This site is something I do as a hobby. Sometimes it has spurts of updates. Sometimes it has no updates. I do no advertising on this site, and I generate no revenue on this site. It is made purely for my own education and from my own heart.
Yet, I am constantly amazed at how often this site is read so often by those who say I should not be listened to. I don’t get it often, but I do love ‘hate mail’ because I am wondering, “If you hate me so much, then why read the website?” After all, I am not forcing anyone to come here.
And then they not only read the website but decide to use their free time to discuss what I say. Let’s use this guy as an example:
Why are people such crybabies about Bloomberg? It’s a financial news wire. None of this really changes the outcome of SYSTEM WARZ, but if you hold stock in Nintendo it could be a pretty big disaster to hear that YoY system sales have fallen 30-50% over the last few months. Growth drives stock price.
There was a blog post from the internet’s biggest Wii/BlueOcean/Disruption fanatic (who shall not be named)……he called Bloomberg articles “hit pieces”, and failed to understand why Nintendo’s slumping sales are reported negatively while Sony’s rising sales are reported positively. BLOOMBERG AM TEH BIAS of course.
Apparently, Border was asleep the last three years and missed Nintendo’s rising sales as being reported negatively while Sony’s declining sales as reported positively. Nintendo was “doomed” in 2006. “Doomed” in 2007. “Doomed” in 2008. “Doomed” in 2009. Therefore, we can assume that Nintendo will be “doomed” in 2010, “doomed” in 2011, and “doomed” in 2012. Meanwhile, 2007 was Sony’s “comeback year” as was 2008, 2009, and likely 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Of course it is a “hit piece” in that it is intentionally manipulating the story. Normally, a journalist gets statements from all the parties involved, perhaps an “analyst” or two, and lets it fall where it may. However, in that story you had an “analyst” give the quote about Nintendo (“Nintendo is doomed”) without any such quote on Sony. The quote they use for Sony came from Sony themselves! (Sony says Sony is doing “amazing”) The story, in general, was badly written and not professional. However, this is becoming the new normal for more and more news sites (alas to us, readers). It is also why their readership is in freefall. (And readership for more alternative sites such as crazy bloggers like myself is, for some reason, going up.)
It is very fun for me to enjoy the perception of this website of these people who do not think I say anything (but quote me all the time). They think I am some frothing at the mouth Nintendo fanboy whose emotional well-being is dependent on the sales of the Nintendo hardware. So they hear a news story which they think is bad news for Nintendo, rush over to this website to hope to see “frothing Nintendo fanboy” as melting down and going insane, but instead find someone laughing and having fun. They then get confused.
Let me spell it out for gentlemen like Borders: I am not a “Nintendo fan”. In fact, many Nintendo fans are unhappy with me (because I don’t like 3d Mario or modern Zelda or something). I have spent more time opposing Nintendo than I have cheering them on as I have been rejecting Nintendo’s direction for over a decade of the N64 or Gamecube Eras (as well as other consoles).
I am an Anti-Industry Writer. I don’t want the “Game Industry” to grow. I want it to die. This confuses people because they assume everyone writing on gaming either is a fanboy or wants to join the “Game Industry”. I don’t cheer Nintendo on because I like Nintendo or am caught up in the personality cult of Shigeru Miyamoto, I cheer Nintendo on because they are disruptively attacking the “Game Industry”. I like that. I want more of that. Now, if Nintendo decides to abandon disruption and re-join the “Game Industry” again, I will oppose them and cheer on outside companies who are chipping away at the “Game Industry”.
I do not hate the “Game Industry” because I hate games. I hate the “Game Industry” because I love games. I don’t want the “Game Industry” to die because I hate gamers. I want the “Game Industry” to die because gamers deserve to be treated like proper customers and not like brainwashed lemmings manipulated by viral marketing and marketing hype.
The number one problem of gaming and the biggest constraint to gaming’s growth is the “Game Industry” itself. The “Game Industry” does not desire gaming to become mainstream. The “Game Industry” cannot control and hoodwink a mainstream audience. Therefore, the “Game Industry” prefers a niche audience of one they can easily manipulate. The rise and fall of the “Casual Game Industry” is failure of the “Game Industry” to ‘industrialize’ these new mainstream gamers.
The so-called “hardcore gamer” is the tool of the “Game Industry”. These gamers actually believe the “Game Industry” cares about them and is for them. In reality, the “Game Industry” has no respect of them and see the hardcore only as walking wallets. Hardcore only realize how they are really perceived by the “Game Industry” when something happens on the scale of removing dedicated servers or $600 price tags for consoles. So the “tired Matrix” display of illustrating the ‘hardcore gamer’ as hooked up to the machine is quite accurate I believe.
While people are busy trying to act like the “smartest guy in the message forum”, I’ve had a front row seat of before, during, and after the Wii phenomenon. A book could be written on the subject. Whether Nintendo succeeds or Nintendo fails, I am learning business dos and business don’ts. This educational motive is never noticed by others for some reason.
Nintendo could put out a Wii HD, have it bomb, decide to go third party, and hire guys like Pachter to run the company, and I would still be laughing and having fun. It is because I will be learning more, even if it is a business trainwreck. And it is because this website will become more popular, more widely read.
I enjoy showing people what a fraud the “Game Industry” is. I enjoy revealing what a fraud the “game journalists” are. I enjoy pointing to the fraud that is analysts. I enjoy watching hardcore gamers wake up and realize they are being fleeced while their favorite game franchises are being burned to nothing to maximize revenue for a one time bonus.
But most of all, I enjoy having people who hate me read me. It takes a special skill to do that.
The success of this website came from no connections to the “Game Industry”. No game company is propping up this website. I had no ‘permission’ to make this website. I am not ‘networking’ and trying to be friends with everyone and have ‘relationships’. And yet, here this site is.
I am saying this not to toot my own horn (though that is always fun). I want to inspire people to do what they want in gaming be it a website or game development to not look for permission from the “Game Industry” but to go do it on your own. You don’t need connections. You need balls.
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