Topic: Reggie says some things about Friend Codes again. Internet explodes.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo: We either take gaming 2 steps forward or 1 step back...

[KDR_11k]

As paranoid as it sounds I think the real reason Nintendo does friend codes is because they don't like using other company's ideas.  Since they were late to the online party all the logical obvious ways of doing online gaming had already been taken up.  So they had to come up with a weird ass way to do it so that they could do it a unique "Nintendo way".  Sounds crazy?  Nintendo ALWAYS does this.  Look at anything they do.  Either they invented it and do it almost perfectly or it's an established idea being done in a weird ass unique but borderline idiotic way that attempts to fix a problem that never existed in the first place.  Nintendo uses friend codes to "improve" the "broken" online model the competition was using that was obviously fatally flawed because Nintendo did not have any input in it.

Nintendo: we invented it or pretend that we did.

You mean like how they ditched WiFi and used a completely proprietary protocol that requires custom routers and all that? Or how they made the Wii use proprietary memory cards because standards like SD cards aren't invented by Nintendo? How they never added a second analog stick to their controller because Sony already did that?

[Ian Sane]

You mean like how they ditched WiFi and used a completely proprietary protocol that requires custom routers and all that? Or how they made the Wii use proprietary memory cards because standards like SD cards aren't invented by Nintendo? How they never added a second analog stick to their controller because Sony already did that?

I'll give you the second analog stick but even then Nintendo turned it in a stubby nipple stick.

WiFi wasn't Nintendo being goofy?  At the time wireless routers were not as common as they are now.  Meanwhile Nintendo had just spent years making up excuses for not supporting online gaming because not enough people had broadband.  But they jumped in with a wireless ONLY model for a console that requires a TV to even work and pretty much doesn't benefit from being wireless in any way at all.  Last gen they assumed we were all backwards hicks using dial-up and then next gen they assumed we were all on the cutting edge with wireless networks.  The fact that Nintendo didn't put an ethernet jack on the Wii is Nintendo being weird just because.

And the SD Card thing?  Do I have to spell out how fucking stupidly they executed that?  Yeah they used someone else's invention BUT they made sure to do in a weird ass unique Nintendo way that everyone hated.

There's always some little weird ass goof up... unless Nintendo completely invented it themselves.  Thus I figure friend codes are the same way.  "We have to assume the way it has been done before is broken and thus must fix it the NINTENDO WAY!"

[Morari]

Wireless routers have been commonplace for the last several years. They've been fairly inexpensive and growing in popularity ever since 802.11G hit its stride. I do think that it would have made more sense to have had only an ethernet port as opposed to only WiFi, but you can't claim that the spectrum and/or equipment has ever been anything close to esoteric during the console's existence. The limited security protocols provided by the Wii have always been more worrisome than anything else. Besides, those USB to ethernet adapters were provided for quite a while by Nintendo themselves. They weren't very expensive at all, and still aren't even if you have to purchase third-party ones nowadays instead.

If nothing else, Nintendo's decision saved me from buying a second router as I'm well out of open ports on the current one. On the flip side, there are only two devices connected to it wireless.

[Halbred]

I avoid online Wii games precisely because of the friend code system. Mario Kart Wii is the exception, but that's because the multiplayer works so wonderfully. Smash Bros. Brawl online is a shot in the dark and fails more often than it works. So I don't play it online.

I'll say this, though: The PSN is the way to go. It's free, it has system-specific codes, it tells you when people are online and when they get offline, it tells you what game they're playing, and it tells you if you've been invited to a game.

The trash-talking argument is silly. Just implement an option where you can mute particularly irritating individuals (like every other company does) and you're good.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Then again, PSN doesn't have Mario Kart.