13 Sep 2008 21:38 David Marseilles Death of The Conduit?We at WiiHD have made no secret about how much we love The Conduit. We have also done our best to argue against the use of Friend Codes, both here, and in missives sent to the developers. With each day that passes, however, the odds of The Conduit shipping without Friend Codes, as the PSP port Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 has already done, decrease. Today's blow to our hopes and dreams comes from Nintendo Radio. And it's a pretty harsh blow. Below is a transcript of an excerpt of a Nintendo Radio Podcast (Episode 50 58:40ish to 1:00:40ish). Two developers from High Voltage Software participated, Rob Nichols (lead designer) and Tony Mecca (Animator), however, they neglected to to identify themselves so I can't be 100% sure which voice belonged to which developer. Based on the last quote below, I've assigned the associated voice as Rob Nichols, because that just makes the most sense (he's the guy he has to be the most concerned about not pissing off Nintendo), and the other voice to Tony Mecca. But it's just a guess. ----Begin Transcript----
Probably Tony Mecca:
Probably Rob Nichols:
Interviewer: I think Nintendo is the only one who enjoys Friend Codes Probably Rob Nichols:
----End Transcript---- Elsewhere, they confirmed there will be no DLC. Now that doesn't confirm that the game will use Friend Codes. However, it is the most pessimistic outlook on Friend Codes thus far. If you're willing to read between the lines, it's everything BUT a confirmation. They're saying this now so that when they finally confirm it, it won't be as much of a disappointment. Notice also the rather strained excuses for the Friend Code system, and the oft-heard refrain about how closely they are working with Nintendo. That seems to reinforce rumors about Nintendo as a likely publisher. It's still a cool game. It can still succeed. But it's fallen from possibly being the greatest 3rd party game on the system, forever. Now it'll probably be the best game on the system until the next game finds a way to avoid Friend Codes. The Single player obviously won't be affected, and if that's why you're buying the game, there's no cause for discouragement. But the single player campaign on Normal is around 8 hours. How much time could you get from the game on multiplayer? Hundreds of hours. How much fun is sucked out of online play by Friend codes? Tons. We'll doubtless see details about the online system in the near future. As we've explained before, the publisher choice will likely affect the online feature set. So in 2-3 weeks, the full picture will begin to reveal itself. The Conduit Gallery
Nintendo Radio Podcast #50 | Permalink
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Death of The Conduit?
From this article, it seems as though you are upset, or rather disappointed?
Friend codes will destroy tons of the fun this game could have been with a half-way decent lobby system
WiiHD hasn't been around long, but we've managed to grab links at most of the big gaming and gadget blogs, including Kotaku's Gawker neighbor Gizmodo, but until today we've never gotten a story on Kotaku. It's an honor.
Feel free to kick the tires and criticize the suspension.
I'm pretty sure that HVS knows what you said, and are obviously going to find someway around it or make it for the best, and even with Friend Codes, I think that it is possible to come up with some sort of lobby system.
"…but we're going to make it as streamlined and as fast as."
In general they are thinking for the Hardcore, so I'm sure that they'll come up with something that will please us.
I find your blind faith a little disturbing.
The truth is, as they made it clear in the interview: their hands are tied. If they had it their way, they wouldn't touch the crap with a ten foot pole. They don't have it their way.
As I said elsewhere, streamlining friend codes is like putting lipstick on a pig. Once you're done, it's still a pig.
I understand what you're saying, but as I stated before, they know what the hardcore want.
Now, obviously, they can't avoid FC, as you said "If they had it their way, they wouldn't touch the crap with a ten foot pole." I agree, this is N property and they can't have it their way, but I think that it may be possible for them to find some way to utilize it to make it the best experience using FC as possible.
How is the addition of friend codes the death of the conduit? in every online game I've ever played you don't need them to play random matches, and you only have to input them once(or if it's anything like mkwii, you could just send an invite to people already in your address book)
Thats pretty much what I was trying to get across. Plus or Minus some things.
Just not the ones you think.
The question mark at the end of the title is important. The concluding sentence is as well. I didn't say Friend Codes will be the death of the Conduit.
David wrote: "It's still a cool game. It can still succeed."
Different codes for every game, to be added, you BOTH have to input each other's codes, different people owning different games, random matches typically conceal identities making it harder to get into competitive matches (which is more of an issue in a competitive shooter than in a 4 person fighter or a racer where items are designed to de-competivize), you can't befriend someone you fought in a match and had a great game with, so if you find someone like that, good luck being able to play them again, and finally, there's 16 players in this game. If you want a full game with full features, that's a lot of codes to only enter once. You don't need 15, because the same 15 people aren't always going to be online. You need hundreds.
CLEARLY, Friend Codes are a disadvantage. So the question is, what gain do they bring? They don't, as Nintendo claims, protect kids. Kids get online and spend endless hours trading codes with complete strangers on forums, making pm and instant messaging contacts in an insecure environment that they never would have made were it not for FCs.
So we're inconvenienced in order to actually Endanger kids. There is no upside. There is a pretty disappointing downside of inconvenience for every gamer.
There's already a model for secure fully featured online environments. Online lobbies were perfected a decade ago. Child protection technologies (that actually work) exist for those environments, and they don't require insane amount of work to get into a game and play the FULL version of the online experience for adults who don't have the time or inclination to bypass the Friend Code protections. The MoHH2 lobby system is a little light on features, but it's still light years ahead of MKWii. How far ahead of The Conduit will MoHH2 be? We'll have to wait and see.
But that (how much better will the insignificant PSP port that got virtually no investment or attention from it's publisher be than the core game to end all core games be) isn't the question we should be asking at this point. The Conduit should be allowed by Nintendo to surpass MoHH2 in every way. They've got the money for a network that doesn't suck. They've got the brains to realize they're actually endangering kids. And they've got me and millions of gamers explaining it to them every single time they release a new FC-infested game.
I'm not going to stop criticizing that broken system until it either a) allows an opt-out for adults, b) ceases to exist or c) drives me to buy a system that isn't idiotically inconvenient.
Didn't you read the post above you? you wouldn't have to keep entering codes if every game used a friend code system like that in mario kart wii, you could just send an invite asking if they want you on that game's roster(they are then auto added) plus mkwii also allows random players to be added after a race, I don't see why the same couldn't be done in the conduit.
and there were always adults on websites that talk to children, nintendo's system hasn't changed that. but friend codes have not only deterred the ones that don't go to forums already,(many join game sites regardless of fc sharing) but the smaller size of the site means admins can monitor on site contacts for suspicious behavior.(something not possible with something as large as nwfc)