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exindguy on 02 July 2008
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MontanaHatchet said:
HappySqurriel said:

... and people wonder why Nintendo choose the friend-code system.

So that the online experience is lessened for millions of gamers in order to prevent a few stupid children from contacting pedophiles which can be done on a computer or other device capable of using internet anyways?

I just love how considerate Nintendo is.

 

 

I'm going to say that it's preferable that "a few stupid children" aren't abused/killed and some nutjob isn't getting his rocks off in the process, thus sparing both the family and the justice system (that we pay for) from being unduly burdened.

I also don't see how it's really 'lessening' the experience by any stretch: I was playing online with other PC players for the decade (more?) preceding XB Live with complete strangers without the dubious benefit of voice chat (and after experiencing the wonderful world of XBL voice chat with strangers, I can say I'm positive that I'm better off without it since nearly every time I tried again I was rewarded with either mountains of profanity, racist ephithets, people threatening to "skullfuck" a little kid (no, really) or incredibly-detailed conversations about the sex life of a middle-aged woman that engages in wife-swapping (she was a big fan of being swapped as long as she got to be with the other wife)--the latter during a long session of Phantasy Star Universe where muting your teammates isn't really an option). Is it as convenient? Nope. Should convenience be the over-riding concern in such matters? Nope.

I'm also fairly certain that most parents appreciate Nintendo's thinking on the matter. After all, despite what a lot of people seem to think, you cannot watch your kid(s) 24/7, cannot be sure what they're doing at a friends house, etc. no matter how diligent you might be with implementing parental controls, Internet filters, etc. I'm personally willing to trade some utility in my gaming sessions if it means peace of mind for a fairly important segment of the population (i.e. parents, of which I am *not* one).

Now, you may disagree with all of the above, but I think there is certainly room for rightly believing that the way Nintendo has handled it, though not optimal from a *convenience* standpoint (and that's really what we're talking about), is certainly more optimal from a safety/lawsuit-proofing/development cost standpoint (the latter two concerns directly affecting both Nintendo and 3rd parties' bottom lines).