colormonkey Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 From http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?v=news&p=5354 Nintendo on Wii Message Board, Play History revealed27 Sep 2006 - Nintendo's Satoru Iwata and company discuss the Wii Message Board in-depth and reveal a new feature of the console. In the latest part of a series of interviews, members of the Wii development team at Nintendo in Japan have discussed the birthing of the Wii's Message Board - a unique element that they envision members of the whole family becoming attached to - and they've revealed an interesting statistical feature, called the Play History. Unlike the Wii Channels, the Message Board is a console-wide feature, which is aimed at collecting "Memories over time, recording what different family members have done," said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. Tamaki, who was heavily involved with its creation, said, "I envision the Message Board helping everyone in the family communicate with each other. These days, because everyone is so busy, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to take the time to sit around the table and chat." Combined with date sorting and calendar integration, the Message Board will enable interaction with games, and, for example, "If you're playing Animal Crossing, a message like “Concert next Saturday in town” will automatically be posted on the Message Board," said Tamaki. Continuing, Tamaki said that once connected to the internet, friends could become involved in the Message Board experience, provided that both parties register one another - just as with the Nintendo DS friends code system. Details that could be shared could relate to recent purchases, explained Tamaki. "Let's say someone buys a new game. When they switch on their console, a question could appear on the screen: "Do you want to let your friends know you have bought this game?" If you select "Yes", the message "X has bought the game Y!" will pop up on your friends' Message Boards." He added that such elements are still to be finalised. Aoyama, another team member, insisted that the Wii Message Board is more simplistic than email. "We hope it will allow a relaxed style of interaction, allowing the user to feel that there are other people out there, connected to the net." He added, however, "Users can exchange game data or screenshots. E-mail messages can also be exchanged between mobile phones and Wii." The Wii Channel Menu, containing the Message Board button The Play History is another new feature offered by the Wii, and refers to the console's ability to keep track of, obviously, what games have been played and for how long. Originally, Iwata himself pitched the "Outlandish suggestion" of offering parents the option of setting the console to automatically turn off after a set amount of time, but technically, the idea was not feasible. Instead, the Play History was birthed, and the data collected is unable to be deleted and can be viewed by parents. More excitingly, "It's just really fun for users to be able to see the record of how long they played," said Iwata. "In the future, we could make it possible to plot on a graph how much you've played. Also, with users' cooperation, we could compile data on which game was the most played that year." Iwata concluded the discussion by revealing his personal surprise at the result of the Wii. "I would say that in all honesty I did not expect to see the hopes that I had for Wii in the beginning so fully realised in the finished product," he said. "I can hardly wait to see how people respond to the console. I don't mean whether they like it or not; I mean it in the sense of wondering what uses people are going to find for Wii. I think we've really come up with something pretty special." The entire interview, as well as the previous installments - which are well worth the read - can be found here. ... more functions. The Wii has a lot to offer.
Cube Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 friends could become involved in the Message Board experience, provided that both parties register one another - just as with the Nintendo DS friends code system. There, a system-specific friend code system.
mike-zim Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 i was hopeing they would have a forum type channel on the wii and it looks like they do
conzer16 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 There, a system-specific friend code system. Sounds user-specific to me.....
The Lillster Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Will I be able to send private messages as well, I wander?...
Darv Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Sounds user-specific to me..... Surely, if you can access the message board outside of a game then how else would you communicate unless it was one friend code per system. Otherwise you would have to send the same message as many times as you have them in your friends list.
Cube Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Sounds user-specific to me..... I just mean that we won't need a different code for every game.
conzer16 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Surely, if you can access the message board outside of a game then how else would you communicate unless it was one friend code per system. Otherwise you would have to send the same message as many times as you have them in your friends list. I didnt say game specific. USER-Specific. As in Wii-mote/Mii specific.
Sparko Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 The whole service sounds great and I'm so glad that we pretty much have confirmation that it'll be one friend code per Wii, not one per game. The online options have so much potential, it's brilliant.
Cube Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 The whole service sounds great and I'm so glad that we pretty much have confirmation that it'll be one friend code per Wii, not one per game. The online options have so much potential, it's brilliant. One of more code per Wii, it looks like. With the optional "extra" codes probably automatically linked.
Zell Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 The wii has a lot more features than people expected, so it definately seems worth the £180 pricetag. Now if I could only say the same for the controller...
Goron_3 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 The wii has a lot more features than people expected, so it definately seems worth the £180 pricetag. Now if I could only say the same for the controller... It's ONLY £45 I've decided I'm not getting a Wii at launch (medlink at Nottingham Uni costs roughly £280 ) so basically I'm just gonna buy a controller and then play it round my friends house
Charlie Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I really hope Nintendo don't shoot themselves in the foot and only allow one code per console, that really would defeat the purpose of the name "Wii"
Smiter Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I like the Play History feature. I'll be able to see how many hours I wasted away on Zelda. :p It's cool to see that the Wii could have one Friend code per user/system instead of the per game solution on the DS. Unlike the DS, the Wii has internal memory so it shouldn't be a problem storing friend code(s). I also like the idea of using the service to tell your friends what games you have so maybe you can arrange some multiplayer.
Nintendork Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Honestly if they fuck this up it's no big deal. MSN Messenger- create new folder, put all you Nintendo Wii friends in there. When you want to play Wii just let other people know what you're playing and when. I see Connect24 as a more social gaming system than a play random people system.. obviously there will be challenge hungry people who want to own everyone and train against something better than AI. Personally I see it as Nintendo does.. a social gaming network more than a competition network.
InvaderElmo Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 As far as private messages goes, I don't think it will happen. It seems like part of the whole "postcards in a letterbox" idea is to make sure parents see what their kids are chatting about. That way people are less likely to be predators/potty mouths etc. I do hope they have separate accounts for the different family members so that the Play History can determine who was playing the game for X hours, or who got the high score that day. It would also be nice to have individual accounts so kids can compete with their parents for high scores, etc. From a different interview in the same series, Iwata says something very interesting: Talking of potential, we may even be able to create a forum where amateur developers can try releasing games they have made, although this will be hard to do in the immediate future. There we have it, straight from the boss's mouth. I really hope they do this, as it would probably mean releasing some sort of software development kit to the masses.
Dilli Gee Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Nintendo use very big words, I hope they put them into action, soon.
Gaijin von Snikbah Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Private messages are possible if you know each others "friend" "codes".
Dilli Gee Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 For a family based company, Nintendo are being a bit risky with this. Even Microsoft said no to online message boards on the Xbox 360, despite consumer demands.
raven_blade2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I like how Nintendo are thinking. Lets hope that their implementation is seamless and well developed.
The Lillster Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 For a family based company, Nintendo are being a bit risky with this. Even Microsoft said no to online message boards on the Xbox 360, despite consumer demands. Excuse my stupidity, but can you please explain why this is risky for Nintendo?
InvaderElmo Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I think Dilli Gee is a bit confused. There's no risk in a message board if it is only populated by people you specifically let on.
The Lillster Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I think Dilli Gee is a bit confused. There's no risk in a message board if it is only populated by people you specifically let on. Actually, judging from his previous posts and comments, he's just being a **** and trying to start an argument.
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