Since Nintendo's Press Confrence this past tuesday, I have been racking my brian...
Iwata spoke only shortly about one of the new features of Wii, WiiConnect24. What is the signifigance of this feature? Why would you need your system constantly connected when you could just get whatever you need when you first power on the system?
Well, firstly, and regarding my previous sentence, whats the point? Yeah, Iwata mentioned the Animal Crossing senario, in where other players could visit your town, even when you are not on and playing. At first I thought "Huh?" My heavy PC/IT background always had me assuming that things like this would invole saving this info on some Nintendo Server and have you simply download it when you power up. Considering recent developents though, it sounds as if Nintendo's online multiplayer plan is simply a match maker, in where Nintendo's system finds other players for you, and then you directly connect with them.
In this situation, most all of the processing regarding the game is done partly on each player's side, with little to none from Nintendo. So, rather than, say, having Nintendo run some Animal Crossing server that would allow for the "visit my town even when I'm not there" feature, with WiiConnect24, every single Wii system acts in unison as mini-servers for their own data, interacting and with the other nodes on the network.
This set up is ingenious! Depending on the future size, and number of users of Nintnendo WiFi Connection, Nintendo has the potential to save LOADS of money in network costs and server matinence! Rather than spenting millions in bandwidth bills for the distribution of Virtual Console games, each Wii could contribute a bit of its processing power and bandwith during its "off" hours, in a
Bittorrent-like situation. Potentially, Nintendo could have the largest
cluser-computing network on the planet.
But enough of my yapping and technobabble. What gaming significant aplications are there? Well, just before WiiConnect24 was brought up, Iwata was talking about how load times are getting out of hand, and how the non-gamers will not enjoy having to wait for the system to start up before they can play. Now, I play World Of Warcaft. One of the things I hate most is having to sit back and wait for updates and patches to be installed when they are released before I can play. WiiConnect24 will allow that to happen when you are not playing. Turn on the system, and it is ready to go with the latest information. A similar situation works with Opera Browser, built into Wii, updates and so on.
One thing I think would be really cool would be if you could download your Virtual Console games to your DS and take them on the go using the DS Download Play and similar to how you could put the Animal Crossing NES games on your GBA. With WiiConnect24 I could, hypothetically, boot up my DS, go to Download Play, see Wii Virtual Console, select that, and then be able to browse the games I have stored on Wii, all without ever touching, or turning on the console.
Another idea I had, using the Wii Remote built in Mic/Speaker, is something almost like a telephone functionality I call Riing. I magine sitting at home, on your computer, or doing something other than playing a videogame. Your friend is bored and wants to play some Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. So, he brings up his friends list, looks you up and selects the Riing option. Then, just like a telephone, your Wii Remote makes a distinct ring or beeping sound. Perhaps even customizable with NES tunes? You pick up your remote, hit the A button, and then, just like a telephone you and your buddy are talking. If you not there to answer, then next time you turn on the console, you will see a prompt with your missed Riings.
I'm at work right now, and pretty bored, so thanks for sitting here reading my long post. I hope to see what other ideas any of you may have. I think this feature could have some good uses with some creative minds behind it...
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sombody from Soul Calibur maybe? Pac-man? lol
