Nintendo is hardly known for its exploration of the online space. We don’t know exactly how things will work on Wii U, but the Wii’s online experience is largely inferior to what’s been offered by Xbox Live for almost a decade. So any time there’s word on Nintendo doing something new with online games, it raises an eyebrow.
A new, online game-related patent Nintendo applied for on February 2, 2010 was finally published last week, giving us some idea of the sort of ideas it’s come up with. The patent is titled “Massively Single-Playing Online Game” and is described as, “A method and apparatus that allows a player to play a massively single-player online game without directly interacting with other players, while affecting and being affected by other players playing the online game.”
When playing most MMOs, you inevitably encounter other players. You don’t necessarily have to play with them, but the game encourages you to and actually running into them is usually unavoidable. The patent is for a “method for playing a massively multiplayer online game without requiring interaction with other player characters.” Essentially, it opens the door for actions in your single-player game affecting another player’s world without the two ever directly playing together.
