Nintendo Fans Are Too Entitled, And It’s Time to Change the Culture

entitled Nintendo fans - entitled gamer subculture in a nutshell

We’ve all had our moments where we’ve been entitled gamers. There is an underlying truth amongst those of us who call ourselves gamers that no one really wants to talk about, we are quite the entitled bunch; doubly so when it comes to entitled Nintendo fans. We complain about absolutely everything, and the time is nigh that this entitled gamer subculture comes to an end.

In the recent month, entitled Nintendo fans in particular have been absolutely insufferable. We have complained about everything from Nintendo not giving us enough FREE MONEY (gold coins) when we buy games, to Nintendo not announcing the in inclusion of Waluigi in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Let’s be clear about one thing here: These multi-million (and sometimes multi-billion) dollar a year companies don’t care about you, or entitled gamers like you. The extent to which they do is right up until you open up your wallet and complete your transaction. In many cases these companies have investors and shareholders that they need to appease to to keep their doors open.

When entitled Nintendo fans start petitions and launch long winded forum campaigns because of what they feel like is a personal slight against them, they are failing to see the big picture. Nintendo’s primary function as a company is to keep Nintendo Co., Ltd. profitable.

Earlier this year when Capcom launched the much acclaimed Monster Hunter: World for the Xbox One and PS4, many Nintendo fans felt as if Capcom somehow betrayed them. As if because the last game in the franchise was launched on a Nintendo platform, that somehow Capcom OWED them something for being loyal Monster Hunter fans, despite getting our own 3DS exclusive Monster Hunter game that same year.

The fact is that Monster Hunter was only considered a Nintendo franchise in recent years, and the original Monster Hunter was released on a Sony platform. Also of note is that according to a list of all 26 Monster Hunter games released worldwide, 17 of them never even released on a Nintendo platform.

Many Monster Hunter diehards would argue that it wasn’t until the games came to Nintendo that they gained their popularity, to which I say well of course that’s true. Historically, Capcom has always placed the Monster Hunter franchise on the most popular system of the time. With the release of Monster Hunter G for the PSP, Capcom was banking on the huge success of Sony’s handheld in Japan.

Fast forward a few years, when Capcom, up to their old tactics, capitalized on the fact that the 3DS was the most popular system on the planet when the the series first came to a Nintendo handheld with the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in 2011.

Now as Capcom is doing what they have always done with the Monster Hunter franchise and release their latest game on the most popular gaming platform of the moment, all of a sudden Nintendo fans are up in arms claiming the company has betrayed them.

Entitled gamers are getting tiresome.

I can fully admit that I was once just a much a part of the gamer entitlement problem as the type of gamer I am describing. At the height of the console wars in the late 90s, It was a three way race between Nintendo, Sony, and Sega to earn the mind-share of gamers across the globe. If you were a Crash Bandicoot kid, you couldn’t possibly be into Mario. If you were a Power Stone die-hard, you just didn’t get what was so great about Smash Bros.

It wasn’t until gaining my own source of income in my high school years that I realized how foolish I had been all this time. The Gamecube was Nintendo’s new hotness, and admittedly, I would probably choose that console of the three released that generation. But there was no denying that cool stuff was happening on the other fronts as well, and with a disposable income, I was finally able to see this for myself.

Gaming developers don’t care, or have any allegiance to any one console manufacturer or the other. They just wanted to make the best games they could, on the most popular gaming consoles of the time. Can you blame them? They want to get their games in front of as many eyes as possible, to give themselves the greatest opportunity to be successful.

In the year 2018, we are in many ways in a ‘golden age’ of gaming, and yet we still find ways to complain and be entitled gamers. Nintendo gives us free money that can be used to purchase digital games, and we complain that they didn’t give us enough free money. If that isn’t a case for being called entitled Nintendo fans, I don’t know what is. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has ever single character ever released in a Smash Bros. game, and we complain that our own personal favorite character isn’t in the game.

That isn’t to say that we can’t complain about legitimately bad business practices, but before we do, we should take a step back and examine if our complaints are warranted, because big baby isn’t a good look for us gamers.

Eugene lives in New Mexico and has been a life long gamer since getting his hands on an NES. Always partial to Nintendo, Eugene has made it a point to keep informed on all things Mario.