I'm troubled by the general disregard Nintendo seems to have for its users. With this game, they have created an online system depriving us of all the things that an online system should have.
Grievances:
Friend Codes/With A Friend - *shudder* I'm not sure who at Nintendo thought this would be a good idea. It's not. 16 random numbers??? There is no way to interact with your friends within the system either. You can't challenge them, you can't message them. You can't play anyone 1 on 1, or in any sort of intentional fashion, unless they are your friend. And they limit you to 64 friends. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic. A textbook example of how not to design a system.
Voice Chat - There is none! There is no (good) way to communicate with fellow players. So much of the fun of smash is the feeling of playing a fast paced game with people. Nintendo has managed to take that away.
With Anyone - There is a complete lack of options here. You cannot set it to stock. You cannot play 1v1's. You, have, no, choice. If I play a player I want to play again, I should be able to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I understand that some players may want to play anonymously (that should be an option. what a stunning idea: options!), but making the entire system is anonymous is just ridiculous. I am sick of it. Nintendo continues to infantilize us.
Lag - Lag is a huge issue with this game. Look around this forum: user after user complaining of lag. I have yet to play an online game at a speed where I felt it was enjoyable. And I know my internet is good, low ping latency, static ip, dmz, etc... I'm not asking for anyone to offer suggestions. The problem is with the game/nintendo's network.
Ranking/Tournament/Organized Play of any sort WITHIN the game- There is none. There should be. But that is so far from priority, that I'm not even going to get into it.
I'll admit, I didn't read the thread beyond the first 4 pages and the last page-
I'll address the bolded ones.
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The internet is the solution.
You should check out allisbrawl.com's chatroom/matchmaking system. When my brother's not using the laptop, I use their matchmaking chatroom there as a "lobby" for Smash as an online game. Click a name on the list of online people and if they put it in their profile, you can see their friend code. Live private messaging, general chat, all that fun stuff. It's usually like
Tenki: hey, anyone EC with good connection wanna play?
randomdood19: tenki i'll play
Tenki: alright, i'll host it
randomdood19: k
Tenki clicks randomdood19's name, copies the friendcode, makes a room and waits for randomdood19 to request to join - game start.
D: it's too bad Nintendo didn't do something like that. Then again, they probably didn't forsee online Brawl as becoming as net-based/people-you-don't-know-irl-based game as it is starting to become. Oh well, AiB is my Brawl Online game lobby XD
...I've reached 64 people a few times and dislike deleting people :[
-I've played with CA (From GA) and not have had noticeable lag. Heck, I've played with Flying Dutchman, wherever he is in Europe, and didn't have noticeable lag (I could powershield if I wanted to). I met someone who claimed to have played with Hawaii and not had much lag, and after my GA-CA experience, I wouldn't doubt it.
I've played with other people in the Southeast, and even people a few neighborhoods away and had more lag than those games. Why? Because I have cable and they have DSL. Or worse. Just because you have a fast connection doesn't mean they will, too. Like someone else stated, it seems to be peer-to-peer when playing with other people.
If you can communicate with the person you're playing with, watch out for those downloads. They screw up the lag ALOT.
Microwave ovens can also disconnect wireless things.
;_; srsly, the connection problems tend to be on the players' side.
Just be glad it's not like an FPS where you lead your attacks at an invisible target and never know if it really hit or not. In Brawl, you 'lead' your inputs, but at least you can see if it really hit or not xD
