But the Wii’s hardware is holding those possibilities back, says MMO veteran Jeff Strain
Nintendo’s Wii remote offers a ‘staggering’ number of possibilities for developing MMO games, according to a former NCsoft and Blizzard developer.
Jeff Strain – who wants to develop zombie-based MMO titles exclusively for consoles – told Develop that the Wii remote that motion-control devices could help the classic MMO interface work on home consoles.
“I have to tell you, the possibilities of creating a MMO around the Wii controller are just staggering,” he said. “You could do so much with it.”
Despite his enthusiasm for the controller, Strain said that the Wii’s hardware was “just not up to scratch” to exhibit the kind of MMO presentation that PC fans expect to see.
“But, hey, who knows what the next generation of hardware will bring,” he added. ”Certainly the Wii’s direct-access controller would enable a phenomenal level of MMO mechanics.”
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Strain today unveiled his new Seattle-based studio, Undead Labs.
The Wiimote is basic at best - the pointer is prone to massive interference in a real world scenario (ie. your living room) causing horrible jitter, and the accelerometers provide rudimentary data about vague gestures.
The Wiimote is far from precise and is a long way off being anywhere close to a keyboard and mouse. If Strain thinks the Wiimote is the key to having MMOs on consoles, he's very much mistaken.
i'd be doubtful about the Wii-mote or any of the motion control devices. but what do i know? Not much.
quite why they don't make more console games compatable with a KB+mouse i'll never know. if people are willing to pay loads of money for a crappy fake guitar or skateboard, they'll spend £30 on a KB+mouse, especially if they can use it with more than one game.
@NintyDev The problems you've mentioned do exist but given the proper conditions (low lighting and a CRT or plasma) the become nonexistent. I believe your sensitivity may need tweaking as well. KB+mouse will always be a standard on PC but the future of console controllers is the Wiimote. I believe that it is a step up from KB+mouse because it relies on the users physical abilities to interact with the environment while the KB+mouse setup is merely guiding you through the terrain.
