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Nintendo Considers WFC A Success
Eurogamer reports that at 200,000 users, Nintendo considers the WFC a success. From the article: "Nintendo has announced that more than 200,000 unique visitors have made use of its new Wi-Fi Connection service since last month's launch, logging nearly 3 million connections around the globe. Wi-Fi Connection allows Nintendo DS owners to play titles such as Mario Kart DS and Tony Hawk DS online, via either Wi-Fi hotspot, wireless router or a special USB dongle."
He said "dongle!" *snort* Heee heeeheheh.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Sony considers Nintendo irrelevant.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
3,000,000 accesses from 200,000 unique users in one month = an average of 1,500 accesses per user per month
I could see the occasional hardcore gamer playing 1,500 times in one month, but this just doesn't make sense. Which begs the question, what constitutes as an "access" to Nintendo's WiFi service?
The WiFi games are great. I can't stop playing Mario Kart and I got Animal Crossing yesterday.
They use different concepts though, Mario Kart is mostly into blind matchmaking (although a friend code mode is there) and Animal Crossing explicitly allows you only to play with friends -- it won't even let you online until you finish some preparations in the game (i.e. do some stuff for Tom Nook and introduce yourself to all other inhabitants and the major of your city).
Haven't tried Tony Hawk...
My math says the average user would only have to have logged in 15 times in the opening month.
3,000,000 accesses / 200,000 unique visitors = 15 accesses/unique visitor.
I've only tried playing Mario Kart DS, since I live in Europe and Nintendo HATES US for not releasing Animal Crossing (not gonna import it, the people I wanna show it to don't want to read english text) earlier, well, let's say it's a start.
Pros :
- I don't think I need to remind how mind-blowingly fun Mario Kart is. Just being able to play it on the crapper was a huge improvement in the GBA episode, now being able to compete against humans at anytime makes it even better.
- It's free. FREE! No subscription, jus' like beer.
- No lag. I mean, I once had lag, but I slid the bittorrent upload limit button a bit lower (maybe -5K), and it was flawless. Looks like Nifi needs very little bandwidth, which is very elegant, I might say.
- No chance of anyone shouting "DIE FUCKER PIG JEW NIGGER", unlike some game that starts with "H" and ends with "ALO 2".
- Some adjustments can be done regarding the rules. For example, for the first few days, disconnecting during a race would have no consequences, the "loser" losing nothing, and the leading winning nothing. Now, any disconnection in the heat of a race means a loss. It's smart enough to notice you're between two races if you really need to disconnect. There's hope for more adjustments, then.
- I still haven't seen nazi signs or penises used as emblems, so I'll take it that either Nintendo is doing a fine banning job, or that MKDS players are a bit more responsible than the rest. (that, or I'm lucky, and the unlucky players will flood me with shameful replies in 3, 2, 1...)
- No communication at all possible through the game. (It's a plus for concerned parents, a minus for me.)
Cons :
- If you don't like playing against humans, it sucks.
- Very simple interface means very uncustomizable interface. That's Nintendo for you.
- The "friend codes" thingamajig could have been optimized so that after each game, you could specifiy if you wanted to add this or that racer into your friend roster.
- Four races! That's about twenty minutes play, it's very good, but personnally, I have to spend about two to five *real* minutes in the matchmaking room. Not very "on the go", is it?
- No battle mode, and not all circuits available for online play, due to lag reasons. WTF, Ninty? If I want to lag, I'll lag, now let me play the *full* game, PLEASE! I'll blame my router, not you guys! Promise!
- The whole territory of France sucks and is still firmly entrenched in the stone age, so I've only played wi-fi domestically, not in the streets. Okay, it's not a Mario Kart con, just a rant. Désolé.
- No communication at all possible through the game. (It's a plus for concerned parents, a minus for me.)
Now, I gotta go do something. TTYL. GG.
I own two of the three Wi-Fi aware games, Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing: Wild World. Here's my impressions:
Mario Kart DS:
Although only twenty of the thirty-two included tracks are playable, and despite the fact that gameplay chances subtly while playing over Wi-Fi (you can't drag items behind you and karts can't bump each other about much regardless of weight), online Mario Kart is surprisingly playable. You can either choose to play against randomly-selected opponents in your region, around the world, "rivals" with a similar win/loss record to you, and "friends" who you've traded friend codes with.
It's important to note that, so far, no Nintendo Wi-Fi game allows for you to play with specific people you've not already traded a friend code with. There exist a good number of sites on the web that allow you to trade these codes (Zonk offered his own here a couple of weeks ago), but even if you've traded (and BOTH players must have the other's code to count), you can't be sure to get that specific friend if you choose a Friends game. I can understand they did this to take care of matters of griefing, and also because of the complete lack of a communication lobby. I'm torn on this approach: it'd sure be nice to be able to play against specific opponents sometimes, but it does make setting up a match very, very easy, as the service takes care of all matchmaking automatically.
It's worth saying that there are players who have decided on off-color or even downright obscene player handles, as well as choosing pictures of genitalia for their kart emblem. So far, it's uncertain what Nintendo plans to do about this, if anything. Once I read on their forums that the proper response to these forms of abuse was to email someone at Nintendo, but later it seems that statement was retracted. Official word so far seems to be that this is the reason for the CYA "Experience may change during online play" message below the ERSB symbol on the splash screens, an attitude that, depending on your view of the matter, is either very irresponsible or surprisingly enlightened. Nintendo is able to track all activity by each DS' MAC address, of course, so it's possible that they could outright ban players for abuses, but it's uncertain if or when they'll do that. It's worth saying that so far, the majority of players I've encountered have no such issues, implying that either fairly few gamers are doing this or those who do it are quickly, quietly sucked into the void.
A bigger issue with the service is definitely my own fault: there are some SERIOUSLY sharp drivers on the online Mario Kart circuit, and despite the essential randomness introduced by the item system, driving skill still matters a lot. Unlike in some past incarnations of Mario Kart (I'm looking at YOU, MK64!), drivers who are behind receive no artificial catch-up speed boosts here; all of the balancing comes from the item system. (Karts also have an "Items" statistic now, which influences how often you get the good stuff.)
If you have any illusions about your skill in driving cartoon vehicles, they will quickly be shattered the first time you go up against a driver who's mastered "snaking," which is a technique for executing drift boosts on straightaways. Drivers with extremely high degrees of accomplishment in single-player mode get stars above their name during races, up to three, but you can be sure when you find someone with even one star on their handle that you're in for a tough battle. Similarly, you'll encounter all kinds of strategy online, including players who'll get a Blue Shell and sit on it until just before you cross the finish line. But even in that case, it's balanced by the fact that the driver will probably have to have foregone many other items in order to hold onto that shell. This is the best-balanced Mario Kart, arguably, since the original, and it may be even better than that.
While we're on the topic of shooting shells at your opponents, the sorriest omission in Mario Kart DS is the fact that its
While Mario Kart DS is an excellent game and I'm very, very glad that Nintendo finally entered into the realm of online gaming I hope they don't decide that they've suceeded. Basically they've reached a point where this works, but they don't have a system that works very well. The friend system is clunky and problematic, it's impossible to play a match directly against someone else, etc.
Nintendo has made a good, functional first step tied into an excellent game. I just hope they keep working at it rather than assuming it's good enough now.