More Thoughts From Me #13: Where Are the Real Nintendo Fans?

Every time Nintendo does a new Nintendo Direct, has an E3 event, or announces something new, the whiners come out to play. The loudest voice in the Nintendo community for the past several years (perhaps longer) has been the whiners. These are the people that seem to hate almost everything Nintendo does! Where have all the real Nintendo fans gone? Why don’t these people speak up?

Nintendo is not perfect. They make mistakes and they could do better on some things. I’m not a blind Nintendo fanboy. I know that Nintendo could do better with some things. That said, I feel like I’m one of the few people who actually thinks that Nintendo does more things right than they do wrong. I love Nintendo and their games. I love that they create games for everybody, not just teens and adults like Sony and Microsoft. I also love that Nintendo takes chances and tries to innovate with new ways to play games. As I said, they are not perfect, but I do think they are actually trying to be different and unique in an industry that has (mostly) become lazy. And yet, the loud voices on twitter and other social media would have you believe that Nintendo is an awful company.

You’ll find the loud voices on twitter a lot; they scream and whine and pitch a fit every time Nintendo shows off something new. “This is not what I want” they keep saying. And yet they keep buying Nintendo games. They keep talking about Nintendo games. They don’t seem to realize that talking won’t change anything. To make real change in a company, you have to stop spending money at said company. Its money that talks and not whining or making petitions to stop a game. If enough people don’t talk about a certain game and don’t buy that game, then Nintendo (or any other company) will get the message and not make that type of game. People don’t get that though. They feel like they have to have their say. But if they have their say, then they are giving the game that they don’t like free advertisement!

When you talk about a game on social media, you are giving free advertisement for the game. It doesn’t matter if you’re saying something bad about the game. People will read what you have to say, especially if you hashtag what you say, and, here’s the scary thing, not everyone has the same opinion that you do. So if someone reads something you say and they don’t know what that game is or they don’t know much about it, they might look into that game and decide that its the type of game they like. The truth is that the whiners are not the only ones on social media. Yes, they are the loudest, popular group on social media. Yes, some of them are involved with Nintendo fan sites. These are not the only Nintendo fans though. In fact, I’m not even sure they really are fans of Nintendo. They like to pretend they are fans, but the next moment they are talking about Sony or Microsoft and always saying positive things about them. I’m not saying you can’t be fans of both, but why are they constantly knocking Nintendo while acting like Sony or Microsoft can do no wrong? I don’t get why there is so much negatively toward Nintendo. It makes me wonder where the real Nintendo fans are.

The real Nintendo fans, for the most part, seem to be in hiding. I think these people are just happy and don’t feel like they need to say anything or perhaps they are too afraid to voice their positive opinion among a sea of negative voices. I know almost every time I voice a positive opinion about a Direct, an E3 event, or a bit of Nintendo news, someone feels like they have to say: ” What?! No way! That was horrible”. Or “What?! You liked that game?! ” It gets really annoying. So I can see why some people might decide not to comment on things they like by Nintendo.

I’m not saying people can’t have negative opinions of Nintendo. I’m not saying you don’t have a right to voice those opinions. You do have that right. But please, next time you feel the need to say something to me or someone else about how bad Nintendo did, ask yourself a couple of important questions. First of all: did this person ask me to comment on their opinion? Also, am I giving this game too much attention? I’ve always thought that if you don’t really care about a game, why are you wasting so much breath talking about why you don’t care about it? Obviously, you do care about that thing you hate, otherwise you wouldn’t talk about it. You can talk about it if you want, but remember: its free advertisement for the game. My advise is to focus on something you like instead. You’ll be much happier.

And now, I’d like to make a call to arms: Next time there’s a Direct or an E3 event or a piece of Nintendo news that you love, speak up! Let people know that you liked it! Ignore the idiots that come out of the woodwork to tell you they didn’t like it. Don’t be afraid to let Nintendo and other fans know what you like. It would be nice to see video game fans, especially Nintendo fans, be more positive and focus on what they like and ignore what they don’t like…

Here’s hoping that the real Nintendo fans show up soon. I’m getting so tired of the negative “fans” that surround me….

What do you think? Are Nintendo fans too negative? Bonus question: out of the last Nintendo Direct, what announcement did you like the best? Don’t tell me what you didn’t like! Tell me what you liked. Come on people. I know you’re out there.

Next week, I talk about video game rumors, especially Nintendo rumors, and how they are hurting video game journalism.

As always the above article is my opinion and does not represent the opinion of anyone else at Games Reviews.