Brawl Online: Pathetic. So let's do something about it.

[MidniteBlaze]

The online play could definately be better as far as lag issues and all, hopefully Mario Kart Wii will step it up for online. They better with support of up to 12 racers...

 

[ElSpaniard]

its like Everyone is trying to jump on the online frenzy but nintendo just egeguards us from it

 

[Jawsh!]

Despite the 1000+ rants on this forum alone, one must notice that nothing has been done about it yet. More than likely, nothing ever will.


Well, not by Smashboards members anyway.

 

[Jeazy]

I love Smash, and it's a great game, but this post pretty much read my mind. The online system is a huge disappointment, and from the looks of it, Nintendo hasn't done much to remedy the shortcomings presented by it. I mean, With Anyone? Come on. It can take up to seven or eight minutes just to find other players, and even then, it's limited to two-minute, items-on matches. That's idiotic. I agree with the OP on the fact that it removes all skill from gameplay, as well; it's near impossible to do a successful chain throw or to edgeguard effectively because of the horrible lag, and the creative minds at Nintendo are suffering the worst. I mean, who ventures to play dynamic stages like Lylat Cruise or Castle Siege when there's a large possibility of unenjoyable gameplay and even lagout?

It seems to me that the way to play is still at parties or tourneys; there's no way I can rely on the online system to do competitive 1v1 matches. How pathetic. What's still more surprising is that Nintendo has made no movement to so much as compete with Microsoft and Sony in the online field and has instead halfassed what could have been a glorious addition to the franchise. Why, even for free online play, Sony still competes with online systems evident in Resistance and Call of Duty 4!

And the worst part yet is that Nintendo, despite their claims about listening to the fans through character additions and the like, has ignored the fans in many ways, and I feel as if this will not be subject to change.

Lol, Who cares all nintendo cares about is getting their money and doing a sloppy job on the online.

I don't think posting threads will make nintendo change their online.

 

[stfunerds]

The online IS horrible but ignore the lag problems.

Nintendo CANNOT do anything about the fact that 2D fighters simply have more lag than 3D FPS games and such. In a 2D fighter, the stage must be continually generated while the 3D FPS games merely have a prerendered map (usually) where the players are simply sprites on it.

Though I don't think Nintendo is doing the best job at supporting online in the realm of performance, there are some issues they cannot fix.

that's exactly what they want you to believe.

Sadly I must agree with Jawsh! Everyone in this thread agrees brawl's online is garbage, yet we still haven't done anything organized about it. We should feel very proud

 

[Deleted member]

..............

 

[maticMan94]

The online play could definately be better as far as lag issues and all, hopefully Mario Kart Wii will step it up for online. They better with support of up to 12 racers...

From what I have read online so far, Mario Kart Wii's online is lag free and has lots more options that make Brawl's look like trash. How did we get the shaft?

 

[yoda55]

I rented Super mario strikers charged yesterday and its so easy and fast to find a online match and i had no problems with lag. the game is just really frustrating to play thats the only downfall for strikers for me.

 

[Fat Otaku]

Silly *****! Ever play Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii? Holy hell... Brawl is a cake walk in dealing with lag compared to that game.

 

[AlAxe]

I completely agree with the thread starter here. I've only on one occasion been able to get into matches and the lag made them all pointless. Every other time I've attempted I've just sat around fighting a sandbag waiting pointlessly for someone to join - which never happens. From my experience Brawl online is a useless piece of S%&$ that nintendo should take a mulligan on. I truly hope whoever designed it has been fired. Hell, if I had to pay $40-50 a year for a service like x-box live I would gladly.

 

[XSilvenX]

Nintendo is ******** at online. Already proven...they will never get better..they were against it for so long and just RECENTLY started getting into it...people like to capitalize on this and say "oh well they just started" Well f**k that....they have remotes with bluetooth capability that detect motion in 3-d space by interacting with two IR lights(amazing)..if they can do that why the f**k can't they make a decent online infrastructure.

-also if I get banned for saying fook then SWF sucks kthnxbai

 

[stfunerds]

I'll buy Mario Kart Wii. If it or the online sucks I'm just going to sell my Wii and stop giving Nintendo a chance. Seriously TP, MP3, SSBB, and SMG have all disappointed me (SMG to a lesser extent). It's like they were made for children, ages 13 and below. Technologically they are filth compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 games. TP and MP3 just weren't fun. I know this is off topic and I'm only saying this to illustrate the effect Smash's online service has in destroying the shred of respect I had left for Nintendo when I bought Wii. ....Yeah I think I'll sell my Wii and the games, hopefully for a few hundred and with that money buy a PS3 with SOCOM...now there's some fun online play....
sorry again for going off topic there.

 

[Deleted member]

..............

 

[CyberSpark]

I agree with many of the comments made in this thread. In thinking about it I have some idea (just ideas) that could be a big improvement over the current system. Maybe some of them were already covered but it's 12 pages to read though.

- With Anyone mode

When using the "With Anyone" mode, it would make a lot more sense to do the following:

• Use a smarter system for finding players with similar settings, much like this forum's SWF Friend Finder. In this way if you select an option to seek only one player (for 1v1 matches) then it'll find players also seeking 1v1 or 1v1v1, ect. This might be complicated for items considering some prefer certain items while others don't, I'd say add the option for ALL ITEMS ON, ALL ITEMS OFF. It's just the way it'll have to be for random online matches but it's sure a heck of a lot better.
  
  So basically: search for persons also seeking a 1v1 and who turned ALL ITEMS OFF in there options (perhaps a separate menu for online options is in order).

• I'm not the only one in my household that wants to just jump into a random online match (without the PMing and junk necessary to play With Friends); why no option to allow 2 or 3 players on the same connection to connect to one other? In many ways this can reduce the lag that occurs when having 4 separate connections and everyone's happy, except Nintendo apparently.
  
  The above options can still apply. If a friend in your home joins in the brawl then the option to seek 1v1 will change so that it'll now seek 2 other players, or something like that.

- With Friends mode

One of the most annoying things to me is the actual process of setting up an online match. In my particular case I don't always have a computer to setup the match and then go to the TV and type in the code. On most occasions I have no other choice but to use the Wii's Internet Channel. So I gotta go there, setup the match, switch back to Brawl.... How hard would it have been to...

• ...add the option to send a challenge. Duh! This is something that was obvious from the beginning. It appears this forum seems to have it right, but a big company like Nintendo....

• allow for short a message (other then the "Comments" section) that can be attached to a challenge or reply to a challenge. If someone excepts your challenge then can send a message saying: "I'll play in 5 minutes", or something to that degree. It just an idea but it would really ease the entire process setting up matches online.

• All those extra modes for if you're hosting a game. I like playing Fast Brawl more then regular speed, I should be able to have that menu in there.

Keep in mind that these ideas are a result of thing that I've observed in Brawl, other than that I haven't had much experience with the online gaming community, so if there are some other obvious options that I've overlooked, that's probably why.

I probably have some other ideas but I just can't think of then now.

 

[Ulciroa]

Okay, I just sent nintendo an email about this, and this is what I got back:

Message(#6851-000676-4402\6764402)

Hello ____,

I'm sorry to hear that you think that games for the Wii console are not meeting
the requirements of our loyal fans, but I and millions of others who own one
would disagree with your assessment. Never before have our products so strongly
appealed to everyone-male and female, young and not-so-young. Never before has
there been such a wide variety of software for a videogame system, everything
from princesses and puppies to street racing and space carnage.

Please also realize that video games, like movies, are judged differently by
different players--what sparks the interest of one player may frustrate or bore
another. A game's development team makes many decisions to appeal to the target
audience, be true to the source material (if applicable), and deal with possible
hardware limitations. They do their best to balance these issues to bring
gamers the best experience possible.

The fact is that we have put far more product on store shelves worldwide than
our competitors. The Wii console has effectively expanded the video game market
by re-defining what it means to be a gamer. Millions of people who never before
picked up a controller or who had sworn off gaming years ago are trying the Wii
and becoming fans.

From the beginning, Nintendo (in addition to most video game companies)
supported the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is an
independent board of evaluators. Companies, on a purely volunteer basis, submit
their games to be evaluated by the ESRB. Any additional comments or concerns
concerning the ESRB should be directed to them via their website. I've provided
a direct link below:

*Link Removed*

While I do hope that you would continue to purchase and enjoy our unique
products, I also understand the decisions that you may need to make. I wish you
the best of luck in being able to find the system that will best fit your needs!

That said, I appreciate your taking the time to share your comments with us.
Rest assured that your e-mail will be forwarded on to the appropriate department
for further review.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.
Neil Dunkin

---

Tell me that's not automated, and I'll summon the flying hampsters of doom to rain coconuts down upon your pitiful city xD

But seriously, it doesn't even mention Brawl or the Wifi.

 

[Shanky]

My biggest complaint with Wifi is not lag....in fact, I rarely get matches that lag, and when I do, it's only on "With Anyone".

I just wish there was more customization. There should be a 1v1 With Anyone option, and you should be allowed to have a second player on the same Wii join you in Team Battle. Also, I think you should be able to request players you have played against, much like in With Friends.

With Friends could do with a messaging system, just a simple text format would be fine, and the whole friend code thing is just a mess....I don't even know where to start with that.

 

[ADHD]

This literally sucks my balls! Nintendo has lost me as a reliable fan, now I'm just iffy about everything they come out with. Pathetic.......... Maybe I should have just bought a ****in xbox in the first place like I was thinking too.

 

[QuestionMark]

I agree sooo much with your statement(s). This is why I prefer to have Nintendo charge for online service. Like Mircrosoft, they use that money to improve their online system. Whenever it comes to online gameplay, Xbox Live surpasses all others, hands down.

I prefer paying 40-50 dollars a year for good a good online system than some free crappy one Nintendo has to offer.

i agree. but i still think they could of made it better without charging people.

 

[many37]

I completely agree with you. Nintendo SHOULD do a better job with the online feature. The pay to play program should be better when it comes out. Do you know how boring it is to play online with a huge lag, without using advance gaming techniques only relying on the basics, with those pointless friend codes, without a headset or a keyboard to write messages on, and to have LIMITED options of online play like With Anyone feature where you can only play Free for Alls? I am upset about this issue. Nintendo screwed us again. Mass emailing should work. I consider myself to do something about this.

 

[KiteDXX]

This topic bothers me. It's one thing to vent about the online system, I can understand that it does appear to be on the lacking end of the spectrum, but some of the replies I see here are simply ridiculous.

"Nintendo doesn't care about the fans; they just want the money."

If they honestly didn't care, would Sakurai dedicate every weekday to presenting an update to this game, over 300 of them, to keep the "fans" busy while the game resumes development? The business industry is primarily about the money, sure, but do you honestly think everyone's just a money-hungry drone? That everyone working with Nintendo is shut out from the world around them, designing an online system without actually ever being around the community that would most likely use it?

In addition to this, a lot of people need to realize that this forum, despite being a large community of people who enjoy the game (and would probably be the ones playing it years after the casual player would), that it is a relatively small fraction of the people who actually purchased the game or a Wii in general (read: not the alleged 99% of the people who play the game and didn't want the oversimplified online system). We aren't the only ones in mind when the game was designed. Did you see a "Test your skills against others online in 5 specific stages with no items!" caption anywhere on the back panels of the box? No, probably because that wasn't the main attraction the game was set out to deliver. However, we saw a scene where a Final Smash was being demonstrated, and a screen of SSE. These major things outweigh, priority-wise, the competitive aspect of the game that lots of us force upon it.

"We should design a plan for attack, this and that, flood with e-mails, etc."

No, that is probably one of the weakest methods of "attack" as you would call it. Showing your hatred for the game is nowhere near as effective as an organized, compassionate piece of text that would better unify the community's concern. You think a company wants to be hounded with "your online sucks; fix it" e-mails?

I'm sure a lot of people have heard of the online-organized Scientology "raid" that happened not too long ago. Did that do much damage? Doesn't seem that way. Did they get up and decide that their policy needed to be changed or decide to shut down? They didn't. Did we see a bunch of people in masks handing out fliers while the public stands by and wonders what's going through their heads? Yes, they did.

"Friend Code system is terrible."

Entering a 12-digit (not 16 like the Wii number itself) number is far easier than these people make it out to be. Sure, it's not as easy as entering a gamer tag composed of easily-memorized letters, but that one number is something you will only need to enter one time to establish a connection with that player. I take it nobody complains about that 3-digit area code and 7-digit phone number required to chat with people over a telephone? You can even save that number and establish a connection to chat with that same person again at a later time. It starts to sound familiar to another system we're complaining about.

"We need voice chat, organized rooms, (insert complicated feature that would be hardly feasible)!"

We don't need it; we want it. Lag reduction? That's more of a "need" than being able to chat with someone live during a match. Something like voice chat is merely a convenience for a mass of people; a truly playable system is necessary.

Aside from that, it's already been said by many (including Nintendo's customer service replies) that lag is largely dependent on the connections of all players involved in the match. You say you've done everything from DMZ configuration to DNS changes and port forwarding; has anyone you've played done equally as much preparation for online as you have? Probably a select few at best. Nintendo cannot provide a remedy for something that is largely rested on your shoulders.

Lastly, had Nintendo actually sat up and put this improvement plan into motion, how would they go about getting the patch into action? Do you know if the Wii is powerful enough to support a patch on the system memory that applies to a disk being run? Do you think Brawl was designed with patches in mind for the future? Ever wonder why Sakurai already said there would be no DLC? Because it wasn't planned to exist in the first place.

"Nintendo should make people pay for their online if they want quality."

It's true that the success of paid online such as XBL is largely because they have the funds to continue supporting online systems, but having Nintendo follow suit (required pay-to-play) isn't the best course of action. Metroid Prime: Hunters had a very good example of free online; hacking was the eventual deathblow to the system. You could register people after random matches, you had rooms you could join with people and set up rules to play by, you had a name tag that was a decent length and was easily changable, you had it all. It was free. Nintendo doesn't necessarily need the funds to do what they want, and that $30 DS game is a good example of that. Money isn't an issue with Nintendo, and you can see that when they sell their best system to date at $250 as opposed to the $300+ you see from their competitors, when they can clearly sell for much more and people will still purchase them.

Nintendo did mess up severely on this installment of Smash Bros. (in terms of online system), and it's pretty clear. But what's going on in this topic is nothing more than a vent-fest with everyone ranting about everything wrong with the system (when it's been said countless times throughout the topic, making every agreement post redundant) and ridiculous solution posts (although, I see a few reasonable posts, and I will take the time now to thank all of those people who are making those posts). This was supposed to be an organization thread, as made evident by the topic title, not your "post everything you feel is wrong with the online system" thread, or "attack anyone who tries to reason with the irrational posts" thread.

I realize that this post will probably be drowned away by the waves upon waves of redundant "I agree, here's what we need to do (insert idea that was proposed 2-3 pages ago)" posts. Oh well, I had nothing better to do anyway.

 

[Capo]

An easy hold over:
Log into XBL and voice chat at the same time you play Brawl. If you are doing more than 1v1 just use a game lobby like H3 to voice chat with multiple people.

 

[Ama]

thye really need to improve the whole wifi a lot need to set up real servers not this **** good points

 

[R.O.B.TheROCKbot]

You know what's really hilarious about all this? Nintendo's like "Oh, we want to make it good for the whole family to play! Hooray! Now little kids can somehow navigate this impossible wifi mess and get to play a good-old-fashioned game of the 20-something kicking their ***!"

Meanwhile. You can make your taunts as horribly vulgar as you'd like.

I feel like putting something involving **** on every one of my taunts. Just because.

 

[KiteDXX]

They could've done what they did with Mario Kart DS and had something along the lines of "Online ESRB rating subject to change" to keep the level of anonymity bearable. I recall seeing a woman's chest as an emblem on MKDS on the very first day I went online. XD

But really, anonymity online should've at least been togglable. :/

 

[Loyal2NES]

I just want to say one thing, regarding the people who say we should, can, and do circumvent the problems with Nintendo's online:

It is NOT the responsibility of the user to compensate for the engineer's inadequate work.​

 

[VacantShadow]

I'd much rather pay for online services and have reliable servers, then don't pay and have unreliable servers with little options. Still, I can't help but think of Smash Bros. as more of a get together when it comes to playing with friends. But god **** it, I would love better online services.

An easy hold over:
Log into XBL and voice chat at the same time you play Brawl. If you are doing more than 1v1 just use a game lobby like H3 to voice chat with multiple people.

Don't forget about Ventrilo.

 

[rmporter35]

I was sad they didn't add voice chat to the list of must haves for the Wii. There are always going to be folks who abuse "loose ends" in games (i.e. breasts in Mario Kart DS, vulgar taunts in Brawl). I just wish that they didn't punish the rest of the gaming community that could utilize voice chat, better servers, and the like to maximize the gaming experience with our friends and the world...

 

[Mokai]

I don't really understand the complaints about the lack of voice chat. I look at Halo, I look at Team Fortress 2, I look at Call of duty and I cringe at the type of language players tend to use. Voice chat would be neat, but only in a world where it would be used responcibly. The age demographic that is attracted to Brawl doesn't exactly strike me as the most responsible in that regard.

I've no complaints with the lack of voice chat; I'm perfectly fine playing a match without getting called a "***got", "*****" or any number of other choice words.

 

[Deleted member]

I can't even get 20 FCs on my friend list. ]= I'd be blessed by the Goddesses if I could get 64.

 

[jalued]

i completely agree with your post, and if theres anywhere i can sign my name (online anyway lol), i'll gladly do it. i'd also be willing to pay for gd online. in my opinion, nintendo have completely ****ed up brawl. in many ways (as i'm sure many others feel), melee was a much funner game to play- fast paced, more competitive gameplay (i didn't play anythign serious, just mates at school). i could spend days playing melee, but i find that i can get bored of brawl in as little as an hour.

its pretty ironic that nintendo made brawl slower so that it would be more of a party game... but its less fun

anyway, after that rant, i get to my point. the only redeeming feature of brawl i thought there would be was the online function, whihc could make up for the small lack of fun with quantity and variation of opponents. but it just doesn't. i find that sometimes, the wii won't even connect to the online brawl, and that even when it does, when i try to join a game (rarely, since no one is ever on, and the only way to let them know is my msn), it comes up with a stupid useless error message that my opponent is either offline, or not added me (both of which are ********, as i've just talked to them). oh and don't get me started on the fact that u can't invite...

NINTENDO- update the online brawl system and the issues with lag(i don't get much lag, but i know my opponents do) . make it actually usable!!!!!

 

[YoungMoney702]

if they could make gamertags like the 360. How easy will it b to tell ur friend whats ur gt and they say their name or somethin instead of numbers. If only they build a ranking system or somethin. Also like in Halo 3, they should of built different playlists to play like 1 v 1 or Hardcore with no items and 3 stocks or somethin like that. One thing that I didn't like was that you can't even get with a friend to play 2 v 2 agaisnt random people. There has to be a way we could tell them to built a better online system.

 

[AoiSora]

Honestly, just because it's their second try doesn't excuse them. They're a huge gaming company with over 100 years of experience in games, and online gaming has been around long enough for them to research and find a way to construct an effective online play environment. All they really have to do is copy Xbox live or any number of PC games who have dedicated online play systems.

I just had to reply to this because it makes me laugh so much. Over 100 years?!? Last I checked, the first video game, Pong, came out in the 70s, about 40 years ago. Nintendo started as a major video game company about 20 years ago. Over 100 years ago, the lightbulb was still new and the automobile wasn't invented. So, unless you reach your measurement of time by the multiplication of our time by 5, no, Nintendo does not have over 100 years of experience.

On the other hand, I wholeheartedly agree that Nintendo has no excuse for making such a counterintuitive system and there should be some change via a "patch" or the like.

 

[Tabris-]

i dont think anyone should use statistics... they make the speaker sound like an idiot.

I can agree to that. Especially since most statistics are made up on the spot. But I was just doing it to carry my point across that the majority of smash players don't play the same way as most people here

 

[paSTAR]

Especially since most statistics are made up on the spot.

Actually 87% of all statistics have no source and are made up on the spot.

 

[XalchemistX]

Brawl limited online play so much that it made online play really hard to comunicate. Some ways to help communicate would be changing ur comment freaquently. The comments can act like a instent message.

 

[Marthmaster92]

I agree. Online lag is so horrible. If that itself was to be fixed i'd be happy, really.

Has anyone thought about starting a petition about all this and sending it to nintendo? I mean, c'mon now, there has to be a way for us to get it through their thick skulls.

 

[Wolf-Link]

I admit the Wi-Fi connection isn't the best.. and it isn't the first time nintendo does that... i have medal of honor heroes 2 for wii and the online gaming is good but the communication is horrible.. u can message and everything.. but DURING the game.. all u can do is press some buttons to say stuff in soldier code... stuff like : Move out, or Stay in position.. no custom messages whatsoever.. i've hear MANY complains of the brawl online... i've had several freezing problems with my friends.. it's like we're in the middle of the battle and it randomly freezes and it just stays there and we have to shut off our wiis.. but i trust nintendo and i know they will fix all that. :D

 

[Ilex]

I'm not sure if pissing off the Nintendo staff buy stuffing their inbox is the right way to have them do stuff for you. A petition maybe, but let's not try to make the people we're requesting angry.

 

[SheikahBlood]

Hopefully in the next smash game they will learn from there mistakes :D

 

[crazy olimar]

hah and here i was sh*ting my pants to get brawl hmm i traded my psp for crap online play for brawl ahh its not organized at all im thinking of returning my wii and getting a psp and xbl and gta4 heh i bet by the time nintendo starts listening to everyone theyll have made a new system and new ssb just to piss ppl off meh it cant be helped got exited for nothing (typing with wiimote is a pain) oh and ill gladly help with anything to get nintendos attention who knows mabey* ill decide to keep my wii instead