Alright N4G, let's all take a quick step back from the front lines of confrontation, and a side step to view the big picture.
As many of you remember, at the beginning of this console generation, whether you were a Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo Fanboy, as we awaited the new consoles, and thereafter, the smack talk, blind loyalties, and gamers cannibalizing ourselves hit a fever pitch. As time went on, N4G kind of became one of the central 'battle grounds' for such things.
Now we all know that as humans, a provocative article title can be intriguing. We all know that a provocative post in a thread can be tantalizing. And we all know that just about everyone at the least has moments when they are certain beyond certain that they are correct, in spite of the fact that they are mistaken.
Take all of those circumstances, mix them together, add a new and upcoming console generation, and what do we get? The same atmosphere as before, reaching new heights of absurdity since it stands on the proverbial shoulders of the one before it.
I personally realized this a while back, but even so, lately, I continually find myself at odds with people intent on talking bad about Nintendo. This in spite of the fact that I own a PS3, and a 360, in addition to my Nintendo products. And I've 'defended' each of them here at N4G when I see the cannibalism thing going on. I just love games.
But at my core, I admit that I'm a bit of a Nintendo fanboy. I mean I have a Pokemon avatar, and wear it proudly ya know?
The Wii U is at the center of this latest controversy in large because of three major things that most everything else stems from as far as I see it:
1. Some gamers are EXTREMELY frustrated with Nintendo, and are at or near their breaking point with the company due to choices that fly in the face of what these gamers want.
2. Some gamers believe that Nintendo can do no wrong, and like their counterpart fanboys of other consoles, 'preach the gospel' every chance they get.
3. Some gamers just hate Nintendo and/or are so loyal to another company that they cannot believe that Nintendo can do any right. Nor do they want them too.
Think about it. This is the opening salvo. When Sony or MS announce their next respective consoles, the intensity will ratchet up - and that intensity is already too high. Don't you think?
When people view gaming in a poor light, it is in general because lack of respect for the medium, and a negative attitude about gamers. Because of the extent to which the above shenanigans go on, even developers and publishers are irritated with N4G type gamers.
I consider myself a gamer because I not only own hundreds of games, and most consoles ever created, I play all kinds of games. I don't even watch T.V. much at all anymore. If my T.V. is on, it's to play games. And there are so many of us like that, who see gaming as a legitimate primary source of electronic entertainment. Unlike most people, we see no difference between watching 3 hours of t.v. or movies, and 3 hours of gaming.
We love talking about our favorite games and consoles, why we're excited about an upcoming game, what happened when we were on such and such part of such and such game, etc.
And yet for some reason, our love of talking bad about games and consoles that aren't our favorites, talking bad about people who are excited about games that we are not excited about, and being dismissive and inflammatory toward others who want to talk about the things that they like sometimes trumps our love.
Do we really want another, even bigger console generation of b.s. 'wars', and 'alliances', making other gamers miserable, and attempting to 'sink' games that we personally don't want? Again, I go back to the cannibalism analogy. Just because my foot isn't a hand, doesn't mean that my foot isn't important. It doesn't mean that I don't need it. It doesn't mean that whatever happens to my foot will not in some way affect my hand.
There will always be SOME element of the negative things I spoke of here at N4G. There will always be times when even if we try not to involve ourselves in such things, we'll slip up. But we have a chance here near the beginning of this next generation to nip a lot of this in the bud, and be civil.
I know, I know. The next generation doesn't start until (insert favorite company here) releases their new console... ;P
Sand Land's fantastic vehicular combat and adherence to the source material are let down by bland and repetitive stealth, melee combat, and mission design.
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Yeah, I took a look at your comment history and there's a recurring theme. I'll leave it at that but don't think you're foolin' anyone.
OT: Zealots on all sides make things tiresome but let's be honest here. A large part of the current mess surrounding the Wii U is of Nintendos' making. They could end a massive amount of speculation, BS and smear by simply providing the specs to the public.
Unless of course there's a reason they don't want the specs known. In which case what right do they have do demand trust from anyone? Let's face it. After they used the same strategy for marketing the Wii do you really blame "core" gamers for being cynical?
Now I don't have exact WiiU specs and don't believe everything on the interwebz but one thing's for sure. The WiiU will be striped down and its' specs posted within seventy-two hours of release.
I'm waiting till I see specs and test an actual unit for myself before I decide. I bought a Wii at launch and regretted it. I think I've earned the right to take a wait and see approach. Don't you?
Those who say one company can do no wrong are the worse kind of fanboys. In my attempts to spread awareness of big issues like region locking, I've been attacked by several of these Nintendo fanboys who try to downplay this issue, even had one person say that a feature that the other systems had for years would magically eliminate this issue for the WiiU. The funny thing is that when I, and all the real gamers who ask for quality polices from game companies win this fight, those who try to downplay or even deny the issue will benefit like the rest of us, and yet they will never thank the people who made things like region free gaming on a Nintendo home console a reality.
Not to say they don't exist for other two systems either, My point is that it these kind of gamers that except stagnation over progression, never asking companies meet our expectations, and giving them no reason to exceed them.
Break the locks.
Think about something else, too: this is the internet.
You see, the internet, in of itself, has conceived something else equally as frightening and very annoying: the trolls. It's one thing when you have one or two people that you can easily ignore, and the rest act like adults.
Thing is, though, you have some sites in which everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, says something just to see who they can catch in the web of endless trolling, and tries to push the envelope, seeing what they can get away with. And it's VERY hard to ignore a large group of people who do this on one site (seriously, how many people on one site can you put on an ignore list before you see that you're ignoring pretty much the entire site?). It gets to a point where we beg for authority on said sites to have better control over who posts and of the rules of the site.
Sad thing is, there are trolls who KNOW what they are doing, and they know how to get you to respond to them. We try so damn hard to ignore them, but there are trolls who know that by posing as someone who is legit about the views they post, but adds that one one-liner that gets someone to say something to them. That's all it takes. Or they insert that one personal attack.
I've seen it happen on this site, and for very malicious reasons. I've seen a few people make personal attacks that were JUST within the rules of the site (so bad that you HAVE to respond), and then someone responds with no other alternative than to cross the line. Why? To see the latter get banned from the site because the former cannot find any real way to counter the person opinions. The best way is to get them to do something that makes them unable to post said opinions.
This is all while they insist you either let them get away with whatever the hell they want, or you're infringing on their rights, with no in between.
All of this is because of anonymity. They know that no one will really know WHO they are in real life, so that apparently gives them the pass to do WHAT they want, WHEN they want, HOW they want, and to WHO they want. How are you going to stop them?
IP banning? There are ways to circumvent that.
Account banning? How many accounts have they made? You're also underestimating how DEDICATED some of these people are (how many trolls have we had here? How many different dupe accounts have each of them had? For how long now have we tried to get rid of them?).
Real names? You get into privacy issues, and risk that debate flaring up in a heartbeat.
Then you add how derogatory the fanboy term has become and the many reasons WHY, and you have a recipe for complete disaster.