Why I Will Eventual Hate my Wii, and am starting to right now

[Vampyr]

So I was driving over to the gym to workout today, and I got a call from my girlfriend that the Wii wouldn't turn on.

My response:

"Aw, that sucks. I guess we'll have to get a new one - they just released those Black Wii's."

Her response:

"What about the virtual console games you bought?"

Me:

"We'll just redow - holy shit."

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Ultimately it ended up that our apartment has been having some power surge problems, so we had to unplug the Wii and rehook it up, and it started working again.

But one day, it will fail. Whether from old age, my house burning down, or the earth being swallowed by a black hole.

I'm so used to the things I buy digitally being tied to an account that is stored on a database somewhere and probably backed up three or four times.

I mean, just imagine if Steam games were tied to your PC, rather than your Steam account.

The VC was one of my favorite things about the Wii. It was practically the only reason I still own it, other than a select few other games. But what the hell. I can't keep investing in something that I know will eventually just be lost to me.

[Xantar]

Is this a reason why you will eventually hate your Wii or a reason why you will eventually hate the trend towards downloadable games?

Anyway, I believe you can save your Virtual Console games to an SD card.

[manasecret]

Xantar, from everything I've heard, VC buys are non-transferable. Sure, you can save them to SD cards for backup and extra space for that Wii, but you can not then move them to another Wii, sign in under your username or something, and have them work on a new Wii.

Again, this is what I've heard, never bothered to check with Nintendo. It's a shitty system, I'm sure because of fear of piracy. You can send your Wii into Nintendo and have them transferred, so I've heard.

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by Xantar

Is this a reason why you will eventually hate your Wii or a reason why you will eventually hate the trend towards downloadable games?

Anyway, I believe you can save your Virtual Console games to an SD card.

No offense, but did you read the reasoning in my post? Downloaded VC games are tied to the Wii. Even if you put them on an SD card it doesn't help.

Downloaded 360, steam, etc games are tied to the account. It doesn't matter what machine you're on.

[BreakABone]

I actually agree with you for the most part, don't think its a reason to hate the system, but it was an odd decision.

Especially considering that you can link your Wii to MyNintendo so its not like they don't keep records of the games you buy and stuff.

And if you really really want it that bad, as Manny said, you can send both consoles into Nintendo and they'll do it for you.

[Angrist]

I guess it's one of the reasons I barely bought any downloadable games for the Wii. Only two are Lost Winds (which I regret) and World of Goo (which is awesome, but I also have it for PC now).

[manasecret]

Horrendously stupid decision by Nintendo. Of course, that is from my consumer perspective. But even from Nintendo's perspective, how many sales have they lost because of people thinking like Angrist -- what happens to my games when my Wii dies or I get a new console?

I think it's something they will have to change eventually, especially when next-gen rolls around. So why not just change it now? They finally made playing off SD cards possible, but after what, two, three years? That should have been there day one.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by manasecret

Horrendously stupid decision by Nintendo. Of course, that is from my consumer perspective. But even from Nintendo's perspective, how many sales have they lost because of people thinking like Angrist -- what happens to my games when my Wii dies or I get a new console?

I think it's something they will have to change eventually, especially when next-gen rolls around. So why not just change it now? They finally made playing off SD cards possible, but after what, two, three years? That should have been there day one.

I honestly think its because Nintendo didnt put any safeguards against abusing the system.

What's to stop me from going to friend's house and dumping my entire VC/WiiWare collection on their console, and stealing theirs.

Not really sure how they can get around it unless they tie your account to a single console... you know what nevermind, just answered my own question

[thatmariolover]

Nintendo should just copy what Valve has done with Steam. You know you'll always own your stuff and always have the right to download it and play - no matter where you are.

Certainly DRM is here to stay, but there is a right and wrong way to do it.

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

I honestly think its because Nintendo didnt put any safeguards against abusing the system.

What's to stop me from going to friend's house and dumping my entire VC/WiiWare collection on their console, and stealing theirs.

Not really sure how they can get around it unless they tie your account to a single console... you know what nevermind, just answered my own question

...there is no safeguard against doing this on any existing system today. I can go home to my brother's Xbox and download every arcade game I've ever bought to his system.

I'm sorry, getting your games pirated sucks, but if you are going to support downloadable digital media, you have to do it this way, and accept the facts of life. Every other company lets you do this - Nintendo has absolutely no excuse. And having to mail your two Wii systems back in (on your down dime) in order for them to manually check to see if the games exist on one system, then move it over to another one, is not an acceptable solution.

However, I think they have shot themselves in the foot. This is -the- single most solid reason I have ever seen to pirate video games. A friend of mine at work was explaining how simple it is to mod a Wii and even pirate VC games. I'm going to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to pirate games I haven't bought yet, but I will at least be pirating the ones I paid for just to have them backed up safely on my own hard drive.

I just cannot believe the lack of tact and judgement Nintendo has demonstrated in every one of their decisions towards the online community. Their online gaming system sucks, their online store sucks, the quality of their online play sucks. I've come to the conclusion they just don't want you to have an enjoyable online experience.

I would love it if Nintendo would just become a game producer, and instead of the VC we had all of their titles available on 360 Arcade and PSN arcade.

I just feel incredibly duped (maybe due to my own stupidity) for not realizing what I was purchasing. I've become so accustomed to things being done the correct way, I didn't even think about how I was purchasing games not under a common account.

[TheSlyMoogle]

yeah the wii is super pirate city. Probably the most simplistic console in the history of consoles to mod. However I still don't even think it's worth the effort. Lol. Might as well just download all the VC stuff in its ROM form, and From my understanding most of the wii only VC stuff isn't worth purchasing.

[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by manasecret

Xantar, from everything I've heard, VC buys are non-transferable. Sure, you can save them to SD cards for backup and extra space for that Wii, but you can not then move them to another Wii, sign in under your username or something, and have them work on a new Wii.

Again, this is what I've heard, never bothered to check with Nintendo. It's a shitty system, I'm sure because of fear of piracy. You can send your Wii into Nintendo and have them transferred, so I've heard.

And so it is, AGAIN, the system set up to prevent pirating is just fucking over legitimate customers while the pirates have a good laugh.

Also, PC > Console online gaming. Has been and always will be.