One of the greatest things Nintendo has done was allowing the DS to be unlocked for regions. This allowed gamers around the world to share their favorite games from all cultures and countries with just a click of the “buy” button at an online store.
The DSi loses this great freedom by locking it down to a region. “Nintendo DS software is region free so you can play any DS software on DSi from any region. You can also browse the internet on your DSi wherever you are in the world and exchange your photos with friends from around the world,” says Nintendo (CVG).
Much like the US Entertainment Industries need to lock down everything and contribute to global piracy, Nintendo follows suit with their hand-helds, tis a sad day indeed. Of course Nintendo reasons it all away by yelling parental controls and making it easier for regions to access their own content.
“DSi is region locked because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region. Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit.”
Specifically tailored for each region is a nice way of saying that each region has to pay the penalty of not being “first” (second, or third) to get some cool new features. Although Nintendo could put emphasis on the region the gamer lives in with complete access out of those bounds if they wanted, they’ve chosen to use this as a crutch to lock users out of content.
Users will get their content, of course. It just means more home brews, software hacks, hardware hacks and workarounds for the system. If that’s what Nintendo is trying to inspire, then they’ve done their job right.
However, wouldn’t it be great if they could just come out and say “we don’t want certain people accessing specific content until we say you can.”
Hey guys, why does Paul have to leave? I know you’ve been saying you would leave if you didn’t get enough comments, so I’m sorry I didn’t post last episode! I’ll miss you being on the show, glad we still get some more episodes with you, you have a fun energy and insight into gaming that makes the show great.
It’s also terrible about that story about the young woman committing suicide, another sign of ignored infrastructure of our roads, bridges and mental health of the people. This isn’t politcast though (joke for Dan Q).
I want to know if Jonah has been playing the Pillar’s of Eternity, I’ve been playing quite a lot and enjoying it. I think it really recaptured the feel of the Infinity Engine games, great writing and even improved upon it. For example the Text Adventure choices were a nice addition to the game. They also fixed old abuses like with the Rogue being able to stack a bunch of traps and cheese kill a boss, you can only place one trap per area so no insta kill. Not to mention the pickpocketing merchants and selling the items back to them.
@Game Time commitment: I agree with you about the time issue, getting older I have less time and this is why I stopped playing World of Warcraft and avoid all MMO’s. I only play games that I can quit out of at a moment’s notice if needed to. I’m still into RPG games; PoE isn’t as open world as Skyrim was. Paul is right about story, a game can have a great story but if the gameplay is boring grinding of fighting to get your XP up enough to advance to the next area you just don’t want to bother.
@Lego Dimension characters: I love the idea of Doctor who we need some games these characters, I think DW should have a puzzle game series it’d fit the character and show idea more than what they have done so far. A Lego DW will have to do for now I suppose. For me I’d want the older Doctors like the 7th or 8th doctors, I loved the Victorian Tardis those two had.
@Nintendo Theme Park: Excuse me while my inner child goes berserk with sheer joy. I would die of just pure happiness being able to walk through a Hyrule castle or Mario land. Paul is right the Nintendo IP’s deserve a large scale area of rides, exhibits, games, and more. I mean I’m actually thinking there needs to be some sort of bounce house where you can step or jump on goombas, have a Yoshii Ride and so on. I also loved the Harry Potter world stuff and hope the Nintendo theme park will be as good as that. Could you imagine a foam sword fighting as Link? I can!