Topic: Why does "cartoony" have a negative connotation in games, TV, movies, etc?

But the important question is why did they bomb? I'm not familiar with the story of the two movies mentioned (I've seen V for Vendetta, but I don't know much about it getting a sequel).

Going back to my Young Justice example, if the general populus were more accepting of animation as a serious medium for entertainment for any age, the show would not have been built around the business model that relies on selling toys. The show would have been on a network like The CW. But because people are insecure, shows like that are forced to stay on Cartoon Network, where they suffer, because they cater to an older audience.

Me neither

I hear it from Nintendo owners justifying their purchase or criticizing other console users more than I have from anyone else online, and I've never actually heard anything like this from someone in real life.

The idea that people intentionally avoid certain forms of media for being 'too cartoony' (opposed to avoiding them simply because they enjoy more mature themes) seems to be a fallacy largely propagated by people who are insecure about the things they themselves enjoy.

I haven't heard complains of things being too cartoony (other than that time when Wind Waker came out), but it is funny when guys limit their video game experiences to manly stuff for fear of being too girly.

The other day, when I was playing smash bros with real people, I noticed a trend: the younger ones (age 18-21) limited their character selections to male characters (almost exclusively) in costumes of the Dark variety.

It's like some sort of phase.

Bulls***

While it's true that sometimes this is thrown around in defense among some Nintendo fans, it is absolutely rooted in truth. I've had friends criticize something as "too cartoony" or "animated so it's for kids" my whole life. I have friends who haven't even watched Toy Story 3 because it's animated.

Now, I should make something clear. For some reason, there is an odd grace given in the western community when an animated or cartoony style is used comedically or ironically. This is why South Park and Family Guy are well loved and universally regarded as being socially acceptable. In games, it's why Borderlands and Team Fortress 2 get a pass in many people's eyes.

I have a friend who plays TF2 almost every day, but he thought it was strange that I played Kirby and Zelda. It rears it's head in business all the time. Haven't you ever considered why most serious, mature mass market games are realistic? I'm not talking about gamer games, like Journey or Ni No Kuni. I'm talking about the games that sell 10s of millions of units. These are your CoDs, your Assassin's Creeds, and your GTAs.

It even shows it's head in hardware. I refer you to the first Apple iBook.

http://maz.entrepreneursmingle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03...

This thing was awesome. It came in multiple neat colors. It had a nifty handle, and it lacked a latch in its closing mechanism. It looked original and new. Guess what happened? People complained it looked "too kiddy", and itwas replaced with this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/IBook_G3_M...

A by the books computer.

Also, this is a helpful resource: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimationAgeGhetto

Think the problem is generalizing society based upon your one friend that won't watch Toy Story, and the other that plays TF2.

As for the whole 'why are most high selling games not cartoons' argument, that doesn't indicate whether or not people intentionally ignore certain forms of media because they appear cartoony.

High COD sales have no correlation with people not buying Nintendo products because of the way they appear. Nintendo games seem to sell just fine, as conveyed by the rabid Nintendo fanboys on this site.

Using your logic, cartoony games would have to consistently outsell any other type of game in order to prove there's no a bias against cartoony games, which is just illogical. You're basically asking for everyone to prefer what you like, in order to prove they're not biased against it.

No, it's not one friend. It's multiple friends over the course of my whole life.

I don't know where Nintendo products got thrown into the mix. I'm not talking particularly about Nintendo products, I'm talking about cartoony styles in general. Nintendo products sell well in part because they are basically the CoD for younger audiences (there are many other reasons, but I don't really want to break into a long discussion about that). They are a mass market product.

You are right, High CoD sales don't have a correlation with people not buying cartoony games because of how they appear. And I never said they did. What I am saying is that every serious mass market game for adults has a realistic art style. That's pretty telling for the same reason it's pretty telling that there are no serious mature animations on air right now. Or any animated movies rated PG-13 or up.

I don't dislike realistic art styles and live action film and TV. I just have a problem when people turn away from something because of how it looks, because it affects the products available to me.

If only the topc could have ended with this post .

This whole premise comes down to two ideas.

-Preference: some people just legitimately like TONS of gritty FPS games. Nothing wrong with that (unless they're 7 T_T)
-Image: like the poster I quoted hinted at: people HAVE to appear "cool" (lol) to peers, friends, and society. Splatoon will likely be a higher quality game than most of the lesser CoD titles, but will it sell more? Not a chance.

In the US and UK cartoons have ALWAYS be advertised mostly as childish so it's not a surprise that two nations with severe masculinty issues would often stear away from that above a certain age bracket. Which is funny, because gaming in general is a very juvinile/guilty-pleasure style of recreaction anyway...no matter how "badass", western european, and male BS main characters we get barfed on us.

We don't know that people turn away from certain products for the reasons you describe though, it's simply a hypothesis. My theory is that the realistic art style is more relatable to the average person, therefore most people will gravitate towards that naturally.

For all we know, there are certain genes up-regulated in people that prefer cartoony styles, in which case people gravitate towards more realistic styles because of biological mechanisms.

Either way, there's not much that can be done. Find less judgemental friends. As for changing the mindset of the average consumer and eliminating this bias you believe is present, you'll have your work cut out for you.

Also:

And I think I linked the same video when this subject came up, hold on:

People didn't complain about the Macbooks coming in colors, the colors were discounted because Apple moved from hard plastic to idonized aluminum which was harder and more expensive to get done. The fact that colors are a big thing in the market sort of disproves your theory. The only reason why we haven't went back to colored Macbooks is due to the fact their hasn't been a change in materials and apple is uninterested in making a $500 mackbook.

Something being more or less relatable tends to vary among different people. It doesn't create the hard lines across so many different media in particular cultural groups. That's pretty indicative that something cultural is at play.

As for it being a bias, I mean, Animation age ghetto exists. That's a fact. The same principles applying to games really isn't all that far fetched.

So you're allowed to complain about people using cartoon as a negative connotation. Yet people aren't allowed to use cartoon as a defining term.

It's fine as a defining term. But the problem is when it has a negative connotation.

are you pretending you don't?
speaking of insecure people, people who are desperate to prove they don't care about a thing and people caring are teh lame loserz lolololol. I say this from experience...

This the way i see it. If you don't like how Wind Waker looks, then you see cartoony as bad.

By the way, i like wind waker.... HD...

Not necessarily. Different people like different stylized art styles. I like Wind Waker, but I consider Little Big Planet to be quite ugly, while many people consider it to look great. I hate Bravely Default's art style so much that it deters me from playing it, but I think Tales of Symphonia's style is really charming.

But if you hate a style, "cartoony" isn't usually the correct descriptor, as that encompasses all of the above styles and many many more.

Not pretending.

There are a lot of people who only recognize things as “mature” when there have excessive sex and violence. Anything that is “cartoony” is beneath them.