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[screamatorium]

1

Nintendo Gaming / Being online isn't worth it. . .

« on: July 11, 2003, 08:38:28 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: screamatorium
Online play is fun.  If playing against other humans isnt fun, then ask your self why consoles come with more than one controller port.  Are you guys telling me you can't see the fun of challenging other board members to games of mario kart or smash brothers?  Having tournaments with people from around the world?  If someone on the board spouts off about how they are the greatest smash brothers player ever, you could actually challenge them to prove it.

Playing against a human is great in my oppinion, however playing against a random opponent halfway across the world isnt. I dont even consider playing against others online as being me vs humans. Like I said, thats my oppinion.
Picture smash brothers online, now what do you see? Sitting around playing against others having fun, right? Now think about that. Will it really be like you pictured? You wont be talking with the players, you'll just be fighting a faceless no one. It will be like plugging in the second controller and playing yourself, but with a little challange.
Online gaming is (part of) the future, just not the future of consoles.

On a happier note, at least online play for Sony will never take off. No casual gamer is going to pay a monthly fee, and without the casual gamers the Sony gamer base is about 25 people and a cat.

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Nintendo Gaming / Being online isn't worth it. . .

« on: July 10, 2003, 11:03:23 PM »

Online play seems to be like the classic steering wheel/gun problem. Its great in the store, but once you get it out of the box it gets boring fast. It gets old within days because no one supports it (Who would, your selling to the smallest fraction of the market) and even with new games its the same candy in a differnt wrapper.
Nintendo are smart to be extremely weary of online play. Stuff that doesnt come with the console rarely takes off, and multiplayer is the ultimate optional accessory.
Take a look at how they are handling the GBA adaptor, they are pumping it as much as they can because they know if they dont it will fade away. They realise a $20 cable wont sell, unless they make it so that on the back of 9 out of 10 of your favourite games there is a little "GBA Adaptor" logo. Then your bound to eventually get one, just for the few crappy bonuses.
They are making it so that you dont NEED the cable, but you want it. Then once everyone has the cable, they can start actually using it properly in games.
This is how they need to handle online gaming. They need to make it an option, and even when its pronounced dead still keep implementing it in games (And getting the third parties to keep pumping it aswell). Then when its got to the point where 5 out of 10 games with multiplayer also have an online multiplayer, people will start accepting it as the norm.
The main problem with that is online gaming doesnt work without a player base. Its very hard to gradually introduce it (Granted its not impossible, but still very hard). If you get online and find the games empty every time you go in, your going to stop going in. So what could Nintendo do about this? Well, they could start out by giving a % discount off the adaptor when you purchase a game that features online play. If they could manage to knock 20% off the adaptors, even if it meant increasing the price a little (People buy expensive stuff because its cheap), they would sell a lot more. More sales means more people are capable of joining the games willy-nilly.
Now to fill those empty online games. For starters a basic game package could come with the adaptors. Even just a pile of addictive oldschool games that can be played online would build enough of a base that when you get online there is something to do. Making those garenteed hits have an online mode wouldnt do any harm either.
Now, we need a way to get the people who arent fans of multiplayer to go online. How would we do that? Well, part of answer is in the aforementioned GBA adaptor.  You make it so that I can use my gamecube/GBA adaptor as a GBA hooked up to someone elses gamecube and Id be bound to have a crack at online play.

This post is completely flawed, and for the most part a rant, but I can garentee that Nintendo are thinking this in-depth about online play, and asking these questions (Plus a lot more). Why? Because Nintendo knows from experience optional accessories die fast and easy, and thats all Online play is. Heck, the GBA adaptor may just be a test too see if a successful optional accessory is even possible...

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Nintendo Gaming / New article on Nintendo´s future! Must-read!!!

« on: July 04, 2003, 09:08:31 PM »

I really didnt like this article, I agreed with a lot of its points, but it seemed to be too much of a Nintendo bash fest. Towards the end they basically wanted Nintendo to stop being Nintendo and start being trendy.
They are forgetting the reasons why people like Nintendo in the first place, because they offer games that arent souless money makers. I turn on a PS2 and I know Im going to see some badcore flavour of the week game all my friends are playing, but when I turn on the GameCube I expect something Im going to want to play again.
What this article suggests (At points), is that Nintendo should be making games that we buy on impulse then throw away when the next comes along.
If Nintendo did do that, it would probably just end up making them look like posers. Like when your perants try to sound cool. It would probably end up killing Nintendo since the people who love Nintendo now would hate it, and the people its trying to impress would laugh at it.
I agree that they need to do something about 3rd party support, but the problem lies in the fact that they have to make good games at the same time. They cant simply drop everything to impress third parties like Sony or Microsoft can.
They could really get behind 3rd party games, but that would mean they couldnt put as much behind their own games. Its a tough place to be.
The other reason I dont like the article is they make it sound like its Nintendos fualt they are in this situation. Naturally part of the blame falls on them, but what the article fails to mention is that Nintendo lost a huge market share due to PS1 pirating. Every man and his dog had a PS1 for the cheap games, and thus it became cool to have a sony. They make it sound like Nintendo has just been sitting back and letting cracks form in its empire. Nintendo have been trying to patch up the cracks, but its a hard battle to win.
Anyway, Im ranting, so I'll just wrap it up here.