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At this point, I will always buy a game on my Steam Deck over my Switch for one reason - competency of the online service infrastructure. Nintendo has been woe

by sylens 4y ago

At this point, I will always buy a game on my Steam Deck over my Switch for one reason - competency of the online service infrastructure. Nintendo has been woefully behind in this area for over a decade. You still need friend codes just to play online, and universal cross-game invites are not a given. There are also no guarantees that current Switch games will be playable on whatever comes next - while Nintendo usually does backwards compatibility for one previous generation, they made a clean break from Wii U to Switch.

tomatotomato37 4y ago
I'd argue Nintendo is less behind and more that Steam has been stupidly ahead of pretty much all other app stores for awhile now. I mean what other store has an entire section[0] dedicated to defiling you're programs integrity in a way that would make your average walled garden security user cry? [0]https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/ https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/
- capableweb 4y ago
  Not sure you can call Workshop as "defiling" anything, developers need to enable that and integrate it into their games, it's not like traditional mods that sometimes hook into the game engine from the outside without official game devs doing something to support it.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
Nintendo's online stuff is pretty bad but I don't think the friend code thing is a good example of that. The lower the friction of in-game interaction, the easier you make griefing, harassment, predatory interactions with minors, etc. Most platforms are trying to balance this out and find a "sweet spot" where it doesn't get in your way too much and you don't get too much bullshit. But importantly not zero bullshit. Nintendo has just pushed that lever as far as it can go in the other direction. You can't do much, and it's not easy, but you're essentially never going to interact with strangers without going out of your way to. Which almost completely eliminates those negative interactions. The jank of online play, dropped connections, the godawful performance of the e-shop, all valid targets. Friend codes are an intentional choice though and one very clearly aligned with how they see themselves.

by sylens 4y ago

tomatotomato37 4y ago

I'd argue Nintendo is less behind and more that Steam has been stupidly ahead of pretty much all other app stores for awhile now. I mean what other store has an entire section[0] dedicated to defiling you're programs integrity in a way that would make your average walled garden security user cry? [0]https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/ https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/

capableweb 4y ago
Not sure you can call Workshop as "defiling" anything, developers need to enable that and integrate it into their games, it's not like traditional mods that sometimes hook into the game engine from the outside without official game devs doing something to support it.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

Nintendo's online stuff is pretty bad but I don't think the friend code thing is a good example of that. The lower the friction of in-game interaction, the easier you make griefing, harassment, predatory interactions with minors, etc. Most platforms are trying to balance this out and find a "sweet spot" where it doesn't get in your way too much and you don't get too much bullshit. But importantly not zero bullshit. Nintendo has just pushed that lever as far as it can go in the other direction. You can't do much, and it's not easy, but you're essentially never going to interact with strangers without going out of your way to. Which almost completely eliminates those negative interactions. The jank of online play, dropped connections, the godawful performance of the e-shop, all valid targets. Friend codes are an intentional choice though and one very clearly aligned with how they see themselves.