People like the friend code system? It's the main reason I never used the online on Wii (aside from the unplayable lag when I tried Brawl).

DS Friend Code System: a different code for every single game and you had to swap them. It was horrible.

Wii Friend Code System: a different code for every game but at least there was only one code for console to console communication. You could use that to share codes if you needed.

3DS Friend Code System: I give you my code. You give me yours. We're set for life. No more painful than exchanging phone numbers. Not bad, really.

Wii U Friend Code System (also the PS3/360 way): Send a friend request to anybody and wait for them to say "yes" or "no". Totally painless.

@d21lewis So on the 3DS, you can't add someone online, without their friend code?

Correct.  You can do it without a friend code if you're in the same area but to do it online, you have to have their code.  And then, it won't even let you add the code until your 3DS is online.  I'm fine with this, though.  I actually have more friends on my 3DS than I do on my PS3 and 360 combined.

Oh so hopefully WiiU is like having codes in place of gamertags. I like that much better so I can choose whatever name I want.

I hope so, too.  Still, the 3DS way lets you change your name to whatever you want after you friend somebody.  I used to be "Saint Lewis" but after VGChartz members began to outnumber my real life friends (all two of them), I changed my name so that everybody would see me as "d21lewis".  Either way is fine with me.

one more telephone number I guess so no problem for me

@d21lewis I just want to be able to add anyone while online. Simple friend request like Facebook. Xbox live with friend codes instead of gamertags is fine with me.

The Wii U will have user accounts.  Each console can have up to 12 user accounts and you can take your account across multiple Nintendo devices (multiple Wii U's, 3DS's and even mobile phones, PC's and tablets [at least it's all in development....only Wii U at launch])

Brawl had a problem.  Nintendo even admitted this but without a patch system in place they could never really fix it.    Most games played very smoothly.

Well, this is an improvement from the Wii, not enough for many, but a bit for some...