Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo, GameSpy Collaborate on Wii Service
It's with a sigh of relief that 1up is reporting on forward progress in the Wii's online service. GameSpy announced today that it is collaborating with Nintendo, using their middleware to allow players to meet up in online-enabled Wii titles. The first title to utilize the service will be Pokemon Battle Revolution, which releases on June 25th. The news is unfortunately not all good. "The technology will also be placed in the hands of third-party developers, although the announcement gives no indication how long companies have been working with the GameSpy middleware. Either way, it doesn't appear we'll be seeing online-enabled third-party releases until the fall, at the earliest." Here's hoping that this marks the beginning of moving beyond 'friend codes'.
This isn't bad... I mean sure it'll be June before we get online multiplayer, but on the other hand... It'll be June before most of us manage to obtain a wii anyways :-)
GameSpy provides the network for the DS online games, which have friend codes a-plenty. I don't mind having one system-wide friend code, since if I want to play with someone I probably have a way of contacting them outside of the Wii. It's per-game friend codes that are a nuisance.
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
God those things are awful. I could understand using them for the DS, especially for games like Animal Crossing, because you don't want some random guy coming in and messing up your town, but on Wii it's just horrible.
Your actual code is buried in a menu in the address book portion. I've added 3 friend whos have Wii's into my address book, and they say they have added me too, but no confirmation or it working has appeared yet. I've tried to send WiiMail to them but they never get it.
The same people on my 360 gamertag list, they get the messages I send, even the ones with voice almost instantanously.
If this helps alleviate the usage of friend codes, i'm all for it.
Depends on your point of view. In my mind, unless you're playing wwith only your guild, gaming is at least 5 times better without voice chat.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Fortunately, in some games (Gears of War in particular) you can mute specific people, but still hear the rest. I'll take that system any time.
My point (especially with the latter case) was that as a company, Nintendo needs to avoid the appearance of making children vulnerable to online predators, or for that matter any content a parent might find objectionable. If your kid hears his friend swear online, that's the friend's fault, but if the kid hears a stranger swear online, that's Nintendo's fault. Also, creating games where it's expected that you talk to strangers defeats the otherwise good advice, "Don't talk to strangers," and also, "Don't talk to strange people on the phone." Of course the child isn't going to volunteer their address at first, but isn't the whole trick with online predators that they gradually build trust?
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
And one of my points is that its already being done by companies. Sony and Microsoft being two notable ones. Considering the marketshare both of them have, I don't really see a need for any such image preservation tactics. Besides - the parental controls could default to not allowing voice chat, thus maintaining the illusion that Nintendo actually cares.
The idea with friend codes is simple: It only allows you to talk to people you already know outside of the game. It does not prevent you from playing against people whose friend code you don't have, you simply won't be able to talk to them.
Let me repeat that: You can ignore friend codes and still play online games. You don't get the more sophisticated matchmaking stuff, but you can play online very easily.
The reason for friend codes is simple: If some pedophile is looking for kids, he won't be able to find them using Nintendo's online service. It's not a useful strategy against pedophiles, but it is an useful strategy for Nintendo: They can avoid the blame if something happens. Let's not forget that there were mainstream media reports about how pedophiles can get to children using the DS's chat application. And then there was this guy who actually kidnapped children and had an Xbox gamertag. Nintendo has a lot to lose here with regards to public opinion.
Personally, I don't mind friend codes per se. I usually don't want to talk to the people I play with, I just want to race them in Mario Kart or destroy them in Tetris. And I can easily fill in friend codes for the people I actually want to talk to. The only real problem with friend codes is that you have to enter them anew for each game on the DS. Hopefully, Nintendo has fixed that problem with the Wii.