Topic: Does Nintendo even care?

Legit question, do you think anyone at Nintendo looks at the fan sites to gauge what some of their consumers want? I mean, Nintendo is known for almost never doing what is obvious and just making a bunch of crazy decisions. This is both I think good and bad at times. With that type of action does it seem they really listen to the fans or just generally ignore us and do what they want? Watching all these console war threads just got me thinking. I mean, Nintendo is pretty stubborn.

There are so many demands made on fan sites that I don't see the point of doing this

well nope and that's the right choice trusting anonymous fans on the internet isn't a safe move. they will listen to properly registered fans that aren't anonymous giving mass polite opinions on the costumer service(being polite, in high numbers and ridiculously methodical always works)

NOA said about Operation Rainfall that they listen to fans but wont decide things based on fan demand and I reckon NOJ are even more stubborn.

They do ask some specific questions when registering games on club nintendo like whether or not you have played other games in the series, how much you enjoyed it, and whether or not you played the game using 3D (when it's a 3DS game). So I'm sure the answers they get from those are sorted in a database that shows them what their most popular series' are and which titles they should be focusing their efforts on producing.

Do Nintendo even listen to those Club Nintendo surveys?

Well, if you were running a huge business, would you search random forums on the internet and read what fans think will "save Nintendo"?

people who post their oppinions on forums and the like are in the minority of nintendo fans. and as much as all off us like the idea of majoras mask 2 or star fox 64 2 we dont have all the numbers that nintendo does. nintendo knows whats best for them much better than any off us ever will.

Well, there must be a reason why they closed down their own forums _{at least for the time being.}

I'm sure they do, or else they wouldn't collect that information in the first place. Maybe their decision to release the 2DS was influenced by people saying the didnt or hardly used the 3D feature?

yup no one does surveys without wanting data(except those fake surveys that only serve to fill people's computers with viruses)

I think they care. It just seem like they're really out of touch with their fans and the gaming community as a whole.

Nintendo has history and traditions. Of course they notice things that fans like and don't like but Nintendo is trying to stay true to their heritage. If Nintendo didn't care then they would have been out of business a LONG time ago. They want to be different but still enjoyable. It is said that Iwata bowed for 3 seconds at 45 degrees. This in Japan is a symbol of being sorry and showing respect. They truly understand things need to change but they want to change in a way that is still Nintendo. So expect things to be different then the competition.

nintendo does give what people want, and when they do by the next week people forget and find something else to cry about.
i vote to take earthbound off vc to punish you all. sometimes you dont know what youve got until its gone.
everyone wanted sengoku 3 and dungeons and dragons chronicles of mystara for months, and i had to read everyone crying about it.
when they got here no one had anything to say about said games anymore. but everyone just had to have them. two days later its like it never happened and instead of playing those wanted games time was spent on asking for more.

Nintendo has abandoned us.

you mean youre backing off your "Rare Downloads" plan to make all rare games super expensive?
but yeah players forget they wanted what they're given right after getting it.

absolutely not. my greed for other peoples money is far more important then caring about what anyone else wants.

I sure hope they don't, otherwise their entire release schedule would consist of franchise entries and no new titles. They do enough fan service as it is!

they don't care about fans, but do care about overreacting parents...... they won't listen to millions of fans calling for region free or account system but one or two parents complain about inappropriate content on swapnote or MiiVerse they rush to take action even if it angers thousands of users who were happy the service as it was

Something a lot of people seem to be missing, here, that seems blatantly obvious to me is that Nintendo's higher ups speak primarily Japanese, and only rudimentary English. They also primarily live in Japan, and local content filters to make it easier to read Japanese messages over American or European ones. Obviously, this is the reason NoA and NoE exist, but even then, Sakurai, Miyamoto, and Iwata all hear the Japanese opinions far louder and far clearer than they'll ever hear the American or European opinions.

And with cultural differences comes content that will appeal to one community far better than it will to another.

I watched a video recently about why we play games and what needs in our lives they fill. The Japanese as a culture have a heavy emphasis on precision. This is what led to such a heavy concentration of platformers and rhythm games, as these tested and sharpened that precision. This is undoubtedly why there are so many platformers on the Wii U. NoJ is stocking up on what has been selling to Japan, so far, but as Iwata has stated, they completely missed the Western market with their assumptions.

The Western world is extremely diverse in culture, and as such you need representatives in many regions to read it with any kind of accuracy. Here in Arkansas, relatedness is a big need that we like to fill with gaming. We often play games to connect with others and especially on the Uni campus, I see a lot of this. People play FPSs. They play Sports games. They play LoL and Magic. They never play alone. There's even a large group of students that come down on designated days and times to play Project M for hours on end. This is a market that Nintendo has outright failed to appeal to, and unfortunately for them, it's not even remotely uncommon in the US, being that the US is a very spacious country. We yearn to feel connected, where the Japanese don't need such a thing, cause honestly, they could walk outside and talk to their neighbors to feel connected.

I could go on like this four hours, but I think I'll cut it off for my sake and yours, as well. My point is just that Nintendo does care, but they can't hear your muffled screams over the din of the Japanese masses. You're gonna have to speak way louder than a forum board can facilitate, in order to get the message across.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Bear in mind that that inappropriate content wasn't just inappropriate, it was entirely illegal, in most countries. Nintendo most certainly could not have left that kind of content on their servers. Their reaction to the SwapNote issues was not just understandable, I'd argue that it's the only safe option they had, given what they knew, at the time.