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[birdchili]

One little complaint about the channel I have is that there's nothing between "Casual" and "Hardcore". I mean, a lot of games are really obvious (like, Contra III vs. Big Brain Academy) but some games don't immediately fit into one category or the other. I mean, what do you classify a timeless classic like Super Mario Bros. or Pac-Man?

it's a bit lame, but they're asking whether you play said game when you're in a hardcore or casual "mood". i sort-of get this: hardcore mood = "i'm going to be doing some gaming now and i don't plan to emerge for several hours. casual mood = "i want to make some stuff explode before i go out for a patio beverage".

also: nintendo is trying to start a war.

 

[Iam Canadian]

Well, even that is a bit hard to define. I mean, I can sit down and beat Super Mario Bros. 3 for a few hours and clear all eight worlds without using a Warp Whistle, or I can beat a level or two before going out and come back to it later.

It's just such a useless division.

 

[Xabora]

Haha!

Wow... back in the suggestions panel for the 360 when they pushed the spring update and were taking suggestions I put an idea for a global game catalog for the 360 interface.




but yay nintendo for actually doing it RIGHT!

 

[jobber]

Hold the power button for a few seconds until the light goes red, or just unplug it, not that hard.

you try doing all this on hour 2 of a 4 hour nap.

not hard........ pssssssh

 

[later]

you try doing all this on hour 2 of a 4 hour nap.

not hard........ pssssssh

Turn the other way in the bed.

 

[JJConrad]

you just don't. that's why i want to see genres there, instead of the meaningless hardcore/casual - whether a genre is hardcore or casual must be left to the user to decide (if they care about such discrimaination at all, that is).

You can already search by genre and why would they want people to choose what genre they think a game is? "Super Mario Galaxy is the best FPS ever!!!" There are hardcore and casual games within every genre. The casual/hardcore option is useful if your looking for a causal RPG, like Pokemon, as opposed to a something like Fire Emblem.

If your having trouble deciding were a game belongs, pick the side that you think it most belongs too. There is no right or wrong answer and if you feel you made a mistake, your vote is diluted by thousands of other people voting the other way.

 

[Morts]

Is there any way to see how highly games have been rated? And why are there only 58 Wii games in the Catalog? I want to recommend Okami and No More Heroes.

I'm probably done with this channel until they add the extra data from the Japanese version of the channel.

 

[Version 3.0]

Stats and charts?! Cool...in a geeky sort of way. Proof that Nintendo hasn't lost touch with their core fans, like me. :lol

Of course, better proof would be to release a storage solution, or unlock SD cards for something useful.

The channel sounds great, though. I only had time to watch one trailer (Boom Blox) before work. Can't wait to get home and check it out.

 

[sublime085]

It's weird, this is making want to go out and get another DS. :lol

 

[birdchili]

it's *not about* whether the game is "hardcore" or "casual" - it's about whether you play it in a hardcore or casual "mood" (yes - this is also a bit lame, as has already been stated).

i rarely play wii sports. when i fire it up i'm going to just tool about for a bit and then do something else (ie: "casual mood"). i have a friend who plays *every day* - he religiously does the fitness test and ranks-up his pro-level (ie: hardcore mood). there are lots of games that can fall into both categories.

 

[botticus]

So if you play a game several times over the course of a day the info will only be recorded once? Then the time collecting feature is pretty worthless for me, since I usually play games in several short periods over the course of a day.

The amount of play will be recorded up to 6 hours, the number of playtimes will be recorded up to one. Basically they only care if you played the game or not that day, not how many times you started and stopped playing.

 

[BooJoh]

For people with random games that you can't rate, I think there's something else going on here.

It allowed me to rate Mario Kart Wii, which I obviously have played recently. It allowed me to rate Super Paper Mario, which I haven't played since around October of last year. It did not, however, allow me to rate Brawl, which I can assure you I've played for well over an hour.

Also on the list of things I could rate were a few VC games and various channels (Mii Channel, Check Mii Out Channel, etc.)

Other than those curious things, I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of this channel just for watching the random videos and trying out DS demos.

BTW, the Nintendo Channel itself is 122 blocks on my system, but the save data for the Nintendo Channel is an additional 126 at the moment. I'm starting to get antsy over the thought of deleting stuff for WiiWare next week.

 

[Nicktals]

I understand the purpose of a lot of information that they're collecting, but I can't see what they're going to do with data on slot illumination or Wiimote volume. >_>

Information for future revisions perhaps? If only 2% of people have their Wiimote volume on full blast, they might lower the max for future revisions...

Slot illumination...maybe energy usage? I'm not sure.

 

[Nicktals]

For people with random games that you can't rate, I think there's something else going on here.

It allowed me to rate Mario Kart Wii, which I obviously have played recently. It allowed me to rate Super Paper Mario, which I haven't played since around October of last year. It did not, however, allow me to rate Brawl, which I can assure you I've played for well over an hour.

Also on the list of things I could rate were a few VC games and various channels (Mii Channel, Check Mii Out Channel, etc.)

Other than those curious things, I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of this channel just for watching the random videos and trying out DS demos.

BTW, the Nintendo Channel itself is 122 blocks on my system, but the save data for the Nintendo Channel is an additional 126 at the moment. I'm starting to get antsy over the thought of deleting stuff for WiiWare next week.

Weird...I rated Brawl. Did you move the file from system to SD, perhaps?

 

[Threi]

the GUI of this channel should really be what the GUI of the Wii Menu looks like...

 

[Deku]

Yes, this is true. It seems kind of odd that you'd have to consent to system usage tracking in order to play the demos, as if it were a trade. It's all marketing material to begin with.

Then again, I thought this information was already being tracked.

Nintendo is just covering their asses. We're too cynical to think that we aren't being tracked for downloading demos, considering the Microsofts of this world probably do and everyone implicitly understands this.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Information for future revisions perhaps? If only 2% of people have their Wiimote volume on full blast, they might lower the max for future revisions...

Slot illumination...maybe energy usage? I'm not sure.

Could be to set standards on the Wii. Next time they ship Wii Remotes, they might just set the standard volume to "2" instead of whatever it is now if they find "2" is the most commonly selected volume. Makes sense to me, and probably would take very little time on their end to adjust. I doubt they'd actually change the hardware, such as limiting the max.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

cool, thanks! dl'n it now

 

[swerve]

the GUI of this channel should really be what the GUI of the Wii Menu looks like...

100% agreed. Replete with musical notes as you move over the different movies on the title screen.

And I *love* how the movies enlarge/shrink in loads of cute different ways.

 

[rdaneel72]

Hold on. They're asking for this information and allowing you to say no, and you are *complaining*? Do you not see how mind-numbingly ludicrous your complaint is?

My complaint, and it's not even really my complaint, is that if you opt out of sharing your data, it sounds like you can't access the DS demo downloads. Again, I won't be able to explore the reality of this situation until I get home from work tonight, but withholding content from those who opt out of data sharing seems like a dick move.

 

[BooJoh]

Weird...I rated Brawl. Did you move the file from system to SD, perhaps?

I don't even own an SD card, so no.

 

[tim1138]

My complaint, and it's not even really my complaint, is that if you opt out of sharing your data, it sounds like you can't access the DS demo downloads. Again, I won't be able to explore the reality of this situation until I get home from work tonight, but withholding content from those who opt out of data sharing seems like a dick move.

To play devil's advocate what do you gain by opting out?

 

[DDayton]

My complaint, and it's not even really my complaint, is that if you opt out of sharing your data, it sounds like you can't access the DS demo downloads.

...the flip side of that is that Nintendo is providing you with a bonus if you DO opt to share data.

 

[KevinCow]

Heh, this is pretty cool. But I can't figure out how to look at what other people think of games. They disappear from my list when I vote on them, and when I search for them and look at them there it doesn't show what they showed in the little introduction video thing.

 

[Bizzyb]

123 blocks? That's over 15 MB (or 6% of the Wii's usable space)

Holy shit Nintendo, optimize this stuff!!!

Who are you telling?? I only have 36 blocks left after that damn MK channel install and then Smash Bros took up some ridiculous amount of space.

WTF is Nintendo's problem with proper storage solutions!??

 

[swerve]

Heh, this is pretty cool. But I can't figure out how to look at what other people think of games. They disappear from my list when I vote on them, and when I search for them and look at them there it doesn't show what they showed in the little introduction video thing.

Takes at least a week to get enough data. After Japan launch it was a month or two before the charts and playtime stuff turned up.

 

[blu]

You can already search by genre and why would they want people to choose what genre they think a game is? "Super Mario Galaxy is the best FPS ever!!!" There are hardcore and casual games within every genre. The casual/hardcore option is useful if your looking for a causal RPG, like Pokemon, as opposed to a something like Fire Emblem.

because with the casual/hardcore division you introduce a criterion nobody has ever tried to 'quantize', whereas with genres you, as a rating idividual, can at least check what genre a game has been established to belong to if you really cared. but i'd be ok with the current scheme if i could specify in my searches that i don't care about the 'casual/hardcore' attribute. so can i (a genuine question, i have not seen the channel yet) search for recommended titles from a particular genre, disregarding any casual/hardcore nonsense?

If your having trouble deciding were a game belongs, pick the side that you think it most belongs too. There is no right or wrong answer and if you feel you made a mistake, your vote is diluted by thousands of other people voting the other way.

what's the point in a search criterion that has zero deterministic result, e.g. half the population thinks pokemon is casual, the other half - not. same with other dubious discriminants like 'hard/easy', 'more involved/less involved', etc.

 

[DefectiveReject]

Who are you telling?? I only have 36 blocks left after that damn MK channel install and then Smash Bros took up some ridiculous amount of space.

WTF is Nintendo's problem with proper storage solutions!??

i now FULLY 100% understand Nintendo's stance on storage now.......

It's obvious (Iwata: (Laughs))

You want to have a MKWii Channel? & a SSBB Channel? & WiiWare and VC games??
Buy another Wii.

If you've run out of space have multiple Wii's guys to handle our many services. One for each service maybe......
Iwata: (laughs)
All : (Laughs)
Miyamoto : I'm too busy making Pikmin 3, but put me down for a (Laugh) would ya?

 

[swerve]

Who are you telling?? I only have 36 blocks left after that damn MK channel install and then Smash Bros took up some ridiculous amount of space.

WTF is Nintendo's problem with proper storage solutions!??

I have MK channel, WiiFit (96 blocks), Internet channel (240 or so), Everyone's Nintendo, Weather, News, Mii Contest channel, Everyone votes channel, Star Soldier R WiiWare, Dr. Mario WiiWare, Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World on my Wii with plenty of spare room.

I've given up and deleted my 40 or so VC games, and I re-download them when I want them (which is often quicker than an SD card copy). It's actually, for me at least, quite acceptable.

I think (and I'm not accusing you of this) that a lot of people are bothered 'conceptually' rather than in practice, because we all got it in our heads that the Wii would house all these games at any one time when it was announced. And that's not what it's for.

Yet, at least.

 

[later]

Been following the homebrew thread, isn't it true that they have this 4MB library included in each channel for interfacing with the interweb?

WITH EACH CHANNEL....

And then they have a presentation about compression of channels/vc games as a solution for the storage problem

HAAH

 

[birdchili]

what's the point in a search criterion that has zero deterministic result, e.g. half the population thinks pokemon is casual, the other half - not. same with other dubious discriminants like 'hard/easy', 'more involved/less involved', etc.

if you (for example), play Endless Ocean when you're in a "hardcore" mood, the system would correlate your tastes with others who thought the same, rather than to those who play it when in a "casual" mood? it's for the "recommend a game" features, surely.

 

[Vinci]

I've given up and deleted my 40 or so VC games, and I re-download them when I want them (which is often quicker than an SD card copy). It's actually, for me at least, quite acceptable.

I think I tried the SD Card shuffle for all of two hours before I just said, "Fuck it," and went the re-download route. Much, much better IMO. Not better than having a hard-drive, but certainly not a gamebreaker.

 

[WindyMan]

I think I tried the SD Card shuffle for all of two hours before I just said, "Fuck it," and went the re-download route. Much, much better IMO. Not better than having a hard-drive, but certainly not a gamebreaker.

I don't mind redownloading games, except for two things:

1) It's extremely tedious to need to delete a VC game from memory once you realize you need to free up more space. Once the Shop Channel prompts you that you need more free memory, you need to go back to the Wii Menu, make a half-dozen or so clicks to go into the system memory, decide which game you want to delete, and then delete it. Oops! You accidentally deleted the save game data and not the actual channel! (The interface is confusing for the average Joe, is what I'm saying.)

2) The games you usually wind up deleting from the console are the big N64 or Turbo CD games. These free up a ton of space, but they also take forever to re-download or transfer to an SD card. It's very inconvenient to go back through the Shop Channel and take the time to download those big games again, since that means you'd need to free up more space AND wait a while to download it again. Lame.

 

[BuddhaRockstar]

I don't mind redownloading games, except for two things:

1) It's extremely tedious to need to delete a VC game from memory once you realize you need to free up more space. Once the Shop Channel prompts you that you need more free memory, you need to go back to the Wii Menu, make a half-dozen or so clicks to go into the system memory, decide which game you want to delete, and then delete it. Oops! You accidentally deleted the save game data and not the actual channel! (The interface is confusing for the average Joe, is what I'm saying.)

2) The games you usually wind up deleting from the console are the big N64 or Turbo CD games. These free up a ton of space, but they also take forever to re-download or transfer to an SD card. It's very inconvenient to go back through the Shop Channel and take the time to download those big games again, since that means you'd need to free up more space AND wait a while to download it again. Lame.

What would be really awesome is making it so even if you delete a game, a channel still remains for it, allowing you to redownload it at the press of a button. Also, when you have a game, they could include a small "delete" button somewhere too so you can delete it quickly. I have no problem redownloading stuff, I just wish they'd make it quicker.

 

[Vinci]

I don't mind redownloading games, except for two things:

1) It's extremely tedious to need to delete a VC game from memory once you realize you need to free up more space. Once the Shop Channel prompts you that you need more free memory, you need to go back to the Wii Menu, make a half-dozen or so clicks to go into the system memory, decide which game you want to delete, and then delete it. Oops! You accidentally deleted the save game data and not the actual channel! (The interface is confusing for the average Joe, is what I'm saying.)

2) The games you usually wind up deleting from the console are the big N64 or Turbo CD games. These free up a ton of space, but they also take forever to re-download or transfer to an SD card. It's very inconvenient to go back through the Shop Channel and take the time to download those big games again, since that means you'd need to free up more space AND wait a while to download it again. Lame.

Oh, I'm not saying everything's peachy-keen. Just that I found the SD card business to not be remarkably better, so I felt it wasn't worth the bother. Besides, I start deleting VC games the moment I notice I haven't played them in a couple of weeks. If I get the urge, yeah, sure, I'll go get them again -- but I don't simply do it when I'm told I don't have the memory for something.

 

[swerve]

Yeah, I'm exactly the same, Vinci. Once I made the mental switch that it's not for storage, it's just for playing when I want them, it all made a lot more sense.

I've said before on here, but what they need is a channel that lists all the things you've downloaded and lets you initiate the re-download without visiting the store. Or making the store quicker.

 

[Vinci]

Yeah, I'm exactly the same, Vinci. Once I made the mental switch that it's not for storage, it's just for playing when I want them, it all made a lot more sense.

I've said before on here, but what they need is a channel that lists all the things you've downloaded and lets you initiate the re-download without visiting the store. Or making the store quicker.

YES

 

[WindyMan]

On making the store quicker: Just search for VC games through the Nintendo Channel. When you find the game you want you can just click on the button and jump straight to it on the Shop Channel. That's what I've been doing with my Japanese Wii.

 

[Vinci]

On making the store quicker: Just search for VC games through the Nintendo Channel. When you find the game you want you can just click on the button and jump straight to it on the Shop Channel. That's what I've been doing with my Japanese Wii.

I noticed earlier comments about that and it sounds exactly like what I'm going to do. The Wii Shop could use a good facelift though, all the same.

 

[Teknoman]

the GUI of this channel should really be what the GUI of the Wii Menu looks like...

Really, because the current one is just too...bare. Nintendo should do an overhaul of both the channel and the wii shop.

 

[Stumpokapow]

On making the store quicker: Just search for VC games through the Nintendo Channel. When you find the game you want you can just click on the button and jump straight to it on the Shop Channel. That's what I've been doing with my Japanese Wii.

this sort of "coping mechanism" is an absolutely failure on nintendo's part. no piece of software should ever be designed in such a way that a hack or alternate route is more efficient or faster than the intended method of access to a function.

i deal with this professionally a great deal. users, frustrated with a lack of functionality or a lack of ease of use of functionality, come up with bizarre and longwinded ways of doing things that sabotages efficiency a good deal.

example: a hypothetical data entry clerk is responsible for saving an excel file as tab separated data and feeding it into a mysql database. the excel file has an extra column that developers were not aware of.

optimal solution: data entry clerk learns to delete the column in excel, does job as intended.
actual solution: data entry clerk feeds malformed data into mysql and manually edits hundreds of entries to correct for the extra column of data being inserted.

your product or your user training has failed if someone adopts a strategy like this. it's also a matter of some urgency because if your userbase comes to accept alternate techniques for getting things done, system optimization could end up null and void (ie server allocations for nintendo channel vs shop channel), retraining users to the correct way of doing things will take longer, and users will be less able to share experience with other users as different users have different use pathways.

bad news bears

 

[jaydogg691]

I just got the news about the channel and I'm downloading as I type. I was just wondering if it's downloading slow for anyone else. Anyways, I can't wait to see what's in store.

 

[perfectchaos007]

I have tried over 20 times today to get into the Wii Shop channel. No luck. I hate nintendos online. Smash brothers is lagged as hell online, and i can't even get into Shop Channel. THis is fucking ridiculous.

 

[BooJoh]

Weird...I rated Brawl. Did you move the file from system to SD, perhaps?

This is actually more confusing now. I loaded up Brawl and let the CPUs go at it for an hour so my message board would say I had played it for over an hour today. After doing this, still no option to rate it in the Nintendo Channel. Out of curiosity, I did a search on the Nintendo Channel, and Brawl is not on the list at all, whether searching for "brawl" or listing all Nintendo-published Wii titles (it showed 19 games total.) In addition, the one Brawl video on the main videos list doesn't have an "Information" link. Are you sure you rated Brawl?

 

[Deku]

I urged them to include at least a 1GB internal flash to no avail. Wii/Revolution was proposed and specs leaked when the iPod Nano went on sale in late 05 and in large part to Nanos, 1 GB flash chips enjoyed great economies of scale due to the demand Apple created. There was no reason from a cost perspective that they couldn't have included it.

Where I detract from the masses is that rather than accuse them of being frugal profiteers nickle and diming the consumer, they simply didn't anticipate the services they would later add onto the Wii. Things like the Mii channel and Internet channel may not have even existed when specs were finalized. This is where Nintendo's philosophy as a software centric company may have worked against it. They designed the hardware with a very specific software driven experience in mind but did not fully anticipate the limations of some of their design choices.

 

[Alphahawk]

I wish I had a Dragon Sword demo maybe it would of kept me from buying the actual game...

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

This is actually more confusing now. I loaded up Brawl and let the CPUs go at it for an hour so my message board would say I had played it for over an hour today. After doing this, still no option to rate it in the Nintendo Channel. Out of curiosity, I did a search on the Nintendo Channel, and Brawl is not on the list at all, whether searching for "brawl" or listing all Nintendo-published Wii titles (it showed 19 games total.) In addition, the one Brawl video on the main videos list doesn't have an "Information" link. Are you sure you rated Brawl?

I rated Brawl just fine as well.

 

[Narag]

I wish I had a Dragon Sword demo maybe it would of kept me from buying the actual game...

Its been available for months at DS download stations at retailers.

 

[perfectchaos007]

Sweet! After about 30 tries I finally got into the Wii Shop channel. Everytime I try to get on the shop channel I feel like I'm dialing into a radio contest with only a prayer to get through.

 

[Mejilan]

Checked it out first thing in the AM, and it seems DAMN slick. Didn't get much of a chance to play around with it, but I was late to work by 10 mins because of it.

Now I'm too busy playing with Boom Blox to bother, but I am surprised at how awesome it turned out. It and the Mario Kart Wii Channel really impressed me.