You read the headline correctly. Rather than taking the plunge and allowing online players in Mario Kart Wii to use voice chat like the rest of the civilized world, Nintendo has apparently decided that it is far more feasible to integrate text chat into the experience. Using a USB keyboard, your impossible task is to taunt and interact with your opponents while in the middle of a driving game.I think Nintendo needs a calendar. Somehow they’re stuck in 1993 or something. How on God’s green earth is anyone playing a RACING game supposed to reach down and type a text message without pretty much throwing the game away. Why are they so afraid of voice comms in-game? Yuck Nintendo.
I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a more insidious reason that we’ve yet to see meaningful voice chat from the Wii. What if the Wii CAN’T do it. What if it’s such an underpowered system that they can’t get it to work reliably? Remember when Sony left rumble out of their controllers, calling it “last-gen.” Later we found out that the real reason was *edit: that they didn’t want to pay the licensing fees to use the technology.
I’m not buying what Nintendo is selling here (both figuratively and literally). I think they grossly underestimated the demand for voice comms when designing their mac-influenced PS2. But what the hell do I know? Why do you think Nintendo keeps screwing the proverbial pooch with their online experience?
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Well you can only type in the lobby and not during a game lol
they are saying that you will be able totype in-game too.
Is this where many of us point out that as a “games console”, the Wii isn’t really living up to its namesake? Nintendo have put way too much focus on the more ‘casual’-oriented games, and not enough on the games that made everything from the NES to the N64 (and even to a small extent, the GameCube) great.
nah-ah, according to IGN it’s lobby only.
Well, I’m only guessing here, but it could be something to do with the fact that other systems often invite homophobes, attention seekers or just plain nasty people to chat over their voice systems and not only spoil the game for other players but also hurt people too.
By having text chat, they could limit the amount of hurtful or nasty messages that are going to other people.
Just my 10 pence (I’m feeling Generous)
i hate ninty at the moment
thay havent done anything i liked apart from mario galaxy since pokemon blue
they recycle everyting beyond belief
@FinalWhiteDove Will fix for you
Nintendo has announced voice chat, but their not putting it in Mario kart? Thats stupid, I want to swear at people when they pass me. I’ll probably be playing Smash Bros when this comes anyways.
“Remember when Sony left rumble out of their controllers, calling it “last-gen.” Later we found out that the real reason was that they were getting their pants sued off for patent infringement.”
It had nothing to do with being sued, and Sony wasnt hiding that they were being sued. It had to do with Sony not wanting to pay to licensce the technology….get your facts straight
@Mike
Nintendo have never anounced it =/
@Doc
Thanks, this cold is really messing my head up, lol.
@ devei8i
It was about them being sued they couldnt get the rights to use the vibration.
They now release contolers with vibration not because we bragged for it (which we didnt) It was hardly mentioned but because they won a court case to be allowed to use it
Text is better than voice . I don’t have to hear anybody or get.
IS anybody there? can you hear me? Hello? Why cant you hear me.
Voice was like the wrost thing ever and xbox live makes you use it in pso on xbox everybody used voice and I would just type with one hand or entire conversations everybody could see hwat I was saying with my word bubble.
With voice you are linted to number of people by demand for overcrowd the channel. OR the network traffic screws the voice chat over.
Don’t care I like the text chat it’s worked on PC multiplayer games since the 1980’s and worked well.
cube your a retard. the only reason it worked with pc games is because it used the keyboard anyway and u dont understand why it might not work with a racing game?? come on! nintendo wii cant b bothered 2 make a headset because they know there wouldnt b a large enough demand. nintendo left gamers in the dus.
I think the reason they decided not to impliment voice chat is because they saw how horrible it was on LIVE and decided not to waste time with a feature that would just be a feature for 12 year olds to call each other faggots and tell each other to “get raped”. Maybe?
@devei8i
I stand corrected. Article adjusted.
Nintendo want to keep the online as a family event. No one will type trash talk in the middle of a race. Still, they might as well put nothing in
At least I won’t have to listen to annoying morons that make it their mission to boast about their Mario Kart skills. To be honest, I have accepted the fact that Nintendo will never make a complete commitment to “next-gen” technology.
Well even if it does cut back on idoits what about non idoits? For instance if i play a game of COD4 i want to say to someone “Look behind you theres a bad guy” or something like that i coudnt do that with text. If im playing a Racing game then how the heck could i type something like that? Another thing. i find it boring if no one talks in a game, cause it feels unsocial and feels like your just playing without other people.It just sucks the fun out of the game if no one talks gaming or a jke or life i dont know i think this is a clear sign that Nintendo is not next gen.
ummmm the wii is too underpowered… ds does voice chat fine… ANYWAYS i agree with the fact that voice chat should not be allowed on random matches, but should be allowed when playing with friends. Also friend codes are crap a sort of gamertag that worked just like friend codes would be fine.