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Opinion on those that say Nintendo is too "childish"

Weiland

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What is your opinion on gamers and non-gamers alike that say that Nintendo is for children and if you play Nintendo, you can't be a gamer because you're too "casual" and "childish"?
I hate it. Sometimes I get teased for mostly playing Nintendo (I'll still play Sony consoles, though, just not as often). Like, I will play "manly" games like GTA and shooters at times but I prefer the charm and fun of Nintendo.
Back on topic. I hate people like that. Like, what's so manly about pressing buttons on a controller or keys on a keyboard? Like ............ wot.
 
I tell them the harsh truth. Video games are made by adults.
 
gamer culture is honestly the dumbest thing on earth and I would never want to be associated with it, the 'real gamers' can keep it I'll be over here having fun thanks loool
 
it's stupid lol. nintendo games are child friendly and a lot of kids play their games but, like, the games aren't made exclusively for kids.

the gaming community is annoying w/ its elitism and gatekeeping lol anyone who plays games could call themselves a gamer. my grandma plays candy crush so she could call herself a gamer but it'd probably make 50 Real Gamers die from horror and anger if she did.
 
pfft how is nintendo childish?
cuz you can't murder everyone you see
 
Alot of games are aimed at adults who grew up with the series. For example, check out this pokemon advert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkaPpwOhr8Y

They've advertised it to working adults because they realise the ones who played the original pokemon games when they came out would now be adults.
 
I wouldn't say their game are that childish, more like the way they act about some stuff regarding western releases (like censoring totally unnecessary stuff in game like Fire Emblem etc.. those are not made for small kids so why even bother, just give them a higher age rate instead).

And their super monitoring with recent Pok?mon games. I guess it's one thing to hack to get the files before each other (although leaking and hacking like that will probably always be around) put to punish people when they get disconnected on the GTS? Yeah a lot of things are hack and people try to clone, but come on, punish us for not knowing..? Also Nintendo servers are real crappy here so yeah sometimes you get that :(
 
pfft how is nintendo childish?
cuz you can't murder everyone you see

Hi, thanks for asking. Nintendo is seen as childish because most of their main series games have low age ratings and are marketed to younger audiences (I'm thinking Mario and Pokemon (and obviously Animal Crossing) since those are the ones I play) with a lack of gratutitous violence (those poor Goombas) or sexual content (how did those Pokemon lay an egg? I guess we'll never know). Of course this doesn't mean only children can play them, adults do enjoy them too and Pokemon for example has the much more nuanced competitive battling scene which adults participate in.
 
I remember a pretty funny thing that happened when I was little. We were a few kids talking about games in school and I said I had a N64. "But that's for kids" one of them replied. Oh, the irony. We WERE kids back then.
I still laugh when I think about it.

If anything, I'd say gamer culture and fanboyism is childish.
 
My opinion is that gaming culture is really dumb because many want to make it a competition or a "cool status" and want to reject Nintendo because it doesn't fall in line with the image people want to present. Video games were always created just for amusement, and apparently amusement isn't as "real" when it's more lighthearted.

I can see where seeing it as childish comes in considering that its bigger franchises at least started by marketing it for kids such as Pokemon, Mario, Animal Crossing, etc., and they've pretty well kept them family friendly. That said, it isn't as if those games are childish in that they have no thought, story, intrigue, fun mechanics, and all that good stuff that makes games fun. In my honest opinion, the best children's media is that which respects the intelligence of its audience. Kids LIKE that kind of stuff. PMD Explorers of Sky is still one of my favorites to this day because as a little 9 year old I was engrossed by this story of adventure and time travel and backstabbing with all its interesting and quirky characters. I would also argue that Nintendo is one of the most unique companies out there in terms of coming up with new mechanics or building interesting worlds (and that's not even getting into where Nintendo has been flat out revolutionary).

Another aspect people also seem to ignore are the series that were always designed for a more mature audience. Fire Emblem is the first to spring to mind, and it's always been a much more mentally demanding game that played with much darker themes. I can't imagine it would really be playable for an elementary school kid with its difficulty level (especially the older titles), and that's before discussing the reasons why you probably shouldn't let your child play it anyways.

Nintendo's titles have been maturing too. Like somebody mentioned here already, Pokemon has shifted its marketing to be inclusive of pretty much all ages with mechanics to accommodate for that spectrum. Animal Crossing has adapted to its older communities such as this one, The Legend of Zelda has built up in both maturity and lore, and Smash Bros pretty well follows the demands and interests of its community as a whole (otherwise I don't think we would have gotten Roy back as DLC, ya know?).

This started as just a quick comment and turned into a small dissertation I am so sorry

TLDR: the idea of a franchise being "childish" just plain ignores the fact that games are designed to be fun, can appeal to a wide range of ages, can still be interesting even if they're presentable to kids, and much more. The statement also disregards its more mature franchises, games with higher difficulty, interesting worlds and stories, and how Nintendo has become more in-tune with the full spread of its fanbase. people calling it childish are probably just gamer bros that forgot that games are supposed to be fun and aren't a social status :)
 
I hate seeing children play COD or GTA. I bet if the kids that play them tell this to kids "If you don't play those games, you won't be cool". Cool as in ugly cool that is.

Just because it says E for everyone or E10+, it doesn't mean its for 5-10 year olds. And I hate people who say that. I'm 19, and I refuse to play M rated games, corrupting your mind by playing some m rated games is one good example. I may play these Nintendo games for competitive or nostalgic reasons.

It breaks my heart seeing kids play m rated games, and makes them think they're "cool". Its not, it makes them have a harder life in the future and maybe get arrested easily.

And like Remnantique's post. The Switch reveal falls into the same category. It shows that adults can play Nintendo and clearly proves the definition of "E for everyone!"
Though, to some, it may look like the tables have turned, as adults play E for everyone and kids play M for mature. Can we please go back to how its supposed to be? I mean, its the parent's fault on what kids are playing and calling Nintendo games childish and uncool.

(Terribly sorry if this doesn't answer the question, i'm not good at these things you know.)
 
Nintendo is not altogether childish. As with most things in life, a lot of people will see one aspect of a product or issue and base their opinion on that. People who lob insults at Nintendo for being too kid-oriented are not inclined to look for examples which disprove their preconceived notions.

For a long while, Nintendo didn't have the most high end, impressive graphics, lacked popular AAA titles available on other consoles, and even now has questionable decisionmaking regarding online play. These issues alone are and were enough to drive certain people away from wanting to bother purchasing Nintendo consoles, which can of course lead to not closely looking at new games being released by the company. When you combine these things with issues like Nintendo's corporate philosophy regarding innovation ("gimmicks" like the Wii's motion detection, the Switch's control scheme, etc.) and the family friendly face of the company under the flagship of Mario? Yeah, it makes sense why people feel the way they do about the company, especially if you have that mindset and see something like Yoshi's Woolly World.

But as noxephi mentioned, there are exceptions if you care to look for them, including Fire Emblem. This is a series where, for example,
a cult dedicated to a dark god manipulates a brother and sister who were separated at birth (and, as such, did not know they were related) into an incestuous marriage so that they can produce a child that can serve as a suitable host for said dark god so he can rule the world. Heck, the cult even engages in Child Hunts where children of a certain age are captured to either be sacrificed, or forced to fight each other.
This is a series where
a man who lost his wife betrays his friends and countrymen in exchange for his wife being returned to life, but he ends up going insane because she is returned to life as basically a zombie that can only repeat a single word over and over
This is a series that tackles the issue of racism. All of these things are related to game plots, but there are also the issues of turn-based tactical games being difficult for some people to get a grasp of (especially at a younger age), vocabulary used in dialogue that might have you reaching for a dictionary on occasion, and the blatant fanservice that was present in Awakening and Fates.

The Fire Emblem franchise is hardly the only example of mature themes, and I'm sure others can speak more to other examples that they're familiar with as well. A number of things in Mother 3 are a bit culturally taboo and I expect that has played a large part in why the game has not yet been released overseas.

Keeping up the family friendly nature isn't a bad thing. It widens your potential consumer base by not limiting it to only certain demographics. Someone who cares to look will probably find something to enjoy from Nintendo's selection.

A long series of decisions has led us to where we are today in regards to this perception issue Nintendo faces. It is unfortunate, and you can really only battle it with information and exposure. At the end of the day though, what someone else thinks of your hobbies or interests should have no bearing on your enjoyment of these things.
 
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Talking about FE, did they do the random censors just to be family friendly then? It's not even a kid/family game from the beginning, it's supposed to be a bit mature (I know other companies do that but then the games are pretty much r-18 from the start like Criminal Girls etc.)

Idk how censored that Senran Kagura game was and it's adult but yeah come again nintendo just adding a bar on Tharja bc showing panties or what the heck it was.. siiigh.
 
I tell them the harsh truth. Video games are made by adults.

I couldn't sum it up any better!

Like, I will play "manly" games like GTA and shooters

//

Like, what's so manly about pressing buttons on a controller or keys on a keyboard?

I also hate the way you gender stereotyped GTA and shooters as a manly games - what does this have to do with being childish ??
From that I get the impression that you think girls are childish and you believe all men are supposed to be macho. Reality check - no.

I hate it. Sometimes I get teased for mostly playing Nintendo

Seriously, you didn't ask for their opinion and therefore don't accept it, don't listen to it. You do you. Forget what anyone else thinks about your hobby and just get on with it, don't get so het up on what others think. They clearly have some insecurities within themselves to want to bash on your game choice.

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Talking about FE, did they do the random censors just to be family friendly then? It's not even a kid/family game from the beginning, it's supposed to be a bit mature (I know other companies do that but then the games are pretty much r-18 from the start like Criminal Girls etc.)

Idk how censored that Senran Kagura game was and it's adult but yeah come again nintendo just adding a bar on Tharja bc showing panties or what the heck it was.. siiigh.

It is likely best to take any further discussion about this either into another thread or private or visitor messages so as not to derail this thread further, but I'll respond.

Changes occuring during localization isn't something that was just suddenly an issue like everyone made it out to be in when it came to Tharja's swimsuit in Awakening and whatever alterations occurred to Fates (I heard the story was atrociously bad when it came out so I have still never bothered to purchase any version of Fates.) It has been going on since the series made its way outside of Japan.

Examples:

Fire Emblem (Blazing Blade or Fire Emblem 7, the first game to release outside of Japan) cut content related to Fire Emblem 6 because, obviously, 6 didn't leave Japan. Pretty simple and understandable, not a big deal.

A mostly insignificant character in Radiant Dawn was apparently a pretty egregious example of the camp gay trope in the original Japanese version. In the localized version he is just, as previously mentioned, mostly insignificant. He serves his role in the story. Most likely if they hadn't changed that, it would feel meanspirited and out of place by American standards and just draw negative attention. Some things just do not work well outside of the culture it originates in.

Radiant Dawn originally had a more expansive plot that was tied to the higher difficulties in the Japanese version, but in localization only the basic script was kept. I personally disagree with this decision and am disappointed, and would really love to know what the cut content entailed.

In Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem, the Warp Staff, an item that lets the user teleport an ally to another space on the map, features a six-pointed star resembling the Star of David. The star was changed to a five pointed star because Nintendo, and a lot of older games, tend to remove references to real-world religions so as not to offend any followers of any religions.

The Japanese version of Awakening has the option to make Robin/the Avatar mute (like a Pokemon protagonist or Link) and had slight alterations to the script to acknowledge that fact.


As an aspiring author, I can understand on some level why there was so much outrage regarding censorship. I certainly wouldn't want the main point of my work to be altered into something I can't stand by. That said, outside of something ridiculous like cutting 5% of a game's story like they did with Radiant Dawn, I sympathize a bit more with Nintendo's decisions. Not everything in the original work is going to make sense or go over well outside of the original culture and context that a work emerges from. Smoothing out the edges and presenting things well is the entire point of localization. Otherwise they'd strictly translate things, consequences and sense be damned. Not to mention any changes have Intelligent System's blessings.

As far as Tharja's bikini is concerned, do I like that they covered her up? I honestly don't care, but they knew that regardless of the Teen rating some kids are probably going to get their hands on the game regardless. I don't really see a point in them doing it considering her regular attire and how much any parents that would cause an uproar probably wouldn't like that, but hey, I'm not making Nintendo's financial decisions.

Did Treehouse make some stupid decisions with Fates? Probably, I can't speak with authority because, again, I didn't buy the games and just read plot summaries. That said, when even fans who enjoy the Fates games say the games have terrible storytelling, I feel like it's safe to say that a lot of Fates involved stupd decisions.

I can agree on principle that being against needless censorship has merit. That said, I lean more on the side of cutting Treehouse some slack in trying to make the games as palatable as possible while retaining as much of the original intent as they can.
 
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No, but a lot of games that could very well get a 16/17 age rating and stay with that needs to be censored so so they can even "sell" it when I doubt like 9-10 yo people would enjoy it fully anyway with all the reading and story. I'd rather try and learn Japanese and buy it uncensored than supporting. As I said most of the SK games seem to be able to be released somewhat, idk how much they actually did there because those games show everything still as much as they can do it, so.

Well, that "story doesn't make sense" thing I can't really agree with. I mean those game are Japanese culture and if you're gonna cut that or add in your own "joke" or explanation doesn't even make sense.. at all. I mean you could just add an explanation while keeping it for some flow to the story.

Oh well I'm not gonna go further because it will only be throwing the ball back and forth probably, but yeah their censor/cutting stuff is verrry childish sometimes "just cause we need to sell these games to 5yo just got their first console". I mean you don't have to be that family friendly smh.

On the other hand back in the DS days they released that Quit Smoking game so.. eh lol
 
i think its the whole toxic gamer culture thing, that things have to be 'hard' and 'manly'. but whats the point in playing a game if you're not enjoying it? i think people consider nintendo childish because of how the games have low age ratings, but the thing is, this just means its enjoyable by more people. just because something is rated 7 doesnt mean that people older than 7 can enjoy it. nintendo was my childhood - i have memories of playing games with my friends and family since i was...3? i personally find the gritty games really boring, because theres nothing eye catching or fun about it. which sounds more appealing: shooting zombies in a dark surroundings in dark clothes, or spraying yourfriends in brightly coloured paint ? i think if you cant accept differnt types of games as enjoyable, youre not a true gamer.
 
I think Nintendo's games are considered "childish" is because those that aren't "childish" have a T rating or M rating, which are not child-friendly. So it's not the child-friendly games that are oriented for children, it's the child-unfriendly games that are oriented for adults.

However, the most childish game in my experience is Naughty Bear, which I think has a T or M rating.
 
Well, I haven't encountered someone to say that or nor do I care. Specifically though haven't heard someone to say it's childish.

While I was in art school for game design, all types had their choice of games and there wasn't one who bashed Nintendo. Heck, when the Switch was released, most *****ed and bought it.

One of my teachers is waiting for me to get it and Mario Kart 8 so we can have a showdown. The guy is a 40 something dad.
 
I think people who say Nintendo is childish are the same kind of people who think puzzle games aren't 'real games'. Anyone I've met with that opinion (and they definitely exist) tend to think only FPS or JRPGs are actual games, and that people who don't play their flavor of the month PC shooter are fake gamers or just casual. I don't really fight much about it because I don't care either way, but it is a bit annoying.
 
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