I'm so tired of worrying that what I'm saying might possibly be taken as toxic. As my post above shows, it immediately got misinterpreted to fuel the flames. I could not say any clearer that I don't want anything bad to happen to the Gamefreak employees and I don't want anyone to lose their jobs over this. The only thing that got noticed was a minor frustrated venting about how Gamefreak 'as a corporation' cannot exactly be hurt by anything anyone says, and yet that is what is being treated as such and is now being used as a tactic to bully because 'now its justified'. I probably should have made what I'm thinking more clear.
The 'Gamefreak's morale is low' narrative, despite it never even being confirmed that fans being vocal is the cause, will be used as a disingenuous bludgeoning tool to generalize critics and make it seem reasonable to bully them by making it out like we are responsible for what is going on within a corporation. Gamefreak 'as a whole' should not be exempt from criticism. OBVIOUSLY individuals should be left out of it. Nothing I say or anything anyone on here can say can hurt Gamefreak as a corporation. It is not on us as consumers to silence our criticism due to problems within a corporate structure, or because some jackasses are targeting employees. I will say it again. I do not want any individual employees to be hurt and I do hope that things get better for them with what is going on within their workplace, but it is not on me or anyone else here who is voicing reasonable criticism that it is happening. As far as I'm concerned, give everyone in Gamefreak a pay raise because its about 100% certain that they deserve it no matter what's going on with SwSh.
Tl;dr: If you're going to say that the critics are just a vocal minority that have absolutely no effect on Gamefreak, maybe don't immediately turn around and start saying that we're suddenly this big, mean group that's causing Gamefreak to have internal problems when it suits your narrative about us.
And before something is said like 'If you're boycotting the games doesn't that mean you want Gamefreak to fail?' I've made it no secret that I fully expect the games to do well and review well. I'm boycotting because the games personally don't appeal to me. I'm obviously not rooting for the people making my favorite game series to go under because they went in a direction I don't like, nor do I want them to have layoffs, nor do I want the outings of high profile figures. Still, I'm allowed to voice my discontent with them nor are they entitled to a sale from me.
I don't know. I guess I'll ask, am I coming off poorly? I'll lay off if I really am coming off poorly. I tend to be frustratingly blind when it comes to these things. I'm doing my best, I suppose. All the more reason why I really should probably step away from all this.
As I said, I hold no ill will toward people who are fine with everything as long as they are willing to be respectful back. Mistakes are made though due to emotions running high, and I'm obviously one who's made a few during this debacle, so I hope we can work together a little better to manage this shitshow. If you have issue with the way I'm coming off, let me know because I tend to be a bit blind to it and I'd like to do better. I can be a sarcastic little shit as a coping method for my social anxiety, but know that I'm usually doing it in a very lighthearted way and there's about a 99% that if its coming off as mean, I rarely actually mean for it to be that way.
Charizard people, love ya. May your bro not get snapped when the next time a snapping comes around, LOL
I've never understood this desire to place devs and studios on a pedestal so I've never gotten this push back to criticism I see for the direction of this IP.
Like, I've seen people pulling this "no TRUE Scotsmen" shit with the fandom and I really wish it would stop. Like you're not a real fan if you're not out here sucking GF's butt.
I've been playing these games since I was 8. I remember the moment I got interested in Pokemon. For a bit in my teens I wasn't even sure if I could consider myself a "gamer" because the only game series I followed and absorbed like a sponge was Pokemon, unlike tons of friends of mine who can proudly say that they've played "All the so-and-so games" in a number of series like FF, DMC, GTA and so on.
I love Pokemon and it's been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember. When it comes to gaming I'm pretty much considered a Pokemon fan above most anything else. Hell, if I didn't feel like this Ava was the best expression to sum up most of my post on this site it would be a picture of Pikachu I drew for Inktober
This does not mean I'm a fucking mindless GF fan though.
If they make decisions on the direction the game series will take it that I don't approve of it does NOT mean I have to sit back and like it nor does that mean I can't voice my misgivings about it. For example I love Nintendo Games and the ideas behind their consoles ... so I have owned all Nintendo consoles at one point in time or another.
All but Wii U. It didn't convince me in it's pitch, never got my interest and I didn't like the direction it was going design-wise. I'm not gonna mindlessly fork over my money to a company just cause I like their IPs if I don't approve of what I'm seeing. That being said ... I was there day one for the Switch cause it DID convince me it was worth my time and money.
I've played every gen and until XY I was buying every version, 1 to speed through so I could start Shiny hunting and a 2nd to trade over my low level shiny Pokemon to for training through the story. But with XY I started seeing decisions that made me pull back and give pause.
As someone who been with the series for this long I can tell, this has been building up for a long time. This frustration with the series isn't new, dexit was just the thing to break many people's back and I'm no different. I'm sitting here unconvinced that what I see is worth my time and money and this will be the first gen I don't get if that doesn't change.
So yeah, is someone like me not a fan?
Or am I a "Toxic fan" cause I dare to have expectations?