Is Nintendo best suited to making a console MMO?

[Ail]

FaithRaven said:

dib8rman said:
last time I checked there was no voice chat in WoW...

You must have checked it long time ago because WoW has voice chat for quite a while. In the days when WoW had no voice chat people were still communiting by voice using 3rd party software like Ventrillo.

However a console MMO really NEEDS voice chat compared to a PC MMO where you can go without because you know ... last time I checked consoles had no keyboard.

And WoW being surpassed by a MMO not developed by Blizzard  has less chances of happening than PS3 passing Wii in sales, which I find impossible :)

Like the previous poster pointed out Wow has had voice chat for a while.

And many players still use third party chat programs anyway ( like Ventrilo).

Aside from communication ( keyboard anyone ?) the big challenge for any MMO running on a console would be the mod community.

Wow thrives so well because it is easy for anyone to develop add-ons mods and the majority of players run several of these mods ( as a raider I run 7-8 all the time and those get updated quite frequently).

Some features of wow aren't great or wow lacks some features you would want to use ? No problem there's probably a dozen mods out there that can provide them for you !

Seeing how all of the console makers refuse to release downloadable software that has not been certified by them I fail to see how a successfull modding community would work on a console...

Even if somehow they got pass this step ( and I doubt they would, they are too afraid to release software they have not certified on their consoles for fear of hacks, virus and co) then you have the issue of community. A MMO is more than the game itself, constantly when playing you find yourself alt-tabbing to check your guild web site, some site for a quest help, read some forums....

Finally I don't think many people posting on this thread realize the kind of investment a MMO is and how much work it is to keep the playerbase happy and occupied.

Have you ever played the same game for 2 years in a row, an average of over 10 hours a week ( it's more like 20 hours a week for a lot of wow players). Do you see yourself doing that on a console MMO ?