Well everyone is talking about it, so why shouldn't I?
A few days ago, Nintendo posted a few 3DS XL ads under what could be classified under the "I'm Not a Gamer" label, since the phrase is spoken verbatim in each ad. One ad features Olympic gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas. In this ad she was playing New Super Mario Bros. 2 and she said "My name is Gabrielle Douglas and I'm not a gamer. With my 3DS, I'm a coin collecting champion." Another ad stars Dianna Argon and she plays Art Academy. She says "My name is Dianna Argon and I'm not a gamer. With my 3DS, I'm an artist." What's so bad about that? Really, I honestly can't see why anyone would be in such an uproar, taking offense to those words. But apparently, gamers (not all, but a large number of them) are a hypersensitive bunch that overact to the slightest of things. And by "slightest of things" I mean everything.
So if I'm to understand what's going in the minds of these bat effing loco gamers, I'm going to have to interpret the way they see these ads. To them, these ads are offensive because of the whole "I'm not a gamer" line. They take it as Nintendo distancing themselves from gamers. In their eyes, this ad comes off as dismissing the hardcore gamer and catering to the casual market, which is a whole different editorial all together that I'll avoid for the sake of space.
Gamers that are upset over these ads are completely missing the point. Ms. Douglas and Ms. Argon are merely choosing to classify themselves as something other than gamers. In the case of Ms. Argon, she's an artist. With Ms. Douglas, she's a coin collecting champ. But in the world of gaming, one MUST be labeled as a gamer. Being label as anything else is blasphemous. *End sarcasm mode*
I'm willing to bet gamers have more than one interest besides games. If they chose to label themselves as "Not a gamer. I'm a book lover/toy collector/anime fanatic" would they be a traitor to the hobby? Heck, is there even such a thing thing as a gaming traitor?
I've said on more than one occasion that being associated with gamers can be quite the headache. The internet has given them an infinite amount of space to behave like spoiled brats whenever they don't get what they want or see something they don't like. To be fair, I know that not every gamer acts like this but when the ones that do scream so loud they overshadow the logical thinkers, they make the whole lot of us look like bad apples. I don't find anything bad about these commercials. In fact, I think these are good, smart ads. Prior to seeing Dianna Argon's ad on Art Academy, I didn't even know about the game and I love art. Thanks to that, I now have an art style game to pick up for the 3DS. Thank you, Dianna. Thank you, Nintendo.
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