4 replies to this topic

[Makkun]

I got NiGHTS yesterday from a gift-exchange from a good friend of mine, which is awesome 'cause I was expecting to get it on Christmas from my grandma. Anyway.

I decided to see if anyone was inviting on Wi-Fi for My Dream and stuff, and I got an invite from (what appeared to be) a Japanese girl.

Basically we played for an hour and had a conversation completely made of those crazy emoticons. That was fun, however, I really felt like I made a friend with this person, yeah I know, weird huh. XD I would have loved to have been able to send a Wii Register Friend request thing after I had left her dream, or even better yet, had text to go with the emoticons so we could actually converse. Basically I ended the game with a [message][?] emote, and then a sad face 'cause there was no way we could have talked afterward. XP

Oh, this is all assuming she had some basic understanding of English.

MY POINT:
Do you think Nintendo's child-friendly approach to online gaming with anonymousness and lack of actual communication is beneficial or not? Do you think it's really worth it for there to be no way of talking to your opponent/ally, possibly dampening the experience for more matured persons, as opposed to the small possibility of a child talking to someone who could be a pedophile/whatever other worries there are?

Btw my name is Mark, if that person could possibly be reading this. (: lolololololol Hey, you never know!

[CronoMST]

It's beneficial for their PR department, but bad for gamers. For whatever reason, the media looks at Nintendo differently than the other console manufacturers sometimes. When the DS came out, as soon as certain media outlets discovered that Pictochat existed, they did entire stories on the DS being the next best thing for child molesters since candy and window tinting. They blew it completely out of proportion.

When Manhunt 2 came out, it was only the Wii version that was really targeted by the media because of the "interactivity" and the way it teaches children the motions required to slit throats (of course, ignoring the fact that it is M rated and most places won't sell it to anyone under 17).

I don't see it as all that unlikely that including a method of communication that isn't totally cumbersome and that doesn't hold your hand constantly could get them into trouble if the media caught on. It's really sad, because I'd like to be able to say what I want to say and add people I meet through the game to my friends list, but I think they are pretty justified in keeping it as limited as it is.

I think Metroid Prime Hunters had a good way of handling it, however. A happy medium, really. You could add "Rivals" that you met randomly and you could meet up with them again. You just couldn't ever communicate with them (beyond blowing them up). Something similiar in JoD (and many of the other WFC games) would have been appreciated.

[DiENE]

I think they should only restrict it with parental controls, or some system that divides mature from immature players( I don't believe age can completely connotate with maturity), that way there is communication going on and the risk of predator attacks is still at a low rate. Because as far as I know, unless you give out personal info there is no way they can track you. (I'm assuming you can't hack a Wii and/or fine the IP addresses?)

I know from personal experience of WoW it can sometimes be frustrating to not communicate with the opposing faction, however there reasoning behind it is not the same, it would still fell that way.

[iLLViLLAiN]

The codes, like many things, have pros and cons that come along with it. It's good to know the younger generation are safe from people with negative intentions but at the same time not everyone that plays the Wii online is a child and shouldn't have to deal with this barrier on communication. Also headset support would be a very nice thing to have. If only the Wii's internet service was as good as PSN and XBL. As Nintendo goes further I hope they improve greatly with online.

[Makkun]

Yeah, definitely. I agree that there are happy mediums, but it should be based on parental controls and stuff... Like, even though NiGHTS is E for Everyone, and probably seen as a children's game, there are still plenty of people who would like to communicate with other players and NiGHTS lovers. :P I think parental controls would be a good way to get around this, since if the controls are set, the kids obviously are safe, but if they aren't, either it's not a kid playing, or the parents could care less. Yeah. >>

Headset support would be amazing. They did it with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for DS, and I'm sure more children play that than older kids/adults.