Nintendo makes annoying "fun" again; sticking to game specific Wii friend codes?

lol

all these kids that the nintendo fudge packers are trying to protect give out their friend codes to random people in forums anyways. good job nintendo.

A concerned parent turns on the Wii

Options > Parental Controls >
(check if desired and input a secret PIN)
_ Require Friend Codes for online play

Done.

Couldn't Nintendo implement something like this?

/don't have a Wii or DS
//never used a friend code in my life
///just sayin'

"A concerned parent turns on the Wii

Options > Parental Controls >
(check if desired and input a secret PIN)
_ Require Friend Codes for online play

Done.

Couldn't Nintendo implement something like this?"

No, because pedophiles can sneak into your home and turn the parental controls off, thus allowing them to to eMolest one's child.

I was gunna buy a Wii this week.
But after trying to play the DS online with those damn codes, fuck it.

Yeah, playing online games with the DS is SO difficult. It took me three hours just to get a game of Chess going in ClubHouse Games.

It's a bare bones, low maintenance online experience. Jack, in the middle of all his absurd flaming and sputtering, did get it right. Nintendo aimed for a functional, but sparse approach. It's clearly something less than Xbox Live.

Personally, I hate Live and all the enhanced online features it offers are completely wasted on me. It's not even the cost, the experience just isn't my cup of tea. A few random matches against a well-matched opponent or opponents and a basic ranking system to get me to the right place is all I need if I ever really want to take games online. For someone who is far harder core into the online games experience, the 360 offers an attractive package which really does the "GLAMER" experience right.

Microsoft knows its audience and Nintendo knows its audience, and each service is designed and marketed appropriately. Do we really need to blow up at each other because I might be more apt to the free and functional online experience Nintendo provides, or someone else might love the chance to pay $50 for a feature-packed premium experience for Gears on 360? It's retarded. Like what you like.

The interesting thing I've learned about parental controls on the Wii is that parents either had their kids' help in setting it up or the kids know the code. I found this out while over at a friend's house. He has a 9-year old. I was trying to check out the Wii Shop Channel and needed the parental control code. Went upstairs and asked what the code was, to which he replied, "Ask [the kid], he knows it."

I find this more common than not, be it cable TV or video game parental controls. Perhaps Nintendo is removing itself from all liability.

I really don't see why friend codes are such a big disappointment since you only enter them once. It certainly doesn't hamper gameplay in my experience with the DS. In some games, like Animal Crossing: Wild World, you can even easily add someone else who's visiting the same town as you. The companies haven't even outlined anything really specific yet.

Whatever they do, I hope there's no voice chat.

For those who are... *rolls eyes* sell their Wiis because of the posibility of friend codes, hurry up and do so. That way someone could enjoy the system.

It's probably a goot theing the Wii has little online. Can yo uimagine getting your @$$ handed to you by a 75 year old woman in a retirement home? Atleast the other consols only have to deal with the kids online. Wii has old folks too.

I'm not a friend code expert, so correct me if I'm wrong, but apart from not being able to make friends on the internet, what's the problem? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm really asking. Typing the friend code?

IF that's the only problem, can't you just go to any forum and find people there? Or hell, I've seen people exchange friend codes in the Joystiq comments! I'd know I'd love to own some trolls here in SSBB...

So, what's exactly annoying about the friend code thing? That you can't add someone you thought played good (maybe you can still do this?)? Really I'm curious...

Aw dammit! You guys did the Captain Planet thing without me! I was asleep! It's not fair!


Anyway, if they go with game-specific friend codes, it's just like the DS. You can still play random people, either totally random worldwide, random in your region, or based on your skill level. Friend codes are just to play your homies. In Metroid Prime Hunters, you could do voice chat, but only with the homies on your friends list. You could still play anybody else, you just couldn't say "hey little boy meet me behind the Burger King tonight" after the fragfest.

So if you have NO friends that have Wiis, you will still be able to play online. The only difference is you won't be able to play your friends, because you don't have any. So what's the big deal? If you don't have friends, complain about that. If you do, go molest them.

So it's true, the whole fit everyone is throwing is because they can't make friends online? :/ Get some RL friends please...

Friend codes are annoying.

@ Jack of no Trades

for once we agree

Nintendo THINKS they have a winner of an online system, considering the system, shitty as it is, is growing at a rate faster than that of LIVE

Now, lets say Pokemon Battle Revolution just completely tanks (it didn't do well in Japan, but that may be because there were much better titles rolling around at launch, in America, it'll release in the depths of a drought, plus Americans like Online more, clearly), then Strikers Charged completely tanks, then BWii

lets say NO ONE uses Wii Online, then they may think differently, but as it stands, with users hungry for ANY online content, the online content will sell well, and Nintendo will have no motivation to innovate (if it ain't broke..)

To people who think I am saying that online is pointless only because Nintendo is actually saving time/money by not bothering too much with it:

You didn't know me back when the Xbox and Gamecube were first coming out. I was pretty damn sure back then that online console gaming was a fad. I have since watched it mutate and corrode my pasttime into something it shouldn't be, and so my opinion on the matter is not goverened at all by Nintendo actions or any others.

I'm not anti-Microsoft or anti-Sony or anti-Nintendo. I'm anti-online-gaming. This is fully independent of company or product. I'm not against online connected consoles (buying games and demos online through VC or Marketplace is sweet) or even certain elements of a game being online (online auctions for rare items in RPGs would be awesome) but I do not now, nor have I ever had much interest in play video games with complete strangers. Ever.

Friend LIST.

As in, that think that says who is online? Try reading, Joystiq.

I agree with #108 completely...

If I'm playing a game online then I want to match up against random people and if I like playing with them I want the option to add them to a list so that I can play with them again. Plain and simple. I've found (through playing several games online for DS) that if this isn't how it works then I'm not interested. I'll go play 360 for online.