Topic: They were wrong... [Online lag isn't improving]

[DAaaMan64]

It looks like Nintendo has won their bet with me, as I've become so fed up with lag that I've stopped bothering to try playing online, meaning I'm one less person trying to congest their service.

Which is so stupid really, It is not how Nintendo should want to win a bet.

[EasyCure]

I've tried playing in the VERY middle of the say, like noon, when the kids should be in school and the adults at work at it's still laggy and terrible.

It looks like Nintendo has won their bet with me, as I've become so fed up with lag that I've stopped bothering to try playing online, meaning I'm one less person trying to congest their service.

QFT

I gave up on brawl (for now) but before i unplugged my LAN adaptor i tried playing a random match in Mario Strikers and it was the SECOND TIME EVER it connected to a random player (actually.. its been so long since i tried playing that online, it might even been the first random match!). I had 4 stars so i accepted, and the match was, as Decoyman put it, a slideshow. He must of dropped out because the connection was lost 10 seconds in

[NWR_pap64]

I've tried playing in the VERY middle of the say, like noon, when the kids should be in school and the adults at work at it's still laggy and terrible.

It looks like Nintendo has won their bet with me, as I've become so fed up with lag that I've stopped bothering to try playing online, meaning I'm one less person trying to congest their service.

Now, don't you find it ironic that the one SSB game you want to play and spend time mastering due to how polished it is is giving you trouble, both online and offline?

I think it will be a long time before the lag goes away. Right now the game has sold over 2 million copies in the US alone. That means more than  a thousand  players are going online to play.

If Nintendo's solution is to wait it out, then it might be YEARS before the lag is controlled.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

My Australia-Amerika matches have been passable, tho still slideshows.  But the connection was stable.

[Smash_Brother]

So I think it's safe to say we'd all pay $5 a month to not have to deal with this terrible excuse for an online service?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

But what would paying do?

Isn't onrine play already p2p?  Would adding Official Nintendo Servers in between things reduce lag [i'm no network guru]?

Why can't we setup our own independent matchmaking servers?

[Smoke39]

So I think it's safe to say we'd all pay $5 a month to not have to deal with this terrible excuse for an online service?

No.  I'll just play a PC game online for free if I really want to play a game online.

[NWR_pap64]

The real question should be; Would you now accept a somewhat gimped version of Brawl's online battles if it meant smooth gameplay throughout (and by gimped, I mean not all stages selectable online, Final Smashes not available in online mode etc.)?

Considering the crap Nintendo got for Mario Kart DS's limited options its admirable that they made it so that ALL of the characters, stages, items and features are playable online. But I can't help but wonder how the game would have run had some features been removed for the sake of online playability.

I'm sure there would still be major issues, but at the very least it would be playable.

[Caliban]

To whomever I played against yesterday, decoy and partybear I think, man that lag was awful. Surprisingly I find myself playing Vs matches offline against cpu more often than I would like.

[Smoke39]

The real question should be; Would you now accept a somewhat gimped version of Brawl's online battles if it meant smooth gameplay throughout (and by gimped, I mean not all stages selectable online, Final Smashes not available in online mode etc.)?

I'm not convinced that that would make a difference.  If it would, though, I would personally favor performance at the expense of some features.  I don't know what limitations you're talking about in MKDS, but I didn't mind them whatever they were.

Combining this with the notion of paying for better online service, you get something that sounds a lot like the de-facto tiered system you have with local DS multiplayer.  Single-cart play, often with limited features, versus multi-cart play, with full features at an extra expense.  I guess they could set up a tiered online system where you have to pay to get the full feature set, but can still play online in a more limited way for free.

In any case, I don't see how PC games can provide free, robust online components but console games seem to have such a hard time doing the same.

[NWR_pap64]

The real question should be; Would you now accept a somewhat gimped version of Brawl's online battles if it meant smooth gameplay throughout (and by gimped, I mean not all stages selectable online, Final Smashes not available in online mode etc.)?

I'm not convinced that that would make a difference.  If it would, though, I would personally favor performance at the expense of some features.  I don't know what limitations you're talking about in MKDS, but I didn't mind them whatever they were.

Combining this with the notion of paying for better online service, you get something that sounds a lot like the de-facto tiered system you have with local DS multiplayer.  Single-cart play, often with limited features, versus multi-cart play, with full features at an extra expense.  I guess they could set up a tiered online system where you have to pay to get the full feature set, but can still play online in a more limited way for free.

In any case, I don't see how PC games can provide free, robust online components but console games seem to have such a hard time doing the same.

Personally, I barely played MK DS online. However I have heard that not all tracks are playable and some of the gameplay options are limited.

As for online PC gaming, you have to remember that online gaming has been around for YEARS. Back when consoles were still perfecting gameplay computer games already had online features running, even in the days of dial up. By now, these people know what it takes to run an online game as smoothly as possible.

Consoles, on the other hand, just barely started catching up to PC gaming in online play. While I agree that console makers can make online games that can rival PC gaming in terms of quality give them time.

[UltimatePartyBear]

To whomever I played against yesterday, decoy and partybear I think, man that lag was awful. Surprisingly I find myself playing Vs matches offline against cpu more often than I would like.

It was pretty bad.  That's why I dropped out after one round.  I was hoping it would improve things for you two.

I'm just glad I can play a fairly lag-free match with my friend across town.  Now we can play together without having to wait an hour and a half for him to make himself feel pretty before he'll leave his house.

[Smoke39]

As for online PC gaming, you have to remember that online gaming has been around for YEARS. Back when consoles were still perfecting gameplay computer games already had online features running, even in the days of dial up. By now, these people know what it takes to run an online game as smoothly as possible.

Consoles, on the other hand, just barely started catching up to PC gaming in online play. While I agree that console makers can make online games that can rival PC gaming in terms of quality give them time.

But what do the console makers have to do with it?  Once the console has the ability to get online, you'd think game developers could use the same techniques they use with PC games (a la EA using their own setup with MoH or whichever game it was).

[Smash_Brother]

But what would paying do?

Isn't onrine play already p2p?  Would adding Official Nintendo Servers in between things reduce lag [i'm no network guru]?

Matchmaking services still proxy connections most of the time, meaning that a paid service means funded servers and funded servers don't have the bandwidth choke put on them that Gamespy's do (also, it means more servers in more locations for less congestion in the service).

In order for the service to be free, it has to be capped on bandwidth and probably connections, meaning that it basically HAS to suck whenever there's more than X number of people trying to use it. If people were paying money for it, Nintendo could justify allowing more bandwidth to be used. As it stands, the "free" model just doesn't work for online gaming of any kind.

Unless they start showing us ads during SSBB online loading screens...

Why can't we setup our own independent matchmaking servers?

Why, indeed.

This would actually be ideal for what we want to do (which is what Valve games like TF2 offer), but my guess is that Nintendo doesn't want their networking code out there on PCs.

It's a damn shame, since Nintendo wouldn't be paying for any of the bandwidth costs and thus the congestion wouldn't exist.

[DAaaMan64]

Why can't we setup our own independent matchmaking servers?

Why, indeed.

This would actually be ideal for what we want to do (which is what Valve games like TF2 offer), but my guess is that Nintendo doesn't want their networking code out there on PCs.

If there had been LAN this probably would be possible.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nintendo hates options.

Nintendo hates flexibility.

Nintendo hates usability.

Nintendo hates users.

It's great when things are done THE NINTENDO WAY.

That, my friends, is THE NINTENDO DIFFERENCE.

[NWR_pap64]

Nintendo hates options.

Nintendo hates flexibility.

Nintendo hates usability.

Nintendo hates users.

It's great when things are done THE NINTENDO WAY.

That, my friends, is THE NINTENDO DIFFERENCE.

While this post is riddled with angst towards Nintendo in the biggest way possible I sadly have to agree. Nintendo is a great company, but has the annoying tendency of doing what THEY want rather than what the consumer wants.

They clearly know friend codes are hated with a passion, yet INSIST of using it instead of creating alternate efforts of providing fun online gameplay that is also safe.

Its fun how you can dearly love and hate a company with a passion :p .

[DAaaMan64]

maybe we should have the government regulate how video game companies get online

[Smash_Brother]

The sad thing about friend codes is that the aggravation would be reduced to a minimal level if we just swapped usernames on Nintendo.net once and that was the end of it.

I don't particularly care to have voice chat with total strangers, but having it with friends would save me assloads of hassle and if I don't like what they're saying, it's my own damn fault for bringing them in as a friend anyway.

It's not like Fred the Pedophile can sit at home and guess random names in the hopes that some little kid might have entered his name in as well.

[DAaaMan64]

i quit at nintendo

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nintendo hates options.

Nintendo hates flexibility.

Nintendo hates usability.

Nintendo hates users.

It's great when things are done THE NINTENDO WAY.

That, my friends, is THE NINTENDO DIFFERENCE.

While this post is riddled with angst towards Nintendo in the biggest way possible I sadly have to agree. Nintendo is a great company, but has the annoying tendency of doing what THEY want rather than what the consumer wants.

They clearly know friend codes are hated with a passion, yet INSIST of using it instead of creating alternate efforts of providing fun online gameplay that is also safe.

Its fun how you can dearly love and hate a company with a passion :p .

I was at the 2001 E3 press conference when Nintendo used that "Nintendo difference" line, and it's a load of bull.  It's so hilarious to look back and see them think what they did, the way they did it, mattered.

[Mashiro]

The Nintendo Difference made me realize it's time to get an Xbox 360.

Yes I did just say that.

Yes I mean it.

I think it's time to move on from the big N . . . for me at least.

[Kairon]

Spectating works flawlessly. Everything else....

[NWR_pap64]

Spectating works flawlessly. Everything else....

I heard that spectator matches are really replays you can watch and bet on. Anyone confirm or deny this?

[Mashiro]

Yeah, spectator matches are indeed replays you watch and bet on, you aren't actually watching the match in real-time.

(It's like when you save a replay of an online match, no matter how laggy it is, the replay will play perfectly as if there was no lag).