And I truly believe your enthusiasm, Gummb, but it's hardly an objective source. Like 90% of all your posts are all over-the-top gushing over Nintendo products or news, and criticism is hardly in your forte at all. Unless it's not on a Nintendo system, then Halo 4 is truly disappointing and etc etc.
All seriousness, I don't require validation from others. A product must be good on its own feet. My family would recommend to me Jennifer Lopez movies with a straight face, and so I know they're hardly the best source for what makes good movies. Similarly, if they did enjoy the games, that would just mean it was something that worked for them individually. It would not necessarily apply to me. The game and its gameplay must stand on its own for my assessment. If it's a mini-game compilation, the majority of the mini-games must feel as substantial and as complete as full packages, something I'd pay for in a full game. I don't want to pay for a shallow title that I wouldn't pay for individually even if my life is on the line; why would I want to pay for them if 12 of those same throwaway products were packaged together? It doesn't actually change the value. If it has that depth, the fun with other people will simply naturally come for me.
But I'm sorry, I must be getting old, because I have absolutely NO clue what you mean by there's nothing else like it on the market. Because somehow, and I genuinely mean no offense to this, I suspect the answer would be large sweeping generalizations including the words "magic" and "soul" and would in the end have nothing relating to reality, since almost all of the mini-games in Nintendoland are like things that came before. That said, I'm sure the fact that there is a controller screen for which people are performing these same age-old feats now makes them somehow "unique" for them, or the fact that asynchronous gameplay is so novel it changes everything, or how somehow I should get excited for hide and seek in mini-game form.
I am glad you enjoy it, though. Thankfully there are so many legitimately great products out there I don't have to force myself. Edit: Not that you're forcing yourself to love it. I read this last line and thought that sounded wrong.
Wow, I'm incredibly glad I've garnered your criticism of my posting behavior on NeoGAF. I'm also impressed that you went into my posting history to discern what type of
person I am. It is true, I go to NeoGAF to largely support the products I am genuinely interested in and engage in the community that I enjoy most. Both of these are overwhelmingly Nintendo related. I gush about the games I like and generally avoid the topics I can criticize. However, to make the logical leap that my forte is not criticism would be to make the same logical leap that modernists made over 200 years ago - that a part is wholly representative of the whole, and that one can "know" based on data collection alone.
My response to your unabashed and unqualified attack on Nintendo Land was a reaction to its complete lack of regard to the possibility that there are those who do enjoy it and think that it is a unique collection. I was simply countering your representation of Nintendo Land because I have a different perspective than you. To engage in a "logical" debate with you about the merit of a game that you clearly cannot tolerate playing would be unproductive. I am not here to change your mind, but rather attempt to express my own descriptions of the game I enjoy.
Yes, I think there is nothing like it on the market. I've never played a game collection that can generate this many gameplay outcomes. I have never played a game collection where my mother can spend 4 hours drawing lines on a pad to move a character around to collect fruit only for my brother and I to turn around and seriously engage in a cooperative battle on separate screens while he sits and I walk around the room. I've never played a game collection where I can go from laughing hysterically with friends to intensely focused on a timed-test run of a DK course.
Yes, I tend to focus on my experiences rather than the "reality" (which I assume you mean the mechanics, the design, the controls, etc.). However, it is my opinion that "reality" is not inherently discernable and we are better off describing our experiences. And so that is what I do. If that means that I get to talk about how the 'soul' of Nintendo Land is 'magic,' then so be it. That does not mean that you get to delegitimize my posting by assuming I am some irrational (not in-tune with the 'reality' of games) Nintendo fanboy who cannot see past my own periphery.
P.S. - That criticism of Halo 4 you read from me came after the reviews and before the release date. I was making fun of the thread, not the game. I actually own every Halo game except ODST and liked Halo:CE and Halo Reach the best. Halo 2 and 3 were boring and repetitive imo (OMG LOOK AT ME GO! CRITICISM).
[EDIT] I am also of the opinion that all gameplay and every game "stands on its own" and is then reducible to descriptive categories that we assign it that are related to the 'reality' it adheres to, but not fully representative of it. Player experiences are thus a necessary part in discerning whether a game is "good" or "bad" for each individual. I also believe that there is no objective truth that all games can be judged by. So when you say that "My family would recommend to me Jennifer Lopez movies with a straight face, and so I know
they're hardly the best source for what makes good movies," I would ask "good movies for who? For you? Or for some universal?"
To repeat what I said earlier when you wrote "Nintendo should pay people to take Nintendoland off their hands." - I have no idea what you're talking about. To qualify it, I will add - my experiences lead me to believe that NintendoLand is well worth 50 dollars.
There is no objective truth to be discussed here, no metaphysical metric where "reality" can interact with "level of enjoyment" or "worth." To say that you do have access to that metaphysical metric and that a game must be objectively "good" to interest you is to say that you are none other than God. Please get off my back.
