The dude who spoke was ove of the directors, not a mouthpiece.
Still kinda behind though.
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IGN: Splatoon's lack of voice chat is "cheap and lazy"
- Thread starter Oddduck
- Start date
The dude who spoke was ove of the directors, not a mouthpiece.
Still kinda behind though.
I only used the numbers 10% and 5%, not 1%
I love chatting though, but muting everyone is tiring.
I remember when you got kicked from Rainbow Six: Vegas for not having a mic...so I got a mic so people wouldn't kick me...and then no-one communicated and even when I spoke, no-one responded or even said anything back.
So i'm left with 1 person who wants to say something, but don't because he's in Party Chat to his bros playing FIFA?
I now expect Splatoon to have a Conker-like twist.
The main game is actually a full-on dark military shooter with inkling girl-soldier and inkling boy-soldier being forced child-workers painting the world with the blood of their victims. It'll be all explained in the story mode.
The main game is actually a full-on dark military shooter with inkling girl-soldier and inkling boy-soldier being forced child-workers painting the world with the blood of their victims. It'll be all explained in the story mode.
I only used the numbers 10% and 5%, not 1%
I love chatting though, but muting everyone is tiring.
I remember when you got kicked from Rainbow Six: Vegas for not having a mic...so I got a mic so people wouldn't kick me...and then no-one communicated and even when I spoke, no-one responded or even said anything back.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience but writing off a feature for everyone because of it is just not fair man.
And you said 10% of the time people responded, and 10% of them responded positively. IE 1%
bryanee
Member
It is the number one reason I'm not buying this game. The thought of playing this game with friends and not being able to chat to them whilst playing is just wrong. Its one of the reasons I got rid of Mario Kart 8, playing it online with friends was just boring. The banter you have with friends when playing that game local (which I haven't been able to do since Mario 64) can really help the game immensely as any one can attest to who's played with friends in the same room and I'd very much like that feeling online but noooooo.
I wont be buying any Nintendo game from now that has a big multiplayer focus and doesn't have chat.
I wont be buying any Nintendo game from now that has a big multiplayer focus and doesn't have chat.
It takes like three seconds.
Crimson_Justice
Member
This is my exact thought.
I understand the want for party chat of some sort, entirely. It can be an enjoyable feature in team-based games. However, it has its bad sides, namely the gigantic amount of stupid/ignorant people (young and old) with a mic. If party chat was in Splatoon, it would have all of those common problems, even if it was limited to chatting with your own party.
And I think that's the problem with the feature, in Nintendo's eyes. They're not focused on having a hyper-competitive game with Splatoon, at least not in regular online matches. They probably want everyone to just "have fun and play together" as Gabe3208 says, and the negatives of voice chat would ruin that for a lot of people.
"What about options?" you're thinking. Those who don't want voice chat aren't forced to have it, and those who do want it get what they want. Sounds great -- best of both worlds. But, if you make party chat opt-in, then it becomes possible for one team to be better coordinated because more of their members have chat on, making it an unfair match. Everyone has mentioned this already, but, what's more important is that losing unfair matches over and over is just as off-putting as the idiots harassing others over mics.
So let's say I'm someone who keeps party chat turned off. "Okay, cool, don't gotta listen to those idiots now. Didn't want to be told by a fourteen-year-old how bad I suck; I already know. But, shit, this team is smearing us. No chance. What's the point? Oh, this team is just as coordinated as the last. They're clearly communicating together. Man, this isn't any fun anymore..." And so on. I know the teams rotate and whatnot, but that wouldn't 100% fix the problem.
Basically, if party chat was available and opt-in, it would have a very high chance to create a negative experience for those who don't like the feature, whether or not they opt-in. And that's what Nintendo wants to avoid. They want their game to be competitive, yes, and it will be to a certain degree because of the game's balance and the level playing field without party chat. But, more than that, they want the game to be fun for all different types of players, and to do that they need to avoid the negatives of party chat.
I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing. They're sacrificing a slightly higher level of competitiveness in order to make it fun for everyone. "Lets just have fun and play together." I'm sure they know they're also sacrificing potential sales from people who won't play it because of the lack of options. But, this is the type of game they want to make. It's clear from everything they've said and shown about it. It does suck if you really enjoy party chat in all your games, but you have plenty of games you can go chat in already.
Get over it and come enjoy the uniqueness of Splatoon. Or not. Doesn't matter to me.
To me, it's just a different flavor of game. PS4, Xbone, and PC all have flavor A covered. Nintendo wants flavor B. I happen to be a man of many tastes, so I'll gladly give Nintendo my money for a different flavor.
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
Yeah, what jem said.
People use the "children target audience" excuse, implying that it's Splatoon's sole demographic aiming to be achieved.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
Whether its lazy or misguided, it's not a good decision. I can be proactive individually on Battlefield 4, and I am when I play on my own. But doesn't mean that I shouldn't be allowed to talk to my friends when we squad up and play, especially seeing as it adds to the fun and proper communication is always leads to better co-ordination for us.
Which is funny because I'm pretty sure that most kid's are buying Xbox and PlayStation's to play Minecraft and CoD. The main demographic of Wii U's limited user base is almost certainly 20-30 something Nintendo enthusiasts, with some fall out to the child demographic. But they certainly don't make up enough of the demographic to be Nintendo's main focus.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I only used the numbers 10% and 5%, not 1%
I love chatting though, but muting everyone is tiring.
I remember when you got kicked from Rainbow Six: Vegas for not having a mic...so I got a mic so people wouldn't kick me...and then no-one communicated and even when I spoke, no-one responded or even said anything back.
So i'm left with 1 person who wants to say something, but don't because he's in Party Chat to his bros playing FIFA?
Wut? Your excuses are getting worse by the post.
No what your left with is a community that wants to play as a team and work together. I've made over 20 friends in TLoU MP just through voice chat and we now have tournaments together.
Look, I may sound like Voice Chat is useless (which it is) and i'll defend Nintendo about it because I do believe it's a non-issue...but i'll be right there with everyone when they put in Friend Battle and they don't have voice chat or when they put 4 Friends VS 4 Others and they don't let you talk to your team.
Public? Non-Issue.
Friend-Only? Issue.
Also, did this much people complain when BF3 PC had no voice chat?
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
You might not even be on the same team you voice chat in.
Yep, I understand frustration at not being able to talk with your friends.
I don't understand the frustration at not being able to hear randoms.
Nintendo should patch in Team Chat with the August update.
What?
It's just a part of the audience, and a part that Nintendo doesn't want to be called names or sworn at over their system.
"You're a fucking idiot, bro. You stole my kill"
"But I j..just w-wanted to splat the bad guys"
"How fucking old are you? Why don't you go play Disney Infinity. Fucking noob"
"O-ok"
See that number? It's a seven.
I know you're joking but with all the alterntive language and alien physiology stuff going on and such I do want to know the story of the world.
Castef
Banned
Lots and lots of players.
Solid Samus
Banned
If the argument against party chat is that one team might do better than the other consistently then you might as well block joining on friends as well. Or any type of measured cooperation altogether that isn't '4 randoms getting together and doing their own thing', though that might be a little harder...
I mean, I understand the logic there, but I disagree that it's a decent reason to disallow party chat, of all things. Especially considering party chat in and of itself isn't such a profound game changer that it'd turn an average team that randoms were capable of trashing into some sort of zen-state perfect unit, and that party chat's most common use is FAR and AWAY just to 'chat' with friends, not to become some unholy fusion of Bruce Wayne and Sun Tzu together. Not to mention, lacking party chat won't do much on its own to curb competitive teams like that because odds are if you've got four friends coming together to play Splatoon (or like any shooter) on the same team, they're gonna find some way to chat if the game doesn't include it.
No, a lot more people complained because Battlefield is currently a lot bigger than Splatoon
and that was on a platform that has dozens of alternate options
It's not. Do you have any qualifiers for that, any context in which voice chat truly has no potential to add anything to a particular game? or do you believe voice chat is entirely useless in any form, in any game, in any context? because if it's the latter... yikes.
The Real Napsta
Member
I've made friends talking to randoms on the Mic. A guy I met on Halo 2 was in my cousin's wedding.
And I have some amazing people I speak to while I played on Xbox 360, but i'm saying the majority of the time people were not as friendly and in a game aimed at "Everyone", I think it could be an issue and might push up the Age-Rating if people start acting like they do in every other shooter.
The most Backwards thing about Nintendo is not letting people add others to their friend-list in-game though. That is stupid and backwards.
What Ninty should do is allow you to add people to your friend's list and you'll be able to hear them at ANYTIME. Don't want your children exposed to Shooter Bros? Parental Control Settings so they can't add friends.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
The "it's for children excuse" is particularly dumb considering Pokémon has voice chat.
Pokémon.
A series that is very, very much targeted at children.
That's on a handheld.
And is a 1v1 turn-based RPG, as opposed to a team-based shooter.
And has had the feature for nearly a decade.
Come on people.
Aside from the fact that generally small children aren't watching live Nintendo Directs, subscribed to the game's Tumblr, or are downloading and playing in hour-long network stress-tests. You're nuts of you think this game is just targeted at children.
Pokémon.
A series that is very, very much targeted at children.
That's on a handheld.
And is a 1v1 turn-based RPG, as opposed to a team-based shooter.
And has had the feature for nearly a decade.
Come on people.
Aside from the fact that generally small children aren't watching live Nintendo Directs, subscribed to the game's Tumblr, or are downloading and playing in hour-long network stress-tests. You're nuts of you think this game is just targeted at children.
Mute 1 guy? That's a quarter of your team.
What's the point of having chat in a 3min game with a quarter of the team muted?
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
No.
See that...its a 3+ and it had voice chat. Iirc online play is not included in the rating.
Online interactions are not rate able or any game with voice chat would be defaulted to M... Hell, you could say Mario kart online is M rated with adult names and offensive mii characters.
The damage would be done by the time you decide to mute someone.
Everyone starting muted would be favourable, but that would still be problematic.
"My child was called a cunt by Splatoon. It's rated for 7 year olds!"
Nintendo could see this coming a mile away. I do think allowing players to communicate solely with people on a friends list would alleviate this if the option is restricted by default and changeable by parents/adults, but even that will inevitably lead to a lawsuit.
I don't disagree with the general point. As I've mentioned before in this thread, not including voice chat in some form as a choice was not a particularly smart move, even if I personally wouldn't have used it and only saw myself chatting with friends through Skype regardless since that's generally more easier to manage for me. You're right, it's not really a good decision.
But the "lazy" argument just doesn't stick to me and it's pretty tiring to have to see that kind of complaint leveled against not just Nintendo but developers of all kinds. There's so many better ways to make a point towards a developer and create a better feedback loop than just straight up deriding the work because of preconceived lack of effort rather than actually pointing out what they should have focused on. I feel this is true for Splatoon especially because it's the kind of game that relies on feedback due to it living on it's community, and not a lot of the game strikes me as being "lazily" developed, even if I had hoped for that several features would be there on launch day.
I've not made a single friend in Dota 2 because of VC and I have over 3000 matches
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Then why hasn't this litigation happened in other online games with E ratings...?
Ninth isn't scared of technicalities. It's scared of the bad press
Maybe you're unlikable.
No that's MOBAs in a nutshell.
Solid Samus
Banned
I really doubt it, and I don't think there's precedent to back that up. There are plenty of children's games which allow communication with friends, or which do not actively prevent children from accessing communication features available in the OS. Hard to say that simply allowing chat with friends would 'invariably lead to a lawsuit', especially when the narrative around here is that 12 year olds are already busy shitting up all the other M-rated shooter games with their curse words
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Did Ratchet and Clank 3 get this bad press? Did the recent Pokemon get this bad press?
Solid Samus
Banned
I've got like six real life friends on my Steam List and the other 30 or so are people I've met playing Counter-Strike, Arma 3, Civilization V, Chivalry, DayZ, and Battlefield.
deltatheta
Member
I don't really think this is their exact reasoning, but it closely matches my thoughts.
Since they want the game to be very accessible, they didn't want to put voice chat front and center because the negativity and competitiveness would turn new players off.
If you follow that logic, the voice chat would end up being opt in and buried in a menu. Adding a lot of options to software adds a lot of surface area to test. The time they spend implementing and testing a major option is time they could be using to improve the game in other ways. If you're designing the game with the intention that the option will not be used by a large percentage of players, the costs of implementing it will outweigh the benefit.
smashballTaz
Member
They aren't lazy, it was a very conscious choice; the option of a mute all button won't save 6 year old children from hearing allsorts unless its on by default and access to un-muting it is locked behind parental controls. And, lets face it, all the tech-savvy kids these days can get past parental controls easily.
So many times working at GAME with parents being clueless about what their password on their machine is they were trying to trade in.
I'm not surprised they decided to not include it. Its not as if there everyone doesn;t know the main objective of the game.
Sure, it would have been nice to have, but I can live without it.
If we make a big enough stink about it, maybe they will put voicechat in the sequel. But 'boycotting' the game by not buying it the only message you'll send Nintendo is that you don't WANT a sequel.
So many times working at GAME with parents being clueless about what their password on their machine is they were trying to trade in.
I'm not surprised they decided to not include it. Its not as if there everyone doesn;t know the main objective of the game.
Sure, it would have been nice to have, but I can live without it.
If we make a big enough stink about it, maybe they will put voicechat in the sequel. But 'boycotting' the game by not buying it the only message you'll send Nintendo is that you don't WANT a sequel.
Solid Samus
Banned
can't stress this enough, if the recent Pokemon games haven't caught that level of flak despite that they feature the most expansive and forward thinking online suite Nintendo has in their entire roster now, then they're pretty much in the clear for now
Diamond and pearl had voice chat! On the DS!
block tower
Member
theyve been there awhile in the console space.
EDIT: if the real reason why Nintendo and the Splatoon developers chose not to put voice chat in the game because of children, then that sort of cements the idea Nintendo is geared towards children and the Wii U is effectively a childs console at its core, which makes me feel less bad about not buying a Wii U and supporting this fuckery.
cloudstrife
Member
Hey, I would gladly pay the $60 for Splatoon if Nintendo did that.
I honestly can't see what chat would be used for in this game other than telling people to paint more turf (which could be an instruction they'd add to the d-pad)..and shouting insults. The map tells you where to go/who to jump to. I suspect I'd find it annoying as hell if it was included and I'd likely mute almost instantly.
..having said that it, if they can add it for friends then they should... if only to stop the whining.
..having said that it, if they can add it for friends then they should... if only to stop the whining.
Careful, I got called cringeworthy for doing this before.
I've been called far worse things on GAF.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
It's going to get more bad press by not including it than including it. This article is a case in point.