Nintendo Hates Friends
May 3rd, 2007It’s really the only explanation as to why they have to make it so difficult to have them.
Nintendo Gamers Online (via Destructoid) has more or less confirmed what we basically already knew but were too afraid to accept: the Wii will use game specific friends codes.
I’ll mention that their confirmation is not 100% official, but they base it on newly released screenshots from Mario Strikers Charged that clearly show an interface to input Wii Codes.
I don’t know how much more I have to add to this over their own rant (which you should check out), but I’ll give my 2 cents as well after the break.
Nintendo, despite an outcry from their fans, is determined just to be different for the sake of being different. What perhaps Nintendo may or may not understand is that different can be “worse” than the current benchmark for which all online console systems are measured (XBox Live).
Nintendo just doesn’t care. They want to do things their way, they want their system to be different, and clearly they’re ok if their system is not really looked at as a premier “destination” for online console gaming. Nintendo fans, like us, will suffer through it, because that’s what Nintendo fans do. We’ll deal with random matchups where people will drop from games early to avoid detriment to their records, friends games where we may not necessarily be placed with our friends (nor will we necessarily have the option of selecting which friends to play with/against or even see which friends are online), paltry friends lists because we can only add people we have an easy way of contacting (or take hours of your time to enter in friends codes from a 3rd-party source like NGO while taking more hours to follow-up with those people to ensure they add you right back), and being unable to talk to people who aren’t your friends within games. We’ll deal with it because we really WANT to play these games online and this is the only way Nintendo will let us.
But will Nintendo’s new market deal with it? Will the people that abandoned Nintendo for the last couple generations consider this sort of online implementation, or will they simply go with what they already know is a vastly superior system, XBox Live, or just ignore online altogether? I guess we’ll see.
Posted in Idiocy, Jeff, Nintendo, Online, Wii |
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
First, I’ll say I’m no fan of friends codes. BUT if you watch the videos for Strikers, the online system looks very robust. It has all the makings of a good online experience. There are daily rankings and 3 months season leader boards. You can see if your “friends” are online, available or busy. You can invite them to play via the interface and you can play with them against other random opponents. The only drawback is that first you have to add them manually (which sucks). Even this would not be a significant problem if Nintendo would impliment a friends request feature, or at least a notification that someone has added you, letting you then add them or reject them with a single click.
Also, with regard to this point:
“We’ll deal with random matchups where people will drop from games early to avoid detriment to their records”
At least in Strikers it seems they have fixed this by creating a “positive” points system, meaning you get points even for losing. So if you quit out, it will hurt your record more than finishing the game.
All in all, it’s clearly far from perfect, but if entering friends codes once per game is the price we pay for a robust free online servive, i can live with that.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
The friends list is a big step and a big difference from the DS implementation. The issue you mention is a problem, but I’m willing to deal with it.
I don’t really mind the stupid 16-digit code thing — it’s a pain but it at least makes sense. It prevents them from having to manage a system made up of nicknames (and helps prevent issues like people putting expletives in their usernames). My problem with the DS implementation is that even once you’ve added someone trying to play with them is a pain.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Also, I forgot to address you final point:
“But will Nintendo’s new market deal with it?……or will they simply go with what they already know is a vastly superior system, XBox Live”
Nintendo’s new market has no idea what LIVE is like. None. They don’t own an XBOX360 and have never played online console games before. The only people who can do as you say and compare NIntendo’s online offering to LIVE are very hardcore gamers that have LIVE gold accounts AND a Wii. This demographic is absolutely miniscule when it compares to whats coming into the Wii’s perview. MS claims they have 6 million gamers on LIVE. From what I can gather, (because they are not forthcoming with the stats) this includes machines with multiple free accounts. From everthing I’ve read there are something like 3 million actual paying subscribers on LIVE. Thats nothing. Considering how much everyone trumpets LIVE as the next great coming in gaming, and considering every xbox sold includes a free membership, the fact that so few are willing to pay for it demonstrates what the majority of gamers think of it. Apparently that it’s not worth the money. I would have to agree. I’ve been gaming onlnie for free way too many years to start paying now.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
used cisco-
Thanks for that info. I actually probably should’ve looked up Mario Strikers a bit more before posting, although my post was more to complain about friends codes and how they’ve been implemented in the past. Those are definitely vast improvements to the DS implementations.
But as you said, they need a friend request feature or at least the notification. Also, will it take several hours within Mario Strikers for friends to register as it does for the Wii console itself?
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
cisco-
Perhaps you’re right… but I’m not convinced. Imagine if Nintendo had implemented something Live-esque for their system. Don’t you think their new market would appreciate that kind of ease of use and functionality? Geoff wrote up a post awhile back on an article about the XBox Live Arcade actually appealing to the casual crowd, and I can’t say I disagree. Yes, the hardcore gamer gets the system in the door, but then maybe mom sees that you can play Uno or Poker (is Bridge available yet?) with people online, and chat with them at the same time. Nintendo had the opportunity to go the other way with this: create a new market of casual gamers to actually sell the console to, and create an online system that actually caters to them. Nintendo’s friend system isn’t easier than XBox Live… it’s harder and less accessible. Somewhat ironically, it’s even “more hardcore” than XBox Live just because of it’s inaccessibility.
I also mention the 2 generations of users that abandoned Nintendo. What of them? There’s now not 1, but 2 generations who have started playing games not from Nintendo, but from Microsoft and Sony. Growing up with e-mail, IM, and Myspace, these users are expecting a robust online system. These are the kinds of people who may look at Nintendo and scoff at what they’re doing, and instead go with Microsoft or Sony.
Yes, Nintendo is doing quite well right now. They’re riding a wave of unbelievably good press and are actually expanding their market. But their online system should help augment that, and the friends code system is most definitely not.
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Not to completely takeover the comments, but I’ll add one more thing…
I actually agree that Live Gold accounts are overpriced a bit. That being said, the Live Silver Account still blows away what Nintendo will be doing, save for actually playing a game online (which is obviously a big component). In any case, a persistent friends list, custom soundtrack, and simple to use marketplace and arcade (along with an abundance of free demos) make the Silver account still a good value.
May 4th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Yes, I wish WFC was just like LIVE and even better. Of course I do. They certainly need to address the topic of downloadable demos. LIVE is great for many such reasons. My main point is that once you get your friend codes added, it looks to have much of the same potential as LIVE, at least as implimented on Strikers, and it’s free. And that, yes some gamers will be able to compare it to LIVE (most likely unfavorably), but taking into account the vast market that is being tapped by Wii versus the relatively tiny minority of overlap that market has with LIVE users, I don’t see it being a problem at all. I mean, most anyone who can actually compare the 2 will be doing so because they already bought a Wii and a 360, which means the only potential sales losses would be multiplatform online games, of which it’s not looking like there will be many. And even so, some will go Wii for the lower price and (arguably) unique controls. As great as the LIVE experience is, look at the 360 sales lately. They really are struggling. MS overstuffed the channel to hit 10 million shipped and they are not clearing out fast. MS has revised their shipment numbers down, what, 3 times now? They’ve been hovering around 10 million sales for months. When sales ARE up, it is coordinated with game releases. If I recall correctly the original xbox sold nearly the same as the 360 has so far and it wasn’t online at all at that time. Games sell hardware. We can’t forget that. LIVE is great, but it doesn’t seem to be driving sales. Nor will the WFC drive sales of the Wii, IMO. Sales may suffer among the hardcore, but I think Nintendo has shown us (from the name, to the specs, to the lack of online at launch) that they are willing to take a bit of a loss in share in that demographic.