Nintendo Switch Chat thread

I kind of dislike the 'design philosophy' behind Discord - where it's all a closed system and happens on their servers and is linked to your central account - but I'll use whatever everyone else is using.

Ah, lovely subscription upgrades, advertising, affiliate deals/pack-ins and other centralised business stuff to increase LTV of users, incoming.

If its good great but they know what they're doing.

We've raised over $30,000,000 from top VCs in the valley like Greylock, Benchmark, and Tencent. In other words, we'll be around for a while.

No way they're going to want a return on a 30 million dollar investment on 9 million captive daily users.

Enjoy it.

Discord has wonderful uptime, quality sound, amazing features, simplicity, customizable, seamless, gaming overlay, quick bug fixes, awesome PR, and more.

What? Who cares?

Discord has helped us run our organization, make new friends, and experience unforgettable moments. We couldn't do without it.

Indeed, so pay for it when the time comes.

Our close knit community wouldn't have been made possible without Discord - it was the perfect tool to bring our community to the next level.

Yes and it will continue to be possible in return for $

No venture capital supported venture stays good. Ever.

Dunno about Android but there's a decent free Mumble app on iOS called Mumblefy.

That's why open source is good because if something is gooseberry fool or if you want to pay them you can. Open source is not necessarily free, they just have to release the source code so someone else can pick it up if its gooseberry fool.

You can't do that with these monolithic VoIP providers who are desperately trying to capture the whole market and the idea that one is the best and also free is very gullible to buy into.

At least if voice chat is supported properly with a respective product you can know it will be there until the servers are eventually switched off. It's thanks to massive names like Nintendo doing this stuff poorly that it opens up an opportunity for communities like gaming to have to pay more somewhere else. More power to them, I guess.

I wonder if at some point in the future consoles just won't bother with communication infrastructure because it'll all be owned in terms of marketshare by someone else, like GameSpy.

That's exactly what Discord want, you get those massive numbers and popularity popping up very suddenly by offering it for free.

Didn't realise you had to keep the app open if you want to keep chatting :lol:

I do love a Nintendo fuckup from time to time, really brings the community on the same page

jawafour wrote:
Yoshimi wrote:As someone who didn't pay too much attention to the Switch before buying one on a whim, thought I'd share some thoughts...

I see that OR has already chipped in with his views and I'd like to share mine, too .

2 > Nintendo Account / Friend codes / NNID / My Nintendo... I can't believe that Nintendo sought to re-approach their online system and ended up with three or four IDs / logons . I like to think I'm pretty on the ball with these things but I find it confusing, so more "casual" users must wonder what is going on with it.

4 > I was apprehensive about the quality of the dock before I got the Switch and, having used it for a while, I find it to be extremely basic in terms of quality. You can tell that Nintendo has set an extremely limited budget for that part of the setup; it feels like it must cost around a fiver to make. It works... but I'm very careful when putting the console in and out of the dock.

Hmm, the more I think about it, the more I think I might hold out on getting a Switch for at least a year or 2, no matter how good Mario Odyssey is.

Mafro wrote:You literally just download it and make an account. There's a desktop app and a web version as well.

Pedz wrote:Go to app store > type discord > install.

Done.

Thanks, guys - I will try this in a while!

Reading on, it seems that our mighty mega techs (Gecko and Karl :wub:

) have reservations about Discord... in summary, it appears that Discord is pretty cool but there are fears about how it is managed and that it may become a charged service? For now, though, I guess it is what most GRcadians will use when playing Splatoon 2 online?

Anyone use a tempered glass screen protector on their Switch? Got one off Amazon (2 in fact came in the box) got 95 5 star reviews, 2 4 star and 1 1 star. Now I was using a plastic protector that came with the Switch case and when docking it it would sit in as if it had nothing on the screen but with the glass one it feels a little 'snugger'.

Anyone else's feel like that after applying the glass protector?

jawafour wrote:
Mafro wrote:You literally just download it and make an account. There's a desktop app and a web version as well.
Pedz wrote:Go to app store > type discord > install.

Done.

Thanks, guys - I will try this in a while!

Reading on, it seems that our mighty mega techs (Gecko and Karl ) have reservations about Discord... in summary, it appears that Discord is pretty cool but there are fears about how it is managed and that it may become a charged service? For now, though, I guess it is what most GRcadians will use when playing Splatoon 2 online?

The complaints are mainly that it's too good to be free, so it probably can't stay like that forever.

But god forbid the people handwringing over how the company can keep the current service up would actually support what it is today by paying for Nitro.

Chipping in here: Discord is infinitely more usable and feature filled than Mumble, and is much, much easier to set-up. The sound quality is excellent, the social/group aspect fully formed, and the interface friendly. I've only used Mumble once, to play Overwatch with Falsey and Trelliz, and it was a pain in comparison.

jiggles wrote:
jawafour wrote:Reading on, it seems that our mighty mega techs (Gecko and Karl ) have reservations about Discord... in summary, it appears that Discord is pretty cool but there are fears about how it is managed and that it may become a charged service? For now, though, I guess it is what most GRcadians will use when playing Splatoon 2 online?

The complaints are mainly that it's too good to be free, so it probably can't stay like that forever.

But god forbid the people handwringing over how the company can keep the current service up would actually support what it is today by paying for Nitro.

My complaint is that it's an entirely closed, centralised system. I prefer Mumble's open-source ciient-server system. And I don't think it's 'handwringing' if you're advocating for an alternative -- why would I buy the premium version of a product I don't really like?

Nintendo's new online service looks like it could be every bit as bad as you feared
Switch off?

Let's get the nice stuff out of the way. Splatnet, which has just sneaked out onto iOS and Android devices as part of the Nintendo Switch Online app, is just lovely - a joyous, colourful, varied and detailed breakdown of all that you've been up to in Splatoon 2, complete with rundowns of what maps are up next in rotation and what weapons you prefer. You can even order a fancy pair of new trousers in it to pick up next time you log onto the game.

That all works wonderfully - which is a good thing, as the rest of the app is a bit of a disaster right now.

Ever since it was first announced that a majority of the Switch's online services would be delivered via a companion app - key features to online gaming such as voice chat - there have been some concerns about how exactly it'd all work. And I'm sorry to report that, right now, it's a convoluted mess.

Splatoon 2 is currently the only game to support the app, and here's how you go about setting up a room for you and your friends. First, you'll need to head to the Online Lounge in Splatoon 2's multiplayer area. From there, you'll be prompted to create a room, and you can push a notification out to your phone. It's on your phone - and only on your phone, it would seem - that you can then invite friends into a room.

It's something of a faff, and it doesn't look like it'll be worth it - at present, you can only take part in private battles, and the voice chat itself seems extremely limited. Unlike with Skype, if you flick aside to another app on your phone, you'll lose the ability to talk to your friend. So, if you need to head to an IM client as I did, to figure out with a friend exactly how to make sense of it all, you're fresh out of luck.

You'll also need your phone screen on for that voice chat to remain connected - meaning it guzzles battery in the process. It's an almost aggressively limited service, and this is before we get into the mess of cables you'll need if you're going to want to play online with headphones in the Switch's handheld mode - something which it would seem is only possible with a separate splitter available elsewhere.

We knew it was going to be limited, of course, and in its defence it's not even early days yet for the app - the official release date is still set for this coming Friday, and even then new features are to be rolled in over the course of time. First impressions count for a lot, though, and unless something dramatic happens over the next couple of days they're going to be ghastly for a number of people. Right now there's just not enough there to justify downloading the Switch companion app, and beyond the stat-tracking of Splatnet it's more of a fuss using its voice chat than heading to an external alternative such as Discord.

It's worse than I'd feared, essentially, and I'm sure I'm not going to be the only dissenting voice when it gets into more hands alongside Splatoon 2 later this week. Why exactly has Nintendo chosen this path? The answer, most likely and somewhat understandably, is to help keep its console a safe space for younger players by adding a certain barrier of entry for online voice chat.

Last generation, the Miiverse performed a similar trick in its gentle imitation of online message boards, but the Switch companion app - despite a couple of cute touches - has no way near the same amount of charm, or the deftness of execution. There's a long way to go, of course, before Nintendo starts charging for the service in 2018, but judging from our very first glimpse there's an awful lot of work to be done before it can in good conscience put a price on this.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... you-feared

Pretty incredible Nintendo are behind even Xbox in, what, 2004?

Well that is all kinds of gooseberry fool.

I know I keep saying this, but...

Wii U: Miiverse, messaging and online gaming - free
Switch: Nothing, comms atrocity and online gaming - £25

The Switch is weird. Tremendous batch of launch games... and incredibly weak system features and user comms.

It really does seem like Nintendo still have no idea of what they want Switch online to actually be.

Fudged Voice Chat app, delayed paid online, change in VC plans (NES Rentals to a "library")....

They're making it up as they go along aren't they?

If there's enough of a backlash against the app it's not a stretch to imagine that we'll see voice chat re-integrated to the system itself. They could easily do that as a hardware revision of the unit itself, or release a JoyCon 2.0 with a headphone/microphone jack built in so people can upgrade it that way.

jawafour wrote:I know I keep saying this, but...

Wii U: Miiverse, messaging and online gaming - free
Switch: Nothing, comms atrocity and online gaming - £25

The Switch is weird. Tremendous batch of launch games... and incredibly weak system features and user comms.

I have some good news for you Jawa!

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/0 ... eat_update

Classic Nintendo convolution :lol:

OrangeRakoon wrote:...Classic Nintendo convolution

. So I have to pretend to be my Dad and use another device to see the same kind of game tracking info that is built in to the 3DS :lol:

.

Nintendo are idiotic geniuses

.

Cave Story+ has appeared on the eShop

.

I was pretty interested in this... but it's £26.99 :shock:

. No way am I paying that much for it :lol:

.

jawafour wrote:I know I keep saying this, but...

Wii U: Miiverse, messaging and online gaming - free
Switch: Nothing, comms atrocity and online gaming - £25

The Switch is weird. Tremendous batch of launch games... and incredibly weak system features and user comms.

They aren't charging for the service yet.

Mafro wrote:
jawafour wrote:I know I keep saying this, but...

Wii U: Miiverse, messaging and online gaming - free
Switch: Nothing, comms atrocity and online gaming - £25

The Switch is weird. Tremendous batch of launch games... and incredibly weak system features and user comms.

They aren't charging for the service yet.

Lets face it, Mafro, it'd be amazing if they did. And they will be from January, so there needs to be a pretty big step up in service.

Nintendo Switch Chat thread

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