Shooting Down Stereotypes
From Scratchpad
Shooting Down Stereotypes was a 10-installment series of topics on the board made during September 2007 by BlackDoomShadow. Each topic dealt with a common misconception, urban legend, myth, or stereotype of the Wii, usually stemming from the casual-oriented advertising of the games.
Contents |
[edit] Day 1-Wii Sports
Day 1 revolved around Wii Sports, specifically advertising of the hand motions involved and Wii Sports' usage as an inappropriate flagship of the Wii Remote's capabilities.
Major points:
- Wii Sports is a tech demo.
- Wii commercials are not an accurate representation of the Wii itself.
- Exaggerated hand motions are not neccessary to use the Remote.
- Wii Sports itself is not a reason not to own a Wii.
[edit] Day 2-Gameplay > Graphics
Day 2 involved the Wii board mantra of "Gameplay > Graphics," explaining what the phrase means and how it does not mean "graphics don't matter."
Major points:
- The ">" sign means "greater than," therefore, "gameplay is greater than graphics."
- Graphics are not useless or meaningless, but take a backseat to good gameplay.
[edit] Day 3
[edit] Day 4-Minigames
Day 4 analyzed the claim that the Wii has too many minigame compilations. It explained that all consoles have an influx of a particular genre.
Major points:
- At the time of the topic, 7/342 Wii games were minigame compilations.
- No one criticizes the 360 for having too many shooters, only because shooters are considered "cool."
[edit] Legacy
This particular day spawned the "7% statistic," or the fact that roughly 7% of released Wii games are minigame compilations. This statistic is sometimes incorrectly stated as being about shovelware or movie tie-ins instead of minigames. This statistic is still reported on the board frequently, even though more games have been released and the statistic has likely changed.
[edit] Day 5-Double Standards
Day 5 focused on the double standard applied in society regarding "hardcore" games versus casual games, specifically with the Wii.
Major points:
- Shooters are popular and minigames aren't, thus the Wii is inherently less popular among "real gamers."
- If shooters were less popular, the Wii would be more popular among "hardcore" gamers.
[edit] Day 6-GameCube/Wii Graphics
Day 6 revolved around the common misconception that the Wii is no more powerful than the GameCube.
Major points:
- Through posting straight statistics and facts, the Wii was determined to have an onboard processor and GPU with nearly twice as much power as the GameCube.
[edit] Day 7-Casual Gamers
Day 7 was about casual gamers, what they are, and what they mean to the industry.
Major points:
- Casual gamers play for fun, hardcore gamers play for a hobby.
- Casual gamers have always existed and are not a threat to the industry.
[edit] Canonicity
After his "hiatus" from the Wii board, BDS stated that his opinion on casual gamers had changed, becoming militantly anti-casual. He stated that SDS Day 7, specifically the part that casual gamers are not a threat to the gaming industry, is "non-canon," or no longer a part of his belief system.
[edit] Day 8-Mature Games
Day 8 involved mature games, something the Wii is criticized as lacking. The definition of "mature" was inspected and compared to the "M for Mature" ESRB rating.
Major points:
- "M" rated games mean only mature people should play them, not that games below this rating are immature.
- Someone who only plays "M" rated games or shooters ends up missing out on other quality titles.
- A game's maturity is directly related to the maturity of the person playing it.
[edit] Day 9-Wii Online
Day 9 analyzed the claim that the Wii's online is low quality, and examined the various features of Xbox Live and their relation to online Nintendo games.
Major points:
- Lag issues are 90% related to one's router.
- Voice chat is "icing on the cake," not a make-or-break online function.
- Friend codes, while unwieldy, are not unlike the numbers-laden Gamertags often seen on Xbox Live ("Shadow151652" is used as an example).
[edit] Canonicity
Like SDS Day 7, BDS's views on this subject have changed, although not due to a change of opinion, but due to Nintendo's failure to implement in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii the features he assumed they would. However, since most of these points still stand, the topic is still "canon."
[edit] Day 10-Finale
Day 10 was a large wrap-up post that did not focus on any one topic.
Major points:
- Halo 3's leaked ending was held under extremely strict embargo by GameFAQs moderation, while Metroid Prime 3's leaks were not, used as an example of double standards against Nintendo.
- Some review sources are angry at Nintendo because they "bet on the wrong horse," assuming the 360 or PS3 would win the console war, and are embarrassed that they are wrong.
- SDS will ultimately fail because GameFAQs moderation will refuse to tolerate it on the 360 or PS3 forum (the "target audience").
- Double standards against the Wii will end eventually, but not after many years of dominance.
- Younger children must be taught tolerance against all consoles if the future of gaming is to erase this "graphics based war" that consoles have become.
[edit] Similar Topics
BDS made several topics of a similar nature to SDS.
- Is there a factual flaw with the Wii?: BDS's first topic on Wii Hardware in August 2007 which actually predated SDS. It questioned whether the Wii had a factual flaw which could be agreed upon by most users, and spawned over 300 posts about the definition of a flaw, logicial fallacies, and fanboyism. Eventually, online difficulties were decided as a mechanical flaw. The troll posts in the topic inspired SDS.
- Nintendo's Problem: A more negative post released in December 2007 about the Wii in response to claims that BDS was a Nintendo fanboy. The topic criticised Nintendo's casual-friendly attitude (the first mentioning that SDS Day 7 was now non-canon) and continuously weakening online play. The topic reached 500 posts (unusual for the Wii board).
- Shooting Down...nothing: An anti-Wii rant: A negative rant released in January 2008 after BDS's hiatus from the board. It was so militantly anti-Wii, with comments about Nintendo's failure to implement voice chat and effective online, that some users branded him a troll for a few days.
- A friendly request from the Wii board: BDS's peace treaty to the PS3 board that got him suspended for board invasion. Although he is usually rude and sarcastic, the peace treaty was unusually kind and peaceful, which caused many users to wonder why he had been suspended after initially doubting how "nice" he had been in the topic.
| Wii Hardware | ||
| Users | ||
|---|---|---|
| 47pik - BlackDoomShadow - Dinobot19 - Fayegurl - Finalkingdom13 - Kirbyfan - Megamanxzero15 - Metroidfan19 - Sora250 - XnarutoX626 - List of users - List of trolls | ||
| Events | ||
| List of events | ||
| Topics | ||
| Buy or Avoid - Rate a Wii Game - Shooting Down Stereotypes - List of important topics |
