I'm mad, and I'm not going to take it anymore. Email assault round 2: Quote:
As an avid fan of all things Nintendo as well as an owner of several Nintendo systems including a Wii and a DS, nothing has disappointed me more about the Wii than its poor support of online interaction. Of course, when I first became aware of the scope of the problems with Friend Codes, I sent an email to Nintendo about it. The email was as follows:
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I have been a loyal Nintendo customer for many years, and as a My Nintendo member (GOLDFINGER77) , I am disappointed in your poor support of online play with the Wii.
The Friend Code system is confusing, tiresome, and a bother. Not only that, but you are adding friend codes for each online game, which is not only pointless but also illogical and annoying. Its purpose can be achieved by better methods. You should consider making friend codes optional as part of parental control.
Online gaming is the future, and I am severely disappointed that for a company that is so tied up in being revolutionary, you are taking a step back from the online revolution. You must adapt to the online aspect of gaming it is changing the industry. I suggest that, for your company's sake, you change your system if you hope for the Wii to reach its full potential. I can honestly say that some of the games, such as Super Smash Brothers Brawl, will be nowhere near as good as they can be unless this company fixes its online service. I know that many consumers are considering a boycott of the online games, and I may just consider joining it unless something is done. Please, I greatly hope for Nintendo to do well, and it is in your best interest and the best interest of your consumers and your shareholders.
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I poured time and effort into this letter, to convey to Nintendo my feelings and displeasure. However, I merely received a form letter stating that the company listens to my concerns. I ask, then, why is it that Nintendo has done nothing to alleviate the situation? As a daily checker of the Super Smash Brothers Brawl website, smashbros.com, I have been disappointed by many of the details revealed on its online. Most concerning is the complete lack of interaction with players in random matches. Is this really the purpose of the Wii, to have a person alone in a room, playing against nameless opponents, never to know anything about them? Is not the Wii about bringing people together as a group?
There are several main steps I recommend for the online. Firstly, add voice communication. This is a key step, because, even with people they know well enough to have as friends, people are only able to speak by text, which is not a medium well-suited to fast-paced games, and in some games, such as Brawl itself, you can only even use several pre-input messages. Other games do not even have text communication. Communication is an integral part of online games such as Endless Ocean and Battalion Wars 2. Secondly, add the ability to communicate with people you play with online in random matches, which is an obvious part of human interaction, and should not be limited to those who you have gone through the painstaking process of adding as a friend. Finally, remove friend codes. Game-specific friend codes are utterly pointless, as they merely force players to type in more sequences of letters and numbers. If they cannot be outright abolished, at least reduce it to merely Wii-specific or Mii-specific friend codes, which would at the least reduce it to one input per friend, rather than one input per friend per game. However, the more desirable solution by far would be to remove friend codes outright. Online could be handled in a profile format, with an intuitive interface, and if Nintendo is so greatly concerned about privacy, special "increased privacy" accounts could be used which still used Mii-specific friend codes. These could be used by people desiring extra privacy or could be required by parental controls.
If these changes are implemented, Nintendo's online could go from a negative, outdated experience which causes people to lean towards buying a gaming console sold by competitors such as Microsoft or Sony, to a positive experience which is free, intuitive, and socially-oriented, just like the console it is on. I please request that my ideas are genuinely considered, and that I do not receive the form letter I was previously sent.
| What do you guys think?
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June 13th, 2007, 07:14 AM
Linear Mode
