The Video Game Critic

I'm just wondering if anyone else who has experienced the joys of Nintendo online was thinking this as well. 

Let's see, when I had everything working Mario Kart DS had a decent connection, but such sparse features it was really only kind of worth taking online anyway (I couldn't even brag with emoticons after winning a match with a friend).  Metroid Prime Hunters took a lot of time to find opponents and often said it had found 2 but then those would disappear for some reason.  In any case, it was slow to set up.  Animal Crossing Wild World finally put Animal Crossing online and was a great idea, but lost connection so often (often losing all my data, even when it was someone else who lost connection) that it's probably the most annoying online experience possible.

Now I've moved out of the house I was in that had Wi-fi and my Wi-fi dongle adventure has been, to say the least, agonizing.  First of course the dongle won't work with any windows before XP.  Thus, I upgraded from 98 (hey, after a lot of years, it finally worked just the way I wanted it) awhile back to XP.  The Dongle worked sometimes and other times it didn't.  If it were plugged in for long, it just gave up for some reason.  Windows (and the wi-fi)  got so annoying I put Linux on there and figured I had nothing to lose.  Anyway, there's no way to make Linux even pretend to run the Wi-fi stuff.  So I figured I'd just use a wired connection for the Wii and ignore the DS.  Well, of course the Wii requires some crazy special cord to connect to the internet if you don't have a router, and I can't find it anywhere (I guess a straight up connection as simple as the Xbox's was too simple). 

Then I bought a new computer that came with Vista Premium.  Well, I tried the dongle again, and it's the only piece of software I've found in my whole collection that won't just treat Vista like XP if it needs to.  It will absolutely not work for me, even when I went to the website and downloaded the newest version. 

After thinking it through though, I'm not sure why I've put so much time into it.  I bought the dongle and tried installing all kinds of software across three operating systems, and I upgraded from one other one, and for what?  To have to buy yet another perpehrial to get online if I want to do it through a wire (as if I should be punished for not having a Wi-fi connection)? For very poor online in Mario Kart?  For slow connections to Metroid Prime Hunters?  To lose data in Animal Crossing?  To still not have any online games months into the Wii's life?  To be forced to use one particular version of one particular operating system that isn't even the newest one anymore? 

It's just now striking me that Nintendo's current online offering is still looking very "phoned in", and it makes me wonder why bother to have it at all?  If you don't believe in online, then don't have it.  If you do believe in it, then please try to explain why the wi-fi dongle still doesn't work on Macs or on even Vista, and why not one title for the Wii has any online.      

Maybe it's precisely because online is so unimportant to me, but to me it seems like Nintendo's offering is a lot more trouble than it's worth.  

[QUOTE=Adamant]

Believe it or not, there are people who play racing games online to actually race, not to send emoticons.

[/QUOTE]

Sigh.  Clearly the thesis of my arguement was that I really badly wanted to send emoticons.  I mean, what, with my offhandedly mentioning that the online options in one of the games were limited so that I could not so much as send an emoticon, it should be clear that what I was looking for overall from Nintendo was the ability to send emoticons. 

Come on man; I think it's pretty clear that the emoticon thing was my way of saying just how limited the options were.  I played a bunch of races with a friend from Atariage and after I had played a few races, I realized I could not even tell him I was finished.  I quit but that meant that he had to waste his time trying to connect again only to see that I was gone. There was no way to just say "okay, I'm done, see you later".

Believe it or not, some people don't like to waste their time trying to connect to nothing.

I think the OP's feelings are a little emo, but this is an area where there is some room for improvement.

I really haven't had any significant problem with either the DS or Wii online from a technical perspective. I also found Mario Kart DS to be an enjoyable online experience. I'm not online obsessive, though, and playing random human opponents (which is the only thing that the Nintendo online thing can really do well) is fine, as long as there is some kind of skill matching system.

-Rob

For God's sake, I didn't mean that as some kind of major league slam (perhaps emo is a terribly insulting term? I thought it just meant "emotional")! Yes, I think we all can agree that Nintendo is a bit light weight with the online support! Sheesh!

[QUOTE=Atarifever]

If OP is "Original Poster" I have to admit to being offended at being called emo (unless that is an abbriviation for something besides emo).  This is starting to feel like the time I got upset that Nintendo dropped support for the Cube way to early and everyone told me to stop whining and buy a Wii.  I start to see why Shawn gets so upset around here.  Sarcasm and insults follow quickly enough on criticsm of nintendo, even from someone who is almost always sunshine and rainbows over Nintendo.

[/QUOTE]

Geez!  Quit being so Emo!!!

Just kidding.

What exactly is Emo anyway?  Elmo's kid brother?  I am not that up to date on the goth lingo, or the "dawg"-talkers.

[QUOTE=feilong80]For God's sake, I didn't mean that as some kind of major league slam (perhaps emo is a terribly insulting term? I thought it just meant "emotional")! Yes, I think we all can agree that Nintendo is a bit light weight with the online support! Sheesh![/QUOTE]

I think the bottom line for me is that, except for the game download service, I just don't care for online support.  There have been a few times I've enjoyed it, but they have been few and far between.  I've been historically a single-player gamer.  I like the solitary story-based experiences, and the single-player puzzle and skill experiences.  I've never been very competitive in games, except for maybe competing with my environment.

Having said that, I am curious to see how that plays out on the Wii, and it seems to be going very slowly at this point, kinda like it did on the DS when it was new.  Nintendo needs to quit playing games with that and start doing something with this promised online support besides adding game and channel download services.  My lack of interest notwithstanding, there are obviously people waiting on this.

But at the same time I think XBOX 360 has too many games that require an online component.  Not every game is suited to online multiplayer competitive or co-op.  Not every game is suitable for multiplayer at all.  I always wonder when some subpar online experience is included on an XBOX 360 disc or XBOX disc I might buy just how much better the main campaign could have been if they hadn't wasted resources on the obligatory XBOX Live component.  Ultimately though, that issue is no more fatal to me than the Nintendo situation, because at least the single-player campaigns are still good for the most part.

I am extremely interested in seeing how the @Home thing works out on the PS3.  It's basically just a free realistic SIM that will be integrated right into the system on a future system update.  I don't care much for SIMs, but a lot of casual gamers do.