Wii Warm Up: Voice chat

i don't mind ether way. if you think about it their really isn't anything to talk to other people about yet.

Breaks it for me. The ONLY game so far worth playing without voice is Tetris, that's it. No voice, no buy from me.

Some of my buddies have Wii's and it would be great to play them with voice - I don't care as much about having it with people I *don't* know, but I do think it's a very important thing to implement and I think Nintendo should really work on it along with some type of address book to find friends people can access from their Wii's. (check out contact lookup in Skype for a good example how I think this should work)

My only uses for a headset when playing online in the past were for WoW and UT2k4. In WoW, it was actually useful, but I don't really see a large scale MMO coming to the Wii (Square-Enix is too busy making those games for the other graphics-intensive consoles instead). In UT2k4, I'd only wished that other people used them more often and for what they were meant to be used for. I'd try and coordinate attacks during Onslaught games, but most people were either not connected to the voice chat or were connected and were saying the most stupid unimportant stuff imaginable. If it came down to it, I'd rather not have voice chat than listen to some 12 year old talk smack when I'm playing.

-racecar
http://everybodyvotes.blogspot.com

It is not that much of an annoyance,let me correct that its not an annoyance at all. We still have telephones(BLUETOOTH HEADSETS?) and it isn't like we are playing an online version of LoZ: FOUR SWORDS with twilight princess graphics.

If Reggie is serious about "revolutionizing entertainment," Nintendo is going to have get going with a serious online gateway (a la XBox Live). Voice chat would, of course, have to be a part of this. As much as I love my Wii... they need to do a hell of a lot better of a job connecting users.

Nope

Should I use a cellphone to ask my friends if they want to play another round?!...

I'm with Elric on this one(no voice, no buy).

I play almost nightly on Xbox Live and love having a laugh with my mates(some of which I never meet in person anymore). I only play friends and have built up a great friends list over time so no need to play randoms. It's always great banter and for sure games I still play online today such as GoW would have long since gone into retirement without voice comms adding fun and banter into the gameplay.

I've already cancelled a few of my Wii preorders that I was expecting to have voice comms(just cancelled BWII & MoH:H2) and Mario Strikers would have been bought if it allowed voice communication(at least between friends, don't care about chatting with randoms).

I know there are solutions such as using your pc or Xbox360 for voice comms but for me that's just too much hasstle, gaming should be pick up & play IMO).

Nintendo stated they would be taking online play seriously this generation, so far to me they're shooting way off the mark, the 360, ps3, ps2 & even the DS all allow voice comms, why not the Wii.

It would be easy to give voice comms an optional block(mute) within parental controls, that way people that don't want to hear other people could just select that option and carry on as before. For the rest of us at least let us taunt our mates/ talk through strategies etc.(depending on game of course).

IGN did a poll on this recently and the overwhelming majority voted in favour of voice comms(98% in fact), doubt Nintendo will listen to that though, they just do their own thing and we have to just like it or accept it :-(

Honestly so far I have yet to play an online game where it was needed for the Wii. I am sure as soon as Nintendo makes a game were communication is a must to achieve your goals then they will make it happen. Also look at the fact that Nintendo WiFi is free to use so they need to keep their costs down by transferring as little data as possible.

BWii and MoH:H2 should have voice chat, but I won't not buy them if they don't.

It is a MASSIVE problem.

I should probably start off this post by saying that I don't own a 360, viable gaming PC or PS3. I have actually never even tried voice chat.

Why is it a massive problem then? Because it is sorely needed in Nintendo games. Example: Mario Strikers Charged. If I want to play a game with a friend, I've got to contact them by phone, email or MSN to organise a match. What's up with that? And if I'm playing said friend and want a rematch, I've got to call them again to organise a rematch. What if I want to congratulate a random opponent, or, having had a great match, get their Wii number? I can't.

I can respect Nintendo's decision to want to offer a "safe" online experience (I use the word lightly because hey, this is the Internet) and the Wii Friend codes, while cumbersome, are a good example of what they're trying to achieve. But this is 2007. Nintendo won't even allow text communication (pre-determined strings of text is the best we get). As much as it hurts me to say it, I honestly don't see Nintendo adapting voice chat for its online games in the near future.

Which, plainly, sucks. There are so many games out there that would go great with voice chat - Strikers, Battalion Wars 2, Brawl - and they're just off the top of my head.

I think if Nintendo do release a voice chat peripheral, voice chat will only be allowed with your Wii Friends - which I guess is as good a deal as we're going to get from Nintendo.

- Aaron.

It's a total non-issue. Online play is almost a non-issue for me. Maybe it's because I've been playing since Atari days, but gaming is a fairly solitary experience for me. If I do get the urge to play something with multiple people, I want them sitting right there next to me. I've tried quite a few games online and just didn't understand the appeal; it was the same as playing against the computer with more erratic (read: irritating) AI and a lot of dropped games from losers. Tetris DS is to date the only game I have played that benefits from online play. Voice chat would make it unbearable though.

I want to see voice chat as well. Thats really all I have to say.

I never saw the point of voice chat when you're playing with random people (hey, who wants to hear some kid smack talking nonstop), but I'd really like the ability to chat with friends while playing online. Now that I'm at college, I can't physically meet up with most of my friends to play games, so voice chat would be a welcome addition.

BWII is the first time you'll REALLY want the voice chat. For me, my friends and I just log onto XBox live, get into a private chat on that, and fire up Strikers or Madden on the Wii. It's an unnecessary hassle, but it works.

How you're going to play online co-op and make it fun/functional? Doesn't seem possible without voice chat.

For me, it's not a problem but a major annoyance. Having only a PS2 and DS I haven't played many online games but what makes them fun for me is communicating with the other players. Whether it's voice or text I need some way of communicating or it's no different from playing against a good AI. And with the added issues of cheaters, disconnections and lag, if I'm not able to communciate it's not worth it to log online at all.

That said, I'm sure voice chat will be coming to Wii eventually. They made a headset for DS basically just for Pokemon. Wii will get one eventually, hopefully in time for Monster Hunter 3. MH1 is one of the online games I play and love. Text chat works for it but in the heat of battle voice would be much more convenient.

Any multiplayer game that requires cooperation pretty much needs a headset. Especially if it's a team based game.

It doesn't matter for every game, but if you've got a 16+ player battle going in an online FPS (MOHH2), you don't get the full enjoyment possible unless you can organize. I can imagine if you're into coop, a la BWii, you'd want to talk to your fellow player as well, and you know, cooperate with them.

It's insane not to have the option on a 7th gen console.

@Jeremy. No NWFC isn't free. Nintendo isn't 'accidentally' making 50$ on every American console sold anymore than MS is accidentally losing money on hardware and charging a premium for online. Nothing is free.

I do see how voice chat is useful for massive games involving 16+ players, even for something close to that like 10. In my dorm we have an 360 LAN going on with at least 3 360's between 2 floors over the network. It would be an extreme hassle to try and communicate what matches we should do or what teams people should be on unless those few people had headsets. If it's team play, and something like an FPS, to coordinate you would need a headset, but predetermined speech works a little bit.

I understand that people think it's necessary for certain games, but for others it's simply not, ie: Tetris DS. I think it would be beneficial for Nintendo to allow voice chat between friends at least, generating more online interest for the console.

Communication is key in Online games.

Nintendo REALLY needs to make a headset available.

Nintendo DS had voice chat available, it's about time Wii makes it available.

With Xbox Live having many ways to get in touch with your friends. Sony is working hard on Home. Nintendo needs to actually make Nintendo WiFi useful.

Oh and additionally, I'd just like to point one thing out.

Nintendo Wii is the console of all generations. It's made with "everyone" in mind, both casual and hardcore. All ages. Both genders.

So let me highlight one of those for you. ALL AGES. This is a two-parter here:
a)It's made for more than just the 5-year-olds, for whom I understand using Parental Controls to block voice chat altogether. If I had kids, I wouldn't want my 5-year-old talking to random strangers online, either. That's the purpose of Parental Controls, targeted in a specified case.

b)What about those adults out there? I understand, you can find other solutions to voice chat. You could use a computer, or a phone. But I'm a junior in college. After next year, I won't have all my college buddies around, and it's not going to be as easy as taking the extra time with computers/phone calls before setting up a match. I want to just be able to log onto my game and talk to my old buddy whom I haven't seen or spoken to in a while. Why can't I have that, as a mature adult? I just don't understand Nintendo's faulty logic on this one.

"Safe" and "Limited" are two VERY different things. There are ways around "Limited" so why not just ACTUALLY make the experience "Safe" if you're so concerned, Nintendo? THAT should be your number one concern--differentiating the two.

I don't want to listen to 14-year-olds and fratboys call each other homophobic slurs and the "N-word," so even if voice chat was disabled, I wouldn't use it.

Roman - "Any multiplayer game that requires cooperation pretty much needs a headset. Especially if it's a team based game."

This is a cop-out excuse for developers. If a game is designed well, the objective will be clear and teamwork will come naturally to involved players. Your argument is like saying that MP3 is lacking because there's not a voice shouting solutions to puzzles. A mulitplayer game, online or otherwise, should be just as playable by deaf mutes as anyone else.

Voice is a really big deal for me, like others have said, because you can't communicate without it! It's not any fun if you can't organize with your friends or direct them strategically, or talk trash. I don't care about using it so much against strangers, but it's insane to not have a bluetooth headset enabled for Wii. I'm really hoping it's announced in time for Smash Bros. and Batallion Wars, and maybe even for Endless Ocean. If you're just swimming around all that time it'd be nice to be able to relax with your friends and have a chat.

"This is a cop-out excuse for developers. If a game is designed well, the objective will be clear and teamwork will come naturally to involved players. Your argument is like saying that MP3 is lacking because there's not a voice shouting solutions to puzzles. A mulitplayer game, online or otherwise, should be just as playable by deaf mutes as anyone else."

I have to disagree. Of course the objective should be clear, and it usually is - capture the flag, kill your enemies, etc. etc. That part is not hard. But if you want to warn players of an oncoming sneak attack, how do you do that? Some complex button combination in the heat of battle? It doesn't make any sense, and it's inexcusable for a 7th generation console. We don't need to make excuses for them, they just need to get on it.

Whether or not voice chat is something you would use, Nintendo is making a mistake by not at least making it an option. Thanks to their friend codes, you're likely only going to be playing with people you know anyway, so what's the danger in letting you converse?

I have only used a microphone a couple of times few times. Playing on PS2 mainly. It was fun to use when I played Madden with my brother from 1000 miles away, but I didn't find it essential when playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Need for Speen Underground. The only reason it was fun to use to play with my brother was for the sake of convenience. Those were the only games I had ever used it with.
More recently I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 and can say that for the most part, I find the chatter obnoxious. Admittedly, I do not have a mic myself, so I'm just listening, but mostly what I hear through my speakers are teenages cursing like they've just learned the words and generally behaving ignorantly. The good players out there are seeing what's happening, reading the battlefield, and acting accordingly. They respond to what's going on around them wordlessly and are dominating game play, and judging by the amount of chatter I am hearing, the vast majority of gamers are not playing with headsets. Maybe this is different on the 360, I wouldn't know, having never played one. I do enjoy communicating with my friends when I play games, but if I'm playing with a friend, I'll call them on the phone while we play, I don't need a headset that will allow me to connect to anyone I want. However, it does provide convenience. So chalk me up as one who doesn't see it as a deal breaker or even as a major component, but one who would probably pick one up if it were an option.

I'd be so thrilled to have a vocal communication between me and my buddies. I'll have to say that having online chat communications would be the best thing for Nintendo to do.

If Xbox Live has taught me anything, its the following 2 things:

1: A unified online account system rules

2: Voice chat with randomly selected opponents sucks

I don't like being called a "turd-munching noob," only a wierd kind of masochist would...

Of course Nintendo *should* offer voice chat -- if you don't agree, frankly I can't be bothered to explain it to you. The issue is, they should only offer it if they can do it *correctly*. You need parental controls to be able to blanket disable the feature. You need quick, easy access to mute others at any time, and remember your mute list. You should probably have a mechanism for reporting especially offensive players to Nintendo, preferably with a few clicks. (Yes, I realize that at this point I'm probably describing XBL)

Anyway, if anybody honestly believes that a game that *needs* voice communication is by definition poorly designed, they've clearly never played a decent game of Tribes (1 or 2), or Team Fortress (1, C, or 2), or Natural Selection, or... basically any well-implemented team-based game. Imagine how most football games would go if no one was allowed to talk until the center yells "hike"! You need to communicate with your team to strategize effectively, and if you don't think that's true, you can't be very good at strategy.

Voice chat is a necessity. With friends that also have wii's i'd be able to talk to them while playing. Smacktalking is a major part of online play. And even if you don't like it you have the option to turn off voice chat. Voice chat and the absense of friend codes are needed for Nintendo. It's part of the reason why Xbox live is so successful. YES for Voice Chat.

Yes, it does break it for me. I REALLY want MoH:H2 to have voice, in SSBB its not as big an issue but with Battalion Wars 2 and Heroes 2 coming out and both featuring online co-op or team play its retarded to not include voice