An Open Letter to Nintendo

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Squall Leonhart

Are you saying "why bother"? 'Cause expanding the market means increasing profit. Within your lifespan.

No, im saying that the Videogame industry isnt going anywhere

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Grand Master Kickface

Basically, if Nintendo doesn't expand the market base, no one else is going to, and eventually gaming will become more and more of a niche hobby until it stops existing altogether. It's only because Nintendo continually ropes in new players that video games have any longevity as a medium, and Wii was an absolutely necessary move for the industry's long-term health.

Which I was saying earlier, however:

On that subject, the Wii is only 2 years old, and it looks to us like previous consoles had a greater number of good games because we're looking back on their entire 5-6 year catalog retrospectively.

Actually, we're comparing it to the two other consoles that came out about the same time.

Were we comparing it to say... the Gamecube, I'd say the Wii already has a better library. No More Heros + Twilight Princess + Super Mario Galaxy + Metroid Prime 2 already beats... what... Metroid Prime? I refuse to count any game that pads out it's game play to ridiculous margins with boring ass sailing and treasure hunting as a proper game--so I'm purposely leaving Wind Waker off the Gamecube list.

However--it still doesn't hold up to the libraries for... well even for the PS3. And that's kinda sad.

Though, as I said before, I understand what they're doing and why they're doing it, and I don't see it as a bad thing. It just means that I'm not their target demographic anymore, and I'm ok with that.

Large companies are not your best friend, regardless of how long they've made things that you like. Sometimes your interests move away from theirs, and that's ok. It just means you have to move on.

Or spend extra money on more than one console.

Whatever.

[ZAKtheGeek]

I do agree that Nintendo has hyped themselves into a tight spot with this "change gaming forever" thing. Or was it the fans? Anyway, the point is, it's probably not going to happen, and there certainly aren't going to be games that exemplify the concept month after month. What does seem plausible is small improvements of the gaming experience; nothing major, just some neat things. All the hype puts these things in a bad light. People think, "this is the revolution? What a stupid gimmick." Whereas if it were never propped up as being the new face of gaming forever, there might be more appreciation for what is accomplished instead of focusing on what isn't.

Well, that was very abstract. Let's move into more concrete territory... the future!

Originally Posted by Bellsouth Minion

Nintendo has drove itself into a corner, and i expect some big surprises in 2009, or else, i would bet the wii is going to have a shorter life.

wat

I don't know if you've seen some sales numbers, like, ever, so let me explain this... Do you remember when Sony said, "we could launch the PS3 with no games and people would buy it?" Well, there could be no Wii games coming out, ever again, and it would still probably continue to sell for maybe up to a year. Maybe it'll be "dead to you" or something, but the little white box isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Krylo

Were we comparing it to say... the Gamecube, I'd say the Wii already has a better library. No More Heros + Twilight Princess + Super Mario Galaxy + Metroid Prime 2 [it is 3 you silly goose] already beats... what... Metroid Prime? I refuse to count any game that pads out it's game play to ridiculous margins with boring ass sailing and treasure hunting as a proper game--so I'm purposely leaving Wind Waker off the Gamecube list.

See, this is what I don't get. It's not any worse than last gen, so what the fuck was going on with the Gamecube? Was it considered to have a weak first party lineup? Was there a phantom casual market Nintendo was secretly courting with phantom casual games? It seems like things have only gotten better in that department for the "hardcore" (surely not worse, at least?) so I don't understand how it is that people can say that Nintendo "abandoned them" this gen. Seems like they're doing the same as they've always been, but now they're also doing things for a different audience.

[Regulus Tera]

Originally Posted by ZAKtheGeek

See, this is what I don't get. It's not any worse than last gen, so what the fuck was going on with the Gamecube? Was it considered to have a weak first party lineup? Was there a phantom casual market Nintendo was secretly courting with phantom casual games? It seems like things have only gotten better in that department for the "hardcore" (surely not worse, at least?) so I don't understand how it is that people can say that Nintendo "abandoned them" this gen. Seems like they're doing the same as they've always been, but now they're also doing things for a different audience.

That's part of the problem, I think. While I could make the argument that Nintendo has always been a casual market company, only now they admit it openly. It also doesn't help that they are the market leader at the moment, so they get scrutinised a lot more for any "defects" their line-up may have.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

That's part of the problem, I think. While I could make the argument that Nintendo has always been a casual market company, only now they admit it openly. It also doesn't help that they are the market leader at the moment, so they get scrutinised a lot more for any "defects" their line-up may have.

I think it's less about that and more about people not getting what they expected. People expected the Wii to make great use of the motion controls, but were misinformed about how they really worked. We now have an add-on that basically makes the thing do what they said it would. People expected to move around to play games, but they didn't consider how tiring it might be after coming home from a shitty day at the office. People expected the Wii lineup to make full use of all the nifty little features in the remote and nunchuck, but they didn't expect it to be so damned poorly-implemented half the time. They expected party games, because, hell, DDR was the first game that actually made you get up and move, and people STILL play the original, but they didn't think that that would be 99.99999% of the entire lineup that would be alluring to play after 10 hours.

There's all sorts of stuff the Wii has going for it, like Wii points, half of all Nintendo games of all the ages, GameCube compatibility, etc., which is fine, but people are feeling cheated on so much more that it outweighs the good.

[Jagos]

People expected the Wii to make great use of the motion controls, but were misinformed about how they really worked.

So that means people have lowered expectations on the other systems?

I'm asking just to have that point clarified. It seems as if the Wii is being punished for not being more than it is along these lines.

[Mirai Gen]

Well it's also the fact that Nintendo keeps crippling themselves. Just compare the functionality to XBL/PSN online play, arcade, and functionality to the Wii. I don't know why but Nintendo is incredibly skeptical to do anything even remotely related to easy online community gatherings and friendships. The 'pedophile' argument became stale a looooooooooong time ago.

Brawl, for some completely random reason, comes to mind.

Probably because I'm still really sore about it.

[Regulus Tera]

Originally Posted by Dante Must Die

Well it's also the fact that Nintendo keeps crippling themselves. Just compare the functionality to XBL/PSN online play, arcade, and functionality to the Wii. I don't know why but Nintendo is incredibly skeptical to do anything even remotely related to easy online community gatherings and friendships. The 'pedophile' argument became stale a looooooooooong time ago.

It's not that they are worried about pedophiles harassing your kids online as much as they do not want dumb parents to sue them for pedophiles harassing your kids online. I used to think it was idiotic until I saw a documentary on 20/20 arguing that fucking Pictochat could be a tool for child molesters to contact your kids. Seeing it under that light, I can kind of understand them.

I also heard that part of the reason they do not want to get online fully (at least not yet) has to do with the rampant bigotry and racism that gets thrown around everywhere in online matches. It explains why their first voice chat addition for the Wii is not a headset, but a microphone that picks up everyone talking in a room, reducing the incentive for anyone to spew out shit. Pulling off a Seil:

This is why you don't get full online with Nintendo.

EDIT: It was myFOX. My bad.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Jagos

So that means people have lowered expectations on the other systems?

I'm asking just to have that point clarified. It seems as if the Wii is being punished for not being more than it is along these lines.

Other systems are being punished for other reasons. The 360 is criticized for compatibility issues and its limited scope of game types, aka "which shooter should I buy next" syndrome. The RRoD has made it the target of countless jokes, and it doesn't help with the history of both it and the original having the nasty habit of dying or other issues, like being a space heater. Also because the Live community can be considered... rambunctious. The PS3 has its share of flack from the SixAxis, its early lack of vibration, limited compatibility with PS1 and now none whatsoever with PS2 games, marshmallow trigger buttons, a limited library overall, major loss of exclusive titles, and high price.

[Mirai Gen]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

It's not that they are worried about pedophiles harassing your kids online as much as they do not want dumb parents to sue them for pedophiles harassing your kids online. I used to think it was idiotic until I saw a documentary on 20/20 arguing that fucking Pictochat could be a tool for child molesters to contact your kids. Seeing it under that light, I can kind of understand them.

I also heard that part of the reason they do not want to get online fully (at least not yet) has to do with the rampant bigotry and racism that gets thrown around everywhere in online matches. It explains why their first voice chat addition for the Wii is not a headset, but a microphone that picks up everyone talking in a room, reducing the incentive for anyone to spew out shit. Pulling off a Seil:

Well yeah, it wasn't exactly like they didn't have good reason, but the whole pedophile thing is just a lame excuse, as they could just as easily have an "off" switch. Password protection. Playstation 2's had it for DVDs exceeding ratings of Teen if you go with the option, why not just extend this to online play from the Wii home console? It could not have been that difficult to program.

It isn't even necessarily voice chat. They could have a completely muted, no-text, acceptable but flawed system that featured no communication at all. If they followed everything else Xbox Live did - Quick-search versus fights, friendship requests, user names instead of codes, achievements - it would still be like a million times better. And there's the unregulated online play. Brawl's online programming is just garbage, where as Mario Kart Wii's is great. Why so inconsistent, Falco?

TLDR: Nintendo doesn't care about online, and proof is the complete plethora of better options they could do, but don't.


...I'm feeling especially argumentative today, I'm going to go log off for a while.