@Bankai
Maybe I was being too general when i said anything but as far as service goes it is opinion.

It's better than what Nintendo has offered thus far, and if you've yet to use another competing console, the Nintendo Network may seem like a miracle.

They're slowly getting to where they need to be.

Opinions can be backed up by facts. Opinions that are backed up by facts are far more legitimate than opinions that simply exist because the person bothered to type them out.

For instance: "PSN sucks because it's so hard to navigate." No supporting evidence, hard to take seriously. "PSN sucks. A survey of 1000 gamers of various ages and degrees of skill found it overwhelmingly hard to navigate." There's an opinion that can be taken seriously.

So let's look at what we know as a fact about the Nintendo Network:

1) It has less games than PSN, XBLA, iOS App Store, Google Play and Steam.
2) It also has fewer non-gaming services than any of the above.
3) It does not link with anything outside of the Wii U currently. There's no smartphone access, no Web store, no linking to the 3DS. This is something all the other services offer.
4) If your Wii U dies you can't simply replace it with a new Wii U and access all your content again. This is something all the other services offer.
5) It has a proprietary and unique social network. Only iOS offers a rival, custom-built for gaming social network.
6) It doesn't link in to any of the other social networks, as the other services do.
7) It doesn't feature trophies.

It's not a complete list above, however, those seven points are simple facts, with no opinions of my own thrown in there. I'm not judging quality I'm merely noting the existence or lack thereof of features.

With the exception of 5) the Nintendo Network doesn't offer what the other services do.

When we insert personal opinion then the order can change, and Nintendo does have this habit of causing people to irrationally love what it does, but on raw data and hard facts the Nintendo Network is currently inferior.

What is that supposed to mean? I'm not sure I understand.

@Bankai

1. If you count the Wii Shop I believe the number of titles is equal.
2. I am glad my gaming experience isn't clogged with non-gaming services. I think it already has too many. (WiiU has Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, and YouTube)
3. Agreed it isn't linked with anything yet. I do know there was talk of linking 3DS eShop and possibly smartphone access.
4. This does not effect my experience until it happens to me, i don't think it will.
5. Miiverse is awesome.
6. I don't want my games linking to Facebook.
7. I am SO GLAD that the WiiU doesn't have an Achievement system. Some might care about that but I got way to caught up in achievements years ago so I am glad to be gaming for enjoyment and not for achievements now.

If you want to say NN is missing features other systems have, I will agree. I personally find the NN to be a fresh breath of air with how simple it is.

I can't remember the last time I played Journey or Team Fortress 2 on my 3DS.

OMG. Say hello to the subjectivity of the fanboy wars.

I can't remember the last time I played Journey or Team Fortress 2 on my 3DS.

PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale cross-play, iPhone/ iPad connectivity etc etc. It's a new thing, but it's happening with the other platform holders.

@Bankai

1. If you count the Wii Shop I believe the number of titles is equal.
2. I am glad my gaming experience isn't clogged with non-gaming services. I think it already has too many. (WiiU has Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, and YouTube)
3. Agreed it isn't linked with anything yet. I do know there was talk of linking 3DS eShop and possibly smartphone access.
4. This does not effect my experience until it happens to me, i don't think it will.
5. Miiverse is awesome.
6. I don't want my games linking to Facebook.
7. I am SO GLAD that the WiiU doesn't have an Achievement system. Some might care about that but I got way to caught up in achievements years ago so I am glad to be gaming for enjoyment and not for achievements now.

If you want to say NN is missing features other systems have, I will agree. I personally find the NN to be a fresh breath of air with how simple it is.

1. No. The eShop, even if you include the Wii, isn't even close in terms of how much content is available on the other download platforms.
2. Personal opinion. I thought I made it clear I was looking at this objectively.
3. No comment.
4, With all due respect, "your experience" isn't a determining factor in whether a download service is good or not. Except for you. And as I just said, I'm talking about objective truths here.
5. I don't disagree. But I wasn't commenting on whether it was good or not. I was noting its existence.
6. Good for you. What you want/ don't want is irrelevant to the point I am making.
7. Good for you. Again, what you want/ don't want is irrelevant to the point I am making.

You do this over and over again. I make a statement, and you use your personal opinion - one that has no supporting evidence to legitimise it - as though it somehow refutes the point I'm making.

It doesn't. Your opinion does not invalidate the simple fact that what the Wii U offers is less, overall, than what the others offer. If you chose to believe that the NN is still superior that's your choice, but if you're going to make any kind of objective analysis, Nintendo Network is absolutely not the best online service.

What makes a service good or not is if its consumers enjoy it or not. I enjoy NN. I am a consumer. I have reasons why I enjoy something more. It is your opinion to hold certain features more important than I do. You have your own reasons why NN is not good. That is good for you. I am not saying you are wrong. I am not saying you must agree with me. it is all personal opinion.

There's been tons of threads about the comparing of online on the gaming consoles. There's ways to get your media on Wii U, you just have to look and do a little extra to get it on there. The eShop is 3 months old, and game devs want to make a unique experience using the Gamepad to avoid ports. I'm fine with that. Nintendo said in their Wii U Direct video, that they can add features and flexibility easily. All the game console servers are pretty equal to me, the only difference is the price. Xbox Live automatically fails in comparison in my book based on price, because it requires money to use the online features. PSN has all the Xbox Live features, for free, but I agree with the PSN store being hard to navigate unless you know specifically what you're looking for. Nintendo Network lets me do whatever as long as it's game related, and that's fine. VC, Wii Ware, and eShop all count towards Nintendo's online shop since they can all be accessed on one console.

All in all, Nintendo knows what everyone wants from their services, they just need some time to figure out the best approach and apply it. I'd rather have a crazy simplified user interface, than a crazy complex user interface. Trust me, I know how to use the services regardless, but they still apparently see the need to improve on what's already there, so I don't see what the problem is.

Not a chance in hell. The best online service that I've experienced so far is the wonderful PlayStation Network.

looks at hacking
looks at consistently negative reviews when they actually gave a damn unlike earlier Nintendo

Uhh... Are you sure?

I have not had a chance to experience Wii U online, but I highly doubt it can be as bad as PSN has been. Xbox Live has been the best by miles and miles, but... That costs money.

Aside from the horrible hacking incident, PSN is a lot better than Nintendo's online service (excluding the Wii U). But even if the Wii U's online is better than PSN in some areas, the lack of an account based system makes it automatically inferior to Sony's.

And Xbox Live does have a lot of extra bells and whistles...but you have to pay for it. That's not cool.

You still haven't explained how the 3DS connects to XBL, PSN, Steam, or anything else, like you claimed, which I quoted. instead you decied to throw some hokey pokey at it, Judge @SMEXIZELDAMAN, I have made my case, I hope your verdict brings down the ban hammer on this bibliophilic chocobo and his slim expressions.

Nintendo Network probably is technically inferior to other services, but I like it just fine, I still like Steam better though.

It was poorly worded, but I never meant to suggest that the 3DS connects to those services. What I meant (and, again, poorly worded) is that Nintendo's rivals have all managed to integrate the digital services to be cross their platforms. Microsoft's XBLA talks to its phones, Xbox 360. The PSN talks to both PS3 and Vita. Even Steam has an iPhone app.

My apologies for any confusion there.

looks at hacking
looks at consistently negative reviews when they actually gave a damn unlike earlier Nintendo

Uhh... Are you sure?

I have not had a chance to experience Wii U online, but I highly doubt it can be as bad as PSN has been. Xbox Live has been the best by miles and miles, but... That costs money.

Nintendo's been hacked as well. Quick, run for the hills!

Since everyone seems to be assuming that personal experience is somehow a measure of quality. The only online service that has crashed on my is the Wii U's. The only one where I've struggled to find content is the 3DS eShop - seriously, good luck finding VC or DSiWare on there unless you know what you're looking for.

The one I've enjoyed using most is PSN. Yes, it's a little slow, but that's compensated by lighting-fast download speeds (so either I got a weird PS3, or a broken Wii U, but downloading a 20GB Wii U game takes at least twice as long as a 20GB PS3 game), and everything in that PSN is laid out in nice, logical window streams. I know exactly where I can go to check for DLC content, and I know exactly where to keep up with the PS Plus stuff.

And PS Plus is such brilliant value it's embarrassing for Nintendo and Microsoft alike.

Then there's Music Unlimited. That's better than Spotify and the other music services, and it streams through both my PS3 and Vita. And as a dude the likes old and indie movies, there's Mubi, and it's great (and exclusive to PS3).

That's only the tip of the iceberg. The Vita has the best Twitter app I've ever seen, an does Skype. I like trophies, even if I never feel the need to play through to platinums. etc etc.

See? All my personal experiences and completely unsubstantiated opinions. PSN is clearly, definitively, better.

Thank you for the explanation, even though I could have guessed when I first read it my good man, we all make mistakes.

Miiverse is getting an app.

Steam is the best, but I'm glad to know Nintendo is striving to make something more unique with Miiverse instead of conforming to industry expectations.