windbane said:
Well, you argued it better than I did, so thank you. I forgot to mention RE: Outbreak. It was mentioned in the EGM article I just read in the new issue. The topic? How Nintendo's lack of voice chat sucks. The title of the article is: "Feeling Disconnected." The subtitle: "Online play on the Wii blows, but does Nintendo even need to care?" I think they do, but that's besides the point. No one has addressed your points about the DS having voice chat and the Wii having a web browser. Edit: Just_Ben: I read you, heh. Only-friends would certainly be a nice option. Voice chat is always an option...if you don't have a headset you don't hear people talk. |
Allow me to apologize in advance: I won't be online for a few days after I post this, so I'll be unable to hear your response to my points. However, I do feel this needs to be said.
The voice chat system we currently have is broken. Period. It works fine for the niche, but it's a massive turn-off for the rest of the population. That population, by the by, is precisely the people that all three of the console manufacturers are trying to target, so "business as usual" simply isn't going to cut it. This isn't just my opinion, though: the man who ran Microsoft Gaming's user research division for several years has said precisely the same thing.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3604/fixing_online_gaming_idiocy_a_.php?page=4
I urge you to read this article. It contains answers to all of your points, answers based on the all-important user data. Most important to this discussion is the fact that the current voice chat system costs developers sales. What Nintendo is trying to do is find a way around the problems caused by "business as usual." They are operating on the same assumption as this article's author when he says "{i}f we want multiplayer gaming to grow, we have to start designing the social environment(s) to appeal to people other than trash-talking, hardcore gamer."
Now, for the other side. I personally do feel that Nintendo makes things a little too difficult when it comes to many things. The Friend Codes thing is one example, although there are many others. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but I do believe that Nintendo could stand to make using Friend Codes easier, and that a lack of voice chat makes using teamwork online borderline-impossible. (I've lost track of how many points my team has lost in capture-the-flag on Medal of Honor Heroes 2, simply because I couldn't tell the person with the flag to take it back to our base) And Onyxmeth's points are all well taken: if Nintendo was completely concerned about voice chat, they wouldn't have already introduced it in the DS.
That said, SkyRender and others are correct when they say Nintendo is deliberately trying to do something new, something different from what we have now, because what we have now is repulsive to the majority of the population. My guess (and I emphasize guess!) is that while Nintendo sees the flaws in the current online system, and while it has some ideas on how to address them, it's not completely certain that its ideas will ultimately pan out, hence the baby steps (in multiple directions) we've seen them take.
I'm personally pessimistic that Nintendo, or anyone else, can ever really bring us the perfect solution to the voice chat conundrum. And even if Nintendo does, I'd be interested in hearing why it took them so long to introduce it to us. That said, I also was prepared to swear that George Bush wouldn't be re-elected, so I can hardly pretend to be infallible. Either way, I hope that Nintendo does something about this situation soon, one way or the other, because I'm getting tired of having my Medal of Honor games inevitably dissolve into a series of individual duels.
P.S. This may be my most rambling post ever, and that's saying something...
