Site News: Love What We Do? Become A Nintendo Life Supporter!

Not looking to add yet another subscription to my life, but I love reading NL, so I sincerely hope you guys get a lot of support from this.

I am intrigued.

I think this is a pretty good idea. I’m gonna wait a while to get the subscription myself, but the low price and additional benefits seems like a good plan here. Good job!

Nope. Good luck though there’s plenty if whales with disp income..

Ad-free.

This is the way.

I like this plan, and support the endeavor! Currently in a bad place financially and had to discontinue my monthly subscriptions, but hoping to have a stable full time job in the coming months. (If anyone needs a salesforce/crm admin, hit me up!)

Broke now, but you will have my future money.

I would, but this site is a bit too pro Nintendo. Some practices you defend is a turn off. If there was more people on staff too counter those pro views, I would give it a go.

I've never found the ads on NintendoLife particularly intrusive, unlike some other sites. For example as I am currently viewing this page there isn't a single one. I don't mind helping out as I use the site a lot but I would like some extra perks.

I know you said you didn't want to paywall stuff but what about a subscriber only podcast?

Edit: I have just remembered I use an ad-blocker. Even so a quick check with it turned off and things still aren't too bad. Hopefully they don't pull a Eurogamer and block you from viewing the site until you turn off the adblock.

Since NintendoLife is also getting a Twitch channel with Alex, I would love if being a NL supporter would also make you a member of the NL channel. Just an idea, maybe not possible to turn into reality, but would absolutely be an incentive for me to become a supporter!

Anyway, been a member here for 11 years and I still come her often because of the good content, I might become a supporter in the future.

Very cool! This website has been a staple in my life for a very long time, and I have truly appreciated all of the free content it has and continues to provide. This is a great option to support a site you love.

👍 Kudos, NL. You're an invaluable resource.

Paying only the half of 8$ for a blue thing next to my name sounds tempting.
But I consume NL content mainly via Youtube and already support you via Youtube Premium subscription, so: No.

Right on, just please don’t go back on your word. Please ensure that content is freely accessible indefinitely.

My browser already makes me 100% ad free, but on EVERY website I visit.

Just out of interest would you (I’m guessing not) be willing to say whether you make more money from a subscriber or someone who browses without an ad blocker.

If you use an ad blocker then shame on you.

@Spider-Kev Well done you. Now if you’d like to support the site without depriving it of its sole source of revenue, you have that option too.

@Zuljaras Yeah, I doubt that will do anything. Even with sites that detect ad block there exists tools to get around them.

Not the best move while inflation is running rampant but I guess at least this is purely optional and no content will get locked behind a paywall.....for now, hope that doesn't change. Since this site doesn't actually recognize Canada as a separate country when talking about North America (despite us sharing the SAME monarch as Head of State and being in the Commonwealth together) and your Codes Shop doesn't work on Canadian digital store fronts, I see no reason to add yet another subscription to my monthly bills but I guess kudos to those [Americans] you favour who'll get to take full advantage of your incentives. For now I'll keep browsing your sites without an ad blocker so you still get that support at least.

I love visiting this site every day. I can’t support unfortunately, but I deeply appreciate that you are not placing a paywall on content. I hope this works out for you kind people!

@DarthFoxMcCloud Well, I mean if you had to pick, you would go with the most profitable. America of course.

Even most youtubers in Canada and Europe will admit that most of their viewers and support come from Americans. America when compared to Canada is simply more profitable so you appeal to the latter more.

There really doesn't seem to be any incentive here, as far as I can tell; you're basically just paying for nothing--especially if you already use ad blockers. If you want to ask users to donate to keep the site afloat, that's your prerogative, but this by no means sounds like you're providing a service--at least in its current state.

Make the perks more like Patreon. Have like an exclusive weekly podcast with Alex and Co., a private Discord where NL members and staff can connect with each other, weekly streams for online games like Mario Kart and Smash Bros. where anyone who pays can join and appear in a Twitch/YouTube video. Maybe this is a bit much, but what if you allowed contributors to write their own editorial piece(s)? That'd be awesome. Maybe you'd discover some talented writers you'd like to hire on full-time. As an English major with a love of creative writing, I would seriously consider paying to get my own soapbox articles on this site.

While I've frequented this site for many years now and appreciate what it has to offer, I guess I'm just not a good enough Samaritan to be even remotely interested in signing up for this in its current state. Frankly, I expected to see a way more negative reaction, i.e. "What is this, Twitter Blue? I didn't know Elon Musk was running this site!" But I'm really shocked to see the amount of commenters here who have already committed. Don't expect me to be one, but if you implement the ideas I named above, I'd seriously think about it.

I hope that even for those of us who don't pay, this will enable NL to improve the site's performance for all its visitors. This website crashes more often than any other site I use regularly. Sometimes I get a 404 error or the loading circle just keeps spinning when I'm trying to post a comment. Then you hit Submit multiple times and accidentally end up spamming in the comments. Not as much of an issue in more recent years, but it does still happen. Then there's problems of people feeling like the moderation is overly strict--I see a couple comments have been removed here already for being "unconstructive." I think this site still has a lot of growing to do, and I just don't want this to become the equivalent of NSO, where you're paying for no real improvements to the online infrastructure.

.. People have ads on this site?

There is too much censorship and no freedom of speech, probably some modern american trends, idk. Which is funny considering my country was 40 years isolated in communism but now it is exactly the opposite. So... yeah, keep the articles coming but I will be mostly only watching it.

With the amount of trolls that come through, along with the articles that incite arguing, there's no way I would want to pay for that experience, honestly.

I'm tempted too - I do visit the site quite regularly (and pushsquare and even a bit of purexbox).

If you could offer paying subscribers a custom feed view based on the topics they follow then I'd join in a heart-beat, I couldn't care less about things like Amiibo, first 4 figures or Pokemon but have to scroll through a lot of junk to get to the stuff I'm actually interested in, so that would easily be worth the extra cost

@Ooyah That's nice and all, but people enjoy getting something in return for spending money. If it's free then they already have the best deal.

It's nice if you want to support something cause you care, but to others it's fair to ponder the worth of such a trade. Paying what you already get for free will naturally make people say "Well why bother then."

@antdickens Personally, I think it'd push an incentive to support Hookshot Media if there were some extra tools or something for paying. The badge is a good start.

Maybe make it so paid members get to filter out article topics they don't care about, or give them priority over other comments so they always appear at the top on articles. Don't paywall existing content, make new features and paywall those. As it stands now, I'll just support by leaving ads on, even though they only work on the home page...

@antdickens thanks for the reply. I guess that makes sense. Much as I have been vocally critical of the site at times (and still DESPISE the redesign 😂) I was trying to work out how best to support. If I keep coming I should support either with adverts or subscription.

@DreamlandGem Thanks, I appreciate that. If your team steps up moderation, I could see it being worthwhile. It's especially prevalent on articles that incite arguing, such as stuff to do with emulation or scalping.

@SonOfDracula I have been here for some months now and I disagree. When compared to other sites, the trolls here are minimum. Rarely do I see such comment sections go off the rails.

Articles that incite argument. I can't think of one article that actually did that. So I disagree again.

@Tainaru I believe Nintendo Life is British, where freedom of speech isn't an enshrined right. They're probably mostly following British hate speech laws. But it could also be this is a family website, so no slurs or swears coupled with the rules of speaking off topic or spamming keep things orderly.

@Zuljaras
Ad blocker built into the browser, no way to disable.
Even blocks the cookies pop ups asking about confirmation, it automatically denies them all.

@Not_Soos
Those are excellent ideas and suggestions, let's hope NL sees it

@Spider-Kev which browser?

Back in the day, we used to gladly pay for a monthly copy of EGM, Game Pro or Mean Machines. And then still have to see ads (although print ads were much more fun and creative than annoying digital ads). I'll definitely consider supporting since I'm always visiting NL for gaming news.

@Tourtus Might be. I am ok with censoring hate speech but there is no space for criticism either. Why to censor someone just for saying negative opinions on the topic? Is it bad that someone does not like what most others do? Honestly, that is what I do not understand.

@Maxz
The FBI recommends using an ad-blocker as malware usually distributed via ads. I don't use a ad-blocker for NL, but only block scripts / cookies, which track users across websites. Unfortunatly, this blocks every ad here too.

Being able to pay for an ad-free website, is a great option. And I already do this for a few other (non-gaming) sites. But I cannot pay 4-5€ per month for every website I visit regularly.

I currently have 49 people in my ignore / block list. Most of the articles have either a clickbait title or reveal game spoilers in the title, icon or paragraph shown on the main page. Also a lot of focus on posting articles around tweets or yt-video's of "irrelevant" people. And more "guides" that are just multiple referal links to webshops.

On the other hand, no really in depth articles, less reviews, and less qualitiy in general of news posts / articles.

No I really don't see a reason to pay twice the base Nintendo Switch Online amount per year for this website.

@GoshJosh I already gave examples of what types of articles caused it, right above your reply to me in fact. And while it's fine to disagree, your opinion does not negate the experience of others.

Last thing I would want is this site to devolve into something awful the likes of Kotaku or something. That user-base is insanely toxic, with little to no moderation.

@sanderev Also I want to add that at times it seems Nintendolife will pick a subject and then milk every insignificant thing about it.

When the Mario trailer dropped, did we really need 5 separate articles?

It is something I might consider. But that being said, the way I would prefer to support the site is by writing articles. I do have a background in English, with an emphasis on creative and persuasive writing, and (obviously) a passion for all things Nintendo.

Plus, being a journalistic contributor to this site would help me get my foot in the door for my dream job, which is to work at Nintendo. After all, a couple of former IGN reporters, including Audrey Drake, left IGN to go work for Nintendo.

As someone who was horrendously bullied in school, Nintendo games--such as Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Star Fox--proved to be my form of escape from the torment. In effect, Nintendo saved my life.

It is my goal to not only pay back Nintendo for what they did for me, but to also pay it forward, so that children who find themselves in the position I was in can find some comfort in an otherwise miserable existence.

And I hope that starts here, on the venerated pages of this site. Should any of the admins ever see this comment, and you want to work together, you know where to find me: right here on this very site.

If we pay do we get nudes of grandpa damo? 😂

" Tip what you like (optionally pay above minimum)"

um, why on earth would you block people giving you tip money behind a paywall @antdickens ? And how is paying more a "perk" to people who pay, sounds more like a perk for you guys? Unless you wanted to make tipping open to everyone to help support the site, but couldn't figure how to make it work from a software coding/banking aspect so only paying customers could do it? Even so, hard to label that as a perk I think. 🤷‍♂️

Good call on the MK8 infinity logo for paying customers. 👍 You get permission from Ninty for that or you expecting the ninjas to swoop in at any moment? You've covered enough lawsuits over the years to know how overly protective they are.

Can't believe you forced the MK8 logo on Sammy's site, you couldn't make it a Sony X or something over there? 😝

And miss out on those velveeta cheese ads?!

Jokes aside this is a good idea to give people options. I regularly click on the ads tho 😂

@antdickens Ah, damo's side piece the Time Extension website, got it.😉 With only 1-2 comments per article I don't expect you to get a lot of paying customers over there but I guess it's a nice little added benefit for people paying for PS or NL. The PureX crowd is also kinda limited in that dept, those 2 peeps you got to sign up may be about it. (insert cheap American joke here 🤑 )

Good luck, I'll let ya get back to PS, never seen you so busy over there. Congrats on successfully launch a "paid subscription" website, that's no small feat.

@Poco_Lypso
Brave Browser
The icon looks like an orange Lion head

@Spider-Kev thanks! Gotta check that out!

@sanderev I fully agree. At least we haven't seen those crappy articles promoting shovelwares, which Nintendo life don't even bother to even test, for a while.

The quality is still lacking and I barely read 10% of the articles, trying to avoid clickbates for eShop cards.

I also unsubscribed from the YouTube channel and haven't watched a single video since one of the guys (whose name I won't mention, so don't get upset) joined the team, as he showed immaturity and a complete lack of professionalism. The other 2 are pretty great, or were? I don't know, I haven't watched any of their videos in a while because of this.

@Spider-Kev lmao! haha, feels weird to enter websites and not see any ads anymore. TYTY

This site has ads? That IS news to me!

Also haha at the little twitter-esque verification marks. Smh the future of the internet is a sad one.

@antdickens amazing! Thanks for responding to my comment, I might well stump up the cash anyway in that case

I would really like to, I visit this site several times a day and it's an invaluable source of information and news, I would have missed out on many a gem if not for you guys.

It's just the matter of asking my partner if I can sub to you guys when and I quote' I spend all our money on games' as is, and if you think about it part of it is kinda your fault, that is it certainty doesn't help matters if I'm on this site all day thinking about games, talking about games discovering new ones etcetera etcetera xD

@Poco_Lypso
Enjoy!

Damn you guys offer this on all 8 of your sister sites too? I'm starting to like nintendolife less and less.

I will definitely be subscribing soon or at some point this year! I am honestly more than happy to support Nintendo Life; I've been a reader since the days of the 3ds launch. This whole time I felt "bad" that there's no way I could support a bit more so this is a great initiative.

I mostly lurk now after being trolled by a NL staffer who never owned up to it and the various trolls that come on here. The crackdown on the comments while probably well intentioned has become censorship for the most part.

As far as paying for ad free browsing I don’t use an ad blocker on my phone but on my laptop I do. The reason is not to deny the site income but to block the scammers who track me through multiple resell info exchanges that NL, possibly unknowingly, creates. These same scammers will try to steal your information /identity for financial gain. I use location blocking and a rotating VPN’s as well. While I do see some articles of worth on here occasionally, the comparison to previous gaming magazines is not even logical. They did have ads but it was very difficult to track subscription information and you can easily ignore the ads if you wanted to. The quality and editing was also of a higher caliber.

I have been a long-time reader of Nintendo Life, all the way back to the VC-Reviews days. I have also been an infrequent commenter but frequent critic of Nintendo Life. Whether it was the linking to unlicensed Etsy merchandise for sale (which you have thankfully stopped doing), the heavy-handed moderation of certain articles and topics (especially when criticism is levied on NL and its team), or identity and environmental politics bleeding into your news and reviews (often due to the personal views of your writers), I haven't been shy about my feelings. I still visit Nintendo Life on occasion because you have the best layout of any Nintendo-specific website, but I have migrated to other news sources because they don't contain fluff or spin.

With all that being said, I do want Nintendo Life to succeed, and I don't want anyone to lose their jobs. It would be helpful if you were up front with your readership about the reasons behind the "Nintendo Life Supporter" program. Yes, demand from your readership may be part of it; however, the overarching reason is that ad revenue among Big Tech and media brands is dropping precipitously as we crawl towards a global recession. The financial lifeblood of your website is drying up, and you're trying to keep the doors open without having to cut staff or shut down websites like many of your peers. The "Nintendo Life Supporter" program is actual "life support" for your company, and while the situation may not be quite so dire right now, you are definitely trying to avert disaster. Your partner company ReedPop's bungling of E3 2023 has also not done you any favors, especially since they are Hookshot Media's "advertising sales arm"; millions of dollars in E3-related revenue are now gone, and you have little recourse.

I am glad to see your readership's positive response to the "Nintendo Life Supporter" program, and I wish you nothing but the best in your endeavors. One day, I hope I can return to Nintendo Life and be a supporter, as well. However, the new NL bears little resemblance to the website I read daily for over a decade, and it breaks my heart.

@Ooccoo_Jr I've gone back and forth using ad block with NL. I'll turn it off after a good stint of good articles, then turn it back on when I see clickbait-y headlines (most recently the Sonic Frontiers content update, I commented there about it to no response). Most recently, yesterday I think, after turning the blocker off, I was welcomed with an audio ad that randomly started playing. I know it was here because Chrome told me this was the tab that was playing sound. I wasn't even doing anything specific, I was just reading. So, the blocker went back on.

Maybe if NL could get their act together with a few things, I'd feel more inclined to support them by not constantly returning to blocking them.

NL has been a daily visit for years now - love it ! However, I hate subscriptions in general and the ads served here are game related so I don’t kind them ..:

I would kick in some cash though - as I do with a news site I like I give them a one off payment to support them , also the same with a local indie radio station. I’m happy to kick in 10 or so bucks but not regularly as my finances change every month . Anyway. Keep going !

How about NO ! 😃

Start making an actual print magazine and we can discuss cash exchanging hands

Sparks!
Nintendo Life are recruiting Moebius!

No thank you. Not a fan of subscriptions.

@sanderev So why, exactly, do you come here?

@Spider-Kev Been using Brave for many years now. No ads at all, feels great! It has blocked 839k ads and trackers on my current phone 👌

@Piyo This is very fair! I’m not really saying that anyone should do anything, but this feature is in part a response to readers saying that they use ad-blockers but want to support the site at the same time. This gives them the option, which I think is only a good thing!

@Key19 It's nearly the only site with the most relevant Nintendo news. GoNintendo is not much anymore, only "Nintendoeverything" really still stands. And I've not interacted with that site enough.

Also I'd be fine if Nintendolife would focus more on just Nintendo (and games on Nintendo systems)

@sanderev Makes sense.

@NorwegianMate
I use it on my phone and computer!

Thank God you guys aren't paywalling. I'm paycheck to paycheck usually and don't drink coffee lol. My fav anime watching site I've used for 7+ years actually started charging the same but decided to paywall everything, free users can only watch 5mins of an episode now ☠️, forcing me to leave them 😩😢 and use my backup site as my main.

I don't actually have a backup nintendosite. I'm grateful you guys are willing to keep it free. Thank you ❤️.

Not a fan of elitism, which that infinity banner feels like. Never gonna subscribe when my data and clicks generate enough for NL. Roll on the days when we get the power to sell and profit from our own data and info.

I'll pass on the paid subscription, just don't double the amount of ads for us cheapos. We can get content anywhere these days.

@Spider-Kev "Ad blocker built into the browser, no way to disable." "Brave browser"
What do you mean you can't disable ad-blocking in Brave? There's a dedicated icon for it. You can also choose to disable ads only on certain websites.

@sanderev "I currently have 49 people in my ignore / block list."
Right, ok. That reminds me of the guy who had a bit of moldy cheese in his moustache, who went around convinced it was everyone else that smelled bad.

In the video games industry, my priority are games. I support some developers, including emulator developers and emulator forks developers to play games that I own on GameCube and Wii but can't play on any modern hardware in 4K otherwise. The Switch games I play are original and I have a Switch Lite. So yes, I support developers to play emulated games that I own. I was one of the first to rip my Gamecube and Wii discs on my Wii, so I didn't need to look for the files elsewhere. Perfectly legal and a way to preserve and enhance games that Nintendo doesn't offer but Microsoft does via the free enhanced backwards compatibility. Nintendo is a light-year behind.

I'm a writer and musician. Regarding supporting Hookshot Media sites, in spite of the clicks burst, I think that the quality of them, NL in particular, is much lower than years ago, plus the distance between the staff and readers is longer everyday. Just read how this article is written, the short notice between testing the waters and the implementation and how the feedback was mostly ignored, not to mention "the cost of a coffee" here.

If the quality of the content was higher and the moderation was better, it would be different. By better moderation, I mean allowing users to express their opinions regarding the topics that are discussed by the staff freely and not being dogmatic about their content, their decisions and the reactions they trigger. There is no self-criticism here. Eurogamer's quality is also much lower now but, at least once, they wrote an article admitting their partial failure where many users posted their honest opinions and that they had stopped reading them. They have additional issues that NL doesn't have like getting mixed up in political affairs and I applaud NL for that. My opinion is not related to anything political.

However, reading the comments, I feel that half of the users are not being sincere because the dynamic of this site is narcissist and the comments that are allowed and encouraged are aligned. Somehow, it's a reflection of today's Nintendo.

Some users are radical fans but some are very interesting to read, though. Most of the times, I find the most precise, clarifying and honest words in the comments section, not just in news but articles about video games history or any other gaming topic. The knowledge of some users is rewarding but it's ironic to get better content in the comments section than in the articles.

This is good, the ad-based economy needs to die.

I come here a little more than I did a few years ago, but not as much as I used to.
Alex really p*ssed me off years ago.
I'm glad he's mostly gone now.
I don't use you tube, I don't use any streaming services.
NintendoLife and NintendoEverything are the only sites I visit for Nintendo stuff.
I used to visit Zelda Dungeon and the other one before they merged. Haven't thought of them in years.
Most websites fold and quickly so no point in paying, especially, as one user above said, that it costs more than Nintendo charges for their online service.

This website is great, and I really appreciate all the content. It’s the only website that I come to several times a day. I unfortunately can’t support right now, but hopefully I can someday!

. I like adverts so I know what to not buy xxx

Maybe if my comments didn't get unalived most of the time I'd support.
But then again I'm already using ad blockers🤷🏾‍♂️

With the due respect. I prefer to have some advs rather than paying for a useless subscription. Same contents. I can live with the advs. if they become too invasive to the point of making the articles hard to read, I will move on.

If this was NL from the 3DS/WiiU era I might have considered it but things have changed, both the community and the staff, and I don't like the direction it went. I basically only come here to quickly check if I somehow missed any news at this point.

But I am seeing positive reception and a couple of verification icons so there seems to be an audience.

Yeah, not happening.

@NPC411 Could you recommend any alternative websites? Like you, I'm annoyed by NL's left leaning tendencies.

So liking comments will be behind a paywall? Not good.

I am willing to pay something extra, as I visit Nintendolife and Pushsquare on a daily basis, but feel the perks of a paid account are not worth it. I would love some QOL additions (like a better mobile experience) or exclusive content/deals for subscribers.

@DreamlandGem Why is it on the Supporter Program then, and not in the Standard column?

@DreamlandGem Yep, that's the same list as in the article.
I think "tip what you like" was unclear then. It means you can pay extra for the Supporter Program if you prefer to do so, right?

@HerMajestysmyPronoun Nintendo Everything reports "just the news" and doesn't add any opinion to it, and you aren't bombarded with opinion pieces, "game lists" regarding social/political topics, or reviews that emphasize the reviewer's social/political leanings. However, Nintendo Everything's front page layout is archaic and needs a redesign, which makes it frustrating to find all the news for a given day without having to scroll and click through multiple pages. The only alternatives I have found are to follow your favorite developers directly on social media (yeah, I know, gross) or check the communities for various franchises on Reddit or Discord (once again, gross). For instance, Nintendo is extremely quick to announce anything new about its first-party titles on Facebook (to the point where it actually spoils things for me if I haven't gotten to watch a Nintendo Direct yet), and the Splatoon community on Reddit is very quick to report any news (though there can be tons of ridiculous posts to sift through). Between Nintendo Everything and social media of varying kinds, you will find "just the news".

99% of the complaints about NL noted in comments above could be fixed with the simple (in)action of not clicking on posts that contain content that's not "just the news." They're REALLY easy to spot. And now you have the option to read the "just the news" posts (along with the ridiculously deep review archive) without ads. Simple as that.

@NPC411 Thanks, I appreciate it.

@Spider-Kev You're totally right about the site buddy, also about Alex, you were not the only one.