wii online isnt as good as xbl but it is free (at least for now)

friend codes are only required if u wanna play people you know. if u play randoms u dont need to use the friend codes at all

i agree that no voice chat is one drawback in wiis online features but who knows whats in store in the future.

but to say that ssbb is trying to appeal to casual gamers because of the lack of motion controls is stupid

in fact i think their should be more games that dont require motion controls
ninty should of created 2 different controllers, one which doesnt require any motion controls
oh wait they did

ninty does need some improvements for its online

once nintendo has more experience with online im sure it will get better

Okay, then how about not comparing it to XBL and compare it to PSN?

Wii's online isn't good at all, free or not free it sucks. PSN (Playstation Network) is free and still way better than Wii's "Online".

Too much was written. Here's what Nintendo needs for online. They need VC online like Zbattle for the Zsnes emulator. Next we need a mother fing chat room. Some way to communicate other than smoke signals. There. I fixed Nintendo's problems. Hire me Nintendo.

Talk about playing down, a "few" naughty words isn't a problem. A stream of offensive words is.

You say paranoid, I say secure and protected. Also, why is it that people seem to think that there's no way of doing online unless it's the Microsoft way? Like I said before, if you want a "Live" style online, there's always xbox Live.

When you're entering groups on things like Halo and COD4, in my experience you don't know everyone playing. If it's a 4 player or less, I can see how it is possible.

To be honest, I'm not that bothered. I know the people who I enter in friend codes for will be up for it. Even if they're not, it's only a 12 digit number. Not like anyone's asked me to go to their house to get their friendcode. It should be a minor inconvienience (sp?) at most, yet a lot of people are whining on about it all the time.

VC have no collectable value and can be redownloaded whenever (at least not in the sense that they're limited and rare). It kind makes little sense to have them clog up your hard drive in the first place (unless you like maxing out the number of VC games you download, and playing them all at the same time, rather than one at a time).

Besides, I've got an SD card. You can always transfer them to the SD card for safe keeping, then put the ones that you want to play on the Wii's system.

Admittedly limiting the HD is limiting the Wiiware, but then it wasn't designed for memory hungry games anyway, but rather lighter almost VC style games that are completely original.

All this bad rep about Nintendo's online doesn't really take into account that it is a family machine. If a child wants to play with a school friend over the internet, at least the friendcodes allow them to make sure it's just them that are playing, that they both want to play and that it's in a safe environment. I'm sure if Nintendo had online exactly like Xbox Live, parent's wouldn't be pleased. And also, non-"core" gamers would feel isolated too, since a lot of the stuff being said can be rather elitist. With games like COD4 actually rewarding players that get multiple kills by giving them an even easier time killing the poor "non-elite", it's easy to understand how certain mechanisms can actually alienate people who don't play all that often. Sure you can back out of matches with people who have a higher gamerscore or whatever, but in the end, isn't that promoting a two-tier gaming philosophy, rather than a whole "We play" philosophy?

Yes, but in order for you to choose whether or not to mute somebody, that certain sombody has to start their flaming/trash talk/whatever in the first place. If I'm playing against someone in real life, I don't expect a stream of vulgarity while I'm trying to enjoy a game. And what exactly does "voice chat" add to the game exactly? Why would you need it on any "free-for-all" games, or any one-to-one games? Heck even team games, there's usually only a select amount of instructions that could be mapped to the buttons anyway. Besides, team games, from what I've witnessed is usually a case of free-for-all, but you're only shooting half the people instead of everyone else. I certainly don't think there's really any Wii games that really neccessitate voice chat atm. Besides, surely it takes up bandwidth? I know I'd prefer to have a smoother game than one that lags like crazy, but you can still bitch about anyone else. I know for a lot of people it isn't merely a choice, but to some, it might just be...

I never said they have to do it "Live style"- I have no idea how good the PS3's online services are. What I'm saying is that Live makes an excellent example of how to do things. Let the customer decide how 'secure' they want to be, and if someone breaks the rules you could always report them to Nintendo. And if it comes down it, other people in this thread have already mentioned that you could simply mute the voice chat.

Yes, but you were comparing them, thus you're saying the ideal online would be live and therefore anything that doesn't have Live's features is not as good.

Neither do I, but as far as I'm aware, they have similar services. This is another example of "follow the market leader", as though it's set to be the future of gaming.

Yes, if you don't really have much of an expanded audience, and instead usually have "core" gamers. Nintendo isn't exclusively for the "core", and for some reason, it's part of what seems to be peeving people off - why can't people just share their console? It's not like they're trying to steal your gaming experience, merely expanding it.

That would be great in theory. Wouldn't work in praticality. Otherwise we wouldn't have such media crusades such as Manhunt 2, Bully, Mass Effect, etc... It's obvious the parent's often don't give a blind bit of notice to things like certification and parental controls. I do blame the parent's, but then the system isn't perfect either.

As I mentioned before, you have to hear it in the first place to decide to turn it off. Not to mention the fact that you still know its going on. Sometimes it's not the words people say, but the fact that they're saying them that really peeves me off. Whether I mute or not, they will still be saying stuff. I'm not sure if I really want to play with somebody like that. Sure you can report, but then it seems many people like trash talk, if I tried to ban all of them, then there wouldn't be many people left...

We wouldn't all be comparing it to Xbox Live if we didn't think that was the best system. If Microsoft are the market leader then there must be a good reason why they got there.


Nintendo have provided adequate parental controls, and if those parents fail to take heed of them, it's their own fault.


You act as if almost every online player is a trash-talking kid, but there are plenty of normal, decent people who play online. Why should the chance for friendly banter via voice chat be taken away because of a few idiots? You've had friends around to play together on multiplayer games, right? I bet you don't sit in silence.

There's plenty of reasons why consoles sell. Xbox 360 is very different to the Wii. It seems a lot of the time though, people aren't complaining about lack of 360 Live style service, but rather that it isn't Live at all (for example, people wanting gamertags, and all the extra trimmings of Live).

Hence why it might work in theory, but not in practice.

I'm sure there are, but there is also a lot of the former too.

The kind of discussions that my friends and I have during local multiplayer games don't usually consist of "noob" being said every 5 minutes and "B*tch" being said. Besides, even if something was said, it was said between friends, and not broadcast out to strangers. Like I said before, even I sometimes swear when I get angry, or when I'm trying to fight against something very difficult, I don't want what I say to be transmitted out to people I don't know well in real life. Likewise, I don't want to hear it from others, and there are people out there that do like to swear, a lot, online (heck even sat through a Vlog of a young girl "defending" her right to offend others on xbox live).

No, I'm saying that because there's protection already there it's the parent's fault if they don't take notice, and they shouldn't go whining to Nintendo.


While playing against friends online, things would still be said between friends, just through a voice chat system. Why not let me, the consumer, decide for myself if I'm okay with trash talk and such, instead of having the decision made for me? Perhaps you could have a system where, for example, you could decide to enable voice chat for matches between friends, and disable for matches with strangers, if you so wished?

Yet it does happen in practice. People do complain. They shouldn't, but they do.

Regardless, I still don't see voice chat as a neccessity. Perhaps I've just had a bitter experience. Text is fine with me.

Even so, lack of voice chat shouldn't really be enough to dissuade people from going online with the Wii. I mean, how many forms of communication do we really need? We've got phones, text on MSN etc... Heck if we wanted to brag to friends, we can even save our matches on brawl and send them to friends to prove how "awesome" you are, even if your friend is not playing the game at that moment.

Besides all this, I still prefer playing with friends in the room. It's not always possible, but then in the mean time, there's always those single player games...

Did it really have to be declared?

If it isn't one thing, it's another...

Quite simply, if you don't like the wii's online service, don't play on it. I haven't played omline with the wii or any of the consoles but it seems like all online gaming services have their fair share of faults.
Comparing the Wii's online service to Live or PSN is hardly fair. Microsoft have had live since the days of the original Xbox. Obviously, they know the faults and what they needed to do to step it up a gear and it still isn't perfect. Nintendo are just starting to introduce online services for gaming. Obviously there are going to be a few faults here and there.
I find the Friend code trading good and bad in some points. Good in the sense of what nintendo is trying to achieve, a safe environment for those who may play the wii or it's games online Remember, not everyone who plays the wii is mature and obviously some people's experience will be ruined by someone hurling abuse for no good reason.
It's hardly the parent's fault if the protection fails them. Some parents aren't home all the time to regulate voice chat should it be implemented. If they aren't home, who will stop a child from accessing online and hearing someone swear and whatnot?
If you look at the bigger picture, the online isn't a smashing failure. If you can name me one game that has no lag whatsoever while playing, I'd like to hear it. Nintendo want to keep to that safe environment set up through the use of friend codes. Sure it could and should be more uniform but it still serves it's purpose.