"Check Mii Out" and Nintendo's Strategy

[rock_nog]

Okay, so in case people haven't heard, there's a new channel coming out tonight, "Check Mii Out," which allows people to share their Miis, vote on Miis, participate in contests, etc. Personally, I think it sounds great, because it actually gives people something to do with their Miis, and I've always wanted to be able to check out random people's Miis. Plus, I'm oh-so-close to finishing my "Deep Space 9" Mii collection, and I'd love to share it with the world.

Anyway, the thing is, I thought this would be an excellent time to discuss Nintendo's strategy with regards to these channels. Some have thought that channels such as this are a waste of time. That's kind of a personal opinion, but whatever. My thinking is, where was this when the Wii came out? And what about the other channels currently in the works? You've got the upcoming demo channel which will allow you to download DS demos and video previews, and you've got the TV guide channel, that I know of. However, I don't think either of those is coming soon - it may be yet another few months before we see another channel.

Personally, I think these channels are great, and together, they begin to create a cohesive experience which is what I think they were aiming for when they created the Wii. You know, you can check the news, see the weather, find out what's on TV... Create Miis, share Miis, etc. However, I really feel that all of these channels should have been included at launch. I don't really understand why Nintendo is doing this. I think, as popular as the Wii is anyway, and I dunno, maybe they knew they were gonna be popular and so didn't worry about this, but they could've created such a stronger first impression if they had really worked to flesh out these ideas like channels and Wiiware before launch.

Incidently, this is minor, but I would've like to see something more done with the Wii message board. Like, for instance, a collective message board that Wii owners could post messages to, upload pictures and Miis, etc., to create a real Wii community. Granted, I know that'd never happen, because as I've said before, Nintendo has a real issue with not wanting the Wii to feature prominently on the next Chris Hansen, but still, it's a thought.

[MasterSwordUltima]

Actually, I think Miis are super important. Nothing more satisfying than me beating Einstein in an arm wrestling match in WarioWare Smooth Moves.

Check Mii Out...meh. Sounds like it'll start off good, but then nobody'll really give a damn, kinda like voting. I'm surprised they haven't run out of questions. But then again, there are limitless This-Or-That questions for them to come up with [I just wish some pertained to possible video games]

TV Guide Channel? Thats...thats already an actual channel. Sounds neat though. I wonder if it'll work with the satellite TV here.

Demo Channel sounds fucking glorious. Actually, if they put out demos for up coming games [oh dear god, please put out Brawl] for download, that would be pretty bitchin' too. However I can see memory getting used up way quick. DS Demos would be really nice. I hope it's not just a one-time thing per demo. It'd be cool if you could download the demos you want kinda like how the Shopping Channel is now...ya know? [shrug]

MESSAGE BOARD...had better get a fucking wallpaper option soon. Good god it had better. Also, the only games that I know of that utilize the message board are Wii Sports and Animal Crossing [through screenshots]. Hmm...oh wait, doesn't Met Prime 3 post pictures?

[Warlock]

I really dislike how they handled this channel. Initials? Seriously? You can't even tell who some of the Miis are supposed to be now because they are not named. That's just dumb.

The best-rated ones are all really obvious ones, like Mario or Batman, where they look really distinct.

[rock_nog]

I was wondering how they were gonna deal with people putting in naughty words for names. I think the system works okay, though. Actually, I'm impressed how many of the Miis are instantly recognizable, even without names.

At any rate, I'm happy with it so far... Just wondering where this was when the Wii launched, and everyone was still really excited about Miis. To me, it seems like Nintendo came up with this great idea, but then didn't really do anything with it. A couple of first party titles made use of them, and there was the voting channel, and that's all there was for the longest time. Can't believe how long it took 'em just to let us share our Miis online.

I also can't believe it won't be until Spring that we get the TV guide channel (if I remember correctly). That actually sounds useful to me (our cable doesn't have a TV guide channel), especially if it comes with the ability to send reminders to your message board or something for when a show you want to watch is on.

I dunno... Just bugs me that Nintendo's basically got the components for a really great user experience outside of just playing games, but they haven't assembled it yet.

[Warlock]

You know, I was thinking.. even if they want to keep the initial thing, why not have better categories? The "skills" or "interests" (or whatever) is dumb.

They need specific categories and sub-categories. For example:

Video Games
-Mario Series
-Zelda Series
-Platformers
-RPGs
-Shooters
etc

Television
-Animated
-Comedy
-Drama
-Reality
etc

Movies
(similar to TV)

Music
-Country
-Pop
-Rock
-Rap
etc

And so forth. That way if I wanted to find, say, a Peter Griffin Mii, I'd know to look under "Television - Comedy" or "Television - Animated". Or the very neat Jack Black Mii I saw on there (*only* because it was one of the top 50 last night) would go under "Music - Rock".

But right now, say I want to find a Ganondorf Mii. Good luck. The best I'd be able to do is "Male" under "Fighting".. uhh yeah, there are a bazillion of them there.

Maybe even give a way for people to send category suggestions to Nintendo - though honestly I know a lot of people have really idiotic ideas so they may not want to sort through that.

[War Lord]

Nintendo needs to stop worrying about more channels and get a decent online strategy going. The only thing great is the VC and even that isn't super awesome.
I don't need my Wii to check the weather, or vote on stuff. I want to play games, online with other people. I don't want to use friend codes either. I want a username.

[AlexMax]

Nintendo needs to stop worrying about more channels and get a decent online strategy going. The only thing great is the VC and even that isn't super awesome.
I don't need my Wii to check the weather, or vote on stuff. I want to play games, online with other people. I don't want to use friend codes either. I want a username.

ONLINE PREDATORS COULD USE THIS INFORMATION TO TRACK YOU DOWN ONLINE, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

ALSO YOU ARE BROADCASTING AN IP ADDRESS AT THIS VERY MOMENT HOLY SHIT!

Pretty much. Also, I've heard around the grapevine that Nintendo seems to be deliberately making their online component hard to get information for, or at least that's how it was pre-Mario Strikers.

[Icey]

Also, I've heard around the grapevine that Nintendo seems to be deliberately making their online component hard to get information for, or at least that's how it was pre-Mario Strikers.

Seems this is still the case. If you look at Brawl's online limitations, they really don't make sense except as some kind of child safety measure. For example, when you play a random online match, you can't get any information about the people you play - not even their names - and you can't chat with them or add them so that you can play with them later. I think this detracts from the experience of online play, and I highly doubt Nintendo would do they weren't trying to kid-proof everything.

I guess they don't want "Can I play with your Wii?" to become a notorious saying...

[Cloral]

MS has something to address this on their console. It's called parental controls. You can turn off all forms of online communication on the 360. The only problem is they make you sign up for a second profile if you want to have a different profile for the kids, which is complete BS. Point being though that Nintendo could easily have child protection + online communication if they just took the time to design a system to handle it.

[rock_nog]

Yeah, but what happens when an ignorant parent doesn't bother to set up the parental controls? You know it'd happen, and the Nintendo would end up taking all the blame, even though it's the parent's responsibility to monitor their children's behavior. Remember when the DS came out and there were those bogus news stories about how Pictochat could be used by child predators? God, can you imagine some woman on the news, sobbing hysterically because her precious little angel was exposed to naughty language, or God forbid some sick pervert, as a result of a video game? Never mind the fact that she let the video games babysit her child, never mind the fact that she never bothered to learn how to safeguard the system. It'd be the end of Nintendo.

In short, ultimately, any safety system would require parental involvement, and parents are idiots who can't be counted on.