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TalkBack / Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards

« on: November 18, 2011, 08:05:47 PM »

Uh... wow.

Anyway, I thought I'd chime in once more. Somebody did make the point that it's a blog post... which is fine, but it was linked at the very top of the site as one of it's major news articles. Kind of a blog in name only at that point, isn't it?

I would like to defend something though.

Although he may not have approached it in the best way with his first post (and maybe I didn't either), I really do agree with the sentiment that many media outlets, both for Nintendo and all systems, consistently ignore the company's best points in favor of constant cynicism over well... everything.

Nintendo is absolutely not perfect yes, and absolutely not above criticism. That's undeniable. But I feel like the pervasive media attitude for Nintendo these days is one of absolute hostility.

It's very difficult for Nintendo fans to find a place to read up on the company without being hit by a blast of overdone negativity... about everything. And I don't feel that's warranted at all.

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TalkBack / Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards

« on: November 04, 2011, 02:54:00 PM »

I'm a little late on this, and I have no idea if this is still a relevant discussion (probably not) but I'll reply anyway.

To the author of the article: I did reply to the post that you cited as an example of why the rewards aren't free. I just can't, in any way of looking at it, view those items as what I'm spending 50 dollars for. This month, I'm buying Skyward Sword, not a work around to get a hat. And as I pointed out, I've seen these items sold on Ebay for far less, without having to buy an expensive game.

The concept of seeing a 200 hundred coin reward, and going, "Oh man, that bag costs 200 dollars!" is completely asinine.

Could those cards have been better? Does Japan get better rewards in general? Yup, and yes that does deserve criticism. But it deserves reasonable criticism that we could all learn from, not the writer lashing out at the entire Club Nintendo store and even the 3DS for no good reason. Had you just reported that fact without all the negativity and exaggeration, I would have just read your opinion, and just taken it into consideration with others I've seen.

I'm not offended. In fact, I'm pretty sure I must have been linked to an article of yours that I quite liked at some point in time as your name seems familiar. But the tone of this article just irritated me, despite being quite informative in other ways.

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TalkBack / Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards

« on: October 31, 2011, 07:34:43 PM »

Except that these aren't "free rewards".  They are incentives to purchase Nintendo 1st party software new and preferably near their original release date, and to even get these incentives you have to supply Nintendo with marketing data via the surveys.

And let's take a look at that "free" angle again.  Let's assume a couple of things for the purposes of easy math:

1.  You're only buying Wii retail games at full retail price (rounded up a penny to $50).  No sales.
2.  You only concern yourself with the registration and post-play survey coins (60 total).

According to Halbred, these useless cards were 300 coins or the value of 5 Wii 1st party retail games.

5 x $50 = $250.  These cards cost you $250 in Nintendo Wii 1st party retail purchases, maybe around $150 when you factor in things like sales and VC/WiiWare releases.  Maybe you were going to buy those 5 games anyway, and maybe you weren't.  Maybe you only bought some of them because you were mildly curious and wanted the coins.  Regardless, do these cards look like they're worth what the player has to pay to obtain them? 

This cheap crap on Club Nintendo certainly isn't free, and Nintendo of America has an obligation to have the things on the service worth getting, especially since there have been some genuinely good stuff on the store in Japan and Europe.

But is anyone really buying New Super Mario Bros Wii for the coins? No, they're buying it for the game. Whatever plushie, towel, or end of year bonus gift Nintendo happens to send your way is just that: a bonus. Even the surveys tend to be short and to the point.

And if somebody really is buying games to rack up coins and not for the games themselves (My mind is blown), they should be made aware that this stuff regularly sells on Ebay for far, far less than having to buy a bunch of games.

And minus two popularity points (TM) on my post. Really? How about the downvoters come in here and explain why I'm so wrong for making the points that I did? Or are you too busy opening wide? I hope that's not the case, and you have a genuine disagreement with my post - I'd be glad to discuss it.

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TalkBack / Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards

« on: October 31, 2011, 07:20:13 PM »

I understand people not taking kindly to the snark, but the history cards reward is cheap and the 3DS line-up (both at launch and today) is incredibly weak.

For people who have a limited number of Club Nintendo points, it's worth knowing that there are better places to spend them on this unimpressive collectible.

It's not that I think the 3DS launch lineup is perfect or that the history cards reward is beyond any criticism. I take issue with his exaggerations and whining. To say there were no good games at 3DS launch is an out-and-out fallacy. The same tone extends to the rest of the article - He might be a genuinely good guy, but here he comes off whining and entitled. It's annoying, and he should stop it.

I like my articles to be a genuine, realistic look at things. Not a competition to see how much snark can be added to each line for cool factor. We have enough of that crap on the internet as is.

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TalkBack / Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards

« on: October 31, 2011, 10:31:09 AM »

Lol, it's funny that I should see this story today. I stopped coming here not too long after Berghammer stopped running the site. Basically, it'd just become a center for all the NWR/PGC writers that were left to nonstop whine and complain about the most petty things and trumpet how Nintendo was "DOOOOOOOOMED" if they didn't go "MATTTTOOOOR" with their games. Yeah, you guys were totally right about that one.

I check out this story today, mildly interested in the reward, and it's (about the petty things) still the same crap. Shall we dissect a few of your offending points and make you just a little less prone to excessive hyperbole? I think we should.

1. No good games? Really, bro? I can understand wanting more of a killer app for launch, but there were *plenty* of good and fun games available for launch. And I'm sure you know that, so I'll refrain from list wars. Half an OS, I'll give you. There certainly are some features I was missing and still even want.

2. Excessive complaining about a free collectible? Come on. Of course all the info is available on wikipedia. Heck, I'm sure a lot of Nintendo fans can recite the info from memory. That's not the point. It's a cool little collectible freebie for long time fans to keep and hang onto. Like your wife said, I wouldn't be surprised if some fans frame them. You sound more like you want an in-depth 200 hundred page glossy history of handhelds book to put on your coffee table. Me too actually, but that's just not something that's going to happen as a free reward. Your expectations are off-the-wall unrealistic here.

And finally, just drop the snark and entitlement. Nintendo doesn't have to give you rewards at all, you realize that? You spent your money on games. These items are just free bonuses, and generally pretty nice ones at that.