Nintendo WiFi has essentially instantly owned Xbox Live

[N_A]

Given the numbers of the people playing MK DS online, and a sure prediction that the raw number of sales and percentage playing online will likely rise, one can almost say that Nintendo WiFi, in 1 week has instantly owned the Xbox Live service. Good times, and things are definitely looking up for Nintendo. Given that Blizzard is likely going to delay Starcraft Ghost well into the next generation and perhaps even go onto the next generation, they might be able to bring it to the Revolution, and they can definitely take that "gameplay and multiplayer" argument and stick up their asses.

[Dark Jaguar]

Where did you get this information exactly?

But how well wifi is or is not doing beside, I have to say that while online in and of itself is great, Nintendo has a few things left to do. I'm hoping for a lot of the XBox Live feature sets to show up. That is, if I'm playing Animal Crossing, I want to be able to recieve invites from someone playing Metroid Hunters. That brings up another point, the ability to send invites. Further, the ability to send friend requests. I don't want to have to know someone in the real world just to befriend them online. If I find someone that's a good match, it would be nice to send a friend invite to them (Nintendo can of course just delete invites that haven't been responded to in some finite amount of time). Basically, I'm wanting all the great social options Live did. If Nintendo pulls that off, then really that's all I'll ever want. Mario Kart's voting system for determining the game's setup is pretty sweet. In a more involved game though, think Perfect Dark, that would be a bit much though, so the ability to vote in a "host" to decide all the intricate details would also be appreciated. And oh yes, communication. The touch screen will work if the servers just can't take voice chat. And also, let's update that firmware in the DS so the pictochat can be taken online to one's friends (is that stored in Mario Kart or on the DS itself, I'm hoping the latter due to concerns such as basically moving friends from game to game when the list gets huge).

Nintendo already has the rest down, from random game finding to, more specifically, finding a match against people of the same "skill" as I am ranked at (though that's always been a tricky thing, the odd thing is Nintendo is claiming they came up with it first, though Blizzard may argue otherwise, silly Japanese need to play more American games). As for the friend code rather than some "gamer tag", I actually prefer the friend code system so long as they add in the friend inviting features I've listed above. I basically just prefer it because people can have the same nick name online. The only issue is sharing it in public when far from your DS could be a pain. Well, that's why I always carry this little card... Well, I will when I decide to print and laminate one :D.

Take those things into consideration Nintendo, and you have yourself an online service that beats Live.

[-JaSon-]

^Yes, what exactly is the source.

Some exact figures would also be nice, if possible.

[N_A]

Check out IGN DS, the trends of success are there. Over 100,000 in a week, and 45% already online. Granted, Nintendo still has many obvious improvements to make, but all together, the package is still solid. I'll complain that its restrictive in terms of interaction at times, but that doesn't stop you from having a good game online, and theres barely enough time to chat before the next match is up. Again, Nintendo has some obvious improvements to make as more WiFi games come out as DJ has named some, but the seeds of success are already apparrent.

Free online>>>>>> Pay to play

[Dark Jaguar]

That truly is an accurate formula, though a tad redundant :D.

However, there's another thing I'm curious about your info source.

Given that Blizzard is likely going to delay Starcraft Ghost well into the next generation and perhaps even go onto the next generation, they might be able to bring it to the Revolution, and they can definitely take that "gameplay and multiplayer" argument and stick up their asses.

What makes you believe they are likely to delay it to the next generation? Surely we are likely to desire such an outcome, as I'm interested to see how well the revolution controller works in an FPS (the 3D movement is almost the only movement control you need, for camera and movement, excepting that spinning around would likely be tough since the human wrist has a hard time making a full rotation that way, but there's another way for that that would basically be similar to analog stick style so...). However, that's not enough to indicate Blizzard would actually do that.

And what "gameplay and multiplayer" aregument are you talking about? I'm afraid I haven't heard that one.

[N_A]

What makes me think that Blizzard will delay onto the next generation ? Their traditional of delaying to be absolutely perfect is what makes me think that, especially when all the next generation consoles are coming out next year, while Ghost has had a vague release date all along.

Well Blizzard used the excuse that Nintendo had no online so that they couldn't support Ghost on GC for that reason. Obviously that didn't work because the PS2 didn't have a dedicated online service either, and in the case that Blizzard does delay to the next generation, they definitely have to swallow their words regarding Nintendo on that one. Its lame though, with the Revolution being online and also backwards compatible, as well as the fact that Blizzard's build of Ghost on the GC was very far along, its not as if they couldn't have released it with online play in anticipation of it being supported on the Revolution as well as those who actually have the GC broadband connector.

So they simply cited that to make the best gameplay experience, they wouldn't support Ghost on the GC. You remember that whole fuss don't you ? The Revolution conventional controller however will likely provide nothing short of the other consoles, and the remote will actually provide more interesting options. Anyways, speculation and wishful thinking perhaps.

Back to the Revolution and FPS, the remote itself probably most intuitively serves as a proxy for aiming with the gun while the control stick is for movement. I can also imagine that motion sensors will actually help me throw a grenade where I want it. 3D movement might also add in some interesting close combat, like using the butt of a gun, or even a bayonet, or knife. Although I still have a question, how would you strafe with the Revolution set up ? Just use the D pad like the C buttons on the N64 ? Analog straffing seems to be more optimal though. Perhaps someone with more creativity will come up with a better solution.

[-JaSon-]

I'm very intrigued by the Revolution's controller. I think it will work. Of all the 3 consoles, the Rev is the one thats got me most excited, and I *think* it will be priced lower than the competition. I heard rumors that it may cost around 200$..that would be sweet. The controllers motion sensors will make for a very innovative gameplay experience.

On Starcraft : Ghost, it is currently slated for a Q2 2006 release, and I think they will infact cancel the game for current gen consoles and release it for Net Gen. Why ? Think about it, the PS3 hits the market at the same time, they could very well make a lot of money by having it as a launch game for the system. I'm thinking Blizzard will release it for all next gen consoles, it makes perfect sense. Better online connectivity, better graphics, etc.

[Sacred Jellybean]

A new member!! Tell me someone gave him the cow.

Just in case.

[COW]aoeu[/COW]

[-JaSon-]

Yes, they already did.

[Dark Jaguar]

Ah yes, I remember all that fuss, and I think I brought up most of thost points about Blizzard's reasoning to drop the GCN version. It just wasn't clear before what you were talking about.

[Great Rumbler]

I don't know how well invites on the DS would work, since you have to actually disconnect from the Wifi network, turn off your DS and then change carts to play a different game.

[Dark Jaguar]

That's how XBox Live works as well. The idea isn't that it's seamless, though that would be nice. The idea is primarily a social one, the ability to see when someoone sends you an invitation so you can decide for yourself if you would like to play against them.

[Great Rumbler]

You have turn off your Xbox before you can boot up a new game to play on Live?

[Dark Jaguar]

You have to eject the disk, which instantly quits the game (just like with the Dreamcast). This also disconnects you from Live, though my default option in the system setup is to log me in automatically in the BIOS. Then, you put in the new game, load it up, and log back into Live. Technically, you don't actually have to power the system down, but the effect is the same as if you did.

Still, it's nice to be invited to other games while playing a game.

[Paco]

You have to eject the disk, which instantly quits the game (just like with the Dreamcast). This also disconnects you from Live, though my default option in the system setup is to log me in automatically in the BIOS. Then, you put in the new game, load it up, and log back into Live. Technically, you don't actually have to power the system down, but the effect is the same as if you did.

Still, it's nice to be invited to other games while playing a game.

It no longer disconnects you from live when changing games...

<TABLE class=tborder style="BORDER-RIGHT: #5b5b5b 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #5b5b5b 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #5b5b5b 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #5b5b5b 1px solid" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 vAlign=top width="100%">Hope I'm not rubbing it in. It's just that there are so many little things I read about it that I didn't really appreciate until I experienced them. For example, I was playing Kameo, and a friend got online and requested a voice chat. I entered the voice chat and continued playing my game. He asked me if I wanted to play hockey and I said sure, so I quit Kameo, put in NHL 2K6, go to the lobby, and start playing a game with him. The game crapped out due to a network problem.


The whole time we were chatting. It never dropped for any reason, even when our game crapped out (2K servers are a bit dodgy). Freakin' awesome!
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http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=392895

[Dark Jaguar]

I'm impressed! Live services are getting better. Nintendo is bound to as well, and I'm sort of hoping for that level of functionality when Revolution drops.