Wii Homebrew: Are you independant yet?

I voted “No, and I’m not going to”. Nintendo has this crazy idea that the world is out to pirate its games and take away all their money. I personally think they are a little crazy and do not believe that is the case at all. I see Homebrew as a fantastic application; but I know that it scares Nintendo. They feel that it is almost the same as pirating, and I know that they feel it is a violation of their rights as a console manufacturer. I think that anything we can do to help Nintendo loosen up a little is a step in the right direction and I think that running Hombrew is making them more defensive. I feel that things like Homebrew are the reason they have yet to present us with a storage solution; which I need immediately. They feel that if they open the possiblility for more connection with SD cards or USB drives they are opening the door to more homebrew and piracy. Nothing personal against those who do use Homebrew, but I am not going to.

I voted no, because of most of the same reasons as Dark Jinjo.

@Nils, seriously read up on the subject. Everything from the idiotic region codes on the Wii to the Wii’s custom disc format, to the off-putting custom Gamecube discs (at a time when competitors were using cheaper standard DVDs), to the N64′s ridiculously expensive cartridges (at a time when competitors were using far cheaper discs) has been done under the guise of “preventing piracy”.

They’re obsessed with it, and almost every wrong move they’ve made over the last decade has been in a misguided attempt to stop it. Apart from the friend codes and poor internet support, which was done under the equally misguided guise of “protecting children” (which it doesn’t, and only puts people off playing certain games when wi-fi is too clunky/not available).

They haven’t said as much, but there’s only one logical reason why they’d not make USB HDD support available – they’re afraid people will start ripping games to it. Also, if they weren’t afraid of piracy, why did they close the loophole in the Zelda saves in their last update? To stop people using the console to create their own content?

I voted “no”, for the simple reason that I don’t yet see a compelling reason to do so. All the homebrew stuff that I’ve seen so far has been so-so. But please continue to report on the homebrew scene, maybe someday I find something that I really like, at which point I will go independent, too.

(and no, “running pirated games” is not a compelling reason, I try to lead an honest life).

USb drives aren’t the reason. People in the homebrew scene already have support for USB drives and it’s a much better solution to storing your homebrew stuff on it than a somewhat-limited SD card. It ticks me off that people think Homebrew=Piracy and Homebrew=Brick you console so they just turn their backs on it and pretend it doens’t exist at all, it’s an insult to people that have taken much of their time to make these things work for everyone and as easy as posible, and on times prove that some things CAN be done on the Wii.

Like Hermes who made GuitarFun yesterday, it’s a port of a guitarhero-like game that you can put any song(.ogg, frets on fire format) on your SD card, plug in your Guitar Hero 3 controller and rock out your favorite songs, instead of having to play a set of songs for the rest of your life. This proves that A) Nintendo is wrong B)Activision and many other companies that think there can’t be DLC on Wii, are wrong. Sd cards ARE a solution to the limited storage on Wii. They have decent enough space and songs load extremely fast. Now this was made a simple group of 3 people, imagine how it would be if they were given a bigger team, a nice budget and a decent stuido to make games.

For me, it’s simply No, but I’m thinking about it.
All my buddies have modified theirs, and they’re enjoying exclusive softwares not found anywhere else.

Sometimes I would think about it when a friend mentions a new homebrew title, but I always end up not doing it since I’m that lazy type. I’m sure Homebrew offers so many interesting things, but perhaps sometime in the future when there’s a piece of homebrew great enough, I might try it out.

I give a thumbs up to the Homebrew scene because it kicks all parties in the face, and shows what the players are engaged in and what they really want in a game.
Come on! classic Punch Out using DK Bongos, or even better, Wiimote+Nunchuk. Hands down, that’s the way it should be, and it can not be taken away from us.

// Roth

If bzflag were to come out on homebrew, I would do it in an instant.