I think we should rename the ‘Hardcore Gamer’ to being called the ‘Sad Gamer’. These guys are ALWAYS unhappy. It is like they are dedicated to being unhappy in all things, griping and spewing, all day on a message board. They are never really happy, only excited, and that, alas, is temporary. They seem to feed off of continual hype, like those lantern fish that hang on other fish. They *love* hype, they savor it, consume it, discuss it, debate it, and in the end griping that the game didn’t live up to the hype (does it ever?). And they love comparing the game to other games. They don’t really seem to play the game aside to play it as material to ‘debate’ on the message forum. The only other time they become really excited is when DS or Wii sales drop.
But, for the most part, these are sad gamers. The Wii is an interesting case to the hardcore. Showing the Wii-mote to a hardcore gamer is like showing the cross to Dracula. They recoil with a strange amount of anger and fear. They look upon Wii Fit or Wii Sports as if they were wooden stakes designed to be plowed into their hearts.
But the Hardcore have no reason to be sad. We all know that the Wii is pulling in non-traditional customers. Wii isn’t exactly taking customers away from the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Wii isn’t even taking third parties away from the HD twins. Nintendo is still making the core games the Hardcore loves with new iterations of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. In other words, in regards to the Hardcore, there is no real difference of the Wii and the Gamecube. With both, the Hardcore plays them for the core Nintendo games and play third party games on other systems.
So what in the world is the Hardcore Gamers’ problem? They have two consoles dedicated to making the games they want as well as Nintendo still making the core games they want. What on earth does the Hardcore have to complain about? What? The sales charts? Since many third party games are on the HD twins, why should they worry about the sales charts?
To illustrate how de-arranged the hardcore have become, witness these quotes from a comments page about a video from New Super Mario Brothers Wii:
Is this the alpha build for Little Big Planet????
A 4 player side-scroller?
No wonder Nintendo has gone down.
Nintendo lost its appeal after the Gamecube. The wii sucks, it has NOTHING on the PS3 and Xbox 360
let me tell you one thing, you are not alone, millions of people belive in that, nintendo is dying, the casual games are killing the console, and we, the true players of it are the ones who make nintendo to still exist, its a shame that nintendo who is very creative cant make something new with theyr pet, the destiny of mario is like the sonics one
great now the f*cking piece of sh*t Wii can piss off 4 people at the same time. F*ck the c***suckers at nintendo. At least they f*cking retards finally figured out that they’re a videogame company not hasbro. the only reason they made this piece of sh*t game is because all the f*cking morons who are stupid enough to buy casual games (wii music) finally got sick of the piece of sh*t wii. Once Sony and 360 finally come out with a motion controller the wii will finally f*cking die
The de-arranged hardcore comments could be seen as rational, as much as the hardcore can be considered rational, after the announcement of Wii Sports or Wii Fit or even Wii Music. But how on earth can any gamer become ‘enraged’ over 2d Mario!??? Super Mario Brothers is no non-game!
The sputtering rage that calls NSMB Wii is a ‘casual title’ really shows how there is a totally different story going on with our hardcore friends than their stated complaints. One has to go through an incredible process to call 2d Mario a ‘non-game’. How did they get to that point?
My favorite comment was the guy anticipating the new control systems from Microsoft and Sony to ‘destroy’ Nintendo. But I thought motion control of gaming was ‘bad’. Now, they are all for it! Is anyone else getting a headache trying to understand these guys and their constant ‘sadness’?
Occam’s Razor seems to apply. The common thread behind their behavior is that they are not hardcore or truly hate “casual” gaming. The common thread is that they are just anti-Nintendo. Every game or innovation Nintendo does is ‘wrong’ and ‘horrible’. However, once this innovation is on a non-Nintendo console, it is ‘awesome’. Touch screen gaming was ‘horrible’ for the DS yet it is ‘awesome’ on the iPhone. Motion controls were horrible on the Wii but will become ‘great’ on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The only Nintendo games the hardcore like are the games that do not sell like F-Zero. The very controversial and poor selling Zelda: Windwaker is the hardcore’s favorite and they advise Nintendo to make all future Zelda games like that. But Nintendo isn’t a moron, they want their games to sell. When was the last time a hardcore gamer was excited for a high selling Nintendo game? Even Mario Kart Double Dash, which the hardcore thought ‘sucked’ last generation, is now considered the ‘best’ because of Mario Kart Wii, which sells bazillions. Based on this pattern, the more excited the hardcore get about something Nintendo is doing, the more Nintendo ought to be worried.
There are those who said we would never see the day when 2d Mario would be called a ‘non-game’. But what have they to say now?
Some believe this is a non-game. Good heavens, what have we come to?
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