http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/855/855033p1.aspx?RSSwhen2008-02-26_104500&RSSid=855033

No Voice-Chat for Mario Kart Wii. To me voice chat is one of the big draws of playing online because the ability to be able to talk to your opponent gives him kind of a " personality" and makes him more than just an opponent. Playing somebody without voice chat (at least in a fast game like Mario Kart where you cant take a break to type up something) is like playing against AI. And so I find it quite sad that Nintendo decided to take this direction. They need to get their shit together when it comes to online, not make it constantly worse.

Voice chat doesn' t work well for me because I can never tell who the hell is talking. I' m forced to look for little icons over the characters that show they' re transmitting voice, but if they' re off screen or more than one person is talking at once, forget it. It only works if you know the peeps in real life and know what they sound like (though online games do severely distort voices simply by compressing them so much).

Voice chat doesn' t fit in with the family friendly stance that Nintendo has.

Voice chat doesn' t work well for me because I can never tell who the hell is talking. I' m forced to look for little icons over the characters that show they' re transmitting voice,

Why does it matter who' s talking though? I just respond to whatever' s said, and if I get along with the person I talk with during a match, I add them at the post-game stats page or the lobby.

Voice chat doesn' t fit in with the family friendly stance that Nintendo has.

Not really no, but there' s an easy enough solution. I don' t know the details of Nintendo' s parental controls, but I can imagine they' re pretty extensive. Just create/adapt an account system through your Miis, with only Miis linked to a profile over eighteen able to recieve or send voice chat.

They should at least make it so you can chat with friends. They could just silence all strangers. Is Nintendo saying you can' t trust your own friends?! What kind of nightmare empire are they running down there!

ORIGINAL: Evilkiller
To me voice chat is one of the big draws of playing online

To me voice chat is one of the big annoyances of playing online :P

It gets worse...

IGN:

Apparently, gamers will only be able to select from a pre-determined number of phrases that can be sent along as rudimentary texts before matches. Nintendo is clearly playing it safe.

Fucking joke...[:' (]

Nintendo hates gamers.

New info from Nintendo, LINK

Suppose it looks a bit better now..

My most anticipated game By far, Still play MKDS to this day be it online or VS / ghost.

Glad to see the home version is going online, and glad to see one Player per Kart (two reason why i hated double dash)..

voice chat? not needed, would just annoy me, gestures sound fine enough plus, running at 60fps i want as much bandwidth on the gameplay / smoothness as possible.

Also, you gonna buy a Nintendo Mic just for one game?? thought not...

ORIGINAL: Virtua fighter 5

Also, you gonna buy a Nintendo Mic just for one game?? thought not...

So are you suggesting that the ' future' online games on the wii will also not have voice chat and that you are happy with it ?