vashivihan
Let There Be Rock
You read the headline correctly. Rather than taking the plunge and allowing online players in Mario Kart Wii to use voice chat like the rest of the civilized world, Nintendo has apparently decided that it is far more feasible to integrate text chat into the experience. Using a USB keyboard, your impossible task is to taunt and interact with your opponents while in the middle of a driving game.I think Nintendo needs a calendar. Somehow they’re stuck in 1993 or something. How on God’s green earth is anyone playing a RACING game supposed to reach down and type a text message without pretty much throwing the game away. Why are they so afraid of voice comms in-game? Yuck Nintendo.
wiiwimp.jpgI can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a more insidious reason that we’ve yet to see meaningful voice chat from the Wii. What if the Wii CAN’T do it. What if it’s such an underpowered system that they can’t get it to work reliably? Remember when Sony left rumble out of their controllers, calling it “last-gen.” Later we found out that the real reason was that they were getting their pants sued off for patent infringement.
I’m not buying what Nintendo is selling here (both figuratively and literally). I think they grossly underestimated the demand for voice comms when designing their mac-influenced PS2. But what the hell do I know? Why do you think Nintendo keeps screwing the proverbial pooch with their online experience?
nice little article. linkage