Topic: Could a difference of generation be Nintendo's problem?

@JohnRedcorn: Wow what a great comparison. It totally makes sense when I think about it.

@BinaryFragger: I have noticed that too and honesty if you notice its the retro stuff that I see alot of people wearing Mario stuff. Take the belt buckle for example I see a ton of them modeled after the NES controller but I dont see one modeled after an N64 or even a Wiimote. Going back to JohnRedcorn's comparison to pro wrestling its the same way. The moment something crazy happens in a WWE match the fans start shouting ECW ECW. Or look at the applause an older wrestler gets when he returns compared to a newer one. The thing is I think that people just like the nostalgia stuff like the Nintendo merchandise cause it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling remembering back to that special time in their childhood.

I think the problem is with a generation gap and what @JohnRedcorn referred to with the analogy. Let me explain.

So, Nintendo was "hip" back in the 80's and early 90's. Then, around the late 90's early 2000's, Nintendo became "kiddie" or "lame" and people lost interest. I can testify to this as well, because my cousin who refers to himself as a "Sony Guy" grew up playing games on the NES, but is now very uninformed in what Nintendo is doing today.

Then, you get my generation, who, as children, grasped for that "in thing" at the time which was PlayStation. And who dictates what's in to younger kids? The generation that came before them. I remember in elementary and middle school, I was one of the only kids who had an N64 & Gamecube. In fact, it was so bad that kids refused to play games that weren't on the PS1 or PS2 and M rated (no joke).

Even though it was elementary school, I still remember a conversation I had with classmates about Banjo Tooie. I was describing what the game was like to them and it really peaked their interest. Until they popped "the question"

"What's it rated?"
"E"
"Nope! Not playing that! A game isn't good unless it's rated M!"

And so until I reached high school. Kids made fun of me because my parents wouldn't let me play M rated games or watch R movies. They told me that any R or M rated media was superior to anything with a lower rating just because "they were better".

It wouldn't be so bad if this mentality didn't follow them into adulthood...

I don't believe this is as big a problem as it has been but the insecurity for anyone who actually acts like this as an adult is probably astounding.

@DanMan82 that's exactly Nintendo's problem its not marketing to gamers, its marketing to parents like yours who do not let their children play M rated games, Nintendo idea is that the child would bug their parents about buying a PS4 but the M rated games would put parents off so parents would buy a Wii U instead...... the problem is the market has changed now is more common for people to buy the consoles for themselves rather than as a toy for their children....

It may be wrong for people to dismiss a game because it's not M rated, but children will always be like that.... now I'll take Mario over Mortal Kombat, but I didn't think like that when I was 14 years old...... some people also just don't like cartoony graphics and that has nothing to do with age or ESRBs ratings some people just prefer anime style or realistic looking games.... and Nintendo if they want their console to succeed they need to try to offer different things that appeal to different people but Nintendo's games are almost all the same type, the handhelds manage because they have third party support but their consoles don't......

Nintendo's reputation for censoring and coddling their fans also doesn't really help. They've gotten better in some ways but worse in others. With censoring it set a precedence that developers HAVE to make "kids" games and sugar coat stuff. When trying to gather support for the Gamecube devs declined specifically because of that. Things like friend codes, the swapnote fiasco, and strangely left out/forced parental settings just makes people feel like Nintendo is a helicopter parent, not to mention cement the idea its a kid's toy. We even saw EA announce they don't have plans to support the Wii U because they don't make kid's games, we all know that was likely a poor excuse to drum up attention but just having someone announce something like that in this day and age says a lot about how Nintendo is seen by people. EA had to have thought that would resonate with someone after all.

I saw this posted in another thread, and I agree with just about everything in it.

Game Theory