No other company could pull the shit that Nintendo does.  It has been a combination of both fanboyism and acceptance of Nintendo’s ineptitude at online gaming that has made gamers complacent to their horrible interfacing.  What I am referring to is how Nintendo is using GameSpy to run their online games and that friend codes will be title specific.  According to FalafelKid’s conversation with a GameSpy PR rep., your friend rosters will have to be recreated for each game you play.  Similar to how the Nintendo DS works now.

Why would Nintendo do something that is so obviously out of sync with what gamers expect from “next-gen” consoles?  With the comparative ease with which you can play games online with the PS3 and with the 360 it seems inexcusable for Nintendo to have such an archaic style of online play.  Nintendo certainly doesn’t have the line-up that either of the consoles do and now its online support is set up in the most frustrating way possible.  Suddenly paying more for a console like the 360 or PS3 doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.  

Nintendo is really going to have to step it up in future console generations.  I for one have been a loyal Nintendo fan since my NES, but am pained by their lack of third-party titles and horrible online ability.  I forgave them for shitty N64 games, and even bought a GCN on day one, but the Wii might be the final straw. The future of gaming is through online connectivity, Nintendo needs to catch up or go the way of Sega.

Chufmoney

This article comes via 1up via Falafelkid’s Blog

Nintendo announced today that they will once more go to Gamespy for their online Wii games. The two companies are already old lovers, since Gamespy has been providing support for the DS for some time now. This just looks to be the next step in their relationship. Where are we now, third base? Marriage? Something like that.

According to the Gamasutra article, the first title to receive the special online treatment will be Pokemon Battle Revolution, which I couldn’t possibly care less about. However, I am eager to see how the Wii fares with its online capabilities, since I’m banking on some quality online play for future games (i.e., Super Smash Bros Brawl). Either way, it’s about damned time Nintendo picked up the pace with their online support; Microsoft has had them beat for ages. Though I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Nintendo, I’m also impatient these days, and Microsoft’s online support has had time to embed itself into our lives. And, well, it’s just become so damned cozy.

When online play does come into effect, no news will probably be good news. After all, we expect these sort of things to go off without a hitch when they come from Nintendo, and consequently, anything negative will be plastered up on our interverse within a matter of seconds. So in any case, here’s to hearing nothing.

-Bedlam-