Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
Sure they can, they've done so for the past 2 or 3 generations. Okay so thats a bit of hyperbole but the last time a Nintendo system was a gamer's number one choice for gaming was the SNES. They've been secondary systems for pretty much the entire time since then, even for PC gamers.
Never owned a nintendo console. Played quite a bit of pokemon on my brothers gameboy but other than that never really bothered with nintendo other than when at friends houses and stuff like that, so yeah I think you can.
I have however considered buying a DS for some time now, games like hotel dusk looks very interesting.
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
I am going to coin a phrase here. Semantic Elitism. This phenomenon occurs when niche groups try to change the meanings of words to exclude people whose tastes they don't agree with.
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
"Today" Nintendo or Nintendo of the NES/SNES? I think everyone should play the classics, but I don't have any desire to play anything on the Wii, other than Mario Galaxy.
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
You know, I've always wondered how people with explicit gaming names like 'nintendork' and/or a gaming avatar expect to have reasonable discussion on a gaming forum concerning their avatar or handle.
Gaming is what I spend most of my time doing, but I've never owned a Nintendo console or handheld. But I've never played a GTA, Resident Evil, mainline FF other than 7, DMC, or MGS game either. So I've missed most of gamings big hitters but I still consider myself a gamer.
I came in looking for a usable definition of 'proper gamer' and read most of the OP in a sensible internal voice, but when I got to this bit, it changed and I lost my train of thought:
Nintendork22 said:
/stuff
What say you Gaf, can a proper gamer ignore Nintendo games? Or should gamers be expected to play Nintendo games?
lol there has to be something there to ignore first
"Can you be a gamer and ignore Valve games?"
The answer to all of these is yes, as well as the OP's question. You can be a gamer and do whatever the fuck you want. Who gives a shit? You're not a special flower! You're a consumer of entertainment, there are not standards and fundamentals you need aside from experiences and enjoying whatever part of the medium you wish to. You can be a "proper" gamer and only play Atlus games. You can be a "proper" gamer that thinks crudebro titles like Duke Nukem Forever and the newest Leisure Suit Larry are the Bee's Knees.
More importantly, and I bring this up again, who seriously gives a shit? Are you worried about being judged by other gamers? Are you worried about being judged by people who get emotionally upset at video game localization announcements, who defend corporate business as "personally caring about them," who will often take two opposite positions to better protect the brand of a system they went to a store and handed money over for?
You're a proper gamer if you play games, not for what you play or choose not to play.
When what you play or don't play becomes a point of pride for you, that kind of makes you a dick. But it has no bearing on what kind of gamer you are.
I think if your hardcore about your hobby/passion whatever then you have probably touched a Nintendo game in your life.
Now I think theres nothing wrong with skipping out on Nintendo games. The last piece of software I bought from the big N was Super Mario Galaxy. Or was that Other M...
Anyways, to each his own. I feel if your a hardcore gamer then your views/interests are open to anything. A proper gamer has probably made up their own minds based on an experience they've already had.
Many other companies are focusing on "immersion" or "cinematic experiences", but Nintendo delivers in actually making fun games that aren't full of themselves. They're just full of fun.
Why should that be all that games aspire to? Fun has been achieved with pong. Trying to make a game that's just "fun" is setting the bar low. Let's try to tread some new territory here and achieve new heights.
Cheska said:
I don't understand why someone who considers themselves a gamer would want to ignore Nintendo games. Despite them being overall pricks right now, they do manage to release quality games when they actually care to. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is considered one of the best games of this generation.
Well I thought SMG1 was boring - I didn't bother to collect all the stars though I did in SM64 and I felt OoT is overrated and overhyped - it's good but... best game of all-time? Ehhhh...
So there are some reasons someone might want to ignore Nintendo games: overhype. Some people just love games because they're made by nintendo regardless of quality and innovation or lack thereof, as evidenced by the stubborn love for and defence of Wii Music.
Koopakiller said:
doesn't seem quite rational to actively avoid something just because of the nintendo label but it's not like every gamer has played every game so I don't see why it would stop you from being a proper gamer whatever the fuck that is
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
My 1400+ volume personal library that contains no Dickens says yes. I don't care for most classic literature. That doesn't negate my love for books no more than my collection's lack of romance novels.
Hobbies are supposed to be fun. If you're forcing yourself to play/watch/read/do something you don't enjoy then you're doing it wrong.
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
But you said yourself you don't own all the platforms and I'm assuming you don't game on pc. Therefore by your own logic you're not a proper gamer either, there must be some great games you've never played. Or is someone only a proper gamer when they fall in line with your own preferences?
ShockingAlberto said:
"Can you be a gamer and ignore Ubisoft games?"
"Can you be a gamer and ignore EA games?"
"Can you be a gamer and ignore Sony games?"
"Can you be a gamer and ignore Microsoft games?"
lol there has to be something there to ignore first
"Can you be a gamer and ignore Valve games?"
The answer to all of these is yes, as well as the OP's question. You can be a gamer and do whatever the fuck you want. Who gives a shit? You're not a special flower! You're a consumer of entertainment, there are not standards and fundamentals you need aside from experiences and enjoying whatever part of the medium you wish to. You can be a "proper" gamer and only play Atlus games. You can be a "proper" gamer that thinks crudebro titles like Duke Nukem Forever and the newest Leisure Suit Larry are the Bee's Knees.
More importantly, and I bring this up again, who seriously gives a shit? Are you worried about being judged by other gamers? Are you worried about being judged by people who get emotionally upset at video game localization announcements, who defend corporate business as "personally caring about them," who will often take two opposite positions to better protect the brand of a system they went to a store and handed money over for?
You're a proper gamer if you play games, not for what you play or choose not to play.
When what you play or don't play becomes a point of pride for you, that kind of makes you a dick. But it has no bearing on what kind of gamer you are.
The last worthwhile Nintendo console was the N64. They lost me after that, and I've never looked back. I feel like I've outgrown them, and they've brought nothing to the table since then to make me feel like I'm missing anything.
Can someone claim to be a bookworm but never read any Dickens? Can a movie critic refuse to watch The Godfather? Can a popular music fanatic avoid the Beatles their whole life?
The fact of the matter is if you want to be a serious "fan" of a certain medium, it comes with certain expectations. I simply want to know if playing Nintendo games is one of those expectations, as I believe it should be.
I see what you're getting at. My question to you then is: does a significant number of the game playing population consider themselves "proper gamers", or that there even is such a thing? And regardless of the medium, no single body of work in existence encompasses the whole- not Dickens, not The Godfather and certainly not what someone subjectively decides is the game of the year..."subjective" being the central reason here. It's the magic of art in all its forms, its quiet pull and eternal elusiveness.
shorthand: it's okay for different people to like different things.
kliklik said:
A lot of nintendo franchises... if you've played one in the franchise, you've pretty much gotten a taste of what they're all like. It's probably important for gamers to at least try a mario or a zelda etc. once. But each new game? I don't think so.
While to an extent this statement is flawed (there can be a world of difference between Marios and Zeldas) there is some fact backing it up. I personally appreciate this about Nintendo: knowing that I can buy a small handful of titles from them over a year or so and derive countless hours of pleasure from them years down the road gives me buying peace of mind and saves money/trial and error.
Some games are like apartments, but Nintendo's best output? Like your family's first home.
What I mean by cinematic games and games that are full of themselves are the types of titles that market themselves as deep narrative games when it's only skin deep. Games where there's not a lot of playing to be had and it's more about the game trying to shove narrative down your throat, and it's particularly uninteresting.
They can be fun, sure, but there obviously not as fun as games that focus purely on gameplay. Gameplay is supposed to be the meat to a game.
I'm not trying to stereotype it as a Nintendo vs other games kind of affair. It's just Nintendo is the company to look at when wanting games that are nothing but raw gameplay.
Of course they can, none of Nintendo's big franchises appeal to me.
Mario - I have zero interest in platforming.
Zelda - It just hasn't clicked with me since N64, thought I might like Darksiders in the same genre but still didn't.
Metroid - I liked the Prime games but I thought other M was poor in literally every manner possible. Some loved it but good for those who had a good time I guess.
Mii's - If I want motion/party games I could find them elsewhere.
Donkey Kong - REALLY wanted to like DKCR wii but forcing shake controls made me frustrated and sent it back to gamefly after an hour or so.
I understand WHY people love nintendo, just isn't for me I guess. It's not a question about "kiddie" games because I found the new cars game to be pretty fun (among other "kid" games this gen), and the label just doesn't bother me.
I don't see why not, it's not like you can't be a "Proper Gamer" and still ignore FPSs or Racers. Nintendo's catalog doesn't even cover most genres so you can have a fairly diverse set of tastes and still not play many of their games. Outside of Zelda and 3D Mario for me they don't have much to offer anymore.
