Despite the title(Which I'm very pleased with!) and the overdueness of this blog, this isn't going to be an in depth search into the reason why Nintendo use Friend codes, their Positives, their negatives and why 12 numbers are used... I leave all the hard stuff for Gaffer
No, this is simply my simple views of the past few weeks...
Another online game and once again the great Friend Code debate reappears!
Why not just use usernames? Why not just accept/decline offers? etc etc...
Yes, it's a pain! Thankfully, we had the friend code repository set up for this one and it seems to have made things go a bit smoother, despite the total MK chaos that has taken over the forum the last few days. So many thanks to the Captain for that
What I'd really like to share with you is what I've been carrying around with me since MK was first released:
A single page of A4 lined paper and a pen!
It seems that every day someone else gets the game and you are trying to work out if you can make room for them or not. Yes, now we're talking about the 30 friend limit! I think this is what's hit the forum the hardest. The thing is that a forum is built on a community and when a community is as close as ours, 30 friends just doesn't cut it!
For the average Wii owner, 30 is plenty, so I can see why Nintendo have made that the limit, after all, the whole point of friend codes is that you 'Know' the person you're adding well enough for you to exchange codes.
So that leaves most of us with a dilema... Especially when we want to play games with as many people as possible. Just because Snazy is available tonight, it doesn't mean he will be every Thursday, whereas Mojo will definitely be on the weekends, so even if I can't make every weekend, I know when I do, they'll be someone to play... You get the picture
Just for the record, I'm sure both Mojo and Snazy are free every evening
So back to my list, It started with about 10 names and just escalated from there! I know have PES codes, Guitar Hero Codes, BW2 codes and even Wii Codes on the same piece of paper(Yes, it's double sided
).
The thing is that if Nintendo could make every online game service as good as Mario Kart's, then I would never even think about complaining! It's a small price to pay for such a brilliant system
But other online games just are not up to scratch... Guitar Hero will tell you if you're friends are online, offline or have a match set up for you... That's great, but they may be online and playing a match, how long am I going to be waiting here?! The same goes for PES and Mario Strikers was the worst of all with the status of Online, Offline or Busy. Busy, meaning they could actually be playing a ranked game, friends game or even setting up a game for a friend! How are you supposed to know whether to sit there like a lemon or play a quick match?!
Thankfully, MK has got all these past problems sorted. We now know exactly where our mates are and(In true UK Big Brother Style) what they're doing
It makes it much easier to decide what to do. If I see that a friend has hosted a grand prix and they're on race 2/4, I know I can play 2 races while I'm waiting
Excellent!
Surely from now on, all Nintendo 1st party online games will be as good as this? Why set the standard if you're only going to get worse?!
This is where I want Skyman to come in, because I don't know how the online of Brawl works, but I'm pretty sure it's not up to the standard of MK, it's more like the aforementioned games. Bad News
Nintendo have provided this gem of a service and for that I really do thank them, I would be willing to haul around a whole Bible's worth of friend codes if every game I played online was the same... But I honestly can't see it being that way and I think we're going to be pretty disappointed
I'm here to be proven wrong though, so maybe Ninty have finally found their feet in the Online world and we can expect great things. Just don't get your hopes up too much... As I've discovered this past week, it's far better to be pleasantly surprised, than disappointed.