A Rant On Bosses: Final Fantasy & Shank
13 hours 55 mins ago
An article directed at explaining the huge cons of Nintendo's WiiWare. From the chores of the billing constant information input, the problem with the limited storage and the annoyance of the download process. In other words, a really bad interface design.
Packing a launch portfolio containing some surprisingly compelling titles, WiiWare, as the new service is called, certainly has all the right ideas behind it. It's intended to support smaller developers in much the same way as competing services on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Distributing games directly to consumers via digital download services cuts out both publisher and retailer, meaning developers can afford to take more risks, and -- in theory -- give consumers like us a better deal.
Try it out, though, and you'll find some big problems. The interface is average at best, and the limited storage of the Wii console means trouble for heavy users of the machine's Virtual Console service (which lets you download classic games), who are suddenly going to have to make some tough choices about which games to keep. With only 512 MB of on-board storage, players are running out of room, and although you can store games on an SD card, you have to copy them back before you can play them. If keen players are already reaching the limit, what's it going to be like in a few years?
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Also, most of the Wiiware and VC downloads are very small, especially when compared to some of the stuff you can download on 360 or PS3, meaning very small download times, at least on a decent connection. By the time I got into a real game on Wii, most any download would be finished, defeating the point of playing a game while downloading. It makes much more sense on the other consoles who offer much larger downloadable content, and thus much longer download times.
Finally, the credit card form isn't really that cumbersome to fill out, and not saving the information does keep a parent's credit card number out of little Billy's hand. While this security doesn't matter to an older gamer like myself or the writer, it is very important for younger players, to which the Wii is appealing, ones who would be tempted to run their parent's credit cards to the limit on Wii points.
First, we all know that Nintendo will announce a hard-drive at E3, or the ability to use SD Cards as a hard-drive. So this won't be a problem for much longer.
Second, if you don't want to enter in your credit card number every time, simply go to the nearest gaming store and purchase a Wii Points card. (no credit card needed)
Third, like bbb said, the three blocks represent progress during the download. Once Mario hits the first block, you're about 33% done with the download. The second block is about 66%, and once he hits the third block, the download is complete. I don't see the problem here?
And by the way, how is the main interface bad? You go to the Wii Shop Channel, you click the button that says "WiiWare", and it lists all the WiiWare games available for download. Choose your game, wait for the few minute download, then play.
2) That's still an inconvenience nonetheless. Hell I can't imagine me typing my entire billing number/address over and over again.
3) I will admit that he was reaching for something when complaining about the whole Mario download design, but if the downloads were that short, I don't know why he's complaining about not being able to play when the download's over.
2. Everything with Wiiware is simple, it was designed so that the entire family can do it. The interface is simple, downloading is simple, the only difficult thing is storage.
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