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by David MarseillesDavid Marseilles
on 10 Nov 2008 01:48
Tags: cod5 fps friend-codes news wawii

The Internet Dies Laughing: WaWii Friend Codes

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Call of Duty: World at War is rated M for mature due to 1) Blood and Gore, 2) Intense Violence and 3) Strong Language. As such you can't buy it at retail unless you are 17 or older.

But if you want to set up a non-random match on Wii, you still need Friend Codes.

Remember the Christmas Story where the kid has to wear the pink bunny suit? This is more embarrassing than that by a lot.

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by David MarseillesDavid Marseilles
on 04 Nov 2008 02:39
Tags: conduit fps friend-codes interview scifi

High Voltage Still Working on Networking

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In an interview with Iran White (IW) at Wiirincontrol.com, Eric Nofsinger again confronted the topic of Friend Codes, empathizing with gamers' frustrations. It is possible to read part of the passage below as saying that Friend Codes are not inevitable, but given the bolded underlined portion (emphasis WiiHD's) a more fair reading simply has Nofsinger explaining, as he has before, that they're doing everything they can to improve the Friend Code system, not trying to bypass it altogether. Some months ago, The Conduit makers alluded to Mario Kart in a pretty positive way, as if it had solved the Friend Code dilemma and they were no longer a problem

IW: Many Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers have a sort of “one eye on it” interest in The Conduit. Graphics aside, for them the clincher will be how well the game plays online. While Friend Codes aren’t a deal breaker, it is a major concern. Has Nintendo given you an explanation for why they are so adamant about the use of Friend Codes for even such a game as The Conduit, even though they’ve built a significant Parental Controls system into the Wii?

EN: Yeah, this is definitely something that we go back and forth with them on. They do have their security issues that we need to be cognizant of. We’re very aware of those concerns and understand where they are coming from with that. But really all we can commit to is creating the best possible experience.

Personally, I’m not a fan of Friend Codes, I don’t think that anyone on the team is a fan of Friend Codes. What we’re promising people is that we’re working with Nintendo, we’ve had them out to the office. We’ve been over to their place. We’re in regular communication with them. It will be as good of an experience on Multiplayer as possible. We know it’s important. We don’t want to let folks down.

IW: Yeah, I understand. It’s Nintendo’s thing, you have to play by their rules.

EN: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I know that there’s been one notable exception of a game that hasn’t had friend codes. As far as I know, at least from what’s been relayed to us, that exception was a one time thing. It’s something where we need to continue to work with them closely, and figure out something that does hit what they need, but also hits what we need as gamers, you know?

What was that one time exception? Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. An otherwise unremarkable game that may well still be the gold standard in Wii FPS multiplayer even after QoS, Call of Duty and The Conduit come out if Nintendo doesn't get their act together.

wiirincontrol.com Via Gamefaqs user Teh_5_Starz | Permalink


by David MarseillesDavid Marseilles
on 13 Sep 2008 21:38
Tags: conduit fps friend-codes interview scifi

Death of The Conduit?

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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 Rob Nichols:

Ahhh, the infamous friend codes. Ummm, what I can announce on that is we are working very closely with Nintendo. Ummm, we're looking at some possiblilities and some options. If we have to use Friend Codes, which, you know we probably will, I will just say that and make that admission right now, but we're going to make it as streamlined and as fast as.. <audio glitch> Give Nintendo its credit, every time they've come out with a new multiplayer game, which you'll notice, other than EA, Nintendo… first-party games are the only ones that have multiplayer. Every time they've done that, there have been small improvements to the system, and we're going to, you know, try to build up on that as well and work with them to make it even more improved than it has been in the past.

Probably Tony Mecca:

We definitely want gamers to know that we're not all completely hyped up about Friend Codes, especially in the first generation of games that it was used in, you know. And we are definitely interested in getting the best online experience you can get. And we're not, by any means, fans of Friend Codes. <unintelligible> We're looking at every possible option we can possibly have to get you guys online and playing games with friends as fast as possible.

Probably Rob Nichols:

But I mean, folks have to realistically understand, it's Nintendo's system. It's their console, which we have to have their permission and their sign-off for whatever we put into the game. And if Friend Codes are what is, <unintelligible> is gonna be.

Interviewer: I think Nintendo is the only one who enjoys Friend Codes

Probably Rob Nichols:

Well, they, they have their concerns. The play base, there's a lot of hardcore guys who have Wii, of course. Um, but overall, the play base for the Wii tends to skew younger and they're justifiably concerned about that. So….

----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.

Nintendo Radio Podcast #50 | Permalink


by David MarseillesDavid Marseilles
on 04 Jul 2008 17:56
Tags: conduit currents fps friend-codes oped wii

Let The White Dog Sing

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Open letter to High Voltage Software from WiiHD


Dear High Voltage Software,
You've struck a mighty chord in the hearts of Nintendo Gamers. It's not that we mind there being Wii Fits and Pokemons and Carnival Games (oh my), it's just that when this generation started, we never imagined they would be getting more of Nintendo's attention than a blockbuster like Metroid Prime 3, which you might recall was relegated to a mere "viral" marketing campaign. We never imagined that games like Call of Duty 3 would come to us, but without a multiplayer component of any kind. Or that one of the biggest shooters of the decade, CoD4, would skip us entirely, and look to not miss us much. We never imagined the avalanche of PS2 ports, PSP ports, and flat-out refuse (can you say Cruisn' Wii?) that we'd be buried under, even while the Wii is the world leader in install base. We never imagined that developers would sneer at us as if we only (or ever) played cheap party games or weren't interested in buying quality games.

Now, you've gotten our hopes up. Not just because you're promising a quality game to satiate those of us who ran up a last gen game like Resident Evil 4 into the millions, or who bought Red Steel in droves not by accident, but to encourage progress in the genre. No, because you talk like us. By every measure, you are gamers who have the same hopes and aspirations for Wii that we do. Honestly, we would have fallen in love if you had simply not sneered and made a 2 Gamecubes duct-taped together joke, but you took it a lot farther than that.

Hit the break for the rest of this Open Letter

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