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Ars: Early tests show bizarre issues with Nintendo Switch voice chat app

This is actually a decent idea, although of course it would still require everyone—adults and children—to download and verify a mobile phone app before they could use voice chat.

The parental control app does all of that already, so it's more than just a decent idea, it's the current implementation.

I really don't see this as a "protect the children" issue like you do, more like a combination of an extremely rushed OS and a very strange relationship with an outside company (DeNA). I'm betting DeNA was the one who pitched relegating all of this to an app because they work on mobile apps, not console OS/firmware.
 

see5harp

Member
Nintendo knows you're going to use Discord anyway, so no need for them to "waste their time" on voice chat.

That's my conspiracy theory.

There is no conspiracy. This is just pure incompetence. After hundreds of hours of research and focus testing, this is the solution that they went with.
 
Or don't bother and let Nintendo figure this stuff out for themselves. Why should paying customers even need to report stuff like this. It's absurd

You don't have to pay anything at all to download this app and leave feedback...


It's down to 3.3 on the US Google Play store, keep at it guys!
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Or don't bother and let Nintendo figure this stuff out for themselves. Why should paying customers even need to report stuff like this. It's absurd

Well...without actual honest feedback..they will think nothing's wrong. See the many who rated it 5/5 on Google Play.

Its at a more realistic 3. something now. Hopefully it will be lower soon.
 

atmuh

Member
Or don't bother and let Nintendo figure this stuff out for themselves. Why should paying customers even need to report stuff like this. It's absurd
theres almost 2000 5 star reviews on Google play so if you take this approach nintendo might think everything is fine
 

Scum

Junior Member
The parental control app does all of that already, so it's more than just a decent idea, it's the current implementation.

I really don't see this as a "protect the children" issue like you do, more like a combination of an extremely rushed OS and a very strange relationship with an outside company (DeNA). I'm betting DeNA was the one who pitched relegating all of this to an app because they work on mobile apps, not console OS/firmware.
This is what I suspect as well, especially when there's evidence showing that the Switch itself could handle it.
 

Apathy

Member
This is what I suspect as well, especially when there's evidence showing that the Switch itself could handle it.

If it ever comes out that this is the case, how sad would a part subsidiary company has more sway over Nintendo than NoA and NoE
 

yyr

Member
I see a lot of people saying "Xbox has had good voice chat since 2002, why can't they just learn from example?"

To those people: I point to the famous Eurogamer "The Secret Developers" story regarding Wii U.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-secret-developers-wii-u-the-inside-story

The discussion started off well enough and covered off our experiences with the hardware and (slow) toolchain and then we steered them towards discussing when the online features might be available. We were told that the features, and the OS updates to support them, would be available before the hardware launch, but only just. There were apparently issues with setting up a large networking infrastructure to rival Sony and Microsoft that they hadn't envisaged.

This was surprising to hear, as we would have thought that they had plenty of time to work on these features as it had been announced months before, so we probed a little deeper and asked how certain scenarios might work with the Mii friends and networking, all the time referencing how Xbox Live and PSN achieve the same thing. At some point in this conversation we were informed that it was no good referencing Live and PSN as nobody in their development teams used those systems (!) so could we provide more detailed explanations for them?

I anticipate that their opinions have not changed, regarding looking at what the competition is doing. SAD!
 
Jesus...... NINTENDO....

I'd imagine that using this app will also block data from coming and going for other applications, just based on how it has to be the active process on your phone.

I see a lot of people saying "Xbox has had good voice chat since 2002, why can't they just learn from example?"

To those people: I point to the famous Eurogamer "The Secret Developers" story regarding Wii U.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-secret-developers-wii-u-the-inside-story



I anticipate that their opinions have not changed, regarding looking at what the competition is doing. SAD!

Jesus... Nintendo wanted outside developers to provide benchmarks, use cases, and requirements for the online system that Nintendo was developing.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
a very strange relationship with an outside company (DeNA). I'm betting DeNA was the one who pitched relegating all of this to an app because they work on mobile apps, not console OS/firmware.

This is actually the first explanation for this mess that makes complete sense. They pitched to do it, the actual practical complications were not as apparent on PPT, and the outsourcing managers at Nintendo didn't have enough mobile savvy to put in requirements like 'works on background'
 
So all the 1 star reviews are from people that tested used the app with Splatoon 2?

No, not necessarily. What I mean is many of the 5 star reviews came before you could even so much as open the app to test features out. And before all of the details of how it worked emerged.

That's spam.

This is actually the first explanation for this mess that makes complete sense. They pitched to do it, the actual practical complications were not as apparent on PPT, the managers didn't have enough mobile savvy to put in requirements like 'works on background '

Yeah it's really the only logical explanation I can think of. It reflects extremely poorly on Nintendo for not understanding or prioritizing any of this though. And it reflects even more poorly on DeNA for creating an extremely broken implementation of the app.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
The parental control app does all of that already, so it's more than just a decent idea, it's the current implementation.

I really don't see this as a "protect the children" issue like you do, more like a combination of an extremely rushed OS and a very strange relationship with an outside company (DeNA). I'm betting DeNA was the one who pitched relegating all of this to an app because they work on mobile apps, not console OS/firmware.

This is what I suspect as well, especially when there's evidence showing that the Switch itself could handle it.

If it ever comes out that this is the case, how sad would a part subsidiary company has more sway over Nintendo than NoA and NoE

This would be sad. Its not like Nintendo never tried voice chat before. They have to find a better way to merge, marry their mobile, online and console front.

To me, if its even about them dipping their toes in mobile now....would be voice chat on Switch, let Switch be able to run their mobile games.

Done.

Those on mobile phones can run their games there, those on Switch can run them there. Let DeNA worry about the mobile devices, Nintendo worry about the Switch.
 
No, because it's very easy to make the case that this is a 1 star app. If you'd like to make the case that it's a 5 star app.. the floor is yours.

Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.
 

Chauzu

Member
I don't see bad systemwide implementation of voice chat to be reason to rate the app 1. If that is all you care about, sure. But SplatNet 2 looks legit good to me.

Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

Basically this.
 
Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

I don't see bad systemwide implementation of voice chat to be reason to rate the app 1. If that is all you care about, sure. But SplatNet 2 looks legit good to me.

In my 1 star review I said that even if this app was 100% optional and you could do voice chat on the console I would still rate it 1/5 because it's horribly broken. The fact that you cannot have voice chat while your phone screen is off is one of the dumbest decisions I've ever heard of with an app.
 

Chauzu

Member
Yes, this is unique to Nintendo fans and not fanboys in general

I'm surprised there are only 2000 fanboys who bothered to give it 5 stars personally.

In my 1 star review I said that even if this app was 100% optional and you could do voice chat on the console I would still rate it 1/5 because it's horribly broken. The fact that you cannot have voice chat while your phone screen is off is one of the dumbest decisions I've ever heard of with an app.

It sounds like you rated with voice chat heavily in mind then, which is acceptable. Since I am less interested in that, but still recognizes it deserves to pull the score down considerably, I am still more interested in the other feature, thus SplatNet 2. Can't say I disagree with your decision!
 

jts

...hate me...
There is no conspiracy. This is just pure incompetence. After hundreds of hours of research and focus testing, this is the solution that they went with.
Focus testing, LOL. Wouldn't that be nice.

Nintendo does whatever the fuck they want and they don't waste time figuring out what people want. They don't look at how the competitors do anything. It's arrogance, not incompetence.

It's one of those companies that believe people will want whatever they offer, but they just don't know it yet.
 

Synth

Member
Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

I've played many games and used many apps that I would legitimately assign both scores to.

I haven't rated this app as I haven't yet used it (got it downloaded and ready to go though), but if my experience of it is consistent with everything I've been reading about it (and I don't see how it won't be, the functionality is consistent and 100% reproducible), then I can't see why I'd be inclined to even give it 2 stars. 2 stars suggests "below average", and this is seemingly several notches below that.
 
Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

Agreed, but that's the nature of consumer reviews. Products on Amazon, apps on an app store, or even things like customer service experience, anything lower than a 5/5 or 10/10 is flagged, and bad experiences for any reason usually get a 1/10 or 1/5, etc. It's just the nature of review systems with sliding scales. I remember I got some $8 USB wire from Amazon and gave it a 4/5 saying like "It's a functioning wire, good price, pretty solid, material seems kinda brittle, but over all pretty good." And I got an email from the company like 4 hours later which gave me another wire for free to make up for "gross manufacturing defects" or something... I was like "Well.... I think a 4/5 is pretty good but... Ok!"

It's hard to find a review metric less nuanced than traditional videogame reviews, but app store reviews are one of them.

For what it's worth, it makes sense. Apps are usually free (or very low cost), and they're usually meant to do one thing really well, or a small handful of things really well. So the binary review of "Should I download this app or not?" works for that 1 vs 5 binary.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

I don't see bad systemwide implementation of voice chat to be reason to rate the app 1. If that is all you care about, sure. But SplatNet 2 looks legit good to me.



Basically this.

Just curious, whats an honest rating you would give it.

Me? 1-2 seems fair. Just from the fact I even have to use it for voice chat to begin with.

Right now, it needs to be rated a 1 to offset all the 5 ratings. That way the ratings drop faster. So Nintendo or DeNA can see it needs to be fixed.

No way this apps deserves a 5 rating.
 
I'm surprised there are only 2000 fanboys who bothered to give it 5 stars personally.



It sounds like you rated with voice chat heavily in mind then, which is acceptable. Since I am less interested in that, but still recognizes it deserves to pull the score down considerably, I am still more interested in the other feature, thus SplatNet 2. Can't say I disagree with your decision!
I get you, and I care more about SplatNet than voice chat, but the fact that the app is the sole way of using voice chat with Switch games means that voice chat is going to be a huge contribution towards the overall rating of this app.
 

Talamius

Member
Oh, please don't feel like I'm defending the shitstorm that is nintendo voice chat. I'm just not a firm believer that 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews are ever truly accurate for an app or games actual performance.

A voice communications app that does not work with the screen off is fundamentally broken and thus worthy of the 1 star. Even your basic phone app can handle that.
 
I've played many games and used many apps that I would legitimately assign both scores to.

I haven't rated this app as I haven't yet used it (got it downloaded and ready to go though), but if my experience of it is consistent with everything I've been reading about it (and I don't see how it won't be, the functionality is consistent and 100% reproducible), then I can't see why I'd be inclined to even give it 2 stars. 2 stars suggests "below average", and this is seemingly several notches below that.

And that's fair. Just seems silly to me that so many people would vote for something they truly haven't used yet. But that's fine. This app is not the only thing to receive this (earned?) treatment.
 
Just curious, whats an honest rating you would give it.

Me? 1-2 seems fair. Just from the fact I even have to use it for voice chat to begin with.

Right now, it needs to be rated a 1 to offset all the 5 ratings. That way the ratings drop faster. So Nintendo or DeNA can see it needs to be fixed.

No way this apps deserves a 5 rating.

People are rating this a 5?
 

Chauzu

Member
Just curious, whats an honest rating you would give it.

Me? 1-2 seems fair. Just from the fact I even have to use it for voice chat to begin with.

Right now, it needs to be rated a 1 to offset all the 5 ratings. That way the ratings drop faster. So Nintendo or DeNA can see it needs to be fixed.

I dislike to base my ratings by how others rate it. Fanboys will give it 5, and people angry at fanboys will counter 1.

From not using it yet, I'd probs rate it 2. Voice chat implementation needs to drag score down, lack of black screen or minimizing app during voice chat drags it down further. SplatNet 2 seems legit good tho and for me personally it's the biggest draw of the app so giving it a 1 feels wrong to me personally.

I get you, and I care more about SplatNet than voice chat, but the fact that the app is the sole way of using voice chat with Switch games means that voice chat is going to be a huge contribution towards the overall rating of this app.

For sure! Just saying why I personally feel 1 is too low, I respect those who disagree with that and can defo see why.
 
No, the app requires the screen to be always on without a reason to. That alone would make the 1 star reviews deserved.

I get you, and I care more about SplatNet than voice chat, but the fact that the app is the sole way of using voice chat with Switch games means that voice chat is going to be a huge contribution towards the overall rating of this app.

A voice communications app that does not work with the screen off is fundamentally broken and thus worthy of the 1 star. Even your basic phone app can handle that.

Yes, absolutely this. The splatnet features may be fine but they're not the major focus of this app, at least not how it has been advertised or talked about by Nintendo. Voice chat is the most major focus. And when that's so fundamentally broken you cannot justify giving this app anything above a 1/5.

Frankly I wish there was a 0/5.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
In my 1 star review I said that even if this app was 100% optional and you could do voice chat on the console I would still rate it 1/5 because it's horribly broken. The fact that you cannot have voice chat while your phone screen is off is one of the dumbest decisions I've ever heard of with an app.

A voice communications app that does not work with the screen off is fundamentally broken and thus worthy of the 1 star. Even your basic phone app can handle that.

.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Splatnet is nice, but I liked it more the way they did it for the 1st game via website and accessible from everywhere. Even from Wii U if my memory doesn't fail me now.
 
Splatnet is nice, but I liked it more the way they did it for the 1st game via website and accessible from everywhere. Even from Wii U if my memory doesn't fail me now.

From what we can tell Splatnet 2 is just a simple web applet too, so it SHOULD be accessible anywhere. It's again just limited because they want to push this app.
 
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