Nintendo's "Home"

[Plaupius]

Just_Ben said:

Plaupius said:

Just_Ben said:

Plaupius said:
Hold on here. We're approaching the online issue from the upper tier perspective, while it seems to be Nintendo's strategy to gradually build the online experience from the lower tiers up. I believe it will improve by leaps and bounds, but perhaps not in the direction we think would be the best.

Another malstrom retalker. Why should it be down tier to have a friendcode for every game? And uptier to have a global one? No answer? Thought so, yes you failed!

Because it offers an upstream path. I don't claim to agree with all the design decisions Nintendo has made, but it is starting to look more and more like they have really planned everything around the key concepts they want to push. If I don't understand it, it doesn't mean that there's no logic behind it.

What is upstreaming about it? I understand the upstreaming concept, and there is no upstreaming. The upstreaming goes from no online to online. That doesn't excuse that the online is missing some basic features (like a global friendslist). Actually the current system is more complex (and therefor "upper tier" if you want so hard putting it in those 2 categories) and my system would be "down tier". As I said, a lot of people just repeat what he is saying, not thinking for themselves. Make it easier is never bad. One friendcode for all games is easier. No reason to defend it, Nintendo just did a bad job there. They do a excellent job somewhere else, but there, they did a bad job. Thats not that problematic, if they see and fix it over time. After all everyone (oh yes even Nintendo) does make mistakes.

And what I ask for is not hard to implement, and  nobody can tell me that even a soccer mom find it easier to remember one code (instead of 3) and doesn't find it nice to see what their friend is playing right now, so she can join it (if she wants to) right away ;)

 

I don't disagree with you about it being nice if there indeed was a global friends list, and I believe (or at least I hope) it will come. But the concept of lower tiers and higher tiers does not have to do with how easy to use the online is, it has to do with how it relates to the consumers. And I suspect a good portion of those who are new to gaming are perfectly happy that they have a few games where they can test the waters, so to speak, the ability to play online with friends at all is new to them. Upstreaming is when they realize online gaming is fun, and wonder if not more games could support it, and perhaps if it would not be possible to have an easier way to control your friends and so on. We are already there, have been for years, and probably all of the younger IM generation is there also, but the older crowd might not be.

Anyway, all this is speculation as we don't know what the real plans of Nintendo are. I just don't find it plausible that they would make this kind of "mistake" in a product that cost millions and millions to develop, and which by all accounts is designed extremely well around a vision of what it will be. There are just too many places in the design process where, if there would not have been compelling reasons to do it this way, somebody would have said: "Hey, let's have a global friend list."