Nintendo's "Home"

[Godot]

Sky Render said:
You view it from the wrong end of the spectrum, xenophon13. Nintendo does not wish to pander solely to the desires of a very rigid market; that's what Sony and Microsoft have done with their online, and it's not doing them any good. Nintendo's goal is to bring people reluctant to go into the online world, online. To do that, there is a need to pander to their insecurities: the lack of voice chat to prevent discouragement from trash-talking, the Friend Codes to make them feel secure in knowing who they're playing with, the pre-coded friendly messages to allow for civil conversation... That is appealing to a broader demographic. Giving options which allow for uncivilized behavior, on the other hand, is not.

 I agree with everything you said but it wouldn't be that much different if they used usernames instead of friend codes. Sure, it would be more complicated the first time as it is likely that all the cool usernames would be taken but I don't think people would feel less secure if they are playing with their friends "Sky Render" or "Godot" instead of some random numbers.  That said, I don't care much about friend codes as it's a huge inconvenience anyway.