Search KoopaTV!

Translate

Monday, December 16, 2013

Thoughts on Miiverse's Changes

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A lot of changes get a lot of thoughts.

When KoopaTV first reported to you on Miiverse over 7 months ago, it looked quite different then than it does now. There is 3DS compatibility now, and 3DS communities. But there were other changes, too. Let's (or just me) talk about these and how it affects the social network.

The biggest of these changes is that the cumulative Yeah counter is removed. This results in people like me who try to maintain a certain Yeah per Post to give up trying, along with other ratios. It also means the complete elimination of "Follow me and I'll Yeah your posts!" or "Help answer my question and I'll give you 5 Yeahs!". Those were wasteful posts in general. Or "I got 5,000 Yeahs! Thanks!"

There used to be this perception that Yeah count made you a better person. It represented you being a better poster. This is the same mentality that causes communities like Reddit to be such awful places, where upvotes are all that matters. This old way of doing things, now done away with for the better, meant there was a natural conflict between the "Would you like to post this on Miiverse?" in-game prompts for certain games like New Super Mario Bros. U and your reputation as a user. Those in-game posts always got a lesser amount of Yeahs than usual, usually none. But you benefit when you play New Super Mario Bros. U and you see all the different Miiverse posts from random people and your friends. The integration really does help the game if you look past its 4th Wall-shattering execution. So people wouldn't help spread the network effect if they were concerned about Yeah count. This only helps out future Miiverse integration into games, something I fully support.

This happened a long time ago, but KoopaTV hasn't touched on it: The Art Academy application on the Wii U (maybe I should've included that for reasons to get a Wii U?) being segregated into its own community (meaning you can only post screenshots in that community) means the majority of Miiverse's quality artwork is in that one community. The 3DS-only users might be the only ones providing art in the other communities. That's not really a bad thing. As it happens, the 3DS Miiverse posting interface is pretty much the same as the Wii U's.

There are also no longer community membership totals with communities. This means that users and developers alike cannot be astounded at how inactive and downtrodden communities are unless they actually take a look inside. Personally, I'd love to see how many people are in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies community. I've gotten people to actually get that game that otherwise wouldn't have had I not talked to them. It proves how strong the word-of-mouth effect is, and how one person can convince and change the thoughts of other people. One person is not as strong as many people, so that's why I'm trying to lobby Capcom-Unity to help out.

You got to make them feel good about their decision.

Now, finding these other people is another change: By default, posts by people who played the game will show up. You can change the default by switching from "Player Posts" to "All Posts". Always do "All Posts" unless you're searching in a community where you just want to see how little people actually have played the game, like Life With Horses 3D. You can't find people asking if they should get a game if you only look at "Player Posts" because the only people asking if they should get a game are people who haven't already played it. And no, demos don't get you into "Player Posts". So bad move on Nintendo's part, but it can be solved by a single tap so whatever.

It's no secret that Miiverse is plenty more populated now because of 3DS users. Most of those users are in the 3DS-exclusive communities or in the "Special Communities". So the Smash 4 community is being filled with shit. But it kind of always was.

More importantly is the fact that you now have a reason to replay some of those old 3DS games. As of today, even more 3DS communities are introduced, including Kid Icarus: Uprising and Fire Emblem: Awakening. Posting screenshots and attaching witty commentary to them can be pretty fun. And don't forget, Miiverse is provided free of charge! Get out there! Miiverse is better than ever!


Ludwig's NNID is PrinceOfKoopas. Go ahead and Follow him.


Miiverse has a lot more changes, including drastic redesigns.

No comments :

Post a Comment

We embrace your comments.
Expect a reply between 1 minute to 24 hours from your comment. We advise you to receive an e-mail notification for when we do reply.
Also, see our Disclaimers.

Spamming is bad, so don't spam. Spam includes random advertisements and obviously being a robot. Our vendor may subject you to CAPTCHAs.

If you comment on an article that is older than 60 days, you will have to wait for a staffer to approve your comment. It will get approved and replied to, don't worry. Unless you're a spambot.