I m still not able to grasp the company's policy of not paying attention to online gaming. Even the DS online facility, although free, sucks ass many times, when for example one has to wait about 15 minutes to find a match in mariokart, with a bunch of losers that quit the game before it ends and don't get penalized. Everyone seems to mind the PS3's and PS2s online gaming plan compared to XBOX Live, but the all time low in this category is Nintendo. Why the fuck did they include the Wifi in the box if they aren't using it? What's the use of Wii connect 24 when there's no actual content pushing? When there's no real online gaming? Is downloading updates and ROMS the best they can come up with in the year 2007? I think someone should buy NOJ some 360s and give them a free subscription, and maybe then they can learn how to at least mimic a proper online scheme. I don't mind paying for a quality service, and microsoft deserves the money it gets for offerring such a great facility. This is my complaint as a nintendo fanboy at heart. The most ironic part nevertheless, is the former president Yamauchi's vision of having 'Nintendo machines linked together all over the country' - I guess Bill Gates and Co finally did it and the Dreamcast got it right at least at the most part and Nintendo is blind to it. To all of those living in Japan, what's the stance of Japanese gamers towards online console gaming? Considering the shitty sales of the 360 over there, how do you people play online (or don't u?)?
Data collection. I actually applaud Nintendo for not completely switching over to an online, multiplayer focused game model that the other two seem to have done. Honestly, I want single player only games to be made again, not single & multiplayer games. I know that there are many people who want multiplayer and it should be supported, but there are also a lot of people who simply don't care about playing with others.
For the most part, I'm one of them. I meet enough dicks in real life, why would I go out of my way to play with them in a game? The kids you get online piss me off. I've been playing a little bit of Halo 2 over XBL at a mate's recently, and the avalanche of shit that comes over the speakers is enough to make me demand that the player sound volume be turned off, and even then the experience doesn't strike me as that great. A few months back I was playing Diablo 2 online, with hardcore characters (once you die, you're dead, make a new one), and I got deliberately killed by assholes a few times. It's frustrating, the novelty of playing against human competitors quickly wears off to be replaced by the irritations. I just prefer a more controlled environment. Obviously I'm becoming a minority, though, and it's disappointing to hear that Nintendo haven't sorted out a decent online service yet. They have no excuse. Just like Nintendo to drop the ball when they've got an obvious winner, there's always something. They seem to be hesitant to let players arbitrarily meet up, presumably in case some massive PR scandal emerges, but they're really shooting themselves in the foot over it.
Heh, I remember when I was part of the Diablo 2 stress testing, I only setup and played one player games. :lol:
There are plenty of single player only games, or games geared to single player! My opinion is that Nintendo machines are geared for Nintendo games first and foremost. Third parties then get an after thought. Nintendo don't want to work on online titles so they don't bother to assist third parties that do. That's the reason they still have problems with third party support and will continue to do so.
Many games are better left single player , true. That doesnt mean that they shouldnt support some sort of multiplayer online mode. I m interested in playing with people i know from real life mostly, but they re over a great distance. Super Smash Bros, MK:Admaggedon etc, would be great games for this purpose in my view. Additionally, I will be very pissed if nintendo doesnt support pushing new content for say, super smash bros, over the net. New characters or stages etc.
Super Smash Bros? Mortal Kombat? Really? Fighting games are generally so time-sensitive that until the average ping is orders of magnitude smaller than it is today, I don't see it being a worthwhile experience. Just earlier tonight I've been playing some classic Quake online, to see what it was like, and the pings are still atrocious, on a game that's 10 years old. How anyone could've played it over 56K I'll never know.
Smash Bros is so not technical that minor lag would not make a huge issue. Were not talking VF5 here people. :| Wii games badly need online. Too many are party games that get more play when friends are over then when you're by yourself. Hell I would still be playing Wii sports if it had some online multiplayer (its so boring after 10 mins when alone). So I think it boggles the mind if Wii fans say they prefer singleplayer games when Wii is more oriented twards group play.
Respectfully have to disagree, subbie. Group play is one thing, and LAN play fits in nicely. I've enjoyed many a LAN party, because the players weren't dickheads and there were no network issues. I enjoy playing on Wii with my mates. Playing over the net, though, is deeply unsatisfying. You lose almost all of the group interaction, and subsequently a significant proportion of them screw around. The lag may be conquerable on Quake 3, but it's still frustrating, and even on a game like Super Smash Bros I'd still think it'd be an issue. One which I don't feel motivated to deal with. There's also the issue that a single player game can be crafted to have a consistent difficulty curve, whereas online games cannot, due to the randomness of human players. Maybe I'm just a poor loser, but I do like that feeling of progression. LAN parties are fine once in a while, but for the majority of my gaming experiences I want something linear, polished and predetermined. Needless to say I'm not really up for Oblivion or similar.
I think Nintendo's online plans are balls. Coming from the Dreamcast almost every game released in Japan had at the very least a link to the creator's homepage but with the Wii, a system with built in Blue Tooth, WiFi etc you get sweet F.A. ! Come one Nintendo, pull your finger out and give us something that makes use of the Wii's online capabilities. The Dreamcast did it then the Xbox really took the idea to the masses so why not join the party? Yakumo
I think people are forgetting the wii cannot seriously support any kind of online structure, i mean the wii has no frikking storage space except for small sd cards. How do we expect to get propper content download and good structures for online play if there is no place for them to be stored or run from.
SilverBolt, as Yakumo pointed out, even the DC with its 128K memory card was able to support online functionality, ever since Sonic Adventure 1, even if it was a basic one.
I loved the N64 for being 4player split-screen in many games, same on the GC and Xbox. But I can't help but feel that with the new generation of systems, the Wii devs are really the only ones, besides multi console sports game devs, that takes single system multiplayer seriously. 360 has had a nice start with the Arcade, Gears of War and the upcoming Halo 3, where there's both been offline, LAN and Online modes, but besides that, I really think that single system multiplayer is slowly getting killed by online modes and "zomg graphics". It's great with online modes that enables you to take on people from all over, but if it's the only multiplayer option the title has, then it really creates a barrier/distance from your local buddies, unless they too shell out for the same system + games that their friend(s) already have :/ PS2 had stuff like Everquest, which only required memory card space for its updates. The Wii has 512mb built-in storage space, 64 times the space of a PS2 memory card. +It supports SD cards (which atleast comes in a couple of GBs size at an affordable price) Rumors recently also suggests a USB HDD for the Wii, but no official words yet.
If you don't care: fine. But don't say that it shouldn't be included just because you are not going to use it. People have been waiting a long time for online play on the Wii, and was one of the reasons I picked one up.
It almost seems like Online multiplayer goes at the cost of optimized offline multiplayer, and games with proper offline multiplayer haven't had the necessary resources during development to create a work network mode.
IMO there should only be online support in a game if the services are "futureproof" (ie players can manually connect via IP, play over a LAN or open source server.) The official servers can't stay up forever obviously so there has to be some compromise; it really sucks for those just a few years behind the bandwagon.
Especially when the single system multiplayer has been stripped off or dumbed down in favor of online modes. All you'll be left with in a few years are fond memories of multiplayer fun. You don't have that kind of problem with Goldeneye...
