[Update: To clarify, “chump meter” is a nickname for what’s called the Connection Percentage. Everyone starts out with 100%, then that number lowers as you drop out or more and more matches.]
Nintendo apparently listens to consumer complaints, because in Metroid Prime Hunters’ wifi mode, players will have a “Chump” statistic that tells others of their sour quitting. Basically it lets you know how many times the bum in question has bailed out of matches in the past before you decide to play with him. I guess NOA got tired of snakers dropping out of races.
A puss meter. I think that’s the Revolution’s other secret.
Thanks, Matthew.
Anonymous
sigh….it’s much too late…
even if every game from now on had this feature, my favorite one – mario kart- still doesn’t have all these advancements. i guess it’ll be another 5 years before they can have another go at it
Anonymous
awesomeness. Hopefully there’s a function to filter players with a high drop rate.
March 20:th, the day the N-wifi servers will overheat 😛
Silent K
Can you be matched with a random player online and then choose to add that random person to your friend list? that would be nice.
The Chump Meter type thing is a decent idea. Of course it only tells if you shut off your DS, it won’t register it if you unplug your Dongle from your computer. Still, it makes it a little bit harder at least, and that’s a good thing.
I pre-ordered mine yesterday from the NWS, I will supposedly get a free T-shirt with it. Hoo Ray, an XXXL that won’t fit me! BUT, she assured me that there would be other sizes.
Anonymous
silent k, the article says that you can add random opponents that you like as Rivals, and it will let you play your Rivals when they’re online, but from what I gather you still won’t be able to chat/IM them. Which makes sense.
Anonymous
you can chat with the mic in between matches… only one person can speak at a time… and you could very well trade friend codes then if you wanted…
Anonymous
Wow.. that Weavel character… looks like the sick blasphemous offspring of Samus and Master Chief…
Anyway, yes. Hurray for the Chump meter.
Frisby
Such good news,
I expect a new Mario Kart sooner than 5 years.
LSSLAVE
Maybe year 2 of the revo?
I know they had to rush the DS one to show people a good racing game is possible on the DS, since EA games releases… well actually do they ever make anything good?
year 2 or 3 of the revo I expect Mario Kart
Wai-Tung Leung
Of course such systems have their faults. For example it can’t (at least not till somebody corrects me on the matter) discriminate between those who shut off their DS unit on purpose and those who do it by accident, or if the battery runs out and stuff.
That said the number of people who accidentally disconnect is probably significantly smaller then those who do it on purpose.
Rollin
What r the chances someone will power off by accident at the exact same time they’re getting their ass kicked? It’s a small gamble. And if it’s a battery issue, i’m sure it wouldn’t cost you, because Animal Crossing tells you to save right when your batt gets low. Hunters would probably be able to tell why you dropped out.
Also, i don’t think u can just unplug your dongle. You have to actually walk out of range, unplugging would be too sudden of a disconnect.
Matthew
Wai-tung, yeah, you are probably right. However, how often does someone accidentally turn off their DS during a compitition? I’d be willing to guess almost never.
However, I have been known to play mine until it forcefully shuts itself down do to lack of battery…
Still, the original article said that it will only count when you turn your DS off, not accidentally walk out of range or have connection problems or something, which I think is cool.
Anonymous
“you can chat with the mic in between matches… only one person can speak at a time… and you could very well trade friend codes then if you wanted…”
I’m pretty sure the game only allows chatting between friends…
Anonymous
I hear Rollin is a chump
InvisibleMan
I’ve had the computer using the dongle turned off by an unsuspecting third party more than once! Because I’m away from the computer, and nothing on it indicates it is being used, someone in the household goes over and shuts it off. That will get you disconnected!
Another thing that will get you disconnected by accident is when your neighbor shuts off their wireless router, the one you’ve been piggybacking from (Rollin, you may sympathize). You can even get disconnected from a wireless router if it starts getting heavy traffic (big downloads, etc.) from other computers. It has happened to me also on several occasions.
I think we shouldn’t think of this “chump meter” only as a way to castigate the quitters: it is also a way to measure how unreliable the connection is for some players, maybe to no fault of their own.
Nicholas Roussos
Still, deliberate dis-connections will always be more frequent than accidental. beyond that, shouldn’t a user with a stable connection be able to look for other users with a real stable connection? Whether you get disconnected by accident or on-purpose, it still disrupts the game (at least it disrupts the results or something).
Anonymous
“I think we shouldn’t think of this “chump meter” only as a way to castigate the quitters: it is also a way to measure how unreliable the connection is for some players, maybe to no fault of their own.”
Huh? The chump meter is not a way to measure the reliability of someone’s connection cause it only counts against you when you shut down the system during a game. What don’t people get about this?
InvisibleMan
Nicholas: I agree. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t be too judgemental about someone with a low “Chump percentage”. It could be that they can’t afford good connectivity! Or, that they didn’t know they had a bad connection and they are on their way to fix that. Still, yes, we should be able to choose only players with good connections!
Anon: The “Chump meter” I suppose gets measured on Nintendo’s Wi-Fi servers. There is no way for them to know what caused a player to get disconnected! (Maybe there is a way to know when a player starts to get a weak signal before final blackout, but not when a player’s server or computer gets turned off by a third party without the gamer’s knowledge.)
folax
Yeah I know some chumps on this comment page (Silent K, Rollin), can’t wait to beat their backsides in some multiplayer carnage
Archaic
Let me just quickly quote wholesale from the Nintendo.com article where this news comes from. Emphasis mine.
Everyone hates it when they run into disconnectors online. How are you handling that?
We track a stat that the game calls Connection Percentage, but that I’ve been calling the Chump Meter. It keeps track of anyone who boots off. So, if I’m beating some kid and he tries to disconnect to avoid the loss, he’ll be punished for that. When he turns the game back on, the game will know what happened and it will then hand out some Chump Points.
So basically, your Connection Percentage starts to lower. Everyone starts out on the same page with 100%, and as you disconnect the percentage will lower. Before you start a game with someone you can see the Connection Percentage and decide if you want to play with that person. But the cool thing is that if you get ejected from legitimately losing your connection, it won’t affect your Connection Percentage.
So….what is everyone worried about exactly now? It’s pretty obvious from here that it’s not counting the legit disconnections.
Frisby
In Mario Kart, if you stand still for 30 seconds you get automaticly dropped out. I wonder if Metroid will add this feature and if so would it be labled a Chump factor.
I don’t think it will be implemented because of the “camping” technique used in FPS’s but its certinly food for thought.
Matthew
InvisibleMan said: “There is no way for them to know what caused a player to get disconnected!”
Yeah, you would be right if that was judge by the WiFi system itself. But your chump meter is effected by the game itself. The handheld unit with the game you are using will know whether the game got disconnected form the WiFi or if you just shut off your DS.
It’s the game itself that judges the meter. If it was a change in the WiFi components, it could be used for all current WiFi games, not just Metroid.
I’m not trying to be condescending, so I hope I didn’t come off that way, just trying to help clear the fog.
Anonymous
Obviously there IS a way for them to know how you got DC’d, or he wouldn’t say that. I don’t think anybody here programs DS games for a living.
Wai-Tung Leung
I like how after I make it clear that “That said the number of people who accidentally disconnect is probably significantly smaller then those who do it on purpose.” I still get lectured about this from rollin and Matthew! You guys like winding me up! :-S 😛
Rollin
I was just pointing out that unfairly lowering legit disconnecors’ Connection Percentages is a small price to pay in the grand scheme. No lecture, mate. 🙂
matthew
Wai-Tung, yeah, well, I lectured you. Sorry. I guess I must have sped-red your post and missed that part.
For this, I offer you an e-Krispy Kreme as my apology.
O <---Enjoy.