Opinions On Nintendo Age?

[calgon]

I'll speak on two issues I've had there, but please just judge for yourself.

1.) Any time I've looked on their buy/sell forum for a single or group of games, I've always found eBay prices to be cheaper. Definitely odd considering how great/respected our own buy/sell forum is here and has been for years.

2.) I don't make it a habit to read the site often but on those rare times I hunker down and dive in I'm always surprised with the amount of pure hissy fitting and rage going on directed at collectors, eBay, craigslst, other forums. I mean if you're a grown adult and your spending your time that way.....yipes.

[Gentlegamer]

There was a thread on NA inquiring about having sealed amiibos VGA graded.

[Tanooki]

Aww geez not this shat again. Odds are this could bring out the NA defense force new guy.

Various members of the site, including staff have accounts here, as do some of their most notable trolls and it seems at least a couple times a year something pops up, they come in and pop off over it, then certain people here who are more quiet will lay into them for sport, then it peters out, because the site won't concede to demands or harassment.

I think your problem here though is that you're a game lover, a player, someone in it for what they were made for and still today are made for -- enjoyment, not dust collecting the nicest version possible or largest pile of it and keeping the cash in mind. You care about the game, the story, the history of the game itself or the games as they progress (like the whole Hyrule historia that fanned out of Zelda.) The place isn't a loss even if the database has issues. If you ever need to look up something obscure or weird, just fire up google, use a 'site:' search on them and you'll probably find it. If you don't want to be tracked, use the covert option on your browser or a proxy. It's not a useless site, it has use for some information, but being a member there you have to be part of the pod culture or you're going to eat it quickly or slowly. They're also not the only source as google is your friend. I've not had a reason to look there since shortly after I left, and no desire to, because there's nothing there other than the retailers you're being cut off from at this rate (most are on ebay anyway, some other sites, using other names to lay low at least with ebay) because the site is publicly view able if you just want to browse it.

[goldenband]

Eh, I visit NA fairly often and have never had an issue, though I mostly stick to the gaming forum rather than the collecting forum -- but I have bought and, to a lesser extent, sold a fair amount of stuff there too.

They have a reputation of being a collectors' forum and not a gamer's forum, but they've actually managed to play through the entire NES library (licensed & PAL) in a single year, which shows there are some real gamers there. I think that's awesome, personally, as no other site I know of has managed to pull off a full console library playthrough in a year.

More broadly, just about every forum I visit has people on other forums who talk smack about how awful it is & describe it as a wretched hive of scum and villainy -- and vice versa. Yet I've never had a problem at any of them.

Maybe it's just that people who are adamant that things should be A Certain Way inevitably clash with people who are equally adamant about A Certain Other Way, and the visiting team usually loses to the home team. Meanwhile, the rest of us quietly carry on.

EDIT: And the VGA stuff, shrug...it's utterly stupid, but I just don't see how it's relevant to me. Everyone has their lunacy, so why would I care about theirs?

[o.pwuaioc]

While I've never actually had a problem with NA, I've seen enough of their moderators banning people for honestly pointing out how scammy VGA is to know to stay away.

[Pikkon]

I'm a member over there but never had any problems with anyone.
About VGA.

I remember saying getting a game encased in a plastic tomb is not the best idea if you want to preserve it as a game with a battery will eventually leak and destroy the board.

Some people are just clueless.

[Steven]

I enjoy NA and browse it daily. Moreso than any other gaming forum because it's fairly active. But I mainly view Collector's Corner, Gamer's Gauntlet and Everything Else. Really don't bother with the other forums there.

I understand how some can view it as an "elitist" type site or group, but eh. I never had a problem with NA.

[jredmond3]

I don't do much there except sell, the Gamer's Gauntlet section is okay tho, can't really comment on much else as I haven't paid attention to the parts that don't interest me. I guess as far as collecting goes they are kinda like the Borg or something.

The thing with video game collecting is that the really zealous collecting used to only exist with stuff like the Neo Geo, which was already a high dollar console. Whatever NA is harboring was already growing and was always going to be. The rise in popularity of gaming in general (Youtube: AVGN, let's plays, etc ) coupled with the "retro" (well, retro in an 8/16-bit sense, etc ) crowd growing up and gaining more disposable income led to what we have now.

Ebay also switched over from primarily auction-style listings to overpriced fixed-price listings ( not sure if that was cause or effect ). Other than that, the public at large finally picked up on the notion that old games shouldn't necessarily be lumped in with VHS tapes in the garbage bin.

I would agree that the rat race aspect of collecting has become off-putting in ways. More people involved = more collectors and profiteers = $500 Panzer Dragoon Saga. Which, on the bright side, this also equates to a more active community for independent game companies / homebrews. So at the end of the day it's not all bad.

[JSoup]

This seems like a good time to repost Port's Top 20 Reasons Why NA Sucks.

And for the hell of it, addendum #21:

[Tanooki]

Some of the come back posts at the time (2011) almost seem like a fair assessment against what port had written for that top 20 reasons, but now going beyond the disgusting explosion of price/abuse that came out of summer 2012 which has ever increased since they're basically irrelevant now. That's a pretty on the nose list, though maybe a bit unfair on some what it was written, but if you take it by today 4 years later it's far more accurate sadly.

I'm not sure what it would fall under, the collecting number on the list, but you could also say there's a move to suppress the sharing of information with others in need to protect the so called value of the item. Took me awhile to get a Faria Map, and I didn't even want a real one because of the expense involved. I tried twice spread by quite a few months apart to get a decent legible scan of the front and back to play the game as the inside areas are brutal. Ended up being told I was stupid, entitled, illiterate, and other fun crap. As a mean tease I finally got one, that was run through a pinwheel filter in photoshop which made the teeny pointing arrows for dungeon rooms and other little notes head ache inducing. I ended up giving up threatening I'd release the thing if I ever got it. Then I did, stupid cheap ($20~) and immediately did a 4000x3000 sized scan front and back, release them as PDF in one and JPG alone on DP here. I warned ahead of time, ended up getting a mix of begging and threats if I did it or did it and wouldn't watermark it first. Well you can see what I did checking the archive here or the link in my sig. For a good year or so it did kill the value on the thing, but it has since shot back up over the $100 mark. What's important though is that it wasn't suppressed to stroke some fools egos so that people with a general need could use the document and it has been digitally preserved for public use.

Keep in mind not everyone, even staff, are messed up to awful there. Some can be downright helpful, friendly and even surprising. I stil have a staff member or two I'm friends with among a few other members I keep in contact with off site (and off gaming forums entirely) as it's not worth just cutting the cord when you find the gold nugget among all the rubble. Not too long before I left the place one of the mods (jd) help me skewer a whale of mine I had been after a good year with no results, the warezy illegal retrozone I'm Kid Dracula cart. One day just found it in the mail box with a hand written nice letter from him as a gift. As much as I've scaled back my collection of old 8/16bit Nintendo console carts, it remains (along with Gradius II which I traded for.)

[Gentlegamer]

"Price check on my sealed Wii U collection"

http://nintendoage.com/forum/message...rtRow=1#bottom

[Daria]

Took me awhile to get a Faria Map, and I didn't even want a real one because of the expense involved. I tried twice spread by quite a few months apart to get a decent legible scan of the front and back to play the game as the inside areas are brutal.

I played through that earlier this year with graph paper; it was tedious but not impossible. No different than having to map out any old school dungeon crawler.

On NA: Some people are assholes, real assholes. They ban way too many people and aren't transparent about why. Nearly every thread you read that's say more than a week old will have a banned user in it. They're also pretty nosey about shit that happens offline. I saw a guy get banned for a story he told on facebook about a local deal a friend hooked him up with in a thrift store. They're also hypocritical about bootlegs. Everything's weighed by the effect a person's actions will have on their bottom dollar. So making reproductions for profit? Love em! The more limited the edition the better! Reproduction labels on existing games? Break out the pitch forks! Your personal copy might one day leak out into the big wide world of garage sales where an NA member might over pay for it. BAD.

But I think a vocal minority overshadows a good community underneath. Not everyone is like that, and some good discussions occur (mostly because they're so damn active). I just wish they'd talk more about gameplay. Everything's so focused around profit and display shelving.

[Daria]

"Price check on my sealed Wii U collection"

http://nintendoage.com/forum/message...rtRow=1#bottom

Well that was mildly amusing. Thanks.

Edit: I was going to argue that I've never experienced any sexism at NA in response to port's addendum but then goes this guy running off his mouth.

[Tanooki]

On NA: Some people are assholes, real assholes. They ban way too many people and aren't transparent about why. Nearly every thread you read that's say more than a week old will have a banned user in it. They're also pretty nosey about shit that happens offline. I saw a guy get banned for a story he told on facebook about a local deal a friend hooked him up with in a thrift store. They're also hypocritical about bootlegs. Everything's weighed by the effect a person's actions will have on their bottom dollar. So making reproductions for profit? Love em! The more limited the edition the better! Reproduction labels on existing games? Break out the pitch forks! Your personal copy might one day leak out into the big wide world of garage sales where an NA member might over pay for it. BAD.

But I think a vocal minority overshadows a good community underneath. Not everyone is like that, and some good discussions occur (mostly because they're so damn active). I just wish they'd talk about about gameplay. Everything's so focused around profit and display shelving.

That about sums it up without the top 20 list keeping it short. Like I said, there are some gold nuggets among the rubble. I don't hate the site, I just hate what some of the people have become on there at the cost of doing the right thing and separating the forums from the real world. What people do with their paid for items should never be in any right of their concern, ever, especially to the point of offline/off site stalking someone and banning them. That's overly controlling and very petty, it's like digital gestapo tactics. Do what the state police say fall into the rules, anywhere, or else, and you will be monitored. Put that to the side, there's nice people on there, not much talk the games, but some do, yet I found contacting some via PM then off site suddenly walls of fear break down and conversations start that would get harassment or a ban, but the discussions are far more fun when the fear factor is removed such as like here and most other spaces about old gaming.

[skcin7]

.....

[Tanooki]

I think Dain is fairly well disconnected from the reality of the site. Sure he keeps it up, but I don't believe he actively administers it unless it's necessary which is why there are other admins. As long as it's popular and brings in the money so it doesn't cost him anything out of pocket I imagine he's fine with however it plays out.

I have to ask, what was your user name there as I'm guessing you got shown the door for not being part of the solution.

[Gentlegamer]

Here's another great NA thread: http://nintendoage.com/forum/message...hreadid=149389

New member, with no feedback selling Hagane CIB (box not mint and cart with crappy sticker residue) for $1000 firm. Money order only (though he later amended that).

I don't do many online sales, and the main reason I'm posting here is because I just found out how much Hagane is worth 2 months ago.

That guy fits right in.

[Kevincal]

Nintendo Age and Atari Age are chock full of stupid ASSHOLES! Especially the so-called MODS at those sites. FUCK THEM! I have been banned from both sites because the moderators did not like me. Digital Press is great. A place where adults can be adults.

The gaming website that takes the cake though, for nearly everyone there being an asshole, is TNL or "The Next Level" I think its pretty much dead now. Also, I don't think very highly of the TG-16 site or Sega Age...

RF Generation is mostly cool...

I HATE places that are over moderated, those pathetic fucks that think they are god and above everyone because they moderate a gaming forum. They don't understand people can have a difference of opinion. Basically a lot of these mods, if your opinion doesn't match up with theirs, they will treat you like shit and eventually ban you. And then you have those clown forum members who hang from the nuts of the moderators and agree with everything they do and say, like a teachers pet kinda bullshit. Makes me sick. Brown nosing idiots.

[Tanooki]

.....

[o.pwuaioc]

That's a bit much, they're acting like adults. Just those in boots to goose step by is all. I get rules are meant to be followed, but when you have a sub-set of shadow rules and monitoring to remove people who don't fall into the same mind set despite not making a ruckus or violating the terms.

I don't understand any part of this post. The third sentence I probably could have, but it's an incomplete thought. But the first two sentences? Huh?