We had a good response to the first Vooks Community Roundtable where we let our forum members share their thoughts and opinions relating to all issues gaming and Nintendo. The aim of this feature is to encourage healthy discussion amongst the community and to than share this with all Vooks readers, regardless of whether they are forum members or not. In this first edition, we asked the members to discuss what they thought would make a good Wii Channel.
More Inside We had a lot of good responses showcasing some excellent ideas of what Nintendo could do with the Wii Channels.
Frankbrown: Friend Channel – Show what your friends are playing, where they are on that globe thing from the News/Weather channel, see what game they just bought etc.
Formulated: Online Radio Channel? Themes Channel to download alternative menu’s/sounds/layouts. A Demo’s channel for when cross-promotional DS demo’s kick in
Tom the Bomb: I’d like to see a Game Channel that lists game release dates and what games have been released on every console.
Cella_ door666: I want to see more on the current channels…I want more of paint a section in the photo channel, GAME NEWS in the news channel…oh and gameboy games in the shop channel!
MLTZER: Something similar to podcasts would be great; both public and private channels. They may be just audio or video too. It would be cool as it will go with the whole ‘channel’ name. From a Nintendo channel on news/events, to public channels just like the VOOK cast
Sephiroth: Mine is that they make a channel that you can go to and see upcoming games for the Wii, including a little preview about the game and when the game comes out.
Opium:
World Time Channel
Using the globe from the weather and news channels the World Time Channel will help you answer one crucial question. If it’s 3pm in Sydney, what time is it in New York?
The local time for all major cities is shown and you can spin the globe to see what the local time is anywhere on the globe. Other modes can be selected too like ‘display time zones’ which shades each time zone a slightly different colour.
The World Time Channel would be a visual representation of time and will likely help you out by telling you it’s way too early in the morning to phone your friend in New York.
Railspider: To be honest, the Wii channel interface, if taken advantage of, could define the Wii. Even though it doesn’t have the power of the PS3/360, it could be updated via firmware to cater to so many different areas it would become a one-stop spot for information. I mean, if they wanted to, Nintendo could incorporate: Dictionary channel, Daily comic channel, TV guide, Radio station, Traffic, Food/Grocery Ordering (via google checkout?)….the list goes on.
Of course, these would take N a lot of time and cost money, for perhaps negligible return. So what do I think the big N should do? Open up the source and allow for 3rd-parties (read: anyone) to develop their own channels, not unlike ‘widgets’ or plug-ins for software like Firefox.
Think of what a talented programmer with too much time could come up with? All Nintendo would need to do is provide a download service channel, allowing programmers to upload their creations to a central database. I can see this defining the Wii, adding a ridiculous range of software. Heck, this could be a way for all those 3rd-party VC-style games to hit the public, via ‘homemade channels.’
Martin: This will bring in everybody, a Sports Channel. The logistics of it and how localised it would have to be would be a major hurdle, but in brief:
-Upcoming fixtures, up to date results and statistics
-News, interviews and opinion in the world of sport
-Action Shots, or something you could call a photographic database of anything sport-related
-Something similar for video – it’d be good for ‘best shots of the week’ or something
-Maybe something to do with Memorabilia, like an
-Add your own Photo/achievement service to show others
-Fantasy leagues, though I’m not a big fan of them
-Sport games, what’s out, what’s coming, what’s so good about them, I want to share my scores and stats, I should be able to do that too.
Misterbumpy: I’d like to see a channel that allows us to do things, which we can’t, or can’t do easily using the Opera browser on the Wii.
A Messenger/Xbox Live style friends list channel where we can keep track of what our friends are doing/playing and allow us to chat with them (typing using the remote may get tiring but how about implementing gestures, just like on a PDA), or even voice chat (if Nintendo release a wireless headset in the future) and perhaps even join their game. Obviously how this would work is dependant on how Nintendo implements their online solution for the Wii.
A Media Player, which will allow us to play mp3s and mpeg4 videos on our SD cards (just like the Photo Channel), create playlists and also allow us to listen to online radios and podcasts.
Taking the friends channel idea further, how about a Mii Neighborhood Channel where you bring your Mii into a town and interact with other people and their Miis within your country. You can chat in a cafe and use gestures to trigger emoticons. Or perhaps you both use blackboards to draw images, similar to MSN Messenger. This is all sounding MMORPG-like, so it’s probably more suited to a full-game or software you can download from the Wii Shop.
Comments