"Splatbot!"
IGN: Splatoon's lack of voice chat is "cheap and lazy"
- Thread starter Oddduck
- Start date
"Splatbot!"
Not sure how you can tell whether they considered it or not.
Worried about the amount of apologists on this thread though. Understand you like your game - but to deny the impact of such decisions is mind boggling.
I chat with friends while playing my PS4 almost daily.
Iorv3th
Member
And why are all these other companies not covering their asses and allowing voice chat?
I don't even get why anyone WOULD defend it. If you don't like voice chat, guess what? Most voice chat multiplayer games allow you to turn the voice chat off. Wow, options, amazing... and you don't even have to bow to Nintendo's self-evidently absurd reasons for avoiding a basic multiplayer gaming feature set! What you do by going the route Nintendo did was isolate loads of legitimate multiplayer gamers and limit your potential community in the name of whatever stupid dumb fuck reason they decided once again to avoid voice chat, and an ever shrinking segment of the multiplayer base.
Bottom screen is already displaying an interactive map and icons to where your team is so you can super jump to them at anytime and see how much you or the other team is dominating. There's really no room for a soundboard. Taunts to tell other players what you're doing or if you're in trouble are mapped to the D-pad.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
As somebody who absolutely never voicechats with randoms because of numerous bad experiences, I think Nintendo should have at least given the option to turn it on/off.
It really makes no sense as to why it wasn't included.
It really makes no sense as to why it wasn't included.
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Yep, agreed.
It'll be interesting to see what online will be like in a few months after launch. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was on life support.
Hmm last time I voice chatted with randoms it was ass creed 4 multiplayer when it came out. I remember not even bothering to talk to anyone. Frankly splatoon doesn't need it at all. Im still playing smash 4 and mk8 online and smash while it does have a small voice chat option, When I play with friends online, I never even used it.
NHarmonic.
Member
The defense force is in full action?
There's no way you can actually defend this design choice. Make it default OFF, with parental controls to activate it or some shit, but having no option is just stupid.
There's no way you can actually defend this design choice. Make it default OFF, with parental controls to activate it or some shit, but having no option is just stupid.
What about people that want to play and chat with friends?
Call of Duty games on Wii U still see quite a deal of activity in spite of terrible sales numbers which Splatoon should easily be able to outdo. Heck, most Wii games back in the day had active online all the way up until the closure of WFC in spite of their terrible quality.
The fact that Splatoon is getting continuous free post-launch support and that the game play has been universally well received both through extensive preview events and the testfire event makes me think that the possibility of it being on life-support only months after release is incredibly unlikely. If it is, it won't be because of the lack of voice chat. Online games on Nintendo tend to have surprisingly strong legs.
I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say that most of the people whining that online multiplayer is filled with nothing but racists and sexists haven't actually played very many games online. I've had a lot of positive experiences talking to complete strangers in games of Halo and Left 4 Dead. Even made some good friends from it. And on the off chance that you do find an asshole online, that's why there's a wondrous little invention called the mute button you can use.
So it shouldn't be an option that people just don't use if they don't want to?
This never makes any sense to me?
Since when in the entire history of humanity has punishing/restricting/banashing technology worked out just because it can and is used for bad by x number of people (and certainly not all)?
Might as well remove internet at that point. People can disconnect from smash fights if they are losing or mario kart, its happened before so why not?
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
But getting Nintendo to include voicechat would be the first step. We'd most likely have to wait 2 more years for a mute button.
Hibiki Kurosawa
Member
Honestly, the most reasonable solution for Nintendo seems to be having voice chat be default off and whoever wants it can turn it on. It would probably lead to not many people realizing the feature exists and turning it on, but at least it would be there, right?
GhostTrick
Banned
I know what you mean, I have younger brothers and sisters and I wouldn't let them play with voice chat. That's why I specifically said for friend list.
Play with my friends local ? I don't remember Splatoon being playable local on 4 vs 4.
I think people are ignoring that children will be playing this, and they are a targeted demographic (have you seen the advertising?)
A child not being told to go fuck themselves is more important than the convenience of friends having to go onto Skype to chat. For every cool random person you find a far greater number of assholes.
A child not being told to go fuck themselves is more important than the convenience of friends having to go onto Skype to chat. For every cool random person you find a far greater number of assholes.
Darkangel
Member
Glad to see Nintendo is still stuck in the online stone age. Parental controls? No way!
For the people who actually defend this, you realize there is a thing called "mute" right? "I don't use voice chat, better remove it for everyone else! Who would want to talk to their friends/teammates anyway?"
It's not cheap and lazy, it's just plain dumb.
For the people who actually defend this, you realize there is a thing called "mute" right? "I don't use voice chat, better remove it for everyone else! Who would want to talk to their friends/teammates anyway?"
It's not cheap and lazy, it's just plain dumb.
As stated numerous times before, have the global mute button on by default and locked behind parental controls. Problem solved.
Deadpool_X
Banned
Monster Hunter 3U
Woo-Fu
Banned
Sure you can. The "lazy" route is no voice chat at all. The "non-lazy" route is full-featured voicechat with parental controls, flexible mute options, party chat, team chat, all chat, and easy mute functions for any/all players.
One of these is no work at all. One of them is a lot of work. Hence the lazy accusations, although lazy isn't really correct as I'm sure the grunts are still working hard, just on other things. It is lazy at the policy/decision-making level.
It really is a terrible argument and I'm surprised to see it repeated so often in this thread. GAF pls.
I've stated it myself. There are other ways but I think voice chatting with a seperate device (which we all have) is one of them.
But I understand Nintendo not leaving the opportunity for a game rated for 7 year olds to allow negative adult discourse.
balladofwindfishes
Member
A mute button isn't a good solution to voice chat harassment. It's an accepted one, but it's actually a pretty poor solution.
1. It requires the victim to be harassed to be effective
2. It provides no feedback to the harasser that they need to calm down
And this isn't even Nintendo that explained these faults of the mute button, it was Valve, a company that has a long and important history in online multiplayer. Valve solved this issue with a pre-emptive mute system based on reports, but haven't quite worked out the first issue too well.
Since Splatoon is a family oriented game (probably more slanted towards kids), they want to avoid the first issue all together. They can't have a game that is infamous for its toxic online community.
And even so, I think you're kind of exaggerated a bit with how many players even use voice chat. You can play, like, 10 games of TF2 and find 2 people talking on the mic between those games, one of which is a jerk and you need to mute him anyway. So it's really not as deal breaking as you imply.
You'd be surprised the number of people who never change default options. Voice chat would essentially be non-existant with it turned off by default.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Doesn't smash bro's have voice chat?
privitsan02
Member
/hadvoicechat
In Nintendo's bubble, it is. Or maybe 2005-2006.
Finally someone debunking this stupid myth.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
Bullshit. So what if your kids don't need voice chat? If Nintendo just made it an OS level feature, as a responsible parent, you could just turn the feature off via Parental settings. That way, you can keep both parties happy.
Justifying Nintendo's lack of willingness to give Wii U owners choice in whether they want industry standard features in their multiplayer just because you have a couple of kids is ridiculous.
Pre-fight chat with friends. Omitted from the main game in order to "maintain connection stability".
With Splatoon they outright mentioned it wouldn't be in but I would hope that future friend matchmaking at least put it in (if they're omitting voice chat from randoms it wouldn't make much sense to include it between friends even if they jump in since that generally gives you an obvious advantage where-as friends vs friends has much more of a precedence).
Moments before fights only like the character select screen. No real time to even chat.
Pre and post game with friends, as I'm aware.
In any case online shooters are uniquely toxic environments and this will be the introduction to the genre for many young children (at least those who would most be affected by harassment and language online). I understand Nintendo eliminating the chance of any misconduct.
privitsan02
Member
I don't find the lack of voice chat "cheap and lazy". At least they have a reason to do so, with many cases of pedophiles stalking kids through Street Pass and through other creepy means, (from what I've heard). Nintendo would rather have backlash from the community than have backlash from society as a whole for not preventing it in the future. Especially considering how they are a family friendly corporation.
The other missing features though... Regardless, I do think party chat had to be a needed compensation.
Best wishes.
The other missing features though... Regardless, I do think party chat had to be a needed compensation.
Best wishes.
John Kowalski
Banned
I love it when Ninty does these really weird things.
I have a hard time believing they aren't doing it because of laziness though.
I have a hard time believing they aren't doing it because of laziness though.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
If they want to target kids so heavily, I guess that's just another reminder why the company isn't interested in me or my money. I want voice chat to talk to at least talk to friends. That shouldn't be so hard.
There's a few flaws with using a separate device. First of all, that device may not have enough juice for extended play. Secondly, you can't chat with randoms. Thirdly, you would have to request your friend's(more specifically friends you met on the internet) skype account in order to set up a party if you don't already have it and some of them might not be willing to divulge that info to people they don't know personally.
Moreover, Splatoon is rated E(10+) and not fit for 7 year olds anyway. Chances are they won't even know how to set up an account and since the parents are the ones who create the account, they should be aware of parental settings as well.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Using the snide remark "cheap and lazy" is dumb, channeling the typical gamer whining that every design decision they don't like or understand is "lazy".
But there's still no defending Nintendo especially on the grounds that they've already begun putting friends room voice chat in their other first-party online games. This isn't laziness; it's the producer of Splatoon having an isolated attitude from not just online gaming, but other teams at Nintendo.
The entire issue though is exacerbated by Nintendo having made the same fatal mistake Sony made with the PS3: they did not engineer in the overhead for Wii U to add party voice chat after launch. This is why voice chat is still on a game-by-game basis on Wii U. A friends-only cross game party chat system would have solved the basic communications problem on the system.
But there's still no defending Nintendo especially on the grounds that they've already begun putting friends room voice chat in their other first-party online games. This isn't laziness; it's the producer of Splatoon having an isolated attitude from not just online gaming, but other teams at Nintendo.
The entire issue though is exacerbated by Nintendo having made the same fatal mistake Sony made with the PS3: they did not engineer in the overhead for Wii U to add party voice chat after launch. This is why voice chat is still on a game-by-game basis on Wii U. A friends-only cross game party chat system would have solved the basic communications problem on the system.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Disney has been able to successfully diversify because they aren't constantly beating you over the head with the idea that they are the Mickey Mouse guys.
Disney has added Pirates, Frozen/Tangled/Wreck-it-Ralph, Star Wars, Marvel, live action adaptations of their animated classics, and everything Pixar to their blockbuster IP and and they've made several other attempts with Prince of Persia, The Lone Ranger, and John Carter.
This chart says it best:
Disney doesn't even make 2D animation anymore. Their biggest videogame property of the year will be either be Star Wars Battlefront, a FPS/TPS, or Disney Infinity, which is a fanservice mashup of ALL of their IP.
If Disney said something as ridiculous as "We're not going to allow stabby sword-fights in Pirates 5 because we think the Finding Dory crowd will get squeamish" that would seem ridiculous right? That's what Nintendo sounds like when they proactively censor the online userbase of their first flagship shooter in 15 years.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Fourthly, it's just a plain hassle to have to have another device set up on the side. Fifthly the audio won't be integrated/overlaid onto the game, so many will have to choose between hearing the game or hearing their friends chat.
Yup. The diversification of properties and demographics is something Nintendo could do a lot to learn from.
They could make it so you can only talk to friends. That would be good for the kids and everyone wins.
Triplicates
Member
Yeah, it's a very regrettable decision. I could overlook the omission in Wii games but now that the Wii U is technologically capable out of the box, not having voice chat is downright obtuse, especially for this kind of game.
Sorry if I missed a post on it, but I wonder about the bandwidth as well.
The testfire wasn't perfect for all, with occasional lag at times, and disconnections at others, but the majority of my experience was really slick online. A number of people in the demo thread commented that it felt like they were playing local multi-player it was so good.
Could the decision to not have voice-chat have allowed them to improve the net-code because they didn't have to leave an overhead for chat? Which obviously wouldn't be something that they'd want to undo.
Don't know if I'd say cheap and lazy since they did it on purpose because "won't anyone think of the children?!", but it's BS either way.
I can, especially when it's a game from a beloved company.
I can, especially when it's a game from a beloved company.
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
The only times I've used my mic with randos was when I played SOCOM. I never use a mic unless I'm playing with friends otherwise.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Remember when they packaged a cheap, barely function toy robot with the NES to try and sell it as a toy?
Nintendo has always targeted kids with their games, but made their games in a way that everyone can enjoy if they want.
It's just over time, as technology got better and there were more advanced options and stuff, the gap between what adult gamers expect in a game versus what's appropriate for a children's game widened.