No online from Nintendo

[A Black Falcon]

Bear that drank 32 cans of beer...

[OB1]

Really?

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, it later stumbled into a campsite and passed out.

[OB1]

Wow.

[Great Rumbler]

Guy 1: Did you hear about this guy that got drunk at a hotel and fell off the balconey into a pool? I heard that he's in a coma.

Guy 2: I would so like to have a party with that guy!

Guy 1: YOU KNOW IT!!!

Guy 2: YEAH!!!

[bountyhunter]

Ok even with all the access points arround the place (there's a few arround here too) you would still be limited by them, it's not like you can wonder between them freely as your PDA/laptop/Nintendo DS would have to be detected on the server before it can transmit data, that takes about a minute for the whole process, thats assuming every thing on both said servers are the same. Subnet masks dns servers and even ip ranges it all comes into effect, and god forgive them if they use Mac addresses.

Any way, with the whole goldeneye thing, I always liked to think that I had a chance to hide or sneak up to some one but alas my screen would always hinder that, I know it's there to be looked at but the idea that I COULD sneak up to people or move arround a corner to kill some one without them knowing where I was is too intrigueing.

I was always the guy to try and beat, the alpha male, the big cheese. Complaining about the screen thing was never an issue for me, it just pissed me off when people would stand still and just watch my screen without moving until I get close and I would always use the radar and shit, just annoyed me. So yeah, skill always wins in the end but it's annoying when skill is matched only by some guy who's so afraid of you killing him before he can fire a single shot that he has to run to the nearest one entrance room and wait for me.

[OB1]

Yes of course it's limited, but it's still the best solution.

[A Black Falcon]

No, I'd say best would be having both it and support for older (either cable/dsl or modem...) internet as well...

[OB1]

That would go against Nintendo's philosophy.

[A Black Falcon]

Um, I'd think it would go WITH Nintendo's philosophy, if it ever went online, because of their focus on trying to be able to reach everyone...

[OB1]

No, it would most certainly go against it since the DS is a portable, and having all sorts of ports for wired things would make it a non-portable. Sure it'd be nice to have those options, but in Nintendo's eyes if something is meant to do a certain thing, it usually doesn't allow for any other options. And I'm not sure if it'd even be possible for the DS to hook up to a regular ethernet cable. I'd definitely appreciate it, but I can see why Nintendo doesn't want to.

[A Black Falcon]

My point is Nintendo talks a lot about trying not to alienate people with high standards -- a online service like XBox Live that is cable/dsl only, charging for online play, etc... I'd think that a online service that requires one specific kind of equipment -- and not cheap, mass-market stuff -- would go quite against what they do most of the time.

[OB1]

That makes sense to you and me, but not to Nintendo.

[bountyhunter]

A twelve year old kid and a Nintendo surveyer are in a room together, the one way glass hiding the 40 asian representitives from varrious different developers for the DS.

Nintendo Rep: So what your saying is, the Nintendo DS in your hands feels better being played upside down?

Kid: Yeah, and even when it's not upside down all I have to do is stand on my head and it's just as cool.

*Nintendo Rep gives the thumbs up sign to the one way mirror*

Nintendo Rep: And what about the cart system, do you like the carts?

Kid: Carts are cool, they are so much cooler then little discs that spin

Nintendo Rep: ok and now for the question we asked earlier.

Kid: Oh yeah, I don't have the internet at home and my mom doesn't want to get it so no, I don't want there to be internet on the DS, if I can't play it no one else can.

Nintendo rep: Thanks and here's your complimentary Nintendo DS just for taking the survey.

*behind the glass*

Developer #1: Uhh I don't know about this, are you sure the kid knows the latest trends?

Nintendo rep 2: No way! this is the same kid who five years ago told us the young market is where all the money is at..

Developer #2: Didn't you lose a large portion of the gaming market for that?

Nintendo rep 2: Only the people who weren't young so no, it went according to plan.

40 developers all at once: ahh.

*standing outside of the Nintendo headqaurters entrance*

Sony conspirator: So timmy, how did every thing go?

Timmy: Yeah good they fell for it again, they're not putting online play on the DS, and they even gave me one.

*Timmy hands the Sony spie the nintendo DS*

Sony vs. Nintendo: The handheld battle begins.. again..

[A Black Falcon]

That makes sense to you and me, but not to Nintendo.

Huh? Um... okay... but that doesn't seem to agree with what you have been saying...

Good or bad, for each.

-X-Box Live's Cable/DSL Only policy.
-Charging for online play.
-A WiFi-only internet gaming system.
-A Cellphone only internet gaming system (see: N-Gage).
-Running a online network which loses money.

What Nintendo clearly seems to be saying is that they'll do internet gaming once they can at least break even off it, don't have to charge any money for people to use it (to not turn people off), and, I believe, can support all the major connection systems for whatever console they are putting it on. Right now that criteria isn't met for anything, so they have online for nothing. We of course think that this is a really stupid policy, but it's easy enough to see their rationalization, even if it seems to be obviously flawed once you consider sales and consumer satisfaction.

[OB1]

Look, the plain and simple fact is that letting people use ethernet cables to get online with the DS would basically make the system a home console rather than a handheld, and Nintendo wants it to be as portable as possible.

[A Black Falcon]

Then unless it has cell-phone internet like the N-Gage, there really isn't a way to do internet with a portable.

[OB1]

...




Have you been completely ignoring this whole wi-fi internet thing?

[A Black Falcon]

Limited range, OB1, limited range!

[OB1]

That's Wi-Fi LAN you're talking about.

[big guy]

SHAKE SHAKE!

[bountyhunter]

You know.. I just stumbled accross this awesome thing for a wifi point it almost made me buy it (I hate it when products do that to me)

Basically it was just an antenna that extends the range of the wifi device to 5km's.. 5KM'S!!! I wish they had that back when I was at school, it would have let me play net games in class instead of stupid single player ones (God bless laptops.. while your at it upgrade mine to a 3.2 ghz with a 9800 pro, thx)

[OB1]

Cool.