"Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't Nintendo?"
Hey there everyone, Happy Gamer here and Nintendo is finally joining Sony and Microsoft in the "pay for online" game. I'm sure I'm with the majority here when I say "Nintendo, this is NOT what we meant when we said 'you need to be more like your competitors'." Paying to play online is the largest scam in the gaming industry (well, one of the largest). By and large it doesn't add anything. The servers are hosted by the developers (they don't get any of the membership money) and the paid experience normally isn't enhanced at all compared to the free counterpart if there is one (see PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, and Wii U compared to XBOX, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, and PS4). They now "give you a game or 10 with your subscription" (games with gold, ps plus, and now switch online), and you no longer NEED premium to use online apps (old 360 days), but it's still not really an excuse. I estimate that 99.99999% of gamers don't like paying a monthly fee to play online. I know I sure don't.
I have never paid for a console's premium online service, and I have no intention to start. First off, I don't really care for playing online. The only game I do that with is splatoon, but by and large I prefer to play single player. I know I'm the minority in today's internet connected and competitive gaming world, but I like to play by myself, because I'm generally a-social. I wouldn't go so far as to say "introverted" (I make goofy internet videos, wear florescent yellow as a normal staple of my wardrobe, and have worn a blue morph suit in public on various occasions), but when I want to relax, I like to do things by myself. But even if I did like online, I don't play videogames enough to justify the subscription. When I pay for something, I feel the need to use it. I subscribe to hulu plus, and I watch a lot of hulu on my devices as a result. I have amazon prime, and I made sure I bought enough things with free shipping to justify the subscription. If I were to subscribe to one of these premium online services, I don't think I would play enough to justify the subscription, and as such would stop subscribing, and would probably get into PC gaming since that's free.
"But Microsoft and Sony do it, why shouldn't Nintendo. If console gamers are willing to pay for online, then Nintendo is selling themselves short." That's a largely reasonable argument I've heard from defenders. They aren't exactly happy with it, but they argue that it's just smart business. And I would agree, if it wouldn't be a major selling point. See, Nintendo says "no, seriously, we're getting the 3rd party games this time around; the Nintendo Switch is going to be your one stop shop for videogames." There's a lot of speculation that the Switch isn't going to be as powerful as base XBOX ONE and PS4, and it's known that Nintendo is shipping it with only 32 gigs of internal storage (though with flash memory for the games I don't know how big of a problem that will be if data can be written to the games), and many people are still salty about the Wii U. However, if Nintendo offers free online, that's a major selling point.
"Hmm, the game looks nicer but I need to pay $10 a month to play online on PS4/XBOX, or the game looks worse but I can play FOR FREE on the Switch." Personally, I would go with free. That could be a major selling point. "Play for free on Nintendo Switch." That would make the decision to buy a Switch easier (or the decision to not buy a switch harder to make). Or if you have multiple consoles (like me), the option of buying for the Switch that much more appealing.
Hopefully Nintendo decides against pay for online. This has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and this could have been your slogan; "Play for free on the Switch, Nintendoes what the others don't."
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Nintendo Switch Won't Have a Browser at Launch, and Why that's a Bad Thing
"Why do you care if the Switch won't have a web browser? Do you use your console web browser at all? The only people harmed will be horny kids who don't have a computer."
When I first heard the news that the Nintendo Switch won't have a web browser, that was basically my first thoughts too. Before I got a computer, I did use the Nintendo DS browser a lot to read wikipedia, but then I got a computer and I barely even open the browsers on my game consoles.
Well...in the comments of the ReviewTechUSA video I heard the news on, I had a major realization on why this is a problem.
"I DO care, how else am I going to login on my university wifi?????"
And this got me thinking, "yes, that is the primary reason I use the web browser on my 3DS."
See, at my old university, to connect your device was more than "enter the router password." After connecting to the wifi, you had to open a web page and log in with your student ID and register your device. If you didn't do that, you wouldn't be able to use hulu, netfix, youtube, or online gaming. If you tried to connect without registering the device by saying "I accept the TOS, register this device to my student account" in the web browser, you couldn't use it.
"OK, that sucks for students and faculty, but that's only...half of the target audience. But I'm not a student, so it's not a problem for me."
Yeah I had that thought as well, but then I remembered when I go places with public wifi, such as fast food restaurants and hotels, especially hotels. I could live without restaurants since I'm normally not there for extended periods of time. But when I go to hotels, I want to connect my device to the internet to use internet apps. At hotels, I like to watch hulu on my 3DS while I surf the web on my laptop. And when I go to hotels, probably 3/4 times I need to open the web browser and say "I accept the TOS" before I can watch hulu. There's also airport wifi. Almost always, if you want to use their wifi, you NEED to sign in at the browser landing page and purchase credits/enter promotional codes.
I get it, the web browser is an easy back door for hacking consoles, and Nintendo doesn't want people hacking their consoles. Also, most people don't use the web browsers with all the better devices for surfing. But it's kind of important for using the internet in many situations. It's a hybrid semi-portable console that I'm guessing many owners will take with their Switches with them on trips, and a reality of those trips will be "I need to go to the in browser log in page to connect to the wifi so I can do various internet connected activities." Plus, it's very tablet like, so people may want to use it for tablet browsing.
Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and hopefully Nintendo has a solution for "I need a browser to access internet functions."
When I first heard the news that the Nintendo Switch won't have a web browser, that was basically my first thoughts too. Before I got a computer, I did use the Nintendo DS browser a lot to read wikipedia, but then I got a computer and I barely even open the browsers on my game consoles.
Well...in the comments of the ReviewTechUSA video I heard the news on, I had a major realization on why this is a problem.
"I DO care, how else am I going to login on my university wifi?????"
And this got me thinking, "yes, that is the primary reason I use the web browser on my 3DS."
See, at my old university, to connect your device was more than "enter the router password." After connecting to the wifi, you had to open a web page and log in with your student ID and register your device. If you didn't do that, you wouldn't be able to use hulu, netfix, youtube, or online gaming. If you tried to connect without registering the device by saying "I accept the TOS, register this device to my student account" in the web browser, you couldn't use it.
"OK, that sucks for students and faculty, but that's only...half of the target audience. But I'm not a student, so it's not a problem for me."
Yeah I had that thought as well, but then I remembered when I go places with public wifi, such as fast food restaurants and hotels, especially hotels. I could live without restaurants since I'm normally not there for extended periods of time. But when I go to hotels, I want to connect my device to the internet to use internet apps. At hotels, I like to watch hulu on my 3DS while I surf the web on my laptop. And when I go to hotels, probably 3/4 times I need to open the web browser and say "I accept the TOS" before I can watch hulu. There's also airport wifi. Almost always, if you want to use their wifi, you NEED to sign in at the browser landing page and purchase credits/enter promotional codes.
I get it, the web browser is an easy back door for hacking consoles, and Nintendo doesn't want people hacking their consoles. Also, most people don't use the web browsers with all the better devices for surfing. But it's kind of important for using the internet in many situations. It's a hybrid semi-portable console that I'm guessing many owners will take with their Switches with them on trips, and a reality of those trips will be "I need to go to the in browser log in page to connect to the wifi so I can do various internet connected activities." Plus, it's very tablet like, so people may want to use it for tablet browsing.
Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and hopefully Nintendo has a solution for "I need a browser to access internet functions."
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