Topic: Being online isn't worth it. . .

[oohhboy]

One word - Advertising. We will pay with our eyes when we see ads on the network. Then there is gamespy up it the air. Look at Blizzard. They have the best free online network for PCs out there. All free. There is no reason why Nintendo couldn't do it. It would even be better if they could extend that to a larger level to include all devs, not just thier own.

So what if we only like Nintendo games. Sure we could play on another system. I like to play on the PC for my FPS/CS fix. I am down with that. Maybe we/I do own stocks in Nintendo. Don't assume other wise.

I am sure that nintendo has the resourses to push a network. But beening Nintendo, they are not going to release anything until they are damn ready.

The thing with cheating is that well it is like crime. I will always exist. I know I cannot ask or expect zero cheating, but just like crime I am asking for a level of safetly. XBL has achived that level, but locking out Xboxes is totally over-kill.

Here goes. Nintendo sets up a Blizzard like network for online play, but for all online enabled GCN games. Nice and free. Devs include online play as another feature at some cost. Since online is free and you only need a modem and an internet account. Sign-up rates are going to be high. People see "Free Online Play" on the box. They like free. More people buy more copies of the games. More people go online and see the ads. The servers maintain themself. Win-Win. Only problem is where the start-up is coming from.

Whether online play is worth it or not is up to each person. In it's current state for consoles, not for me.

[screamatorium]

Socom doesnt charge a fee.  Gran turismo will not charge a fee.  What your proposing is already being done by sony.  And you've already seen the numbers.  Nintendo's choices are to 1. be like ms and charge an overall fee for all games, or 2. be like sony and let the developers decide.   Nintendo no longer has the pull to force developers to not charge a fee.  Advertising?  Ask the people who run this site how advertising is doing.   Revinue is drying up every day.  Aside from the fact that you'll already have to pay for internet access and a modem, you'll have to pay a fee for some games.  If by some madness, Nintendo decides to take the choice out of gamers hands, and decides that no company will charge a fee, than that will just mean less games for the game cube.  Some types of games are simply too expensive to maintain.  

If Nintendo's intention is to create a perfectly free network... what are they waiting for?  Is Nintendo waiting because they think the market will not bear... FREE online games?  The reason why they are waiting is because they dont think the kids can afford to pay their fees.  Fun be damned.  Like I said before, its a money decision, not a decision about the gamer or about fun.  And I dont think they should be applauded for it.

I pretty sure that the cube games will be less hacked than the ps2 games.  But thats mainly going to be because of the dramatically smaller user base.  

[oohhboy]

Your comparing the advertising power of a multi-billion dollar company to a Fan-site?(No offence to PGC) Also why is Blizzard still in bussiness? don't you think they have costs too? The Blizzard way is a valid solution.

Sure they could set-up a network right NOW. But there wouldn't be anything to support it with. Things like these that time and lots of it to do properly. They don't want a half assed solution like Sony and they don't want a p2p service like XBL. Granted, due to the massive amount of data needed, MMORPG will probaly still have a nominal fee of some sort.

Seting up a multi-company spanning network is not as simple as dumping servers in the middle of no where and hooking them up to the net. It requires negoiation with masses of companies. Play testing. Cost analyisis. Timing.

Anyway, once I find that link on PGC where Nintendo has promised atleast free first party games, you will get the idea.

The proportion of cheaters compared to the total number of people wouldn't change if it was just smaller total population. As long as my chances of running into a cheater was less than 1 - 3%, I am happy. Just like crime.

[KDR_11k]

Nintendo has a contract with Gamespy. Gamespy is for the most part free. Yet they are a huge company. If ads were so unprofitable, Gamespy would've gone down years ago.

N have revealed zero titles with online capacities so far and there isn't THAT much time left until the next wave rolls in. Maybe they'll start pushing it in 2004, maybe they'll use it as a launch option for the N5. I think they'll go with 2004, as the GSI contracts are pretty early for a late 2005 system.

Of course I (and probably over 90% of the people on this board) don't assume N does this because it's better for us, but because it's better for them. They are a company, after all. But at the current time, online is no gain for them. Online is risky and seeing how it turned out on the other systems, N probably decided that there's not much fish to catch.

Not that I care. I'm not saying this because N doesn't support it, I have UT2003 and Quake 3 right here on my comp, with an always-on broadband connection and yet haven't played either online.

[Mario]

nevermind

*doesnt want to get banned*

[screamatorium]

"Your comparing the advertising power of a multi-billion dollar company to a Fan-site?(No offence to PGC) Also why is Blizzard still in bussiness? don't you think they have costs too? The Blizzard way is a valid solution."

And your comparing a game developer, to one of the biggest forces in the gaming industry.  Blizzard has a handful of games they need to take care of.  Blizzard is not supporting an entire platform and its third party contrubutors.  If nintendo only offers free 1st party games... what makes them different than Sony?  And if its only going to offer free games, you can forget about a persistent online animal crossing.  In then end, what Nintendo is going to do, is going to be no different than what the other companies are doing.  They're just going to be later.  Its not going to be some awsome online utopia where everything is free and fast.  

Anyone ever use gamespy?   It sucks.  A pox on any pc game developer that forces people to use it.  If gamespy is any indication I bet Nintendo will have a free service, which will be crap and lack things like stat tracking or even unique user names, and then a gold membership that will give you all the bells and whistles.  Then they could say, "hey we promised a free service and we gave it to you."

This is the bottom line.  Nintendo has said they are holding off on their network plans because of money.  People on these boards like to pretend that Nintendo is all about fun games.  They are not.  They're just another huge corporation out to get your cash.  So why applaud them for denying you something for the sake of their pocket books?  

[egman]

screamatorium--I think you're still missing the point about this. As oohhboy has stated, the online option either needs to make money or be little to no cost for Nintendo. You may not agree with that logic--you obviously enjoy online--but for the rest of us we are fine with the decision. Nintendo has a lot issues to take care of to ensure future health. Online gaming probably rates towards the bottom for the various reasons discussed.

You need to keep in mind that you are in a niche market. While that market is very vocal, it is too small to pay lip service too. All of the game companies are after the mainstream dollar, and right now the mainstream is far from sold. Shoot, I heard a poll a couple weeks back that said something along the lines of that 50-60 percent of people in the states are not online and are just happy with that. This presents a long term problem to the console makers because in the end money needs to be spent to support these features. You can't support it for an awfully long time without the numbers being there. I rather Nintendo stick around for a long time by avoiding foolish ventures for the sake of people "thinking" that said feature will undoubtly be the furture. Online might be the natural technical progression, but market trends are far more important.

Something else needs to be kept in mind. Nintendo kind of knows what they are talking about. If you have followed Nintendo's past decisions, you realized that they tried online types of programs a couple of times. And each time those plans were killed off because there was not enough interests to justify support. Nintendo is weary because past experince tells them that people do not want to pay for online.

Online is a cool function, and I do not knock the other companies for trying to push for it. But don't assume that Nintendo is being foolish and greedy for not being aggressive on this front. I'm sure that for the most part, they want to do it, but past experince informs their cautiousness. Nintendo protects their bottom line because they do not want to answer to anyone else, which I think is admirable. You may not agree with that, but time will ultimately tell if Nintendo is being truly foolish or if they are right that now is not the time. Right now, however, I'd rather that Nintendo concentrate on the things that will stop the bleeding of their marketshare--things like brand recognition and learning how to sell their games and image in age of extreme hype.