Konami's Pachinko Hate: Why?

[Erttheking]

Snip

See that's the key difference between these two situations. Your friend is able to contact people who will listen. Konami has lost their minds and doesn't care what people think. Talking to them in a civil manner is going to get nowhere. And I have to question if people are actually saying that they're "owed" something. Do you really have to be owed something in order to lash out against idiotic behavior like Konami's? I don't even buy their games and I still join in taking shots at them, simply because of how slimy and insulting they've been about it. What I'm owed hasn't entered the equation at all.

I guess. If you think so poorly of games that you call them toys. I don't but that's just me.

Fair enough I suppose. I've yet to see anything going on with this that could really be classified as embarrassing, but maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

 

[Silvanus]

I find trying to make an artistic argument here to be rather disingenuous. This isn't about the art, but about the limitations on the commerce.

It's about the art for me. To use a heavy, psychological and rather involved intellectual property to sell gambling, rather than to explore its world and do it justice, seems to me to be squandering and devaluing it (the story, themes, world, and iconography that made it). I've heard a number of other people argue the matter from a similar perspective, and that's an artistic one.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Then they tease an amazing scene from your favorite game and goes ''loljk it's just for pachinko'' which is kind of a slap to the face. They've shown they care more about pachinkos than the games millions of people love.

If this is the response they can expect, then I see no reason why they should do otherwise. In fact, with the way their fans have reacted in the past, it's probably an actual catalyst to leaving video games.

It's the response they deserve, they've taken away a franchise that millions of people enjoyed and got Konami on the map, fired the one who created it and decided to make slot machines instead. How hard is it to understand why people are upset about it?

Really? In what way have the fans reacted in the past so badly towards Konami/MGS that they have the right to fire hundreds of people and completely destroy a iconic game franchise? It'd be fine if they just left video games but no, they left video games AND took MGS/Silent Hills with them, because they don't care about the people who buy and enjoy their games.

 

[Hair Jordan]

As long as the market is gaming.

Really, you don't see this sort of behaviour on this scale outside a very specific niche of consumer products. If something were that fundamental to market principles, one would expect to see them more widely distributed. That doesn't happen. The "entitlement" I describe is histrionics and theatrics. Nobody threatens death over a washing machine or stove not being released. Well, I'm sure someone does, but it doesn't end up widespread enough to end up on the news or trending on Twitter. You don't even see this level inside similar entertainment genre enthusiast groups.

This is an irrelevant non sequitur substituting for a response.

People's motivations or personal moral compass are irrelevant to a discussion of Konami's business practices. The level of "theatrics" involved in making an argument have no bearing whatsoever in whether or not the argument is valid.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Please point to where I said that. Like, I want a specific quote where I say that.

You didn't, because me saying that wasn't a 100% literal thing. What I meant is that mostly what I see is people I care about a franchise they love. And those people are being called "entitled" by you.

Oh and as for people who would send death threats to Konami over this and stuff like that? Fuck 'em. Fuck those people. Those are not the people I'm talking about and neither is it intellectually honest to use that very small fraction of people to make a point about everyone who gives a shit about Konami doing what it does. Let that be very clear.

Anyway, you seem to be completely missing (or ignoring, seeing as how the only thing you quoted is that tiny, frivolous bit of my post) the point. Entitlement doesn't come into play because people thinking Konami owes them something doesn't come into play. What you say is completely irrelevant.

 

[Spider RedNight]

I came here to post my evident disdain for the monsters known as "Konami" because of their "it's OUR game and WE wanna make pachinko machines and NO ONE ELSE is EVER allowed to do anything with the franchises EVER" mentality (which has nothing to do with how Silent Hill is my favourite series and I was so looking forward to Guillermo and Norman Reedus in my favourite series only to not even get to try out the P.T. before they're like "nope just kidding pachinko machines!") not to mention how shitty they treat their employees and instead there's a couple of off-beat comments saying that people who share this line of thinking are "entitled".

I never really thought of it that way, thinking I was entitled. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go ruin a third-world nation because diamonds are shiny and I need them while blasting "Royals" by Lorde.

But seriously though, it's not the fact that the pachinko machines are a thing. Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid and etc. are great games that deserve better than Pachinko machines from a selfish company that not only decided to pull out of games but aren't even letting other companies keep making them. Like... wasn't Metal Gear Solid Kojima's thing originally? And he's not allowed to make any more games?

I will... probably edit this sometime in the near future. 'Til then, enjoy my department of redundancy department-style writing.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

It upset me mainly because I have a personal distaste for slot-machine style gambling.

Reading about Konami shifting their business in reaction to new Japanese gambling laws and shafting their video game developers in the process left a bad taste in my mouth. It's the callousness of it; the idea that you don't have to make a good product, you just need to peddle a piece of shit slot machine to gambling addicts and slowly drain them of their financial liquidity like some kind of money vampire.

I really, really, really hate casinos, in case you didn't notice. That may be clouding my judgment; I don't care. Fuck casinos, man.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I don't quite get why people are so vehemently replying to someone who has demonstrated again and again that they take delight in straw-manning arguments, misrepresenting people and sowing hatred and strife around these forums. Its a waste of time to argue the point.


On topic:
The reasons have been given over and over again but can probably be summarised as:
- Zero respect shown to employees who have built them into the company they are today.
- Zero respect shown to the IPs created by those employees, which were what made them a market leader in the industry.
- Zero respect shown to the customers who bought into those franchises and whose money literally built their business.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Konami is using very beloved, very story-heavy franchises to sell Pachinko machines in a domestic market, where most of their stuff (Castlevania, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid) has had a significant market overseas.

People have written story analyses and essays on some of the aforementioned game franchises, and to a lot of people, Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are the peak of games as an art form.

It's absolutely ludicrous. It'd be like if there was a Journey-themed sandwich place where they played music from the game and had those red ghost things on the drinks.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I don't quite get why people are so vehemently replying to someone who has demonstrated again and again that they take delight in straw-manning arguments, misrepresenting people and sowing hatred and strife around these forums. Its a waste of time to argue the point.


On topic:
The reasons have been given over and over again but can probably be summarised as:
- Zero respect shown to employees who have built them into the company they are today.
- Zero respect shown to the IPs created by those employees, which were what made them a market leader in the industry.
- Zero respect shown to the customers who bought into those franchises and whose money literally built their business.

Amyss has a very unpopular opinion from the get go, but Amyss is right, Konami isn't losing any money over this and this is the sole PoC for any company, ethics, fandom and nostalgia be damned.

 

[Vykrel]

it isnt the fact that they are making pachinko machines, its about the mistreatment of their developers and mishandling of their franchises in favor of pachinko machines that made everyone so angry.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Amyss has a very unpopular opinion from the get go, but Amyss is right, Konami isn't losing any money over this and this is the sole PoC for any company, ethics, fandom and nostalgia be damned.

I wasn't talking about just this thread, its a pattern of behaviour. But I'm out of this thread now, because I'm fully expecting an attack on my character and some subtle abuse.

 

[minkus_draconus]

Amyss has a very unpopular opinion from the get go, but Amyss is right, Konami isn't losing any money over this and this is the sole PoC for any company, ethics, fandom and nostalgia be damned.

I wasn't talking about just this thread, its a pattern of behaviour. But I'm out of this thread now, because I'm fully expecting an attack on my character and some subtle abuse.

All of this is making me think of the Monty Python argument sketch.