Friend Code Woos - Nintendo’s Akilies Heel

posted on May 16th, 2007 | Written By Farmer |

Well IGN has reported on Mario Strikers Online and its use of Friend Codes. With that came the sick twisted reminder of what is to come when I want to play a game online for a Nintendo System. Be it the Wii or DS I will continue to feel disconnected when playing a game online.

If you haven’t noticed I’m a big Metroid Prime Hunters fan but…randomly connecting to distant players with out the ability to communicate can be about as fun as fighting bots and yet sometimes less exciting.

The actually inputting of a Friend Code is really painless and only takes a few seconds of my life. It’s not that process that has come to be an annoyance, it’s the lack of networking capabilities that is offered for one to meet other gamers to exchange these said codes for maximum playing experience online.

Sure there have been tons of forums, sites, what not that have come up with friend code exchange type solutions but that is a solution that has me disconnected from the game yet again.

As for some gamers it just straight out hinders their online playing experience. How? Well I will use myself for an example. I truly don’t have any friends outside of the internet that games like I do so exchanging a friend code with one of my friends is beyond pointless. Now I’m left with the only option of networking online between various sites to harvest friend codes of people I would like to play against online…something I have little time to do and to sit around and try to build a decent list of “friend codes” to play a game online is just redundant.

I will give friend codes this…they are a good idea but implemented in awkward-not-so-good-feeling-and-don’t-like-to-be-touched-like-that.

The only logical way I feel that friend codes could be implemented without sticking it to every other gamer is via parental controls, now there is a novel idea. I’m sure right about now a few fanboys or industry “gurus” are yelling at me saying “Nintendo says they don’t play like that!” or whatever it is Nintendo’s goals are for online.

The thing is…Nintendo isn’t perfect and friend codes are a prime example of that. It’s not too late to change it and I also think Nintendo has gone to far there. They are doing an awesome job at revolutionizing console gaming in a direction that was fathomable before the Wii. But come on; don’t try to revolutionize online gaming…just yet.

“It’s got its own Friend Code - and it’s completely different to your Wii code. Oh, and if you want to add anyone to your Friend Roster, you’ll need to manually input their Friend Code. That’s 12 digits, for every friend…That aside, we’re pleased to say that Nintendo’s inaugural online home console offering (if you live in Europe, at least) works a treat.”

As for this excerpt from IGN on it working a treat…I love taffy but it’s a bitch because it’s always getting stuck in my teeth therefore I only treat myself to it once in awhile.

So what are your thoughts?

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