Trying to Crack the Code...

[FooFan]

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.

[Alphaman]

Absolutely! Totally agree Foo.

I'm like you and I've written loads of MK Wii codes on the back of A4 sized envelope from T-Mobile (T-Mobile, I know, Sod them)

But this is a classic example of Ninty shooting themselves in the foot here. They could easily offer a better online service however they are too caught up in protecting children from kiddy fiddlers

Nintendo put parental controls on Wii's for a reason, to give us the choice of going online freely or restricting certain features.

Looks like Ninty have already made that decision for us

[Wario]

I have a few real friends (not virtual) that I need to add to my friends list, will I get rid of a few of my fellow Wiitalkers?? No way, I know that there is a good turnout every single night with the wiitalk massive

[Iggle Piggle]

Great read dude and lets hope for more of the same...shouldn't be that hard should it?

Glad you have some sort of computer cos your handwriting is shocking Actually, I made the mistake of ripping loads of little bits of paper off whenever I was due to add a FC recently (PES and MK), then left them near a window, and I lost half of them :( (Apologies to those im yet to add) You got a good system

[FooFan]

Originally Posted by Alphaman

Nintendo put parental controls on Wii's for a reason, to give us the choice of going online freely or restricting certain features.

Looks like Ninty have already made that decision for us

Very good point!

Not every Wii owner is the so called 'Casual Gamer' There's a lot of us that want a great online experience as well(Like MK provides), but the fact the Wii's a year and a half old and it's taken this long to get a proper decent online experience just shows that it's not at the top of their list...

Originally Posted by Wario

I have a few real friends (not virtual) that I need to add to my friends list, will I get rid of a few of my fellow Wiitalkers?? No way, I know that there is a good turnout every single night with the wiitalk massive

I have 1 'real' friend on my roster who I had to save a place for, but if any more of my mates get this game... It's going to be a real pain to say the least

Nice to know you've got your priorities sorted though

Originally Posted by Snazy20

Glad you have some sort of computer cos your handwriting is shocking Actually, I made the mistake of ripping loads of little bits of paper off whenever I was due to add a FC recently (PES and MK), then left them near a window, and I lost half of them :( (Apologies to those im yet to add) You got a good system

Tell me about it! That's why I chose the Computing Degree

And who leaves little bits of paper near a window Snaz?! Honestly buddy...

[Solar]

Cant agree more Foo (Sherbert land still sucks though :tongue)


Also @ Alphaman I can just imagine someone trying to pick children up off mario kart

Any preferences?
Im going to use a big kart!
Yaaay!
Ready?
Lets get started!

[TheKeyboardDemon]

Great blog, it's like you were in my head or something. If you're still in there, please get out. You're too noisy.

Originally Posted by Alphaman

But this is a classic example of Ninty shooting themselves in the foot here. They could easily offer a better online service however they are too caught up in protecting children from kiddy fiddlers

Nintendo put parental controls on Wii's for a reason, to give us the choice of going online freely or restricting certain features.

Looks like Ninty have already made that decision for us

I think the thing that Ninty have got right is the seperating the Console codes from the game codes. Console codes allow messages to pass freely between consoles and this should be protected, it stops people from getting personal information that they shouldn't have.

Game codes, this doesn't make so much sense, as it stands it's very limited as to what can be said between players and even when they can say it, I hardly think that seeing what course my children pick will bring peodophiles to my doorstep, nor will messages like 'Hello', 'Let's have a race' etc... And then it's a different game code for every online game, I wish that they could have just settled for the 1 code and 1 universal game codes list on your console, then instead of going to the MK channel I look at the Online channel and see who's playing any games that I have game save positions on my console for so I can join in with them. If they're not online and I know them well enough to have passed on my console code, I can send them a message to arrange a time to meet online. At the moment the only way I've managed to play against any of this forums members is because I joined a room where you were racing with captainff.

The codes frustrate me, you send out an invite, then the recipient responds which gives you a notification which you then have to acknowledge, then all going well if both you and they have space and the wind is blowing in the right direction, you both get registered on each others console. I have 10 entries on my friends list, 5 have successfully registered, 1 has been deleted and re-invited now 3 times and each time I have acknowledged the accept e-mail yet he still hasn't registered as a friend on my console. Of those who successfully registered there's 1 I've managed to meet online and race against 29 times, winning 15 of those races, the others I have only ever seen them as either offline or online in events that I was too late to join. And of those others I did manage to get a few games with 1 before I got him into my friend book (thanks Wario that was good fun) but I haven't seen him online since getting him registered. (I've also seen you online Marty/Foo much to my embarrasment, though I'm sure you enjoyed the easy points. )

I just hope that when/if they produce a next gen Wii in a few years from now they'll have a much better thought out system, or they at least take a look at other online gaming systems, after all people have been gaming online for over a decade now with PCs etc... I'm sure there must be something they could have drawn out of all of that collective experience to come up with something better than this.

[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by Solar_Wii

Cant agree more Foo (Sherbert land still sucks though :tongue)


Also @ Alphaman I can just imagine someone trying to pick children up off mario kart

Any preferences?
Im going to use a big kart!
Yaaay!
Ready?
Lets get started!

Exactly, Ninty think about online play with way too much precaution

[Lepruk86]

Good blog foobut i do disagree a little.

Removing voice chat is fine really.. MK doesn't really need voice chat overly but these friend-codes do my nuts in! I have the same thing of people I am having to constantly re-add. I wish they just had a universal friend's list of like 150 people or something like PS3 / 360.

The Mii's seem perfectly suited to that sort of thing... In fact they could have had accepting a someone's main Mii is your ticket to being gaming friends etc...

not sure but they need to sort it really... but yeah MK wii's online is so good and I know ninty and 3rd party is going disappoint on that front...

And from all I have heard about brawl the online is laggy... I hope the European release is delayed BECAUSE they are setting up official servers / sorting out the lag.

I talk very highly of Brawl as I have played in local tourney's and I really badly wanna get online with it and have it work well :(...

[captainff]

It's amazing what a subtle nudge can produce, isn't it Foo?

Seeing as this is the night of the long post I'll try to join in .. .. .. ..

I like the Nintendo Friend Code system. I know that isn't a popular opinion, but I don't care. I like it. I like knowing that my kids can play online against their friends if they want to without having a friend of a friend of a friend ask them to play a game (in the style of XBLA). I like knowing that I have to actually WANT to add someone, and that they WANT to also add me to their game / console / life. The double positive failsafe route is reassuring in these times of media hype about sexual predators. I'm happy for my kids to play online on their DS or Wii whenever they want to because I know that they can't be approached by random strangers, something that can't be said of the Xbox or a PC. In preparation to the response "parental control" .. .. .. I try to let my kids set their own boundaries (guided, obviously) so within the environment that Nintendo has created they feel like they have the freedom to choose whereas I know they are limited in their choices .. .. .. win / win as far as I'm concerned.


I am frustrated at the size of the FC lists though. I have already filled my MKWii roster, and Bede has yet to purchase the game .. .. .. I've a feeling I'll be looking at the names very carefully to see who Ive actually raced with (thelocalUK .. .. I'm sorry but your survival of the cull is looking dubious!). The situation isn't new to me though .. .. ..my Pokemon D/P lists were also on paper because the 32 slots only covered a third of my FC list .. .. .. the trading was intense as I raced to fill my pokedex .. .. .. ..

But larger memory means either less game saves or higher costs for the consoles. I don't think support for external drives is likely because that could provide a back door for modders and hackers, something that Ninty are keen to avoid.Nintendo have always tried to keep profits up by squeezing the minimum spec technology into the maximum retail return and they aren't going to change to suit European gamers desire for online play.

So we're left with notebooks and A4 paper .. .. .. but you know what? If the result is more games like MKWii I'm prepared to practice my handwriting!

(oh, and now a good time to suggest that the Repository is converted to a mod run section of the forum? Continually editing in peoples codes while I'm stuck at work unable to play is depressing )