Wellington said:
Show me one person who said this.. I love online gaming. I just said that there hasn't been one game released for the Gamecube where I said "Wow, this game sucks because it doesn't have online in it." I mean there are certainly games I WISH would have had online, but as I said earlier, I am a glass half full kind of guy. Online definitely makes a game better, but not having it doesn't make it worse, IMHO at least.
I think it's sad and pathetic that NO console this generation has innovated anything in the industry... PS2, same as last gen except that they went online a year after sega did. XBox, same thing as PS2. It came with a hard drive but really that isn't as much an innovation than just a logical step forward. To be fair actually, I think the only one who did come close to innovating was Nintendo with the GBA link. Unfortunately the feature was HIGHLY underutilized and thus ended up being DOA for the most part.
Hmmm.... Yes it is lame that they didn't support it. Even lamer is that the 3rd parties didn't support it. But at the end it all ends up being the same thing.
You obviously miss the point of my argument. My point was targetting a number of people in this thread (though not necessarily you) who are insinuating that the GCN was a failure because it didn't go online. My other point was that not going online was HARDLY an objectively bad decision. Arguably Sony's and Microsoft's positions didn't change from going online and Nintendo's didn't change from staying offline. If Nintendo was in first place and didn't go online and as a result dropped to second or third, you could say objectively that not going online was a bad decision. If Microsoft was in third place and jumped up to second place after Live you could definitely say that going online helped them. But the fact is that in America, MS was second before Live and second after Live. Worldwide Nintendo was second before Live and second after Live. Online STILL isn't enough of a dealbreaker that it affects the overall picture. YET.
I DO think that IF Nintendo were to keep Revolution offline at launch and the other two go online at launch that it definitely will hurt them. THAT I believe would be a poor decision. But this generation as it stands it has yet to affect them. In that respect, you can't call it an objectively bad decision.
me too, me too, but I wouldn't rate madden lower without them.
I think most Nboys go about it the wrong way. They say "I don't care about online" or some such. I honestly believe what they mean (just because it's what I mean) is that Nintendo's games that have been released, even the ones which would certainly benefit from being online, are still great games. Mario Golf, Mario Kart, F-Zero, SSB:M, etc. They are all still great games. We are not saying that we don't want them online, just that we still love them even though they are offline. There is a subtle difference but it's there.
As for the DS going online, that has nothing to do with GCN being online or not, at least for me. The fact of the matter is that when I'm playing multiplayer games at home I usually have PLENTY of friends over. Friends (for me) are not in short supply. To be honest, yes this means for me that online gaming is less important than it may be to someone else. About the only advantage online gaming holds for me is no split screen in those games.
But for handheld gaming, that changes everything. Normally I am NOT around someone else for handheld gaming. And if I am around someone else, the chances of them having their handheld is probably unlikely as well. Online gaming means I can pick up a handheld game that I'm only playing for 10 minutes or so and play with whoever. Think about this (and man does this excite me). You are standing in line for Episode III. There are probably 300 other people in line as well. You boot up Metroid Hunters and find out there are 40+ other available metroid gamers in line. Jump into a game with 4-8 of them and you're set. As I said, MUCH more limitless options than bringing a console online. That could be part of the reason that people who weren't greatly phased by the GCN not going online are excited about this. Online console gaming has NOTHING to do with online handheld gaming.