Topic: I'm a little disappointed with Damo...

The news editor Damian here at Nintendo Life has been publishing sensationalist news stories that are too click baity and really tarnishing Nintendo Life as a more down to earth media outlet for gaming news. It seriously feels like I'm reading an IGN article when I read his articles which is definitely not a good thing. That last Talking Point article was a good example of him trying to stir the pot and anger many Nintendo fans. Honestly even though I'm not angry about it myself sensationalist articles like these will likely hurt this website in the long-run which is something that I don't want to see as this is one of my favorite Nintendo-Centric websites on the web.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm sure @Damo will have an opinion on it. To be clear Damien has been posting on Nintendo Life since it's inception, so nothing has changed with the kind of content that he writes... there is nothing new going on.

The purpose of our Talking Point pieces are to drive discussion and no-one can argue that it isn't worth having the discussion about a Nintendo phone, I'm sure Nintendo are at least looking into the prospect - if they didn't they wouldn't be doing their jobs. If you've read all the comments there are a number of people who are keen on the idea and the article outlines the reasons why it could be a potential move for Nintendo - either a good one or a bad one. I'm not sure how you can consider a piece like that 'clickbait' as it isn't misleading and is thoroughly researched - whether you agree with the idea it suggests or not.

If people can't see the difference between what we do, and what say, IGN do, then perhaps there are going to be issues... it's quite clear to me though.

Like I said I'm not really one of the people offended by this, but there was a ton of negative comments in his latest Talking Point which isn't good for the community.

Could you possibly explain how suggesting that Nintendo should create a new piece of hardware is "stirring the pot" and "angering fans"? Even those who disagreed in the comments field - and they are legion - didn't get angry.

These kind of talking points have been a part of the site for years, and will continue to be. We don't shy away from debate here at Nintendo Life, and pride ourselves on creating well-researched content.

You may not personally like the idea of a Nintendo Phone, but given that Nintendo has already experimented with the concept in the past, it's worth discussing - which we did. And at the time of writing, the poll indicates that the majority of readers would buy such a device.

I appreciate the concern, but we've also noticed that generally commenters are the vocal minority - not everyone that reads the site will be making comments and there are generally more negative commenters, but that almost always isn't representative of general opinion. We've ran many articles where we have alot more votes in polls than comments and both paint very different pictures.

We perhaps just need a better way to filter out the grumpy negative people

Actually there were people who disagreed and stated their reasons for why they saw it as a bad idea - that's not "negative" or "bad for the community". It's called "debate".

They have words for communities where everyone always agrees with each other 100% on every topic. They're called cults.

I don't agree that a Nintendo Phone is a good direction for Nintendo either. I would rather them opt to just create content for Android/iOS with the intent to bring people into their existing hardware. But it's definitely a debate worth having, and Talking Points aren't always going to take the popular stance.

And I find NL is probably the smallest offender in clickbaity articles. Other Nintendo fan sites will publish pretty much any rumour or tweet from an intern they can sink their teeth into, and slap a headline on it that forgets to mention that the source is just some guy with a free email address.

@SpookyMeths thanks, I'm glad people notice that we're very strict on rumours. Even today with the Smash Wii U bundle we waited until we had a confirmed source. It's so easy to fake stuff online so we always make sure we check our facts.

Except it doesn't. I think you are referencing the poll to back up your opinion.

At the time of this post, Yes is at 48% and No and Maybe are both at 26%. 48% is less than those two options combined, which is 52%. Which means that the only readers who would buy a Nintendo phone are the minority, not the majority. The rest of the readers would not or aren't sure. It's almost 50/50, but the Yes voters are still in the minority.

@Squid Right, Yes got the plurality, not the majority. Those do seem to get confused a lot.

A "maybe" is a more positive reaction than a straight "no" - a maybe indicates that the person is open to buying one, but is undecided.

My point is that the poll is largely at odds with the negative comments, which I assume are being left by a vocal bunch of grumpy people.

Of all the Damo articles, /that's/ the one you label "click bait"? LOL.

I said it was a good example, not the best example lol.

@Damo I really hope that you don't feel that I'm attacking your strategy because I'm not, I just noticed that whenever you publish articles that are more controversial or sensationalist it seems to cause a rift between the members of this site and some get vocal and verbally attack other members which isn't healthy for a thriving online community. In a perfect world people would be more accepting of people's opinions, but sadly you'll always have diehard fans on both sides of these controversial issues battling with one another. I personally thought that your article was well written, despite not agreeing with it as everyone has their own opinions and I completely respect that, however I also fear that too many controversial articles could cause the community to fall apart based on how they react towards some of your articles. As for my original post I do feel that the way I worded my post sounded far too harsh towards you and for that I sincerely apologize.

No problem, all feedback is valid feedback.

I'm not really against the idea of posting something you honestly believe in, as long as you are ready to defend it against naysayers. Most of us have opinions that differ from the majority (hence the "Unpopular Opinions" thread), and the "Talking Point" should not have to cater to the majority.

And I want to be honest here: I think these topics are only controversial because Nintendo fans (and fans in general) refuse to admit that a company might need to change a few things. When Michael Pachter criticized Nintendo, quite a few fans jumped the gun and called him "stupid" without even reading his reasoning. Granted he said a few ignorant things, but a good part of his criticism was justified.

While we're on the topic of "click-bait", I would like to ask the fans a few questions. Why do fans go into a fervent rage-mode when mobile is being discussed? Why do they put their fingers in their ears (figuratively speaking) when someone mentions Nintendo going 3rd party? I'm all for a discussion on why one may think going mobile may be foolish, but not if they simply say "Nintendo shouldn't do it...cuz I said so". It's honestly this attitude that causes the so-called "click-bait" articles to appear, and clicking on them gives those sites exactly what they want. On a similar note, this is also why controversial rumors, even the blatantly fake ones, are posted.

I don't agree with Damo on some of these articles, but I don't think these are posted for "click-bait".

If it was click bait, i wouldn't know. I didn't click it. This is click bait now because it inspired my curiosity because the titld did not prepeare whatsoever for what the forum was about

They shouldn't make a phone because Android is rubbish for games and they know nothing about making phones. (Sony Ericsson didn't manage it well and they knew about making consoles and phones)

Click Bait is a problem but given the articles I like normally have only 20 or less posts I dunno what the solution is.

I have no problem with the article. In fact i think it's quite considerate and a really good starting point to finally have a discussion that actually does the topic justice. _{Instead of just slamming down the possibility of a Nintendo phone.}

What didn't tickle my fancy were the two comments @Damo wrote.
The first one i can now take as a "That's so typically internet i couldn't help but laugh about it". When i first read it it sounded more like a "Just shut up, your opinion is worthless anyway." to me.
The second one i found came across like a "Just don't discuss what other challenges they may face.".I can now take that more lightheartedly but at first i've seen it as the former.

Both didn't sound so discussion-friendly to me and i guess i wished that @Damo would've taken part in discussing it all even more in-depth
It seems that the better place to do that are the forums.

The problem isn't Damo it's Nintendo fanboys that are the problem. Every time that yo mention that Nintendo should try something different or that they should do this or that the fanboys go ape **** and start vocalizing their thoughts in negative ways, you can't blame the writer of an article for that. While I love Nintendo I have to admit the Nintendo Fanboys are some of the most vocal and honestly most immature, rude fanboys around and something like an opinion piece is going to draw their attention.