think the only way to tell if the marketing is fine or not, objectively, would be to see how the company itself is doing, and obviously there are no problems there. I don't think it's the be-all end-all though. The marketing could be shit, yet they still make money, so that's not an exact science.

Having said that, I want a September direct. It would be so crappy if they didn't have a nice, meaty, loaded direct to show some end of the year stuff and a preview for 2023. And Eternal Darkness.
 
NateDrake said:
Presentation plans are communicated months in advance -- just not the format of the presentation (Mini/General).

Late June was known in March, for example; and the date/timing of the show never changed. The only change that may have happened was the content lineup, which undergoes changes until the final edit.
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This is super interesting. I don't know much about contracts, but I just figured Nintendo signed a deal and gave a broad window for when they might actually showcase the title.

Now that we know studios get a specific date that far in advance, I'm kinda shocked the date doesn't leak sooner. Must be an absolute headache keeping lockdown on this stuff. For both parties involved.
 
Nate is correct that Twitter drops are the best Nintendo strategy. My preferred format for announcements. Allows for constant announcements or enhanced marketing of games people might not put a lot of stock in (see Live A Live and the marketing). Could stand to have some more build up for things like Splatoon 3.
 
Barely Able said:
Nate is correct that Twitter drops are the best Nintendo strategy. My preferred format for announcements. Allows for constant announcements or enhanced marketing of games people might not put a lot of stock in (see Live A Live and the marketing). Could stand to have some more build up for things like Splatoon 3.
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Yep. Twitter is better for the company, worse for the fans
 
The only thing I know is that info spreads so fast and whatnot. That simply putting a tweet can have the same effect as being in a general direct ending.

Trends for a while. Lots of excitement. Rather fascinating last couple years noticing this.
 
ElisaurusWrecks said:
Totally agree and I apologize if I came across as overly critical - I just think that Nintendo has more of a responsibility to shape expectations then they often take a role in, and as their silence is IMO the root cause of why this runaway culture has been able to take hold, I think it'd be worth addressing and using your platform to levy that criticism their way. I know you have in the past in regards to other Nintendo events so it just kind of strikes me as odd to not take it one step further back and recognize the root cause of the symptoms. Obviously people are going to try to shape the narrative however they want to generate outrage, but I think so long as Nintendo does their part in communicating clearly, it becomes all the easier to ignore and shun those bad actors. Their audience disappears once Nintendo is at the forefront saying the opposite of them through official channels and through their actions. In a vacuum, they can simply run wild, and people will listen in the absence of anything from Nintendo.
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I agree. I'm not sure how exactly they'd phrase it, but somehow getting the message out to fans that there won't be a first party showcase in the summer would have turned all the bait-y YouTube content into talking debating what's next, why it could have happened, etc. instead of clinging to any rumors about it still happening.

Nintendo really doesn't seem to care much about communicating with fans at this level, but I wish they would. It's the silence that drives many mad. At least in the case of Directs, Nate comes in here and drops reassurance or sets expectations and I'm pretty sure it always has a positive impact on the thread's mindset. We're told that Direct dates are set well in advance, and take a long time to prepare. Why can't Nintendo speak up a little bit more for themselves, either through channels like Twitter, or even through journalism outlets that can help add context to the messaging before it hits the web. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that even in a worst case, announcing Directs a bit more in advance and then postponing them or cancelling them if things went wrong would probably calm the masses more than it would frustrate them. I understand they can't be completely transparent, but even a little bit of transparency goes a long way.

Above all, it's not like this year's events, both the Twitter drops as well as complaining about click-bait content, are going to change how things are looked at in future years. Next year E3 is returning, and people will expect Nintendo to participate, bringing back the coveted June Direct. They'll call 2022 a fluke, etc. The only way any of it changes is if Nintendo is able to manage expectations better.
 
KC Hazel said:
Nintendo communicates plenty of things. They can't respond to every Youtuber that makes a dumb video to kill every rumor before it gets out of hand. Just like we saw earlier in this thread with that video asking if the Mario Kart DLC was canceled a week ago, because they were getting impatient. Stuff like that is just...people trying to get clicks. Nothing Nintendo has done even remotely suggests the Mario Kart DLC is canceled, but it wont stop youtubers from making videos like that.

I agree that Nintendo could have said something regarding E3 this year, but usually Nintendo is pretty open with communication. It's the entire point of Nintendo Directs. People are just so impatient that they now need Nintendo to communicate about their...means of communication (Nintendo Directs).

Maybe I'm just old school or something but I don't need Nintendo to constantly remind me that games they've announced are still being worked on, or that Directs are still happening. We've had a good idea of Nintendo's lineup for 2022 at the very beginning of the year. I'm not sure what else really needs to be expected from them.
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Sure, and I agree they don't owe us up to the minute details on every single plan or release. But they do shape the discourse within their community through how they broadly outline plans - everybody expected a June direct because they have continuously done so and have made no indication to the contrary. Something as simple as an acknowledgement that it is a prior precedent that they have set, but that it isn't happening this year, would have done a lot to alleviate all the garbage "reporting" we were inundated with.

Slappywag said:
I've always thought it was tough to find an objective way to decide if a company's marketing is fine or not. How something is marketed can seem different to many people. I personally think Nintendo is doing fine right now. Lots of news, just in smaller doses spread out. But some don't like that, and that's totally fine. I think the only way to tell if the marketing is fine or not, objectively, would be to see how the company itself is doing, and obviously there are no problems there. I don't think it's the be-all end-all though. The marketing could be shit, yet they still make money, so that's not an exact science.

Having said that, I want a September direct. It would be so crappy if they didn't have a nice, meaty, loaded direct to show some end of the year stuff and a preview for 2023. And Eternal Darkness.
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It obviously works great for their bottom line, but the fanbase fixation on what's best for Nintendo's bottom line isn't particularly healthy for discourse either IMO.

It's shit in that it fosters an unhealthy community that's obsessed with every little scrap of information that we can get our hands on, to the point where we can be so easily manipulated by baseless speculation and rumor just because Nintendo insists on being so incessantly secretive and controlling about everything. If they simply communicated a broad yearly structure or roadmap of what to expect for the year, I think it would go a very long way towards a healthier discussion of their output.
 
Skies said:
This is super interesting. I don't know much about contracts, but I just figured Nintendo signed a deal and gave a broad window for when they might actually showcase the title.

Now that we know studios get a specific date that far in advance, I'm kinda shocked the date doesn't leak sooner. Must be an absolute headache keeping lockdown on this stuff. For both parties involved.
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The exact date is not given -- a general window (early/mid/late in x-month).
 
ElisaurusWrecks said:
It obviously works great for their bottom line, but the fanbase fixation on what's best for Nintendo's bottom line isn't particularly healthy for discourse either IMO.

It's shit in that it fosters an unhealthy community that's obsessed with every little scrap of information that we can get our hands on, to the point where we can be so easily manipulated by baseless speculation and rumor just because Nintendo insists on being so incessantly secretive and controlling about everything. If they simply communicated a broad yearly structure or roadmap of what to expect for the year, I think it would go a very long way towards a healthier discussion of their output.
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I agree with what your saying, and a simple "We won't have a genera direct for this June, but stay tuned to all of our media channels for announcements and updates throughout the rest of the summer!" or something to that effect would have been fantastic. But how much responsibility does Nintendo really have for the unhealthy community that sprouts up in between announcements? How much responsibility is on us for being so obsessed and the discussion becoming unhealthy? I'm not trying to sound like some philosophical asshole, I'm genuinly curious what people think about this. I mean, I'm part of the problem. I love this stupid company, and any time they drop any morsel of news, I'm ALL over it. I've clicked on those click bait videos, and read those same articles. But is that my fault, or Nintendos? I mean, obviously, it's somewhere in the middle, but where is the line, you know what I mean?

I'm clearly no wordsmith. I'd put Futurama quotes in here and claim it's poetry, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say. Personally I think it's mostly our fault for being so obsessive, and our fault for giving those videos views, but I also know that I could be very wrong. I'd love to hear what y'all think about this.
 
I've felt for a while that, more than even being indifferent to us, Nintendo actually wants people like us to disengage from their announcements. The fervent expectations, both of content and timing, are detrimental to the company's control of the brand narrative online. "Nintendo Direct" or "Switch Pro" trending on Twitter without an announcement is a significant breach of their control and in fact pretty bad for the company. This was reflected by Kit Ellis's ire towards rumors and satisfaction with fans' disappointment; fans expecting things is bad for marketing.
 
Slappywag said:
I agree with what your saying, and a simple "We won't have a genera direct for this June, but stay tuned to all of our media channels for announcements and updates throughout the rest of the summer!" or something to that effect would have been fantastic. But how much responsibility does Nintendo really have for the unhealthy community that sprouts up in between announcements? How much responsibility is on us for being so obsessed and the discussion becoming unhealthy? I'm not trying to sound like some philosophical asshole, I'm genuinly curious what people think about this. I mean, I'm part of the problem. I love this stupid company, and any time they drop any morsel of news, I'm ALL over it. I've clicked on those click bait videos, and read those same articles. But is that my fault, or Nintendos? I mean, obviously, it's somewhere in the middle, but where is the line, you know what I mean?

I'm clearly no wordsmith. I'd put Futurama quotes in here and claim it's poetry, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say. Personally I think it's mostly our fault for being so obsessive, and our fault for giving those videos views, but I also know that I could be very wrong. I'd love to hear what y'all think about this.
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It's definitely a bit of both and as you said, we could choose to disengage and not participate in any of it. But obviously Nintendo wouldn't want that either, as that means lost interest and lost sales.

As consumers we should strive to have as close to a fair symbiotic relationship as possible with a company - they need us to succeed financially, and we like their output.

I think the issue exists once the relationship feels much more like the consumer base desperately clinging to Nintendo's heels for any tiny scrap and not demanding more from the relationship. We should strive to make Nintendo work for our attention and money as much as we should offer it for products and services we like.

Being a Nintendo fan IMO largely doesn't feel like a symbiotic relationship these days. It feels like Stockholm Syndrome.

also Futurama quotes are poetry
 
karmitt said:
Also I'm pretty excited about Pokemon. I feel like I don't know much about this game. How will multiplayer work? Is it just people joining your world to catch pokemon or are there co-op battles as well? They also showed crouching; Is this a hint at throwing pokeballs to catch like Arceus, or just adding a new requirement to sneak up on some wild pokemon before battle?
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I’m also excited to see more Pokémon. I don’t consider myself a fan of the series; the only game I’ve played is Shield and I wasn’t particularly impressed by the experience. That said, many of my irl friends are very much looking forward to the new generation, and I feel like I’ll enjoy the experience a lot more if I can share it with them. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nature and the scope of the multiplayer, as that will probably determine whether or not I buy this game.
 
Hello! First post here, will probably lurk a lot but the current topic interests me enough to say my piece. It's actually something I've been thinking about for a while ever since the Partner Mini fiasco, and I've personally come to the conclusion that Nintendo is indeed ultimately responsible for the shitshow that's resulted from the lack of news - and I would go as far to include the "obsessive" behavior of fans in this.

The most important thing is that said behavior is conditioned by marketing plans to form hype culture, so you're constantly anticipating something when they're doing nothing. Eventually, however, it's become something people respond to on a psychological level. Hype culture has contributed much to fans acting toxic and making reasonable discussion extremely difficult in news droughts, instead of trying to get something else to pass the time. Imagine if Nintendo instead chose to reveal all waves of Smash characters as they were announced instead of a dripfeed. Think all the "that's it? No Smash?" posting, dodgy rumors, and speculation wars the Smash community would have been spared.

Of course this does not remove responsibility from the fanbase themselves. Toxic behavior still has awful consequences to real people and fans could simply choose to log off instead of being jackasses. This also does not mean Nintendo and the game industry writ large are innocent of aiding and abetting this behavior - they have the ability to alleviate these problems (Nintendo themselves have admitted this, given how they started amending Sakurai showcases with a note saying there will be no further reveals) and choose not to most of the time.

TL;DR - The game industry's "hype culture" problem is a lot like its graphics arm race problem - unreasonable and toxic behavior is perpetuated by gamers over comparatively trivial bullshit, but a big reason it got so bad in the first place was because corps stoked these fires, and they let the shitshows happen because the frenzy is good for their mindshare and bottom line.
 
Cyrus said:
I’m also excited to see more Pokémon. I don’t consider myself a fan of the series; the only game I’ve played is Shield and I wasn’t particularly impressed by the experience. That said, many of my irl friends are very much looking forward to the new generation, and I feel like I’ll enjoy the experience a lot more if I can share it with them. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nature and the scope of the multiplayer, as that will probably determine whether or not I buy this game.
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Sword Shield was a big let down for me, with my previous experience in the franchise being Silver. It felt incredibly cheap, not sure how else to put it. It’s like corners were cut all over. I enjoyed it enough, but that was mostly because my wife and I played at the same time and had a great shared experience with it.

My expectations for the franchise are now appropriately tempered, and what they’ve shown of Scarlet Violet has me looking forward to another holiday of Pokémon with the wife.
 
Paxie said:
Hello! First post here, will probably lurk a lot but the current topic interests me enough to say my piece. It's actually something I've been thinking about for a while ever since the Partner Mini fiasco, and I've personally come to the conclusion that Nintendo is indeed ultimately responsible for the shitshow that's resulted from the lack of news - and I would go as far to include the "obsessive" behavior of fans in this.

The most important thing is that said behavior is conditioned by marketing plans to form hype culture, so you're constantly anticipating something when they're doing nothing. Eventually, however, it's become something people respond to on a psychological level. Hype culture has made it so fans act toxic and make reasonable discussion extremely difficult in news droughts instead trying to get something else to pass the time. Imagine if Nintendo instead chose to reveal all waves of Smash characters as they were announced instead of a dripfeed. Think all the "that's it? No Smash?" posting, dodgy rumors, and speculation wars the Smash community would have been spared.

Of course this does not remove responsibility from the fanbase themselves. Toxic behavior still has awful consequences to real people and fans could simply choose to log off instead of being jackasses. This also does not mean Nintendo and the game industry writ large are innocent of aiding and abetting this behavior - they have the ability to alleviate these problems (Nintendo themselves have admitted this, given how they started amending Sakurai showcases with a note saying there will be no further reveals) and choose not to most of the time.

TL;DR - The game industry's "hype culture" problem is a lot like its graphics arm race problem - unreasonable and toxic behavior is perpetuated by gamers over comparatively trivial bullshit, but a big reason it got so bad in the first place was because corps stoked these fires, and they let the shitshows happen because the frenzy is good for their mindshare and bottom line.
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welcome to the gamer zone

In broad strokes I thoroughly agree with this. There are some delineations to be made, though. When obsessive fan behavior slips into actual harassment, I feel like that falls outside of the marketing department of a gaming company. When we look at the obsessiveness of the environment that we're in, the unpleasantness that comes from hype culture, and the obsession with leaks and announcement timing, I think that definitely has been fostered, deliberately or not, by their marketing strategy.

Again, I can't help but feel that they very much want us to stop. Like someone said early, hype is now out of their control, which I think is bad for the company. Periods like this summer in which they hold their cards close to their chest and exercise careful spacing of announcements feel like an attempt to regain some of that control.
 
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