Post by ECM on Jul 31, 2014 7:38:27 GMT -5
I think I've noted this before (if not here, in other places across the web), but just in case:
The reason most U games have shoddy or non-existent online support is because Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, didn't include a set of tools in dev kits up until at least the middle of last year (which was the last time I asked anyone at a dev about this) to support it.
What this means, effectively, is that any and all online components you see in U games are 'roll your own', i.e. devs had to build their own set of tools and an environment to support online play. This takes time and money, things people developing games on a platform with an anemic userbase are not going to do, unless it is absolutely required (see: Monster Hunter) or because the director of the game insists (see: Mario Kart 8). Either way you slice it, however, the dev has to CODE UP THEIR OWN NETWORKING ENVIRONMENT IF THEY WANT IT IN THEIR GAMES*--needless to say, this is asinine, since Sony and MS (and Steam and Amazon and EVERYONE ELSE ON EARTH) have been providing exaclty this for years and years and years now.
So imagine my surprise when zipping around ye olde Internete today and I come across this quote:
It is now the middle of 2014 and THEY STILL HAVEN'T IMPLEMENTED THE TOOLS REQUIRED TO MAKE GETTING GAMES UP AND RUNNING ONLINE AVAILABLE!
Now, I'm about the last guy to indulge in Nintendo is doomed' talk (they're not--that' absurd), but they are 1000% out-of-touch with what WESTERN gamers need and want and demand (and have done so since the intro of the 360).
What's even more terrifying is this implies that the entire network back-end of the U basically doesn't exist. Everything you see is basically an HTML 5 implementation, but there is no unified back-end to speak of, which is partially why there are probably no achievements, etc., as everything is running separately in its own 'app box', even though they dedicated an entire GIGABYTE of RAM to the fucking OS! Windows 8 doesn't need a G-D gig of RAM to run well! WTF are you doing with that memory, Nintendo?! It isn't for speeding up load times between apps, that's for damn sure.
(The killer in all of this, of course, is that lots of 3DS games have online functionality (but not because of Nintendo! But because devs will include it due to userbase size considerations), just like tons of DS games did, but Nintendo apparently is oblivious or doesn't care--probably the latter, since I have to imagine NOA and NOE are screaming about this...for years--but whatever it is, it's obnoxious and it has to stop.
*There is also the option of certain middleware packages but, seriously, nobody is going to pay for another software suite to get a 'plugin' when a. Nintendo should be providing this like everyone else does and b. the userbase does not warrant the effort of DIY.
The reason most U games have shoddy or non-existent online support is because Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, didn't include a set of tools in dev kits up until at least the middle of last year (which was the last time I asked anyone at a dev about this) to support it.
What this means, effectively, is that any and all online components you see in U games are 'roll your own', i.e. devs had to build their own set of tools and an environment to support online play. This takes time and money, things people developing games on a platform with an anemic userbase are not going to do, unless it is absolutely required (see: Monster Hunter) or because the director of the game insists (see: Mario Kart 8). Either way you slice it, however, the dev has to CODE UP THEIR OWN NETWORKING ENVIRONMENT IF THEY WANT IT IN THEIR GAMES*--needless to say, this is asinine, since Sony and MS (and Steam and Amazon and EVERYONE ELSE ON EARTH) have been providing exaclty this for years and years and years now.
So imagine my surprise when zipping around ye olde Internete today and I come across this quote:
Online multiplayer is not currently planned. Why? Well, for starters as you know developing online multiplayer for a game is no easy feat. We already have it working for PC, but we’re using Steam libraries to help us with that. We would need to write a lot of new code to port the online version from PC to Wii U.
It is now the middle of 2014 and THEY STILL HAVEN'T IMPLEMENTED THE TOOLS REQUIRED TO MAKE GETTING GAMES UP AND RUNNING ONLINE AVAILABLE!
Now, I'm about the last guy to indulge in Nintendo is doomed' talk (they're not--that' absurd), but they are 1000% out-of-touch with what WESTERN gamers need and want and demand (and have done so since the intro of the 360).
What's even more terrifying is this implies that the entire network back-end of the U basically doesn't exist. Everything you see is basically an HTML 5 implementation, but there is no unified back-end to speak of, which is partially why there are probably no achievements, etc., as everything is running separately in its own 'app box', even though they dedicated an entire GIGABYTE of RAM to the fucking OS! Windows 8 doesn't need a G-D gig of RAM to run well! WTF are you doing with that memory, Nintendo?! It isn't for speeding up load times between apps, that's for damn sure.
(The killer in all of this, of course, is that lots of 3DS games have online functionality (but not because of Nintendo! But because devs will include it due to userbase size considerations), just like tons of DS games did, but Nintendo apparently is oblivious or doesn't care--probably the latter, since I have to imagine NOA and NOE are screaming about this...for years--but whatever it is, it's obnoxious and it has to stop.
*There is also the option of certain middleware packages but, seriously, nobody is going to pay for another software suite to get a 'plugin' when a. Nintendo should be providing this like everyone else does and b. the userbase does not warrant the effort of DIY.
