WiiLoaded.com - Wii Forum and News

The following is an editorial that reflects the views and opinions of the writer:

Single Code per Console

I have great news for Wii fans everywhere. Nintendo has announced that the Wii's friend codes will be determined only by each system, instead of the system and game combo that determined the DS friend codes.

When Nintendo first announced that the Wii would use the friend code system, gamers around the globe were left scratching their heads as to why Nintendo would choose this system, assuming it would follow the same path as the DS. However it was recently announced that every Wii console would have a separate friend code attached to it. Although gamers as a whole may prefer this to the DS system I personally cannot understand why Nintendo would use the friend code system when there are other methods which would have made much more sense.

"Asking for your user name and password...would have been unacceptable."

One method which I would have been very much in favor of is the use of a username and password to log onto Nintendo's Wi-Fi servers. Tomoaki Kuroume, who oversees all areas of interface development, explained why Nintendo chose not to use this system. "If we allowed everyone to have their own account, you would need to enter a password to use the console. To switch on Wii and be presented with a screen asking for your user name and password...well for me, that would have been unacceptable."

Is it just me or does it seem like the people over at Nintendo didn't even try to work a way around that problem. I can find at least one quick and easy solution right now.

You start up your Wii for the very first time. While you're getting all the initial stuff set up, (clock, date, screen position, etc.) you would eventually come to a screen asking you to set up a Wi-Fi account. You'd input a username and a button combination as your password, then these settings would be saved to your system and the Wiimote you were using. This way every time you start up your Wii you would be logged on automatically without even knowing it, which would work around the problem Mr. Kuroume brought up of "(needing) to enter a password to use the console". The only time you would need to really use your password would be if you tried to log on to your account on different system. However I've devised a way around this as well. Remember how I mentioned that your Wi-Fi account would be saved to the remote? This way by simply bringing your controller with you when wanting to log onto your account on a new console, your log in details would be automatically transferred to the system.

The use of a username system such as this would create a much more immersive online environment similar perhaps to Microsoft's Xbox Live.

I am personally not a fan of the friend code system and know almost no people who like it and am still baffled as to why Nintendo chose to use it again. Either way there's no way around it and Nintendo won't be changing anything either, but a universal friend code definitely an improvement, although it may not be the most efficient way.

Thanks to Scotland1166

This seemed more of an opinionated article than news. But great article nontheless.

It was more opinionated simply because uts only a small snippet of news to write about and because I went on a little longer than expected with my username system concept.
If I had stuck to nothing but a news article (minus the opinion) there wouldn't have been much to write about (probably half of whats there) and I added the opinions simply to beef it up a bit.

Good article. I believe a big part of N's decision would be the safety aspect of the friend code system. At least it's not like the DS though!

oh yeah, I was gonna mention that aspect of Nintendo's decision. Forgot to though.
Doesn't matter anyhow, it seems to be pretty much common knowledge by now.

man, that sucks, well at least its not like the DS. i only used wi-fi for the ds when i was taking a crap lmao. This makes me want to play xbox live again but nah =/

As Wayne and Garth would have put it, this is...

EXCELLENT!! *guitar*

lol, go SNL!!

That sounds better. But it stills sucks. Sorry but it's the truth.

At least I don't need a different friend code for every single game I wanna play online. -_-

I don't see why you can't just choose a name and then tell people your name and they can send a friend request. Why do you have to memorize all these numbers to find you? It's BS man.

I know. I wonder what Nintendo's thought process was like when they wrote down:
seperate, annoying, long codes > simple, single, universal username

Atleast someone agrees with me.

Half my article is just spent trying to promote the username idea and contradict Nintendo.

Well Nintendo meant for it to be a family console, and we all know that people don't like to share, and would rather have their privacy, so that would mean every single person would have to sign in on their own account just to play online. But there's a drawback, that means your friend could come over and screw with everything if he wanted to.

well my friend doesnt care when i log into his XBL account. he told me his password and i log on whenever i want. and i personally wouldnt care. that's what the online is there for, to be played. And what's stopping someone from just turning on your Wii and accessing your friend's list with the friend code system? it's actually less secure.

Uhh... Okay. Your friend is cool, give him a high-five for me, but that doesn't mean everyone else is the same as he is. Personally, I don't trust my friends with my online stuff, my close friends yeah, but not my loose "what's up" friends. Secondly, I already said that, the drawback of a UFCS is that a stranger/friend could come and log in on your account without you knowing, because it's not password protected like a username account. So my previous post in a nutshell would be:

Username:
- Good thing? Privacy.
- Bad thing? Too many accounts.

UFCS:
- Good thing? One account.
- Bad thing? No privacy.

Will do

Not really. If I consider it better if you have brothers and sisters because that way you're all identified seperately. It may have worked with the DS because not many people share handhelds but consoles are shared quite often. With the username system you'll always know who you're playing against, and I don't know about you guys but I wouldn't consider it a hassel to enter maybe a for button passcode, and you can just choose not to log out, which would work for me, being the only person in my house who'd use the Wii. When you really consider it a universal friend code system just doesnt make any sense at all.

I don't see what's so bad about that. And I really don't understand the whole "too many accounts" negative aspect.

Fine. I'll explain it more. My friend has a family of 14. Seriously. And if she (or any one of them) were to get a Wii, they'd ALL need to have their own password, own friends list, they'd have to log on EVERYTIME they turned on the Wii, (Come on 14 controllers? Ridiculous.), and they'd have to store data for EACH of their play histories. It's like everyone having their own Wii inside the Wii! It's just too much crap considering you could just have ONE friend code.

ok, nvm that then, and 14 is HUGE! I can see how the UFC seems more convienient for them but for a family of 4 where 2 ppl will use the system then they won't mind the username system. And say your friend was a member of WiiLoaded and he or she gave his friend code out to some people. Say he/she gives it to me. I then go on, check my friend's list, and see his system online in Red Steel. There's no guarantee that I will be playing him/her. A username system lets me associate the username to one single person. So that way if I see "Kindrik" as the username I know I'm playing Kindrik from WiiLoaded. I'll admit that for such a large family things could get crowded, and you wouldn't need to store a username on the remote. That would only be when you want to send it there and then carry the controller to another system. The usernames would really be stored on the system, and it would simple to input a small password like "Up, Down, A, Right" etc. And like I said, you could just keep yourself logged in without signing out to avoid constantly signing in if you really consider that annoying, which I dont, or just set the Wii to automatically sign into a certain account whenever it connects to online play. I'm still not convinced that UFC was the best choice to make.