Regarding brainwashed Nintendo fans, every fanbase has the die-hards that never EVER see any wrong in the object of their fandom. With Nintendo these are the fans that defend absolutely everything, love every product, and recite whatever the company line is at the present moment. These are the fans whose opinion flip-flops if Nintendo's attitude towards something changes. If you're a rational person and your opinion is along the same line as these people (you just arrived at that opinion in a different way) then they're fine. But if you don't agree with them they're insufferable.
I think the real problem isn't that said fanboys could exist, Ian. It's that they are used as strawmen for any kind of dissent with IGN's opinion. And furthermore I rarely hear about IGN's PS3 department melting down when Sony does something stupid (like Home or PSPGo) and they call out a bunch of fanboys on their podcasts. It seems like these extreme Nintendo fanboys are the only ones that exist sometimes. And this is deliberately intentional, because they are in the severe minority both marketwise and even internet wise, which is why this podcast of theirs backfired and got everybody talking... about how much they suck and how predictable it is. Any publicity =\= Good publicity.
While IGN casting all Nintendo fans as being this kind of irrational fanatic is unfair I can see why one would make this assumption. Right now Nintendo is at it's most controversial. Yes they're making lots of money but there has never been such polarizing views regarding them. Even in Nintendo's own fanbase there are split opinions.
LOL "Controversial?" They just got off making a 2D Mario Platformer on the Console, Ian. You find that "controversial?" Didn't you want that? Making money is "controversial?" So the criticism here is "some people disagree with them?" The only thing really "controversial" I see is that Nintendo was a huge success when all the press and third parties bet against them.
Here are hard facts
Oh boy a list.
- Nintendo decided to target a more casual market this generation than they had in the past.
Ugh you bone it on the first one. This isn't a "fact," this is an opinion. And much like when they said Nintendo was targeting "casuals and Girls" with the DS, it's not even that true as an opinion.
- The Wii hardware is significantly inferior to the other consoles. Nintendo has publicly admitted they did this on purpose and that part of this was to make a profit off of the hardware sold.
Yes they do want to make a profit. Such things are not unheard of in videogames (maybe this generation it is.) So the problem is... Nintendo designs their product to bring in a little profit? They even do this with the DS, Ian! They even did it with the superior GC, and they were railed for not having online in every game (Yet Sony got away with no centralized online AND inferior graphics last time).
- Nintendo has ported several Gamecube games to the Wii with motion controls. These games were released during a time that no new Wii product was being released from Nintendo.
This is true, but of course they were released during a time no new Wii product was being "released." They aren't tech wizards able to fabricate games in days.
- The majority of third party games announced for the PS3 and Xbox 360 are never released for the Wii.
Whose fault is this? Is it even possible it could be their fault and not Nintendo's? Don't blame the victim. It isn't classy.
- After stating publicly that they hoped the Wii remote would be the "new controller standard" Nintendo released an add-on to their controller that improves it's functionality.
Aww that is
weak, Ian. Come ON. There are always going to be controller improvements, You could say this about ANYTHING. "Sony SAYS that they were setting a 'new standard of graphics' with the PS2. But those fiends UPGRADED the graphics on the PS3. Where to now, Sony? Hmm? Off to hypocrite-ville on the the Greek island of Hypocrete?! And Microsoft... I thought Xbox Live was supposed to be the 'robust, perfect online experience.' What's with adding achievement point to everything? Fiends! Fiends I say!"
All of that stuff is true. All of those could be used to support rational and logical criticism of the Wii and/or Nintendo themselves. And yet it's pretty common to have people try to defend every single one of them.
Yeah Ian, it's called
debate. Nobody has to just swallow IGN's or your vision of things, nor must everybody internalize the standards of either. If anything, I've found even having reasons to merely impartially "explain" from a financial or strategic standpoint any of those would place me with the fanboys, somehow. And somehow making profit is one of those "hard facts" that "fanboys must accept." That's lunacy. Of course they're making money. They have several successful products and games.
Dur.I think the problem is Nintendo has put themselves in such a situation where there is too much criticism
It takes two to tango Ian. Nintendo's been heavily criticized since the N64 for God's sake. Do a controlled experiment. You claim that Nintendo has heavily changed. Let's accept that they have. Did the Criticize the DS? Yes. Did IGN criticize the GC? Yes. Did they criticize the N64? Yes, very much so. So if Nintendo actually HAS changed, then IGN will heavily criticize Nintendo no matter what, because that's the only constant.
It's almost like Nintendo's not the problem, isn't it? And this again, forces one to accept that simply the act of criticizing is based on valid assumptions. If it didn't seem like IGN and most of the press in general had an ax to grind, you might have a point, but some of their criticisms are just as unfounded if not more so than any fanboy ramblings (and they get PAID, too.)
So when you criticize Nintendo now you get more doublethink "Nintendo is always right" crap.
Once again, your criticism is not guaranteed to be swallowed. It will have to stand up to scrutiny and a "sniff test," so to speak. And you even said it yourself, IGN's mostly to blame because they were criticizing Nintendo left and right forever, for all sorts of stupid ****. Even if they did have valid criticisms, they've ruined their own editorial reputations with "Kart skins" and doom and gloom soothsaying that nobody will take THEM seriously. Even when they say something indefensible like "you're all brainwashed."
So the only people left to agree with them are the deranged IGN fanboys because normal people don't like the insinuation that they are brainwashed. And it makes it hard to debate them because they'll be screaming that "IGN is right" or his concern-trolling cousin "they have a point" and nobody actually wants to see if IGN actually was correct in calling their dissenters "brainwashed."
The less reasons you give people to criticize you the easier it is to defend you so you attract more rational people to your side. The crazies also don't expose themselves as such as much because they too can defend you in a rational way without having to resort to huge leaps of logic to support their view.
The problem is you haven't set why anybody should accept your terms and facts (including the LOL "controller standard one") as a given. And since nobody will debate any of these without resorting to "fanboy" (the video game forum equivalent of Godwin's law), anybody with a logical opinion in defense or merely an explanatory role will get shouted down for "supporting the controversial Nintendo."
Remember, they tried the SAME THING with the DS. They tried to bury it under "minigame" "casual" "for girls" "no third parties" and labeled anybody who had one or liked its games a "Nintendo fanboy" and look where that got them.