There are three guarantees in life:
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Death
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Taxes
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A video game boycott will never succeed.
It’s not really about boycotts not working.
It’s that a handful of people virtue signaling about how bad X game/company is on niche social media communities don’t matter if their opinions aren’t aligned with your average person.
Most people just enjoy games as a hobby and treat it the same way they treat picking something to watch on Netflix.
I would wager they many of the same people arguing for a boycott went on to purchase it anyway. Opinions are free, as long as it doesn’t affect your life in any way.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that’ll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of “I’m the kind of person willing to boycott” for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
…I have thought about it and it is interesting that “virtue signal” is such a dirty word now. When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice, but nobody calls me the bad word for that. Although I understand that the current use of “virtue signal” is more about people you find to be sanctimonious and obnoxious online who you personally don’t think actually bother with real activism, just online keyboard warrior-ing, and not about any type of “hi, I am not horrible to interact with” social signaling ever.
I have thought about it and it is interesting that “virtue signal” is such a dirty word now. When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice
“Virtue signalling” implies a level of hypocrisy. Like, you don’t really care about the underlying issue, and only cares in reality to look like you do.
When you say “please” and “thank you” you are being polite. You may be “virtue signalling” politeness when in truth you are an asshole, but I would be unable to tell, so I give the benefit of doubt.
By the way, I dislike the term “virtue signalling” as I think it was overused to the point of meaninglessness, and I have an issue with that. On top of that, sometimes performative actions do matter to call attention to a given cause. Things are more nuanced sometimes.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that’ll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of “I’m the kind of person willing to boycott” for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
It’s not really a boycott if you never really planned on buying the product. Otherwise, I’m technically boycotting Apple and Ford. Because I don’t buy Apply products and I don’t buy Ford cars.
When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice…
Those are specific actions you are taking in being kind and nice towards another person in reality. However, if you were to make a comment on Lemmy about how kind of a person you are because you claim you say “please” and “thank you” all the time, then that would be virtue signaling, because making claims about what you do or care about on social media is relatively meaningless without the specific actions being taken outside of that context.
So, in this case, talking about how evil Nintendo is for pricing a game at $80, what does that do exactly? Why should anyone else listen or care about someone expressing that opinion? Are you joining activist groups and spending time or money pushing for laws/politicians/etc to enact change to fight back against these actions? If so, then that’s not virtue signaling. But I’m unconvinced most people expressing these opinions and upvoting/downvoting posts and comments are doing anything beyond exactly that.
Most charitable interpretation: social pressure to get others to not buy, thereby hurting Nintendo just that bit more. I can say I was planning on buying a Switch at one point, but all these comments and news posts about anticompetitive practices have turned me away and slotted me in the “not buying” category.
Somewhat charitable interpretation: maybe venting outrage? Frustration at being the little guy in this situation who can’t do much? If you hate homelessness you can go volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter or donate money to either two, but if you hate these rising prices not much I’m aware of that you can do besides raging online and hoping you turn others away from buying. Although to be fair, you just proposed some things. Promoting other games instead could also help.
I don’t care too much about virtue signaling. What bothers me is people getting nasty and personal, and unfortunately that often happens in Company Does Bad Thing comment sections, so I’ve learned not to click on them. I should probably change that to big company news at all. I say this all because I want to say thanks for kind of disagreeing with me while also not being awful to me in this discussion. But I get how virtue signaling can annoy others.
There’s a switch 2 boycott?
An intentional boycott, no. But we don’t know how a console will do by its launch. The Wii U and 3DS sold out at launch too after having very successful predecessors. It wouldn’t be people intentionally boycotting that would humble Nintendo, but the masses just deciding it’s not worth their money for them or their kids. We’ll see what they do.
That’s why i was honestly surprised they sell it for that “cheap” the numbers would’ve been pretty similar for 50-100 dollars more.
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I find it ridiculously impressive given how abhorrently expensive purchasing and owning it is.
Honestly compared to other handhelds and current-gen consoles, the price seems OK for what you’re getting. The problem for me has always been how expensive Nintendo’s games are, $80 seems way too much.
As if, the console’s a scam and the game pricing is just the cherry on top. Half committing to caring about how much things cost is a waste of time, either acknowledge they’re both garbage or stop spreading this half assed attitude.
Didn’t realise that consoles were sports teams that you were either in the club or out of it. OP is allowed to have a nuanced take.
The Switch 2 being a bad deal and Nintendo having a VERY strong history of anti-consumer behavior has nothing to do with console wars. The person you are replying to is equally allowed to have a nuanced take.
What, are you expecting every comment critical of Nintendo to also include criticism of how terribly Xbox has managed it’s game studios just so we can be “fair and balanced”?
The comment I replied to believed that both the console and the game price is a scam, that is their valid opinion.
They criticised OP for “half caring about the rip off pricing”. OP didn’t think the console had ripoff pricing. Why is that a character flaw of op like is suggested by the commenter?
Bro said Black and white unironically
the console’s a scam
Then point me to another handheld that can do the same thing for $450
Isn’t the cheapest steam deck $480? Does the switch do something more or less the same?
The steam deck doesn’t come with a dock, has a worse screen at 800p/60Hz compared to the S2’s 1080p/120Hz, is way larger and thicker, doesn’t have detachable controllers so if you do buy the dock you’ll have to bring your own controller. It also can’t play in a kickstand mode which is a negative if you’re wanting to play with friends outside which is something I do often with my Switch 1.
I like the Steam Deck, really, but it’s not a 1:1 comparison and I think the average person will still really prefer the Switch 2.
Do what? Play one game?
Removed by mod
Especially when you need new controllers because they aren’t really bothered to fix the stick drift
It really isn’t. Nintendo consoles always sell out at launch. It’s how they’re doing six months or so later that actually matters.
Nintendo has spent decades building an extremely loyal, multigenerational consumer base. They also release very popular, high quality games. I have no interest in owning a Switch, but I get why so many people do.
And the masses have been conditioned to accept the corporate anti-consumer “you will own nothing and you will like it” MO.
Yeah, PC gamers bent the knee to Steam decades ago at this point. This isn’t exactly a brand new issue.
The vast majority of Steam games can be easily cracked and played offline if they ever go rogue. Modern console games are much more difficult to jailbreak like that.
Except that they are not high-quality. For example, Pokemon Scarlet.
Ah yes, the one Nintendo IP that has gone to shit. Not fully by the way, as Legends Arceus was fantastic, and even my mom who hasn’t given a fuck about Pokemon since Yellow loved watching me play it. If Gamefreak would finally make another side game like Mystery Dungeon (or the more forgotten cult classics like Pokepark, Ranger, Conquest, Rumble, etc.) we wouldn’t be trolling them so hard. It’s also more of a Gamefreak problem than anything, as other companies that did Pokemon games (Chunsoft, Genius Sonority, etc.) did fantastic.
Anyway Zelda and Mario are still making bangers, Kirby Air Riders is coming back, Metroid fans are fed, Splatoon is getting a whole new game for Switch 2 (fuck me…), people are still relatively happy with Animal Crossing NH, we’ll see how Donkey Kong’s new game does, and while FE’s newest entry wasn’t so hot you can’t ignore how Three Houses brought in a brand new wave of loyal FE fans.
Literally everyone knows Pokemon mainline has been going to shit (and not the characters, designs, music, etc. imo, just the animations and story writing). Pick another game, even Nintendo (and Pokemon) fans make fun of it.
We’ll have to see how Beast of Reincarnation turns out. Gamefreak’s other side games weren’t anything spectacular, except for Smart Ball.
Are lemmites going to realise that they aren’t the majority and that there’s a whole world of different people out there.
Looks at comments
I guess not.
Yeah, I’m not happy about the Switch 2, but the amount of cope is unbelievable. I’ve seen multiple people claiming, “the Wii U sold out a launch too,” even though the Wii U sold worse than the Wii on opening weekend. The sales might still fall off a cliff in a month, but breaking the PS4’s record for launch sales is not a great sign.
"THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY THINK WE’RE GOING TO STAND FOR THIS!
I’ll take two, one for me, and one to sellHOW COME THEY KEEP DOING THIS!? DON’T THEY KNOW THEY’LL LOSE ME AS A
repeatCUSTOMER!?"And with that. Every gamer was fucked
Not yet. The 3DS and Wii U sold out at launch, too, but after the diehards all got them, nobody else wanted them. The 3DS recovered after they dropped the price by $80 6 months after launch, but the Wii U never did. Maybe that won’t happen this time and we truly are fucked, but time will tell. Historically, Nintendo fucks up after they have a successful console and get cocky with the next one.
Don’t forget that the Wii U had one of the most incompetent console marketing campaigns of all time. Just two years ago I met someone who still didn’t know it was a console and not an accessory.
That’s true, but that alone doesn’t account for how just how bad it did. The idea that Nintendo consoles are always bought up by lots of people no matter what is completely untrue. One big advantage they’ve always had that they no longer do is affordability compared to the competition. What will determine whether it’s a success will ultimately be how many good exclusive games they can pump out, and their track record has been awful since the launch of the Switch. A very large chunk were Wii U ports, which worked because nobody had one, but they’re already heavily shilling Switch 1 upsells. Diehards will of course snatch them up, but with 150 million Switches out there I question how interested the masses will be in them. If Nintendo seriously ups their game and consistently puts out new good games, I imagine people will stomach the prices. But are they even capable of that any more?
Aside from the analog sticks, the console itself seems like a fine upgrade from the original making it a tempting for anyone looking for “Switch Pro”. But it’ll be intersting to see how the price of games and the digital key aspect will affect the game sales down the line.
Steam Deck and other portable pc:s seem to be also getting a lot of momentum so there’s increasing amount of competition for handheld devices which was not really the chase with Switch 1.
PC handhelds are nowhere near switch + switch 2, 3.5M units almost equal total number of Steam Decks sold since its launch in 2022.
Not yet, but availability of steam decks and other pc handhelds is improving rapidly. Valve also just recently allowed other manufacturers like Lenovo to produce their own devices.
PC gaming is currently overshadowing console gaming and these pc handhelds are just extension of that.
There’s no competition for handhelds dude l. This the switch 2… there was one before it. And it’s a console. Mthe steam deck came out after the switch, you could emulate like 95% of the switch library on the steamd deck plus steam games plus wharever you wanted. I’d imagine in 2-3 years the steam deck 2 will come out. But all this is is just a console vs a PC… Still… Just like before. Nintendo kant shaking anything up except that every company will now sell games at $80. Nintendo fucked everyone
How?
Did you all forget that Sony has been selling games at US$80 since 2020?
Could you name one game please.
The Last of Us Part 1.
$70. Can you name another one with accuracy though.
We get stories like this all the time.
Was the switch 2 a successful launch from a monetary perspective: Hopefully
But people also have to understand. Gaming gets more and more mainstream every year AND population increases every year. Of course units sold are going to increase. The last time we had a console launch was 2020-ish. It has been five years of new people getting into video games and so forth.
Its similar logic to any time we see “Call of Auto 789151 is the fastest selling Call of Auto ever!”… Of course it is. If it wasn’t then that would be a huge red flag for the franchise.
I do always love “records” that are effectively population increases.
Just like when people share maps of data that are effectively just showing population distribution.
Gran Theft Duty
Users, or scalpers looking to score?
Yea was thinking the same thing. “How many of those are scalpers?”
Gamers have to be the dumbest market of consumers out of them all.
I had to block the Nintendo communities because it’s beyond infuriating how god damn fucking stupid Nintendo fanboys are. They do not listen to logic or reason.
I guess it wasn’t too expensive after all.
Four days?
They were gone day one where I live. Where the fuck did people find them 4 days after release?
I think some websites sold theirs in staggered batches rather than just letting them all sell out on day 1
To be expected, mainstream audiences would pay Nintendo to fuck them up the arse if it meant more Mario.
Id pay for Luigi to fuck my ass.
Just like the horse armor, people complain and complain and then fork over the money anyway.
Man, the comment section here is wild! If we would all listen to Lemmy, we would need to boycott: Nintendo, Sony, Windows, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Pokemon, Disney+, Netflix, every other streaming service that exists. We also need to boycott Fromsoftware a little bit because for some reason a 40$ game is a scam…
It’s feels impossible to talk about anything positive in most of Lemmy’s sub’s. People here are calling people dumb and stupid for having fun with a console, while they suck off Steam that also just shut down a Fan Mod for Counter Strike and unless other Fan Games, they had approval to develop it.
If we would all listen to Lemmy, we would need to boycott: Nintendo, Sony, Windows, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Pokemon, Disney+, Netflix
I do boycott all of these as well as EA (made an exception for Split Fiction), most fast food restaurants, and I am trying to use Amazon significantly less.
