An article going over some complaints of for the most part wii's online interface, in downloading, and purchasing games.


Nintendo's Wii console unveiled its own slate of original, downloadable games this month, and the service promises to broaden this unique machine's appeal still further. With low distribution costs and little barrier to entry, it's a hit among smaller, risk-averse developers.

But after being bewildered by bizarre interfaces, confused by storage limits and inexplicably accosted by orange Marios, we're left wondering: could this be the Wii's first blunder?

Packing a launch portfolio containing some surprisingly compelling titles, WiiWare, as the new service is called, certainly has all the right ideas behind it. It's intended to support smaller developers in much the same way as competing services on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Distributing games directly to consumers via digital download services cuts out both publisher and retailer, meaning developers can afford to take more risks, and -- in theory -- give consumers like us a better deal.

Try it out, though, and you'll find some big problems. The interface is average at best, and the limited storage of the Wii console means trouble for heavy users of the machine's Virtual Console service (which lets you download classic games), who are suddenly going to have to make some tough choices about which games to keep. With only 512 MB of on-board storage, players are running out of room, and although you can store games on an SD card, you have to copy them back before you can play them. If keen players are already reaching the limit, what's it going to be like in a few years?




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The interface is average at best, and the limited storage of the Wii console means trouble for heavy users of the machine's Virtual Console service.

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This is, to put it mildly, a shame, because there are already a couple of gems waiting for WiiWare browsers. Despite having a title long enough to fill up the Wii's memory on its own, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is harder to quit than crack cocaine and a real bargain at $15. LostWinds, an innovative platform game from a small British developer, is receiving some decent reviews and clocks in at only $10.

That's assuming you have the patience to get them downloaded in the first place. Compare and contrast the Wii's Shop interface with similar offerings on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and you'll see that although Nintendo is unquestionably the master at building easy-to-use, appealing hardware, it has a lot to learn about interface design.

Here's a hint: make it easy for us to give you money. The Wii Shop won't save credit card information, which probably makes it slightly more secure, but inputting all those numbers with a remote control is silly and tiresome. That's nothing next to the inconvenience of having to fill out the billing address every time, though, and the Wii makes you do that in minute, exhaustive detail. Hey, Nintendo: If my Wii gets stolen from my front room, it's a safe bet the culprits already know where I live.

OK, so you've juggled memory around to make space and filled out enough forms to give a mortgage broker nightmares. Surely things get better when you actually start downloading games, right? No, Nintendo has a treat in store for you there as well. Once you've purchased your chosen game, you'll be greeted with a cheery (and, for some reason, orange) Mario running repeatedly across the screen grabbing gold coins. What purpose this serves isn't immediately clear. Presumably it's some type of progress bar, but -- as far as we're aware -- there's no apparent relationship between fat Italian plumbers, orange or not, and download progress. Maybe Mario's interminable transit symbolizes Nintendo gobbling up the revenue from your purchase. Who knows.

Moreover, why are we still watching him? On the 360, we could be playing Grand Theft Auto by now, simply waiting for the helpful pop-up notification while a whole stack of games download in the background. Coin-grabbing Mario, as he sucks down my dollars, looks awfully happy about this state of affairs, but we're not.

Seriously, Nintendo, we're delighted you're supporting independent developers (and Square-Enix) and encouraging yet more innovation on what's already the most novel and exciting games platform out there. With the Virtual Console and WiiWare, you're well on the way to beating the selections of the competition's download services. But did you have to make it such a pain to use?




Source:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wii-ware-is-this-nintendo-s-first-blunder-/1215130


P.S. Anyone get my friend request on Brawl, I haven't checked if anyone accpeted lately, but was just curious... Obviously you odn't have to accept, but if you see some strange request from someone you don't know probably me, also my code is now been editted in the list, and as far as i know all you need is the brawl code... Anyway what do you guys think of the article?

Jon Snow's Brawl Code: 1805-1876-7506

Not sure, but those weren't my words, that was an article I found...

I just happen to agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed in the article.. and I'd add to the list the stuff they did with brawl online, let alone the game itself (which overall is really good, just have some complaints) I'd go so far as to say, that right now for one on one, play i prefered Melee for one on one skill test, but that might be because of my lower skill level in brawl... but the game just doesn't feel as fluid to me, and trips don't help.


Anyway the online portion of brawl, coudl definitly take some tips from x-box, on how they did the halo rating system.

And they shoudl have a little more flexibility on setting you can place..

Also the Wii interface shoudl be manageable via a regular gamecube controller, just so i don't have to get out the wiimote every time i want to play brawl, which more often than not is the game i'm playing.

Also friends should be able to join you when you sign up for free for all play...

I do like how they gave all those optoins when you play verse friends, it's just i think some of them, especially a rating system, as well as friends being able to play with you, and some basic settign manipulation should have been present on the play anyone settings.

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Complaining about the Mario progress bar is just silly. I think it's charming.

If i coudl play a game while it downloads in the background, which it seems other consoles allow, that's much preferred than watching an orange mario run around.



As for the info, i just wish they did some password, where you type it and access a given account.. If you forget your password, there should be some reset option which just erases all info from the system (all credit card and address info), and you re-do it, and then set a password again...

I'm hoping somehow they'll be able to make something, some external hard-drive like thing, where games can be played directly off of it, to make up for the 512mb problem (or pending problem). I don't see why they wouldln't allow for this.

And also allowing gamecube controllers navigate the interface is just a nice luxury thing they could have done.

Personally I think wii's biggest blunder was making it harder for them to do more mature games, since their graphic/processining abilities isn't as high as they could be... I really would like to see a CoD4 on the wii, with the exact same look an feel as say the ps3, or 360 has.

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Hardware capabilities have NO BEARING on a console's ability to have "mature" games. Both the PS2 and the GCN had mature games and those weren't exactly power machines by today's standards.

I think it does have some bearing, but i think you're right to say, the graphic power of the wii is well with the range of rendering graphically realistic mature games... such as CoD4...

What i mean is take NES there is only to a point where the game can be considered M rated... What they can do is make the stroy-line dialogue wise, be mature content, and add in some blood or something, even though it'd look horrible.

But now of days, you can get a mature game by the feel of the game mechanics, and graphics alone, regardless of the story line.. and some systems are prefferred to do this on over others. And while i'd say it's possible to have a mature game from graphics alone on the Wii, i'd say ps3 is likely better at handling it.

I agree you can make any game rated M, through use of story line, and just throw in random blood, and killing...

But I'd also say mature games can be expressed, independant of story line, and the more graphic power the better it can be done... the better teh feel and ideas can be conveyed.

But again' I'd say you're right the wii can accomplish this, why it doesn't , i don't understand, but i'd still say ps3 and 360 have some noticeable edges in the field...

Well if that is one of the larger barriers of why say CoD4 isn't on the wii.... Personally i think the wii should advertise they want games, that both use and don't use their interface, and they're willing to accept both types, and if they don't want to do this, i think it's in their best interest to do it, since as of right now, they're not forcing game makers to go intergrate the motion sensor, if that's their plan, instead they're just creating conditions where the game designers are just making games for others.

Part of the problem is if a game maker makes a game the fact they have more than one console to put it on is a huge plus, (there is a bit of a bid war, they have more than one option if one company doesn't like it and the other does) but if they make a game wii style, (with the motion sensor stuff), they're forced to just sell it to nintendo, and if nintendo doesn't like it they're SoL.. But if they make it a format that fits more than one major company, they have more options, more demand for their game, more likely to profit.

So they make it for the other systems first, which is what they'll do, and if nintendo wants in, they have to fork-up quite a bill since the programmers have to likely make noticeable changes in programming style if they want to integrate the motion sensing.