Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke to Kotaku about the upcoming Wii U console. He touched up on several aspects of the console and its online connectivity. For example, Fils-Aime said that as soon as players turn on the Wii U, Miiverse will show up (provided users are connected online), and will show what your friends are doing, what games they are playing etc. That’s the “start screen” of the console, the first screen players will see — which is a radical departure from the start screens we see these days.

The start screen in Miiverse will display what your friends are up to, what games they are playing, and if you have the game, you can join in. With the new Nintendo TVii, you can also see which movies your Miiverse friends are watching, according to Reggie. To get to the menu or play a game, you simply hit the “Start” button.

Miiverse will be integrated into Wii U games (it’s optional, though). Reggie gives the example of New Super Mario Bros U, where players walk through the world map and can see messages and hints left by other players.

On the topic of Nintendo Network and the Wii U eShop online store, Reggie didn’t give any specific details, but did say, “We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right”.

Finally, when it comes to Friend Codes, which is quite frankly the worst online friend system ever made, Reggie offered some hope. “We’ve heard the community feedback on friend codes and we’re making it dramatically easier for you to connect with your friend”. It’s nice to hear that they’ll make it “dramatically easier” than Friend Codes, but then again, that’s not so hard — it cannot possible be worse than the Friend Code system we’re using today.

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/09/wii-u-friend-codes-and-miiverse/

Friend shapes!

Add me: Circle, Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle , Star.

Exactly. Although I appreciate Nintendo's innovation, sometimes it feels like they overcomplicate things.

All this Miiverse is nice and all, but it won't mean anything if you can't add or invite someone you see online with just one press of a button like in XBL. When I play on XBL things just feel as though how they should be, but only when I go back to the Wii or 3DS do I realise how good XBL really is for online gaming/interaction.

Seriously Nintendo, just get rid of the friend codes altogether and put in usernames. PLEASE!!!

Exactly. Although I appreciate Nintendo's innovation, sometimes it feels like they overcomplicate things.

All this Miiverse is nice and all, but it won't mean anything if you can't add or invite someone you see online with just one press of a button like in XBL. When I play on XBL things just feel as though how they should be, but only when I go back to the Wii or 3DS do I realise how good XBL really is for online gaming/interaction.

Seriously Nintendo, just get rid of the friend codes altogether and put in usernames. PLEASE!!!

With how many odd spellings and numbers there are in most gaming usernames due to uniqueness issues, how is a entering in a friend code substantially different than entering in a username?

I agree that they need other ways to allow people to add friends, but I also think that they need to do this in a way that is managed through parental controlls. The most restricted version would be no friends, followed by friend codes only, then allow adding of individuals tied to you through friend codes (ie you have a friend who gave you their friend code so you can add anyone who gave them their friend code), then friends of friends, and finally open discovery.

With an approach like this the average parent of an 8 year old can feel comfortable that their children are only playing with family members and their young friends online, while teenagers may have a greater ability to make online friends, and an adult can adjust their settings to a level they feel most comfortable with.

The reason this is so important for Nintendo is because, while there have been several incidents of sexual predators on XBox Live that haven't impacted Microsoft's image, people will expect a greater level of safety from any service Nintendo provides.

Edit: I also thought of an additional way to add friends ... allow people to join groups, some of which may be closed others entirely open. Hypothetically speaking, ioi could create a gamrconnect group that anyone could join and play games with other people in the group.

The point isn't to do with typing in friend codes. It's about being able to add/invite people you see online as friends without having to contact them, get their FCs and then having to type it in, etc to add them. Plus I think most people would want to have some kind of name represent them online than a number.

When you play on XBL, you can just invite people you saw in your previous games (ones you may have liked playing with) with just one click of a button. This process is almost near impossible on the games I have played on the Wii and 3DS. I don't know if this is a game to game thing on the Nintendo platforms, but this system is built into XBL itself, rather than just the individual games, which is what Nintendo should have.