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I have a bone to pick with the Wii's "online" ability.
I've likened the online experiences of the XBox 360 and the Wii to entering a house. With the XBox 360, when you start a game (it doesn't even have to be online), you walk in the house, and you see a whole bunch of webcams with your friend's names on them. You instantly know which friends are online, and they can see you've come online, too. With Nintendo, there's no webcams. When you login to WiiConnect24, you enter the house, only to see if anyone else is around, and then walk back out. Everyone else is doing the same thing. Without the online system being actually, y'know, online for more than a minute or two, you can never tell when a person's been on, and even if they're playing at the same time, you can only tell if both of you have signed in to WiiConnect24 at the same time. It's not exactly an "always-on" situation as Reggie originally advertised. I was hoping that with Brawl, you could login and stay logged-in, but nope, you gotta logout if you want to play offline.
And I play offline a lot.
Nintendo had the best chance to correct their "WiiConnect24" service to at least rival Microsoft when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. It was the most anticipated game to be released for the Wii, and I was incredibly eager to get online and play with other friends - as it stands I have played two fights, total - one "random" fight (with no lag, but for all I know, the other player might have disconnected and I was facing off against the computer) and one "friend" fight (with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bassbeast, after talking with him on the phone, to see if we could exchange stages).
I have a feeling that, due to the Wii's popularity with the "casual" crowd, Nintendo doesn't see a problem that needs to be fixed. I believe that they're resting on their laurels, knowing that they have a system that has a "casual" messaging service coupled with a inferior online-gaming service.
Actually, now that I think about it, the DS system, while innovative and cool that you can play anyone at anytime, is exactly the same way. If you want to play with a friend, you have to find another method of communicating before you can play together. I never really gave it much thought, because if I wanted to play an online game, I'd just fire it up and select random people. But I remember I managed to get online withravenworks once for Picross, but again, I was chatting with him online beforehand. I can understand for a portable system, it can't use the Wi-Fi all the time due to battery life, so I can't give that fault.
And I hate to keep ratting on it, but Friend Codes - can we stop? Majesco managed to figure it out for Blast Works. Nintendo helped them. Why do we still need to deal with Friend Codes when every Wii has its own unique number? And why, if Majesco has figured it out with Nintendo's help, does Nintendo continue to push out Friend Codes like numbers were water? If a third-party company can eliminate Friend Codes for "ease of use" then surely Nintendo can do the same!
Has anything changed since Brawl has been released? Not that I've seen. No updates, I still can't send levels to my boss from work as we've never seen each other online yet (and I guess that means we're not "truely" linked up, he doesn't show up in my Send List). I don't have Mario Kart Wii so I can't see if any inroads have been made with the online gaming. But if I have to hazard a guess, I would say that Nintendo is still pushing Friend Codes, and people still have to find another way to communicate before playing together online.
I doubt Nintendo is reading, but if they are, your WiiConnect24 needs an upgrade. Do it for the "core" gamer, don't be content with being the casual gamer's console. Online is a necessity, not an afterthought. Try to be at least a bit competitive. Otherwise, you will never win.
(Oh yes, DLC is imperative too. Welcome to 2008.)
I've likened the online experiences of the XBox 360 and the Wii to entering a house. With the XBox 360, when you start a game (it doesn't even have to be online), you walk in the house, and you see a whole bunch of webcams with your friend's names on them. You instantly know which friends are online, and they can see you've come online, too. With Nintendo, there's no webcams. When you login to WiiConnect24, you enter the house, only to see if anyone else is around, and then walk back out. Everyone else is doing the same thing. Without the online system being actually, y'know, online for more than a minute or two, you can never tell when a person's been on, and even if they're playing at the same time, you can only tell if both of you have signed in to WiiConnect24 at the same time. It's not exactly an "always-on" situation as Reggie originally advertised. I was hoping that with Brawl, you could login and stay logged-in, but nope, you gotta logout if you want to play offline.
And I play offline a lot.
Nintendo had the best chance to correct their "WiiConnect24" service to at least rival Microsoft when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. It was the most anticipated game to be released for the Wii, and I was incredibly eager to get online and play with other friends - as it stands I have played two fights, total - one "random" fight (with no lag, but for all I know, the other player might have disconnected and I was facing off against the computer) and one "friend" fight (with
bassbeast, after talking with him on the phone, to see if we could exchange stages).I have a feeling that, due to the Wii's popularity with the "casual" crowd, Nintendo doesn't see a problem that needs to be fixed. I believe that they're resting on their laurels, knowing that they have a system that has a "casual" messaging service coupled with a inferior online-gaming service.
Actually, now that I think about it, the DS system, while innovative and cool that you can play anyone at anytime, is exactly the same way. If you want to play with a friend, you have to find another method of communicating before you can play together. I never really gave it much thought, because if I wanted to play an online game, I'd just fire it up and select random people. But I remember I managed to get online with
ravenworks once for Picross, but again, I was chatting with him online beforehand. I can understand for a portable system, it can't use the Wi-Fi all the time due to battery life, so I can't give that fault.And I hate to keep ratting on it, but Friend Codes - can we stop? Majesco managed to figure it out for Blast Works. Nintendo helped them. Why do we still need to deal with Friend Codes when every Wii has its own unique number? And why, if Majesco has figured it out with Nintendo's help, does Nintendo continue to push out Friend Codes like numbers were water? If a third-party company can eliminate Friend Codes for "ease of use" then surely Nintendo can do the same!
Has anything changed since Brawl has been released? Not that I've seen. No updates, I still can't send levels to my boss from work as we've never seen each other online yet (and I guess that means we're not "truely" linked up, he doesn't show up in my Send List). I don't have Mario Kart Wii so I can't see if any inroads have been made with the online gaming. But if I have to hazard a guess, I would say that Nintendo is still pushing Friend Codes, and people still have to find another way to communicate before playing together online.
I doubt Nintendo is reading, but if they are, your WiiConnect24 needs an upgrade. Do it for the "core" gamer, don't be content with being the casual gamer's console. Online is a necessity, not an afterthought. Try to be at least a bit competitive. Otherwise, you will never win.
(Oh yes, DLC is imperative too. Welcome to 2008.)
no subject
This is the problem. They've had such a success with the Wii that they've realised they don't need to make a worthwhile system to make money. :/
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no subject
But with XBox Live and Pogo.com, it maintains a connection, even if they're not actually online, playing games. And that's where I find Wii's flaw, in that it truly isn't "online" all the time - you have to turn it on, and it's only on for online games.
I have to wonder... if you're playing Smash Bros. online "with anyone" and a friend logs in, does it notify you aka XBox Live?
no subject
The only thing about XLA that is in dire need of improvement (that I would argue the Wii does better right now) is the marketplace. There's so much content on there now that it's becoming impossible to navigate, and there's no system for allowing good games to rise to the top and get noticed. They're all just crammed together, searchable only by name or genre. I like the fact that the Wii is going to have separate channels for Wii Ware stuff and the rest of the downloadable content.