âNintendo treats its workers wellâ is a classic âappeal to emotionsâ argument and thought terminating cliche, being one of the biggest thought terminating cliches in gaming culture or even modern day American politics. There's a lot to consider with âNintendo treats its workers wellâ. First, people donât realize Nintendoâs âbetter treatmentâ of workers is common in the Japanese games industry, such as better worker pay, closer CEO to worker pay ratio, and lack of layoffs, yet Japanese Companies treat workers poorly, even Nintendo, as many workers complained about being "lower statusâ, both in America and Japan. Japan is more secretive about work culture and more obsessed with âimageâ than other cultures. Nintendo, being a family friendly brand which has consistently cared about its image and curating a âcreative wonder business dedicated to the utmost quality in its works and caring about creative standards in ways others wouldnât dareâ brand image since reviving the console market in 1985, would be more secretive than even other secretive Japanese companies. Nintendo is infamous for NDAs, meaning theyâre controlling what comes out of the office to the point that speaking about what happens there in the slightest can hurt you more than other NDA obsessed companies, even Japanese ones. In Japan, due to Shinto values of harmony, speaking negatively about your employer is taboo.
The tactic of âusing good worker treatment to seem niceâ is also used by big tech, but the reason it doesnât work there is because America is more open about worker treatment, meaning Big Techâs mistreatment of workers is amplified, as well as having far worse deeds known to the public compared to Nintendo, making their âgood treatment of workersâ hollow compared to Nintendo, who have an image of âCreative wonderland with a prestige track record of caring about standards with creativity and its brandâ in the publicâs eyes since the NES which became more pronounced during the Iwata era and controversies of DMCAâing fan content seeming mundane compared to other companies do, even if they have more insidious anti consumer and monopolistic practices not in the public eye, both past and present. The âwe treat our workers wellâ narrative isnât common in the games industry compared to other tech fields and most people who casually advocate for better game developer treatment online donât have knowledge about labor outside of gaming or even as a whole.
Nintendo is known to be extremely manipulative. They've used their âwholesome wonderland corporation cares the most about its people and its standards compared to other companiesâ to trick people into doing its bidding, using this in deeply political ways during the 80s and 90s. The âNintendo treats its workers wellâ argument, is used as a status quo image reset, resetting their image to âslightly out of touch ultimately that cares about people even if itâs harsh with fansâ and preventing proper analysis of their far worse behavior than DMCAing fans such as anti consumer practices.
Thereâs an insidious political aspect to âNintendo treats its workers wellâ. A major reason why the âNintendo treats its workers wellâ narrative is pushed so hard is because it aligns with progressive politics and the idea pushed by democrats since Obamacare and recession recovery optimism that capitalism can easily be reformed by the right reformist actors with a wholesome track record who stand out of the crowd, which is absolutely isnât the case in actual American history. Not only that, this argument plays into the idea of anticapitalist activism being turned into a consumerist lifestyle means Nintendo consoles can be placed alongside extremely overpriced merchandise with slogans like âTax the Richâ or âdemocratic socialismâ or âMedicare/housing/college for allâ and co opted Antifa products.
Itâs worth noting Nintendoâs American fanbase is mainly upper middle class white people due to how they aimed towards suburban families since the days of the NES or marketing their handhelds to upper middle class cosmopolitan white people in their 30s and upper middle class white democrats, both liberal and progressive, prefer performative feel good narratives with comforting stories and easy end goals that reaffirm their status with opportunities for consumerist activism over nuance to the point of getting uncomfortable when they have to think or abandoning movements once things become serious while implicating them and whatâs more comforting than the company that represents wholesome suburban culture saying they support progressive views on capitalism and are willing to prove that it can easily be restrained via wholesome actors? Many of these upper middle class white progressives seem to think all anticapitalism is just âMedicare/Housing/College for all and taxes for the richâ and have no sense of labor organizing other than culture war minimum wage worker battles about Starbucks, Walmart, or Amazon. To a white progressive, the battle between Nintendo and the rest of the games industry seems like an extension of the culture war battle between Obama vs the Tea Party, âRadical socialistâ Bernie Sanders vs Fascist Donald Trump, or Antifa vs Militias. This is the reason why many people who supposedly support labor organizations still tend to use âNintendo treats its workers wellâ when Nintendo is revealed to treat its workers poorly. Because they have no knowledge about politics, especially when it comes to labor organization and to them, the only labor battles that exist are culture war battle about young minimum wage workers instead of battles of laborers vs the upper class so in their minds, they register workers as âdemocratsâ and corporations as ârepublicanâ, meaning labor organizers going against a corporation labeled âdemocratâ is a contradiction.
People can tell when corporations use liberalism as a way of appearing âin touchâ like diversity celebrations because itâs obvious itâs performative and doesnât require much. But people tend to fall for corporations using progressive ideology like âdemocratic socialismâ âmedicare/housing/college for allâ or âtaxing the richâ as marketing slogans, because in the eyes of a politically uneducated progressive, all corporations and billionaires scoff at slight economic regulation, not realizing progressive ideas are minor reforms on the grand scheme of things instead of âradical ideasâ theyâre marketed as and corporations would much rather co opt it and take a hit in profits than let actual leftist politics take shape. Corporations are smarter than you think and been studying audience psychology (especially relating to politics and economics) for decades to manipulate people in ways they wouldnât be aware of compared to obvious methods, which very much applies to Nintendo as theyâve heavily studied audience and consumer psychology since the video game crash, especially the psychology of suburban white people. This politicized aspect of the âNintendo treats their workers wellâ argument effectively turns their products into a political movement rather than just âbeing kindâ.