So the other day I read that Nintendo decided to exclude any type of voice chat from the online mode for their upcoming game, Splatoon. They essentially said they don’t trust the online community to play nice enough with voice chat, and you know what? They’re right.
Think about it. If you’ve ever played any online first-person shooter or MOBA or any other remotely competitive game with some sort of chat, chances are you’ve encountered far more assholes than you have people legitimately trying to help you. Too many people use voice chat as an opportunity to tell you what they think you’re doing wrong or blame you for their own mistakes or any other type of harrassment.
Even in a game like Final Fantasy XIV where the community is noticeably nicer than most I’ve come across, you run into people who use their communication opportunities to shit all over you and anyone else that did anything less than perfection. Naturally, this is in the player vs. player mode, i.e. the competitive section. I imagine if the chocobo racing section in the Gold Saucer had live player chat it would be filled with colorful language instead of “Hey nice chocobo color!”
The point is the backlash I’ve seen against Nintendo for choosing to not include voice chat into Splatoon’s online multiplayer mode is unnecessary. Come on guys, we all know how online competitive communities are. It’s a bit naive to think that just because it’s a cutesy looking game (that’s getting high praise by the way) on a Nintendo console that the people playing it will become saints and do nothing but help their fellow teammates. They’ll dump on others just as much as any other game, and we all know it.
So in a way I commend Nintendo for calling out how shitty online competitive communities can be, and preventing people from harrassing others in their game. Sure, party and friend chat would have been nice, but these are also the only guys still attempting any sort of couch multiplayer, so it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise. And since they’ve shown they can do DLC with Mewtwo and Lucas on Super Smash Bros., who’s to say they can’t do the same to add in party and friends only chat later down the road?
Nintendo may have messed up with their online functionality a lot in the past, but they aren’t totally ignorant on the online communities. There are a lot more assholes than there are nice people, and we all know it.
– Jimizzle