PrayerPolice

Nintendo Wii: A drunk's best friend.

Vlox

Oh yeah "console with the largest amount of the lowest rated games" comes to mind, too.

Huxle

R.O.

The internet DOES have these problems, and while gaming online via Wii, or Live or PSN isn't quite AOL IM or IRC chat rooms, the potential is there for trouble. Otherwise, why would Microsoft employ the Live Police that Kotaku mentioned earlier this week if not to prevent abuse?

This is simply Nintendo company policy. Get over it. Go play Live or PSN, or PC games if you want to engage in ridiculous trashtalking or pick up the phone or get on Skype to coordinate online play. Nintendo has made the calculated risk-management decision to make online play restrictive.

StrikerGold

KypFox

Also, why do we have the option of naming the Wii? Why can't this be used as a username for online?

Ryumeka

DrFresh

M.A.S.

Neither Sony or Nintendo has the previous expertise nor do they operate out of a country that that would apparently benefit heavily from the online aspect of gaming. Just imagine where we might be with online gaming if Microsoft didn't give us Live.

M.A.S.

Kenofthedead

Ninja-Z

Lokno

Ilchymis

Bunn

dowingba

dowingba

No, as you're still demonstrating a painfully ignorant view of what "adults" want as what you want.

NeoAkira

I think it's a calculated effort to provide a different type of online environment that a public Xbox-live server type thing.

There are obvious up sides and down sides to it, but I just really don't believe that they are scared of the internet or just don't know what they are doing, really... it's like saying the Wii or DS are just gimmicky...complete underestimation and "not getting it"?

tincow

kirstpo

Jagzthebest

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

totally agree with this statement.
just like your post says, the problem is with communicating with wii friends.

not only is another sku of the console a bad idea,
it wouldn't work at all to solve the online issue, as many have pointed out on here.



that being said, smash bros brawl seems laggy less often in friend matches,
but it never completely goes away, and constantly lags with strangers.
if i thought i was hxc, i wouldn't even play online at all because of the lag.

what really sucks is how guitar hero 3 works perfect online, and this game doesn't.
it is harder to find a match in guitar hero, but no lag there.

snowlock

HavveK

njhardcoreguy

I'm tired of this debate.

njhardcoreguy

Maybe ;)

DaiMacculate

-AS

Archaic Stigma

Thats why its cool to have places like Kotaku, where such behavior is not tolerated in the slightest. I feel alot more comfortable exchanging friend codes/gamertags/etc with people on here who I read intelligent comments from than I do making friends with XxxPsychoKilla420xxX after a random game of Halo where we were on the same team. Not to say you never meet cool people randomly like that, you do, but its a crapshoot.

DaiMacculate

crunks

Balius

Silent Predator

they could get by with crappy online support last gen, but now, they really have to step it up.

too bad Nintendo makes such good games.

Power_Wrist

KamuZ

I think you're making an ass out of yourself with your assumptions.

"If they're going to create a separate SKU without friend codes, they're doing it under the assumption that adults actually want to play Wii."

I know a shitload more adults who would want to play the Wii than the PS3 or 360. The "adults" that choose a PS3 or 360 over the Wii are very much a minority in all the consumers available to purchase a system.

"That means that they need to make and market games for adults too. You can't go after a market without providing them with a reason to buy a product. Simple sales and marketing."

What do you want, more blood, guts and violence? I forgot that those are the defining characteristics of adult games. I suppose it's much like how adults only like classical music and country and no adults like rock or hip-hop. Face it, adults don't all like the same things, like you're implying. Just like how not all teenagers own a 360 and play Halo all day.

And it's just bad marketing to go after a market with false assumptions. Obviously Nintendo knows more about marketing than you, as their "kiddie" system is outselling all the "hardcore" systems by a large margin.

NeoAkira

With the Wii, they took no chances. It's the safest of the consoles, and the media can't claim it's putting their children at risk. Nobody can contact children, anonymously or otherwise, on the Wii. In order to exchange friend codes, you either know the person in reality, or are participating in less safe environments like message boards on your own. Even in random games, there's no chance of lewd, profanity filled, or predatory comments getting through. Is the Wii likely a target for online predators? No. Does the media react rationally when confronted with irrational fears? Also no.

The friend code system is NOT designed to protect your children from the horrors online, it's designed to protect Nintendo from the horrors of the daily news and outraged panicky mothers. In the process, it may ACTUALLY protect a handful of children from unwanted contact with the undesirable underbelly of the internet.

I'd love to see a ranking system for competitive online games. Love to be able to friend players in a random match to play again later. I'd love a VOIP when playing with my friends. And I can have them, since Microsoft already provides those services. For people complaining about how the Wii is designed for children and how there are no games or services for adults, I have to wonder why you care? Buy the system that appeals to you.

Balius

I think the problem is that the word "Nintendo" has become synonymous with video games, replacing "Atari" that people used in the 80s. So if a non-gamer is talking about gaming, he may use words like "Nintendo", "Playstation" etc and not even be talking about the right system. Nintendo probably feels that WHEN a majorly publicized case of children being victimized over an online game occurs, its all they can hope for that, whether its on a Nintendo console or not, that at least that is accurately portrayed. There was a story several months back (I don't recall all the details) where a local news station was trying to claim that pedophiles could randomly contact your children (it was implied that it required no consent) via Pictochat and send them lewd materials.

So yes, I agree its a bit irrational and I wish that Nintendo didn't feel it was necessary, but I also totally understand their rationale.

DaiMacculate

njhardcoreguy

"If Nintendo's only goal is to make money" that is every single companies only goal in the world. If that means listening to customer feedback, then they will, but only if they have to for the companies sake. A company protects nothing else but the company, not the people within it, or the people buying it.

You have good intentions but all capitalist companies are so.

But back to the topic. Ninty will not change a thing. Cos they're like that. More crappy controlled games here we come.

Communist_Gamer

If Nintendo's only goal is to make money and ignoring consumer feedback, then nobody should support it.

I know I'm failing at expressing my opinion right now, but I trust whoever reads this understands what I mean.

Sigh

IntelSilver

Morphine16

I have, however, been playing games online since Warcraft 2, and I have to say I prefer text chat to voice. Voice works great in team FPS games, and as I said to someone in a post a month or so ago, if they ever put out a Metroid Prime Hunters game for Wii that has team modes and no voice chat that would be more of a problem than not having it in a fighting game.

I have a 360, which did come packed with a headset, and I rarely use it unless I'm playing Halo 3 with a real-life friend I actually want to talk to, separate from the game. Most Halo 3 players either say stupid shit on the Mic or nothing at all. So I don't miss it in Brawl. If you find voice chat so essential to you personally, there are plenty of games for that, nobody forcing you to own/play a Wii ;)

DaiMacculate

njhardcoreguy

You must have missed the title of the post.

njhardcoreguy

satchow

Benjo

But everyone would die from withdrawal.

Evil Tortie's Mom

Also, who's liable to remember random numbers more easily, the kids or the adults? :P

However, we know that people are idiots and don't use parental controls properly (see: the V-chip, which has been in TV sets forever and yet no one seems to notice). So I think opting-in to strangers, violence, bewbs, and swearing is probably a better idea than having people know how to opt-out.

But Nintendo probably isn't interested, since they're printing money as it is, with no hassle for them.

Evil Tortie's Mom

Zack and Wiki, Trauma Center, Super Paper Mario, SSBB?

No no you're right, since you don't like those game they must be crapware. Troll on friend.

NeoAkira

Your DVD player will play unrated and NC-17 rated discs. Your videogame console will not play unrated or AO rated content. Movie fans have a spine when it comes to telling censors to piss off, gamers don't.

otakucode

@Evil Tortie's Mom: We should boycott Sony and Microsoft. Srsly. :> Too bad the Wii has about 5 games I'd like to play :\

Candlejack

xgenius

I was saying there was some damn poor phrasing. I quoted literally from the comments. I'm trying to point out that the unclear statements are the kind of stuff the media seizes on. If you want to be taken seriously and maturely, you need to think about what you're writing.

Basically, I'm begging for better writing. I know what people mean, but non-gamers won't, and are liable to read it wrong.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

Evil Tortie's Mom

Mikew3st

For that matter, why not give people the ability to enter their own username instead of some godawfully unrememberable unremarkable series of numbers and digits? That, at least, would make the system possible to use. It seems like arguing whether or not the system is fundamentally broken keeps getting caught up in just how superficially broken it is.

seishino

What's the point of WiiConnect24 if I can't ping a friend while he's in-game asking if he wants to play a round?

Naelok

Then the stores don't have to try and figure out how many of each version to stock, Soccer Mom doesn't have to worry about random XBL-type chatter at her pwecious, and the college kids get all the online they can stand.

Evil Tortie's Mom

DaiMacculate

Roto13

otakucode

So you can say all you want, and possibly be correct, about Nintendo manipulating things to make the Wii succeed, but I just don't think its fair to give the media credit.

Particularly when the "hardcore" game media, who would presumably be the core of the "Wii Slurping", are consistently the hardest on the system. Its not that they aren't always fair, but they view it with a critical eye. You have to face that its consumers above and beyond the normal gamer that have generated the Buzz, no single conspiratorial force or industry is capable of the creating the level of mindshare the Wii has grabbed among them so far.

Finally, have you configured your Wii with a Static IP on the Wireless and told your router to make that IP address that DMZ/Default Host? That should help a ton with your online issues in smash, if everybody did what I just said there wouldn't be any lag not caused by crappy/shared connections/just shitty routers. I went from not being able to connect to only getting dropped one out of every 10 games or so, a rate comparable to my experience with games like Halo 3 on XBL.

DaiMacculate

- people with families are not normal or grown up.

- people who don't care about online, trash talk, or blood 'n guts games aren't adults, regardless of actual age.

And then you wonder why the media thinks gamers are immature losers?

@Lezard: @Candlejack: I'm with you.
NO MORE SKU's!!!!! Enough already!

Evil Tortie's Mom

One SKU could be geared towards the 18+ crowd and it could have an Xbox Live type system and friends codes too.

The second one could be geared towards kids and it would be up to the parent to buy it or not and it would just have the current Friend Codes system.

Now if there was a shortage of some kind with only one SKU available (let's say the Kiddy one), you could go online and register with nintendo and a software update would be sent to your system with the other SKU's abilities available to you.

Mikew3st

The online system is built into the games themselves. Nothing can be done about that.

The only hope for a decent online system from Nintendo is hope that they get it right for their successors to Wii and DS.

BPMο

The Vampire Raziel

TOCATL

ServiceMaster

ban_hammer

Stop validating these idiots that are turning our kids into mental midgets by treating them like fragile retards and acting like the entire world wants to get into their pants.

And you can't have a system that wholeheartedly embraces infantilization and censorship (the videogame industry) make anything "for adults".

otakucode

Rehashing Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario, etc. isn't going to get it done forever. And no matter what the crazed fanboys tell you, the Wii's limited hardware IS stunting the possibility of games.

I nearly got rid of my Wii for $600 because I wasn't impressed by Twilight Princess (it's a GCN game with tacked on waggle) and none of the shovelware appealed to me.

Luckily Smash Bros. is really fun. But forcing me to use GameFaqs for friends is stupid. And I don't know anybody who can get get a random game going with more than 1 person. And even then, it's ridiculously laggy.

AverageJoes

The Vampire Raziel

I would buy a new version of the Wii if it had 8x or more of the internal storage capacity, whether just a better flash drive, a mini-hd, etc. If it had the other improvement of making the online more adult-friendly, and if they made a big push in their marketing so that parents would not buy their kids the adult model (limiting the number of immature kids online like we have problems with on Xbox Live), then I would welcome that as well but it would not sell me on the system.

I Brawl just fine without talking, personally, perhaps better since I can't be distracted by chatter or lose focus while I think aloud about something ;)

DaiMacculate

Makoto

PaulHunter

Kyle81

Silent Predator

I truly hate it this generation 'round. Console revisions are fine, but SKUs are easily the worst thing to ever be implemented in console wars.

"Hey I bought a PS3"
"What spec? 65nm? 80GB? PS2 BC? Card readers? Chrome finish? Falcon chipset? HDMI? USB? HDD? Memory card? Rumble? Wireless? Sex?"
"Um.....I don't know..."
"O RLY"

:P

Candlejack

I mean, no. Just, no.

Lezard

I haven't had any problems with random matches outside the first time I tried to go online. Other than that day it's been smooth sailing for me, so I guess I'm lucky. But I don't really mind the friend codes that much; I mean if I'm gonna add someone to my friend's list I will already have their phone number and such anyways so it's not really a hassle to exchange friend codes.

A lobby system and some sort of rating system, however, would have been much appreciated for Brawl.

NeoAkira

Final tough: Nintendo should do a Firmware update, so you can select if you want to get ride of the Friend codes or not, leaving the choice to us the buyers, the customers, the gamers.

Dumad

How could a separate SKU for adults work when the system has few games that adults actually want to play.

njhardcoreguy

If Nintendo ever reverses this policy, you know the world has come to an end.

Krytha

Communist_Gamer

Vash21

God damn stingy bastards.

Dorphat the Insomniac

The Vampire Raziel

Morphine16