Topic: Club Nintendo of America Officially Launches

[GoldenPhoenix]

Yes I'm entitled to free stuff. Seriously it is more like the decent thing to do is if they are going to have a reward program give those that have supported you for the longest some kind of bonus, or at the very least if they bought the SAME EXACT GAME but registered it before anyone else, at least give them credit.

Like all the free stuff Sony and Microsoft give out?
And they're doing that.  Everyone who registers the exact same list of games, either before or after the Club Nintendo launch, gets the same amount of coins...

In case you didn't realize I was being sarcastic in the beginning. Also I'm not talking about MS or Sony, though if they started a similar program I'd hope they'd come up with ways to reward both new and old players alike. Some MMORPG's do this, if you have been a member for awhile you get special gifts. It doesn't have to be mind blowing but I think it is important to recognize those who have been loyal for years.

[UncleBob]

Free stuff is nice, but I don't expect anyone to give me free stuff, no matter what they're giving out to anyone else.  Nintendo is a business and I am a consumer.  So long as they want to sell me stuff and I'm willing to buy it, that's what a business/consumer relationship is about.  If they want to give me free stuff, great!  If they want to give free stuff to others to improve their business, that's fine too!  I *want* free stuff, but by no means am I entitled to it.

Look at Cell Phone companies and satellite providers - new customers tend to get better offers.  If you don't like it, you have the option to switch your service and take your money elsewhere.

And, for the record, MyNintendo members were rewarded for years with wallpapers, screensavers and icons.  Isn't that about what the European rewards program gives?

[Kairon]

*shrug*

This is nice, but to be honest I'm not all too excited by the program personally. As long as I keep enjoying my games, I couldn't care less if I got a pre-order bonus, some myNintendo points, or whatnot.

Free WiiPoints though.... hmmm...

[UncleBob]

*shrug*

This is nice, but to be honest I'm not all too excited by the program personally. As long as I keep enjoying my games, I couldn't care less if I got a pre-order bonus, some myNintendo points, or whatnot.

Free WiiPoints though.... hmmm...

This is exactly how I feel... I'm *buying* the games.  Thanks for the freebies though.

I cut/pasted my list of registered titles into Excel and did a little playing around.  Assuming we'd stick with 30 coins for GBA titles and 50 coins for GCN titles, I'd have 3,810 coins.  Instead, I've got 1,480... and I'm not complaining...

[LuigiHann]

Wow... I just assumed that they haven't recognized my WiiWare/VC purchases yet, but it seems that list of accepted titles is comprised entirely of games that I haven't bought. I'm actually kind of insulted by that, considering how many VC game I own and how arbitrary that list is.

[UncleBob]

Wow... I just assumed that they haven't recognized my WiiWare/VC purchases yet, but it seems that list of accepted titles is comprised entirely of games that I haven't bought. I'm actually kind of insulted by that, considering how many VC game I own and how arbitrary that list is.

I don't think it's arbitrary - I think someone elsewhere looked at the list and compared it to dates and it was pretty much everything released after a particular date... I might be wrong, since I'm just going by what they said...

[nitsu niflheim]

Sorry, but Nintendo is being half-assed about this.  They should acknowledge every game a person has registered, pick and chosing is just another way of limiting their part, less games a person can re-register and fill out a survey for means less product they would have to give out.  Which is the wrong way to act, if you are going to have a rewards program, then you have to be reasonable, and so far they haven't been. 

I think less than half of what I have register over the years was available to fill out a survey for.   It's cheap and unfair that I went to the trouble to register those games and not only for it to mean nothing then, it won't mean anything now.

Sure it's a nice incentive and Nintendo doesn't have to be doing this, but what they are doing is arbitrarily going through the games they have released with pin codes over the years and saying "screw you we got your money and now that we are going to give you something, if you want it you have to give us more money" 

Is it really that difficult for Nintendo to make every game a person has registered count?  No, it isn't.    What it is, is once again Nintendo is going about something stupid.

[UncleBob]

>" It's cheap and unfair that I went to the trouble to register those games and not only for it to mean nothing then, it won't mean anything now."

I didn't mean "nothing" then.  There were wallpapers, icons and screensavers for pretty much every registered game.  It's more than what the Euro-Rewards club got.

Some of you sound like you'd be happier if Nintendo simply chose not to offer the rewards program at all.

Hell, it wouldn't matter one bit if Nintendo did recognize all registered titles... people would complain that their old NES games didn't come with PIN codes or some crap.  Consider yourselves lucky Nintendo didn't scrap the MyNintendo program entirely and only allow newer ClubNintendo PIN codes to count.

[nitsu niflheim]

>" It's cheap and unfair that I went to the trouble to register those games and not only for it to mean nothing then, it won't mean anything now."

I didn't mean "nothing" then.  There were wallpapers, icons and screensavers for pretty much every registered game.  It's more than what the Euro-Rewards club got.

Some of you sound like you'd be happier if Nintendo simply chose not to offer the rewards program at all.

Hell, it wouldn't matter one bit if Nintendo did recognize all registered titles... people would complain that their old NES games didn't come with PIN codes or some crap.  Consider yourselves lucky Nintendo didn't scrap the MyNintendo program entirely and only allow newer ClubNintendo PIN codes to count.

Frankly, the way they are doing it right now, it's almost as if they aren't doing it at all.  Limit the number of games a person has registered to count under the new rules.  I registered Metroid Prime 2 and Super Mario 64 DS only a few days apart, but only SM 64 DS counts.  No Gameboy Advance, no Gamecube games allowed!

Let's be honest, MyNintendo was never a rewards program, it was a market research program with minimal effort by Nintendo.  Put up a website/programs, print up some codes and put with games and let them do the work for them. 

===
And the cost of the rewards are stupid.  I can understand 800 coins for the DS game, but 800 for the cards and 600 for the cases and playing cards is just too high, they should be at 300 and 200 respectively.  The controller holder should be no more that 100 coins.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"it was a market research program with minimal effort by Nintendo"

Bingo!  Club Nintendo is simply a more attractive program, which means it will hopefully attract more participation and get better feedback.
It's about time Nintendo made it easier for us to tell them they suck.

[UncleBob]

Let's look at it two different ways.

Pretend you go to McDonald's and eat a Big Mac three times a week for the whole year.  Then, at the end of the year, they start running the Monopoly promotion.  Do you go to the counter and complain that McDonald's owes you Monopoly coupons for the whole year's worth of Big Macs you ate that didn't come with coupons?

Second, let's say that, tomorrow, Nintendo of America was to issue a press release that stated, due to the declining economy, Nintendo is forced to raise their MSRP of all games by $10... making most GBA/DS games $40-$45 and most GCN/Wii games $60...

...Should you have to go back through all your previous purchases, figure up the difference between the new price and the old price and cut Nintendo a check for the newer prices?  (Damn, I hope not or I'm screwed...)

The Club Nintendo offer was not taking place when you purchased the older titles.  You never should have expected anything more from purchasing the game than the game you got.  It's not Nintendo's fault you had extra expectations of what you felt you deserve.

Frankly, the way they are doing it right now, it's almost as if they aren't doing it at all.  Limit the number of games a person has registered to count under the new rules.  I registered Metroid Prime 2 and Super Mario 64 DS only a few days apart, but only SM 64 DS counts.  No Gameboy Advance, no Gamecube games allowed!

Let's be honest, MyNintendo was never a rewards program, it was a market research program with minimal effort by Nintendo.  Put up a website/programs, print up some codes and put with games and let them do the work for them. 

I would *almost* agree with the way some DS/Wii games count and some don't.  But it's quite simple that the GBA/GCN is dead - the few games that are still out there, Nintendo's not really going to see a profit from, so they have no reason to encourage their sales.

MyNintendo wasn't *much* of a rewards program, you're right.  Although I do like some of the various physical prizes I've received - I never downloaded any of the free virtual gifts.  But, the point is, Nintendo could have kept the MyNintendo program going... they're doing something extra here (Again, keeping in mind that Wallpapers and such was a good chunk of the Euro-Club Nintendo).  It's free and if you don't like it, you don't have to participate.  Send me your codes and I'll take the free stuff.

[LuigiHann]

I would respect the "only some games get surveys" idea a bit more if the surveys weren't identical. And they're clearly marketing surveys, too. I'd be happy if I could rate the games on a scale of 1-5, just so I could give Mario Party 8 the downvote it deserves. 

[UncleBob]

I would respect the "only some games get surveys" idea a bit more if the surveys weren't identical. And they're clearly marketing surveys, too. I'd be happy if I could rate the games on a scale of 1-5, just so I could give Mario Party 8 the downvote it deserves. 

Loyal MyNintendo members already got the chance to do that.  I received a much lengthier survey after the release of Mario Party 8 that allowed me to rate various aspects of it 1-10.  I recall Mario Party 8 clearly, because it asked about the accuracy of the stylus...

Anywhoo, Nintendo has been sending out larger surveys for registering games for years.  I'm talking surveys that took a good 15 mins or so.  And you know what I got for doing all those surveys?  "Thank you for participating in our survey!"

You youngin's today... with your quick two minute surveys and all your free stuff...

[nitsu niflheim]

I would *almost* agree with the way some DS/Wii games count and some don't.  But it's quite simple that the GBA/GCN is dead - the few games that are still out there, Nintendo's not really going to see a profit from, so they have no reason to encourage their sales.

MyNintendo wasn't *much* of a rewards program, you're right.  Although I do like some of the various physical prizes I've received - I never downloaded any of the free virtual gifts.  But, the point is, Nintendo could have kept the MyNintendo program going... they're doing something extra here (Again, keeping in mind that Wallpapers and such was a good chunk of the Euro-Club Nintendo).  It's free and if you don't like it, you don't have to participate.  Send me your codes and I'll take the free stuff.

But they made the Wii backwards compatible, so in that way they are acknowledging the GCN this gen, and by that virtue those games registered should count.  And the same with the DS, its bc with nearly all GBA games.

Keep your paws off my codes. =P  Despite for misgivings for how Nintendo is handling things right now, I am happy they are doing something.  Especially since they previously said the reason they didn't have a rewards program in the US was because of the size of the US, or something like that.

[UncleBob]

I just realized something about the surveys... dunno why I didn't think of this earlier.

You get your initial coins for buying the game and completing a small survey.  You get 10 more coins after completing a post-play survey.  The Post-Play surveys are supposed to appear 4-6 after the release of the game.  How this applies to games released before Club Nintendo, who knows?

I'd bet these Post-Play surveys are the larger, more expansive surveys.  After all, it'd be silly to ask someone what they think of the game right when they first purchased it.

[Caliban]

My Hanafuda cards are with the status of "Preparing Order". I still have 360 coins left, and for some reason the Secret of Mana survey is a blank so I can't get anymore coins at the moment.

[NWR_Neal]

Am I the only person not getting any coins for Wiiware/VC games?

[Ian Sane]

Yeah you always should be thankful for a company policy or club that only rewards those who are late to the party, not those who supported them to that point.

Sounds like a metaphor for Nintendo's non-gamer strategy!  Ho ho!

I haven't tried farting around with Club Nintendo yet but from what you guys are saying it sounds like because I haven't registered a Nintendo game in years I stand to benefit more than a loyal fan who rushed to register every game seconds before buying it.  Literally all of my Wii games are not registered.  Nintendo doesn't even know I own a Wii.  I don't even think I've registered any DS games.

Even though I stand to benefit from this it's still unfair.  Does Nintendo have to offer an incentive program at all?  No.  Are we entitled to it?  No.  But that doesn't mean that if they choose to do it they shouldn't do the incentive program in a fair way.

Let's say a company introduced a new policy to provide bonus vacation days after five and ten years of service.  When the policy is introduced let's say some people are at six years, some at eleven and everyone else fits in between that.  Should those people at six get the five year bonus and the people at eleven get both the five and ten year bonus?  Is it fair for the person who has worked their for nine years to get the bonus days next year while the person who has worked their longer never gets ANY bonus days despite having worked their longer?  If you say "yes" you're a tool and if this was your business your employees would freak out at you.  At the same time the company never had to introduce this policy but because they did they should do it fairly.

Now if they just started introducing Club Nintendo points from this day onward with only new games having it, that would kind of suck but would be a perfectly acceptable way to do it.  What they're doing now though screws over their most loyal customers.  That's a stupid way to do it.

Though I'm not at all surprised that Nintendo is doing it in a stupid way.  That's Nintendo's trademark.  I assume that if it doesn't involve actual videogame development they will f*ck it up.

[UncleBob]

There seems to be a *lot* of misinformation in regards to how Club Nintendo works.

It doesn't matter if you registered a title under MyNintendo when the game launched or if you registered the game yesterday under Club Nintendo - you will be eligible for the exact same amount of coins from that title. Period.

As for the employer example, I'm familiar with many employers that offer a "Hire-on" bonus to new employees that they did not always offer. Long term employees did not receive the bonus and are not eligible for the bonus (short of quitting and getting rehired, losing all raises and seniority).

[LuigiHann]

Now if they just started introducing Club Nintendo points from this day onward with only new games having it, that would kind of suck but would be a perfectly acceptable way to do it.

That's basically what they did, except they also support a rather eccentric list of older stuff. It just bugs me that some WiiWare and titles count but others don't, since the services aren't even that old, and I've put a good chunk of money into them.

[UncleBob]

That's basically what they did, except they also support a rather eccentric list of older stuff. It just bugs me that some WiiWare and titles count but others don't, since the services aren't even that old, and I've put a good chunk of money into them.

The list isn't really *that* eccentric.

The Wii game list is composed of in-print Wii titles.
The DS list is *mostly* in-print titles.  There are a few exceptions.
The WiiWare/VC is everything released on or after 10/13/2008.  That may be an arbitrary date, I suppose.  I'm guessing Nintendo has a reason for it...

[nitsu niflheim]

Sadly, now when I try to log in it tells me my name and password are not correct.  Before it would just pretend to log in and then just not do it, but this is just a great way to start a program.

I know I typed them in right because I am not stupid like Nintendo is being at the moment.

[nitsu niflheim]

You know, if Nintendo wants more 3rd party games to sell, they should work something out that people who buy those games should be able to register them as well and get some coins.  It's an extra incentive for people who normally avoid 3rd party games to buy them if there is something in it for them. 

Of course this will never happen because this is Nintendo we're talking about.

[Flames_of_chaos]

You know, if Nintendo wants more 3rd party games to sell, they should work something out that people who buy those games should be able to register them as well and get some coins.  It's an extra incentive for people who normally avoid 3rd party games to buy them if there is something in it for them. 

Of course this will never happen because this is Nintendo we're talking about.

In Japan they have club Nintendo codes for all 1st and 3rd party games, so don't hold your breath it may happen.

[UncleBob]

So, I wrote into Nintendo's Customer Service to ask two Club Nintendo related questions and to thank them for bringing Club Nintendo stateside.

I asked them if there was a reason that four of the five versions of Nintendogs counted for coins, while the fifth version was left out and if there was any possibility of seeing a way to, somehow, purchase Club Nintendo items from the site (either cash or some cash/coin combo).

I ended my e-mail with the following:

Again, thanks tons and tons for bringing Club Nintendo to the US.  I'm sure y'all are getting tons of crap for the site being buggy and not counting older GCN/GBA titles toward coin counts, but I'm just thrilled to have a chance to get more free Nintendo stuff.  Because I need more Nintendo stuff... or so says my four GameCubes... they whisper things to me in my sleep.

And to prove that Nintendo Customer Service doesn't just provide automated, canned responses...

Greetings Richard,
Your having registered as much product as you have is impressive, to say the least! I will be sure to forward the feedback you and your Nintendo GameCubes are suggesting, regarding your desire to see Club Nintendo prizes available for direct purchase for further review. It sounds like those four are onto something.

I’m sure you already know this, but the coins are earned for the completion of surveys and not for the registration of the game itself. More importantly, surveys are not needed for games which no longer ship to retailers and are therefore not eligible for coins. I hope this helps explain why older titles, such as Nintendogs (Best Friends edition) does not qualify for coins.

Sincerely,
Dale Thompson