The problem is, because Nintendo isn't given it's own section, (in fact both the Wii and DS should have SEPERATE sections), the people who would normally make posts don't bother joining. You can't expect Nintendo fans and retro gamers to join a forum which categorically refuses to cater to some of the largest facets of gaming. Of course the sections are bare, they're hidden away where no-one can see them without purposely looking so even people who would make posts there decide not to bother because, "It's a tiny sub-forum, no-one will read it".

The fact is, just to seem impartial, ALL gaming forums should start with a General Discussions area, a Playstation area, an Xbox area, a Nintendo area, a Retro Gaming area, and a PC gaming area unless they're specifically a single game fan-site. That way they've got a solid area for all current aspects of gaming so they're never reliant on trends. If specific fandoms turn up (such as the Call Of Duty following on NGU), they get their own area, but by not having a fair and equal amount of space for the first six areas you limit who will join the forum and who will stick around in the first place and force people out of the community, or relegate them to General Chat and nothing else.



No, but it's happening to me a fair bit as well, so it's probably a forum coding issue, might be worth contacting the admin over.

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------


Thanks. I appreciate people who actually take the time to post rather than the "tl:dr" brigade. If you've come to a discussion forum, expect discussions to take place at the very least... that's what I always think.


See, the thing is, I'd argue your definition of "gamer" is pointless. If you only play one game you're not a "gamer" you're just a fan of that game. Someone who's obsessed with Star Wars isn't a "film buff", someone who loves the Harry Potter books isn't a "bookworm". These terms describe people who's main hobby is a varied and eclectic intake of their medium. I play everything from strategy games, to RPGs, to action games, to platformers, arcade games, MMO's. I've owned every console from the Master System to the Xbox 360 (except the Wii and PS3, which I intend to buy), and I'm an avid PC gamer. I also play tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, World Of Darkness, Shadowrun etc. I play miniture wargames like Warhammer and Pirates!, and I play collectable card games like Magic: The Gathering and Legend Of Five Rings. I am a GAMER! Someone who plays mainly Call Of Duty, even if they play it 10 hours a day isn't any more than a Star Wars fan who watches the occational other movie becomes a "film buff". This is my point, as a site aimed at Gamers the vast majority of gamers have no sections to call their own, only CoD fans are catered for... which is understandable, because that's a majority of this forum. Like I say, I'm not claiming this is a bad forum, it's just a poor GAMING forum.

As for a place for everyone... I don't want a forum with a place for the troll and the douchebag. They can sod off. How about a place for the Wii Gamer, the Retro Gamer, or the PC gamer... surely they're more important to cater for than the douchebag.


That's exactly my point. You effectively admit that the only games you play are CoD, sports games, and GTA (one of the most popular games ever released, and entirely infitting with the "jock" style interests as it's all about guns, cars, crime sindicates etc). I'm not saying you're not allowed to play games, but I wouldn't call you a gamer. That's the problem, if you call everyone who plays video games a gamer nowadays EVERYONE is a gamer because most people at least play facebook games, or smartphone games daily and even my 50 year old mother plays her DS for an hour or two every day. My mum isn't a gamer. She works a full time job yet still finds time to play about 10-15 hours of video games a week, and has a varied collection too, (She probably owns more games than you).

While I understand that people do still discuss gaming on NGU all I'm getting at is that for a gamer like me, who's been a gamer pretty much his entire life, (when you're in and out of hospitals, video game makes for a natural hobby), no-one here seems to be a gamer. Skyrim and Minecraft are so mainstream it's unreal, a gamer who hasn't played them is unheard of. There are genuinely people on this forum who've never played Final Fantasy 7... that's like having a film club filled with people who haven't seen Citizen Kane or Pulp Fiction... it doesn't happen.

Now as for Call Of Duty's bad rep. It's simple. Before Call Of Duty, none of you guys mattered in the gaming world. We had variety and a set sub-culture where we felt safe. Remember, most "gamers" as I define them, are geeks, often to the extreme. Comics, animé, star trek... the whole shebang, me included. This means most of us where heavily bullied in school for years by the horrible neandathal like "jocks" who where all into sports, cars, guns and smoked weed while pretending to act "hard" (sound like a few NGU members). Now I was lucky in that I'm built like a brick shithouse. I'm 6' 5" and over 300lbs and while I may be medically screwed now so much that I struggle walking, I wasn't as a teenager and I topped 6' at only 14 years old. I wasn't bullied, in fact, I used to beat the shit out of the bullies and stick up for the geeks and special needs kids. I very nearly got kicked out of school because I would go looking for fights with the "jocks" that bullied my friends. Now consider how much these geeks want to share their hobby with these same jocks. They've come in and now all the consoles have sports games, racing games and FPS games than most gamers aren't interested in. The thing is there's more jocks than geeks... there always has been, so buying power has made it so that FPS and sports games are rediculously common. The games gamers liked, the quirky adventure games, the story driven RPGs, these are gone. Seriously, they're GONE. Last year there where 6 JRPGs released on home consoles. How many FPS games where there... 50+ or more. Just SIX, I can even name then all. 'Record of Agarest War Zero' and 'Final Fantasy XIII-2' on both PS3 and Xbox 360; 'isgaea 4', 'White Knight Chronicles II' and 'Tales of Graces' as PS3 Exclusives and 'Xenoblade Chronicles' as Wii Exclusive. The first didn't make it to Europe, and the last didn't make it to USA (yet). Oh, yeah and they where all shit except 'Xenoblade Chronicles' and 'isgaea 4', so if you own a 360 and like Japanese style RPG's you're ****ed... you've got Lost Odyssey from back in 2008, THAT'S IT!!! Seriously. One game for the whole genre.

Many people blame Call Of Duty and the CoD fans for this. They've ruined gaming. Games companies only greenlight things that will sell, so all we get now is muddy dark military FPS games than no sod wants (remember this is from the gamers perspective, go on ANY other gaming site and gamers almost universally hate this genre). Guns and war don't interest gamers, it interest jocks. So not only do they get to beat the shit out of the geeks, when they grow up they steal their hobbies. Gamers HATE CoD fans way more than you realise. But it's not just that...

Call Of Duty also has a reputation and that hurts gamers too. CoD gamers are known publically for being racists, homophobes, rude, bigotted, arseholes who lack and social skills or manners. This is both in person for the way they act in stores and in public, acting like little "badasses" because they're good at CoD and smoke weed... yeah, real badass there, and for the way they act online. On things like XBLA or PSN, multiplayer FPS games are horrible places to be where you will be insulted and screamed at by 12 year old bigots, and God help you if you're a woman or gay because the treatment will be even worse. It's entirely unwelcoming and makes people hate the subculture. The thing is... it makes people hate the subculture. If you tell a non-gamer that you're a gamer nowadays, especially if they're over the age of 30, people assume you're a violent, disgusting, bigotted, douche that spends hours a day insulting people over the internet. Outside of the consoles, forums and places like YouTube are filled with disgusting comments from CoD fans threatening to "skull**** your mum" and things like that, because you dare to disagree with them about something. They give gamers a bad name, so much so that gamers are often ashames to admit they're gamers incase they get mistaken for a CoD-kiddie.

Now you know how gamers see Call Of Duty. If you honestly asked most proper gamers, "If you could get rid of any game series ever, which would you pick?", Call Of Duty will be one of, if not THE highest voted. Until I joined NGU, I pretty much felt this way about CoD. I've since given it a chance and seen that not all CoD players are twats... but you're still not one of us, you're gamers like us... you're jocks with console, and it's hard to stop disliking the same subgroup who beat up your friends and treat you like shit your entire school life.

Wow... that was longer than I thought... sorry, but it was an important point to make.


Actually I don't love Nintendo. I was a SEGA kid growing up. I actually have a reputation on multiple forums, and on YouTube as a "Nintendo hater" because I don't suck Miyamoto's cock every time he remakes Ocarina Of Time (which is overrated to begine with) and pretends it's a new game. Now, sure, Nintendo always have a big child following, but honestly, the average gamer is 31 years old now. I'm a member of 2 gaming societies and most people are in their late 20's and early 30's. The most common gaming devices are gaming PC's, Wii's and DS's. You say you "know for a fact", but you don't. You see cartoony games and assume kids are buying them. You see one or two kids in shops and assume they're the entire audience. Most people I know order from Amazon, or direct download games on the Virtual Console. The average 30 year old gamer doesn't go to GameStop or Gamestation because many are ashamed to buy games publically because of the stigma that FPS gaming has caused. Remember, in my generation and the generation before me, a lot of people didn't grow up with games so they're not the standard go to entertainment media. People make assumptions, rightly or wrongly. Like you say, there are plenty of adults who play CoD, there has to be, millions of copies where sold. But what we hear are the 12 year old racist cocks of Xbox Live.

But yeah. I don't love Nintendo. Actually I think Nintendo is extremely overrated, gets buy largely on nostalgia, I hate the company because it only cares about it's Japanese fans and forces strict publishing contracts on third parties, and worst of all, the Nintendo fanboys are some of the whiniest, shit-eating, little arsehats, who complain at the drop of a hat. The only difference between me and the rest of NGU is I actually acknowledge Nintendo. I don't sit there pretending it doesn't matter and no-one plays it. Actually more people play Nintendo than Xbox 360 and PS3 combines and there are so really good games on their consoles. I don't lie to myself saying it's "only kids" when I know that actually kids and teens tend to go for the Xbox 360 statistically and the average Wii gamer is in their bloody 30's. It's just honesty.


Oh yeah, sure. Glitch hunting has been around since early NES games and early 80's PC games. I don't see the appeal myself, but I'm sure people enjoy it. What I'm saying is it's a very niché hobby and most people get bored of it and move on after a while. As for modding, I get that people mod games, but not usually on consoles. Modding is very much a PC gamer thing, I know, I've written mods for Civilization IV myself and there's massive mod communities out there.


Yeah, I wasn't arguing against that. I want it to evolve away from just hacking and CoD, it's other people who refuse saying "NGU started as this and if you don't like it GTFO".



OK, It's been a fun chat, I look forward to your response.

I just want to note that, while I'm discussing this, I'm not jumping on the "NGU needs to change" bandwagon. While I would happily change things in a heartbeat, complaining about it is going about it the wrong way. I made the Nintendo section visible by posting threads and putting effort in, I stopped and it dried up... now I'd appreciate other people who may agree with me, sharing the load in future, but if I want to see the sections I mention becoming popular the best way is to start threads, encourage posting, spread threads about... etc. All that good stuff, not shouting and swearing at the admin team. I just want it clear that while I'm basically bashing the site and the Call Of Duty focus, this is just an opinion peice and I actually feel the community aspect of NGU is very good and supportive... mostly (there's still the odd spammer and immature sod, but you always get that).