is cuter than you
In the middle of all of this, this must be said - why do people bitch about the games Nintendo makes? They have ALWAYS made those kinds of games. Why are people surprised that the GameCube still has classic Nintendo-style games? If you don't like those kinds of games, why would you buy a GC in the first place? If you don't have one, why do you care what kinds of games it has?
WARNING: This post may contain violent and disturbing images.
Outworld Neck Hair
Because they grew up. The stuff they grew up with is so closely connected to the things they're currently into that it makes them nervous, insecure. It's like getting pissed off at Jim Henson for not updating the muppets for the older crowd. Sorta.Originally Posted by shidoshi
Quite.
(o ) ( o) <=============
Yeah but it's like comic books. You have your violent ones appealing to each niche. And you have your mainstream well known stuff. Punisher is a violent comic book with darker themes. Spidey is more all-ages and can appeal to any person. They both have some maturity about them, but most people who buy stuff for themselves are neutral in thier purchases (ie they love choices) while parents' purchases are selective.
Nintendo, having chosen to favour 1 over the other, means people will go elsewhere for alternatives and that usually means lost userbase with older, more content-neutral gamers. (yes I'm aware of the third party mature-themed stuff, what I'm saying is people are justified in attacking the overabundance of the cutesy mascot syndrome from many first party games)
And yes there are comic book collectors who are adults (and toy collectors) even though society looks at you funny for being an adult who reads comics
Movies? Starwars old trilogy seems to be held in higher esteem from the new movies, (by older adult fans mainly - I personally don't think there's much differece) because people perceive the new ones as being more "kiddy". (I think it has to do with the simple stereotypical disney-like cg characters and annoying Jar Jar slapstick humour)
Now compare that to nintendo of today...Nintendo of today to some people is like the new Star Wars movies. Adults (aging fans) hate the fact that the main character was a little kid who accidently saved the day (first ep) or that a disney-like goofy character had to be introduced to make the movie humourous to younger people. Similiarly adult fans have sort of had thier fill of *only* cutesy mascots taking centre stage even if that's been nintendo's style all along.
It's selfish, I know but you see the point. People have thier own perceptions as to what seems "mature" and what is seen as "kiddy".
But my point was that if a majority of people *think* it's kiddy, then it must be. (regardless of official ratings and stuff) It will affect thier attitudes towards the company in future, and yes the label "too kiddy" is justified because thier own perception determines thier future buying purchases. In this flooded videogame market, it's nature for gamers to want to seperate themselves into a new niche. (like how you got rpg-only gamers, FPS-only gamers, RTS-only gamers etc..) You could say that there are 2 generations of nintendo fans.
Another good example is say, in a saturday morning cartoon. If you compare, say transformers to robotech (harmony gold's mixture of stolen anime
Technically 1 is aimed at children, the other is aimed at teens with children able to appreciate it.
What poeple generally do is categorise things as "kiddy" or "adult-themed" not merely by official ratings (the original macross tv series is M without censorship anyway) but by thier own standards. It's thier *own* perception of maturity that they invented for themselves and it's very sublte. Compare old ninja turtles cartoons to new ninja turtles cartoons. imo The new one looks far more like a comic book with more dark colours, shading and a movie-like cinematic appearance in general. (this is a nice parrallell to the what the old N64 zelda is like, even though that game is not an 'adult game') While the other 80s ninja turtles is in a more typical lighthearted style that we've all come to expect from the morning cartoons in the past.
It's not easy to explain in a short post. When technology got better, people expected to see in-game characters portrayed in more realistic settings. 8-bit and 16-bit era games didn't need to do this as "realism" wasn't a possibility and gaming was a niche. The market has expanded and more niches were created as gamers split themselves to identify with different tastes. Demand for fleshed out characters in realistic settings got bigger and now you can sense third parties are capitalising on this. (this is one of the reasons why there is so much pressure to make games more like movies)
As I said before, gameplay has nothing to do with it. Mature games and kiddy games can BOTH have the same gameplay ingredients, but adult gamers' buying habits is the thing in question. I continue to believe the image ALSO plays a part in how well something is received as Celda demonstrates. Naturally people distinguish themselves by seperating into smaller and smaller niche groups and what's happened is the next generation (the 'sony generation' gamers onwards
As a result, Nintendo stick out like a sore thumb as the 'kiddy company' (not by ME, but by mainstream standards) because the younger sony generation never gravitated to nintendo based on "image" (very important) or the range of thier first party games to begin with, unlike the older gen gamers who grew up with it. (first party titles traditionally nurture well-known mascots from the past and sequels to those.) I believe nintendo are conscious of this and use it to appeal to parents as a toy company instead of say, a company who sells home entertainment equipment to any age group and remains neutral enough such that they don't alienate a specific group. It's quite possible for a company to make all-ages stuff that can be apreciated by anyone, but *subliminally* target a specific group. I enjoy all types of games, but subliminally I know cutesy themes are used to appeal to kids, just as much as violence in a cartoon can attract adults, but is done in a way that is immature and harmless enough for little kids to see)
can't wake up
GameHed, what the hell? No one's gonna read that. Yet you did it not once but twice. You've got to be kidding.
And I can positively say most of you are stupid, because you immediately went for the perceived jugular and accused RedCoKid of discriminating against Nintendo or some shit. All he provided was a definition of a word commonly associated with Nintendo. You lose.
Are you gonna watch Little Mermaid all day merely because its good? Sorry but the theme of the product plays a large part in what you enjoy. If you like playing games with doe-eyed anime fags and what not more power to you, but a lot of people don't and lumping them all together as "jackasses driven by what they're told is cool" is like lumping everyone who likes Pearl Jam or The Strokes into that category. It's ridiculous, insulting, and shows a severe lack of thinking on your part.Diff, sorry for picking on you] just seem like jackasses driven by what they're told is cool .
Load"*",8,1
The original trilogy catered to both adults and children. The storyline had some meat to it and had fans captivated on what was going to happen next. The prequels however, have not really been as story driven and when the storyline did progress, it was rather weak in substance. When people first saw Darth Vader, in "A New Hope". They saw an evil character, who even broke a guys neck, to enforce the idea that he was'nt messing around. It was considered by many, to be more of a space opera. The prequels however, are considered more of a ride in a videogame, than having any real substance to them.
Electronic cigarette.
It comes from the lack of multiple layers. BriscoBold brought up the Muppets, which serves as a great example of comedy which for all intents and purposes seems aimed at children but many references and jokes are there for the older crowd. The "kiddiness" of the recent Star Wars movies is because all the well-written humor was removed and we were left with nothing but slapstick.
And so it is as well with videogames, where while the graphical stylings may seem similar there's a distinct difference between the gameplay appeal of Wind Waker and Kirby's Air Ride. The former can appeal to anyone while the latter obviously aims solely for the young ones.
[edit] Beaten by Gamevet! Damn you!
I read them.
They were better than everything you have ever posted combined.
Too Cool for Top 10 Lists
Fantastic points, GameHED. I'd like to think that we'll see gaming go through the same natural evolution that feature films did, and that some TV shows continue to do. In some cases, like with Beyond Good and Evil, there's a family-friendly gameplay style woven in well with a well-written, fairly-deep plot, which is certainly a step in the right direction towards gaming evolving as a medium to be taken seriously by the masses.
matthewgood fan
lupin III fan
More than a sex machine
The difference between The Little Mermaid and a game like Wind Waker is that TLM is ALL theme and aesthetics. Wind Waker has the added dimension of interactivity that's seperate from the theme and aethetics, so people who dislike the theme still have a reason to play, because they might enjoy the actual gameplay. Since that added dimension isn't there in TLM, there's no reason for people who dislike "kiddy" themes to watch it.
Sausage
Is Crash bandicoot kiddy? Is Sly Cooper Kiddy?
Nintendo games are much more likely to get stamped the kiddy label despite having almost the same asthetics, gameplay and storytelling.
As for the little mermaid thing, I agree in someways. Asthetics play a large part in what we like and don't like, same for the story and gameplay. Different people put different focus on different parts. But then again refusing to play puzzle games because you think they are too kiddy looking like Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo or Lolo is just plain wrong IMO.
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