Wii Chat

[Rustproofcorn]

prolly been said before but i am thinking Wii Chat channel on the wii.. so you can stop the silence on ssbb

[Ads]

[sremick]

Nintendo seems to be against voice chat.

[Rustproofcorn]

i didnt know they were against it i just figured it is like everything they are doing and just adding stuff as they go...i can tell you that if they would add some chat and other features on the wii i would have much less use for the xbox.. allthough i do love my xbox as well..

[sremick]

Nintendo still has on their water wings when it comes to online. The other consoles have a lot of past experience with online on their previous generation units. Meanwhile Nintendo is still trying to figure it all out.

They've made it obvious they have much it the works (pay for play?) and overall, we've seen a gradual increase in the amount that games take advantage of online capabilities, but it's been slow going. Voice chat in-particular though seem to strike a nerve with Nintendo... they don't even want to permit free text chat, let alone voice. I think they're scared of misuse/abuse.

There's no small crowd demanding it, but this is Nintendo: they're going to do their own thing, regardless.

[Rustproofcorn]

thanks for the insight sremick

[wezeles]

Exactly thats what pay-to-play is said to be for. Not for the online service itself but for the extra stuff like Voice Chat and Download content for games like Rockband when it hits the Wii later on this year.

Granted they were slow comming with this stuff but like was said this was the first real attempt at online. I'm sure they could add it in later and very well might but this type of thing wasn't figured into the budget of free online service and it also is difficult for Nintendo to wrap their brains around considering they are the "family friendly" console and the last thing they need is all the bad language and remarks that get thrown around on voice chat on the other consoles to also swamp the Wii and all these new casual gamers. Last thing they want to do is offend this new crowd of consumers.

[Dorkfish]

Yo dr. pickles, voice chat is planned to be out sometime, but that "sometime" isn't very soon me thinks.

Exactly thats what pay-to-play is said to be for. Not for the online service itself but for the extra stuff like Voice Chat and Download content for games like Rockband when it hits the Wii later on this year.

Granted they were slow comming with this stuff but like was said this was the first real attempt at online. I'm sure they could add it in later and very well might but this type of thing wasn't figured into the budget of free online service and it also is difficult for Nintendo to wrap their brains around considering they are the "family friendly" console and the last thing they need is all the bad language and remarks that get thrown around on voice chat on the other consoles to also swamp the Wii and all these new casual gamers. Last thing they want to do is offend this new crowd of consumers.

All they need to do is put up a disclaimer about it. All they need to say is that Nintendo is not responsible for anything said by people or something bblahlblhalhblha. That may prevent some lawsuits.

[wezeles]

Yo dr. pickles, voice chat is planned to be out sometime, but that "sometime" isn't very soon me thinks.

All they need to do is put up a disclaimer about it. All they need to say is that Nintendo is not responsible for anything said by people or something bblahlblhalhblha. That may prevent some lawsuits.

The sometime is the next 3-9 months not as soon as would be nice, but soon.

As for lawsuits thats not the issue, they know more then well how to protect their own ass. It's loosing the customers all together that they need to be worried about!

Grandma isn't down for a game of Wii online bowling if Billy down the street calls her a #$@$%!@ @#$#@ that can't hook for $#% and she needs to just give up. ha ha. Thats the problem they have to figure out.

[sremick]

Grandma isn't down for a game of Wii online bowling if Billy down the street calls her a #$@$%!@ @#$#@ that can't hook for $#% and she needs to just give up. ha ha. Thats the problem they have to figure out.

They don't need to figure it out. Grandma can simply avoid that by not participating in voice chat. Not turning on voice chat for that game, or games with strangers. Not playing with strangers, and instead only with people she knows. Or only playing against the computer players.

That many grandmas really have headsets?

Meanwhile, the rest of the "vulnerable" demographic deal with worse stuff at school. Regardless, it's still their choice to use the voice chat whether it's available or not, and their choice as to who they play with. If they get harassed, it's their own fault and they can just not play with that person.

I don't get why it's made out to be a bigger problem than it is.

[wezeles]

It's not a big problem honestly I think the eaisiest fix to voice chat is to tie it into the game ratings.

Anything T and up should have open voice "free for all". If you have a more mature rated game you should be able to handle the mature voice chat aswell.

Anything E10+ and down would require you to add friends to use voice chat. Simple fix but still would get whiners.

It's not that its a big problem of course they could just release it and say "wahtever its your problem not mine." But Nintendo has always had the "moral console" anyone who has owned more than 2 Nintendo systems could tell you that.
It's part of what makes them Nintendo. To say screw the Casual and cater to the harcore would end up loosing them far more buisness then it would gain them. There are far more Casual gamers than hardcore and its the crowd that Nintendo is also targeting specifically this round with the Wii. It's a Buisness decision in the end, nothing more.