5 ms·

"Demanding" anything from a superior is a bit of a no-no in Japan, even if it's something as simple as a phone call.

by mcaruso 7y ago

werber 7y ago
So communication is completely top to bottom?
- proncton 7y ago
  >completely top to bottom effectively, yes. This was a large part of why nintendo's online strategy was so poor for such a long time. The Switch is the first of their products where they specifically asked the younger employees to lay out what it should look like.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    Common in many Asian countries, and kills ability to see shit at product level - definitely.
  - kick 7y ago
    I'll cede that some of Nintendo's online strategy failed, hard, but...outside of a few things, I don't think they did that bad? Friend codes were actually really neat; they managed to do interesting things in terms of casual online interaction (I still remember being blown away at video chatting with someone half-way across my country on DSi hardware (16MB RAM and ARM processors that weren't even capable of running Linux[1]), in a (first-ish party; Game Freak) video game where it wasn't even a sideshow it was such a small feature), they managed to do pretty painless interaction between your device and a PC in 2010, Flipnote Studio was a really innovative/impressive piece of social media in 2008 (more like Vine than Twitter, really, and first-party), etc. Like sure, most of their uses of online prior to the Wii U or so were novelty uses, but they were still really well-executed, and at least early-on had a whole lot of genuinely interesting uses of it. [1] I think there's a port of a very very old version of μClinux that kind of works on the system, so this is only partially true.
    - wink 7y ago
      When did they introduce friend codes? Couldn't you say "Nintendo's online strategy" (should have) started with the original Wii in 2006 and was basically non-existant for years? :) Only being half-snarky here, I only own a SNES and a GameBoy Advanced.
      - kick 7y ago
        The Wii was too early, I think (anecdotally, I remember my family couldn't figure out how to get it connected to the internet), given the market it was aiming for (families). They introduced friend codes with either the original DS or the DS Lite, I believe.
        tosssafgfr 7y ago
        the Wii came after X360, not too early.
        kick 7y ago
        The Xbox 360 was aimed at a niche of people (college-aged 'gamers'), and I qualified my statement saying that it was too early for the demographic the Wii was targeting.
        JonathonW 7y ago
        DS and Wii games both used the same friend code system— they’re GameSpy profile IDs converted over to a friendly 12-digit format. Which, coincidentally, is why Wii and DS online no longer work; Nintendo never built a replacement service after GameSpy shut down in 2014.
        Kaiyou 7y ago
        The GameCube had at least one game that was online only: Phantasy Star Online III. And you're telling me a generation later was still too early? Heck, in Japan, both the N64 and the SNES had online capabilities through additional hardware.
  - werber 7y ago
    Do you have any articles about how to reached down?
  - superbaconman 7y ago
    Was poor? It's currently a Joke. Coming from Halo and to Super Smash Bros I'm shocked at the complete lack of online support. 1. Trading phone numbers is easier than adding Friends on a switch 2. No voice chat service 3. No built in streaming 4. No game invite system
    - neetrain 7y ago
      Don't be surprised. It was even worse.

"Demanding" anything from a superior is a bit of a no-no in Japan, even if it's something as simple as a phone call.

werber 7y ago

So communication is completely top to bottom?

proncton 7y ago
>completely top to bottom effectively, yes. This was a large part of why nintendo's online strategy was so poor for such a long time. The Switch is the first of their products where they specifically asked the younger employees to lay out what it should look like.
- ta999999171 7y ago
  Common in many Asian countries, and kills ability to see shit at product level - definitely.
- kick 7y ago
  I'll cede that some of Nintendo's online strategy failed, hard, but...outside of a few things, I don't think they did that bad? Friend codes were actually really neat; they managed to do interesting things in terms of casual online interaction (I still remember being blown away at video chatting with someone half-way across my country on DSi hardware (16MB RAM and ARM processors that weren't even capable of running Linux[1]), in a (first-ish party; Game Freak) video game where it wasn't even a sideshow it was such a small feature), they managed to do pretty painless interaction between your device and a PC in 2010, Flipnote Studio was a really innovative/impressive piece of social media in 2008 (more like Vine than Twitter, really, and first-party), etc. Like sure, most of their uses of online prior to the Wii U or so were novelty uses, but they were still really well-executed, and at least early-on had a whole lot of genuinely interesting uses of it. [1] I think there's a port of a very very old version of μClinux that kind of works on the system, so this is only partially true.
  - wink 7y ago
    When did they introduce friend codes? Couldn't you say "Nintendo's online strategy" (should have) started with the original Wii in 2006 and was basically non-existant for years? :) Only being half-snarky here, I only own a SNES and a GameBoy Advanced.
    - kick 7y ago
      The Wii was too early, I think (anecdotally, I remember my family couldn't figure out how to get it connected to the internet), given the market it was aiming for (families). They introduced friend codes with either the original DS or the DS Lite, I believe.
      - tosssafgfr 7y ago
        the Wii came after X360, not too early.
        kick 7y ago
        The Xbox 360 was aimed at a niche of people (college-aged 'gamers'), and I qualified my statement saying that it was too early for the demographic the Wii was targeting.
      - JonathonW 7y ago
        DS and Wii games both used the same friend code system— they’re GameSpy profile IDs converted over to a friendly 12-digit format. Which, coincidentally, is why Wii and DS online no longer work; Nintendo never built a replacement service after GameSpy shut down in 2014.
      - Kaiyou 7y ago
        The GameCube had at least one game that was online only: Phantasy Star Online III. And you're telling me a generation later was still too early? Heck, in Japan, both the N64 and the SNES had online capabilities through additional hardware.
- werber 7y ago
  Do you have any articles about how to reached down?
- superbaconman 7y ago
  Was poor? It's currently a Joke. Coming from Halo and to Super Smash Bros I'm shocked at the complete lack of online support. 1. Trading phone numbers is easier than adding Friends on a switch 2. No voice chat service 3. No built in streaming 4. No game invite system
  - neetrain 7y ago
    Don't be surprised. It was even worse.