When the Wii console was first announced the philosophy behind it was not only to invite the non-gamer but to encourage its usage for a multitude of activities. In theory the console’s main screen would have become the gateway to anything you wanted in your daily routine. Showing off photos/movies/music, reading daily headlines, and up to date weather forecasts were the initial items.


Some of these channels do a pretty good job but they don’t necessarily fit into everyone’s daily routine. More and more people rely on, on the go information from their cell phones and notebooks. In fact, these channels seem to be better fit for the DS. Future channels for 3DS? I hope so!

The other channels that focus more on gaming do a good job of informing those that actually care. The Nintendo Channel is one of the most used channels in my house hold since it gives us weekly updates and demos to explore. The Wii Shop Channel really needs to be merged with the Nintendo Channel to improve the shopper’s experience. They’d be able to see the average rating of a game, streaming videos, and stats all in one place.


I haven’t seen a new channel pop up in a long time, other than Netflix. Unfortunately, I don’t subscribe. If I were to come up with a few more game based channels some would be…

Leader Boards – The channel would read game save data and figure out stats for specific games server side. Those stats are passed back to the channel to store. User can choose to share or not share with friends or the whole world. This would provide a universal leader board.

Game Library – A simple channel that shows the games you have actually purchased. Anyone in your address book that has this channel would be able to see your collection. Registering games could be done within this channel too.

Only time will tell if Nintendo's 3DS and next home console will further expand/improve on the current functionality.

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"Leader Boards – The channel would read game save data and figure out stats for specific games server side. Those stats are passed back to the channel to store. User can choose to share or not share with friends or the whole world. This would provide a universal leader board.
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This. Even simple boards among friend groups would ad so much replay value to so many games. Even if in non point games they did speed runs or something.

Posted by

gwarf

on: 02/25/11, 21:10

Merging the Wii Shop and the Nintendo Channel would be an obvious improvement, but the way Nintendo talks about it hints at it being technically impossible on the Wii.

I don't know how Nintendo ended up making its system so rigid that apparently simply changes can't be made. The impossibility of increasing the maximum size for Wiiware games, and this.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 02/25/11, 21:36

We need more creative stuff like the Everybody Votes Channel. I still use that one weekly.

Edit: though, the EVC questions have gotten more dumbed down as of late...a lot of stupid questions in there. I guess they were bound to run out of good questions...

Posted by

anon_mastermind

on: 02/25/11, 22:09

Edited:

02/25/11, 22:11

@Pandareus

Yeah, this reminds me of the rule that they don't allow patches. Well, I believe there's an exception (Conduit 2?). They're definitely strict about the requirements and restrictions they set in place. Sometimes it creates frustration.

@anon_mastermind

I used that channel for a long time and then lost interest once my stats were full. They need a bit more to extend the longevity of the channel. Maybe milestones that allow your suggested questions to be bumped in submission.

Posted by

Abdooooo

on: 02/25/11, 22:39

Edited:

02/25/11, 22:41

I would definitely say the overall implementation of the various Wii channels has been somewhat of a disappointment based on expectations/ the potential set forth by Nintendo in the early days.

But at least the channels work with WiiConnect24.

Having said that, I honestly don't use channels like News and Weather all that much since at some point in time, I began to disable WiiConnect24 due its harmful nature to the Wii. I mean, the Wii is basically powered on and generating heat, but since the cooling fan is not running, the Wii ends up being damaged in the long run and leading to such ill effects such as random colored pixels on the screen.

Seems like a huge oversight by Nintendo.

Regardless, I do enjoy the features if you consider for a moment that they do not necessarily replace the way people look up info on their cell phones and notebooks, but rather supplement them. If you've booted up your Wii to play a game, the idea is why not go ahead and take a quick look at weather and news?

The channels aren't perfect, and they could have been updated regularly for improvement, but Nintendo never bothered much.

The Leader Board and Game Library idea seem like the next step in bringing these features together. I would love to see something like that.

Yeah, here's hoping to some nice content on 3DS!

Posted by

roykoopa64

on: 02/26/11, 01:53

Edited:

02/26/11, 01:54

Channels seem to segregate information that could otherwise be accessed easily. Although maybe if they didn't take forever to load that wouldn't be the case.

Posted by

Secret_Tunnel

on: 02/26/11, 02:40

@Secret_Tunnel

Thats a good point. If their next console has a truly persistent online connection that is shared among channels it would be seamless.

Posted by

Abdooooo

on: 02/26/11, 04:11