Worried is a weird word when we are talking about Nintendo.
Nintendo is scummy AF advertising/marketing to children and their constant abuse of fans for playing recreationally with IP.
Nintendo is probably a negative externality given their marketing to children. To this day, I still have a mental illness of obsession to their games, and I hate playing them.
And I fondly remember playing Nintendo games as a kid and still do to this day some 25 years later with recent titles. Could the 120 hours-and-counting in TOTK have been spent more productively? Sure, but it's nothing compared to the time people spend watching TV series. Was every moment spent farming stuff for upgrades super fun? Not really, but I was not held captive and nothing in life is uninterrupted enjoyment.
Any addiction is bad, but unless the "item" is pushed in malice (like, say, tobacco), I would not consider that to be the fault of the creator. Unlike others, they are not actively (or at least only minimally) pushing gambling, gacha games, loot-boxes, "season-passes" and other abusive psychological tricks as their core strategy (the concept of a game is in itself not malicious or bad). So in that sense, I consider them a positive and rather responsible game company.
The only really negative comment I have for Nintendo (other than just generally wanting better stuff), is that their use of DMCA and other IP protection is completely absurd.
Blame and opinions aside, I hope you find a way through your illness.
>Could the 120 hours-and-counting in TOTK have been spent more productively?
Its not a productivity thing, it's a manipulation thing. Zelda games have been getting worse since Wind Waker, yet we continue to play them. They arent fun, we are just under the control of Nintendo.
Chatgpt said we do this because of FOMO and Nostalgia.
"Manipulation". Is writing jokes designed to make you laugh manipulation? Making games designed for me to enjoy - including if this involves the pleasant sensation of nostalgia - is not something I see reason to complain about.
Sure, wind waker is a good game, but I had much more fun playing BotW on master mode. I have yet to finish TotK, so we'll have that one ends up comparing.
So say what you want, it won't change that I'm having voluntary fun playing these games over here.
I'll take whatever Nintendo is doing over gambling and fomo-baited cash shops in games any day. Though Nintendo's popular mobile games are as bad as any mobile gacha "experience".
Funny enough, they somehow managed to make Splatoon 3 feel more like a FOMO-infested skinner box than most modern live service games I've tried, despite it having no microtransactions.
> Nintendo is scummy AF advertising/marketing to children and their constant abuse of fans for playing recreationally with IP.
This is really not my experience. To my eye they don't seem to be engaged in the majority of the awful practices around marketing that are pervasive in tech today.
As for the "constant abuse of fans" thing - is Nintendo really that different from any other company who has to protect their IP in this arena? There have definitely been frustrating situations around fan games and the like, but the argument I've always seen (which makes sense) is that they pretty much have to enforce copyright zealously to prevent loss of control of their brands.
Also, this is Nintendo. Like it or not, and whether they like it or not, child friendly is their brand.
Who’s to say, that if you allow one fan game, some pedophile won’t make their own fan game? And kids won’t start sending messages about how they appreciate his game?
I have kids, who have Nintendo consoles, and who like Nintendo's games, and I pay pretty close attention to their net usage and what they see on their consoles.
It might well be the case that I'm enough a firewall that their sinister marketing isn't making it into my home, but I haven't personally seen it. I'd be interested to hear more specific examples of what you mean.
I'm not claiming they're not doing anything wrong, just that it's not consistent with my own experience of Nintendo. Their console seems to be more respectful of my kids than most other platforms (although the fact that there's not a good way to block the Youtube app is a glaring omission - you can password protect the eShop and prevent it from making it onto their device in the first place, but there should really be a way to block a specific application, and nothing I've tried in their parental controls has worked).
Where's the marketing in what I've said? They make good games. Their console isn't full of ads or micro transactions or other bullshit. They made good games when I was a kid and they still do now. The console is more family friendly than the other two big ones.
Do they market to kids? Of course. They make big budget kids movies. They sell t shirts and posters and toys. But I'm just not seeing what's so sinister here.
Nintendo is scummy AF advertising/marketing to children and their constant abuse of fans for playing recreationally with IP.
Nintendo is probably a negative externality given their marketing to children. To this day, I still have a mental illness of obsession to their games, and I hate playing them.