Wow. I had gotten the impression that the most dedicated core users can be unreasonable about seeing their hobby from a mainstream view, but now I see that the dedicated internet core has an even harder time than the dedicated gaming core at understanding why their hobby is inaccessible. If Maelstrom can't get through to them, then I'm not sure anybody can.

I think Nintendo's slowish approach to online this generation was in part to ease them into the whole thing (baby steps into the internet), and to ease the newbs that they were targeting into the whole thing. Baby steps for the newbs, to turn them into gamers. Baby steps for Nintendo to eventually make greater strides in online gaming.

By next generation, they will probably have dumped friend codes.

@Skyrender

I know your a big fan of malstrom ;) but I mean wow dude; give him some credit >.>

Slow and steady wins the race, Malstrom did say something about Nintendo having to change their infastructure to meet a service demand, which would be hurting themselves more than helping. It makes sense so meh.

Bzzzt

Heh, yeah I was warned for that post. I'm just sick of fanboys defending Nintendo's terrible policies. Voice chat is not going to ruin a kids life, but lack of it can ruin gamers' exerperiences.

And since I've double posted...most of the kids that parents need to be worried about probably don't even have USB headsets. If they already do, that means they are using them on the PC or somewhere else anyway.

You're only showing your short-sightedness by saying that, windbane. Voice chat CAN ruin a person's experience with a game, as is evidenced by the fact that very few people who play a game online with voice chat go back to play it online again. You personally may have no problem with people suggesting the size of your genitalia is microscopic, questioning your sexuality, insinuating horrible things about what they or others do with your mother, and insulting you for everything you do, but most people are not willing to tolerate that kind of juvenile abuse. They'd rather just not play at all if the alternative is to put up with that.

No, because you can always turn it off or...*shocker*...unplug the headset. Again, only people that want voice chat use it. Edit: Also, if I didn't want to hear things like that I wouldn't have gone to school...or ever talked to anyone...and yet I still choose to communicate with people. Amazing, I know. It's a chance I take every time I talk to someone I don't know. They could destroy my life.

You've totally missed the point. Just having the feature encourages abuse of it. And seeing as the only people who would be using it would be the people who would be abusing it (as nobody else would WANT to use it thanks to those abusers), why include it at all? Simply to pander to a handful of people whose idea of entertainment is belittling others and behaving like schoolyard bullies? I fail to see how that is in any way, shape, or form a good business model.

I understand the friend codes from a parental perspective, and support them for that.

However, I'm an adult myself and to me, friend's codes are a nuisance. I would like for Nintendo to investigate & develop some sort of a two-tiered solution, keeping something like friend's codes for children (though I still find the current design unnecessarily bulky) while allowing greater freedom for those of age.

I do not believe that Nintendo has yet approached online with the same sort of thought and development with which they approach their major franchises -- if they had, I think that Nintendo's current online would bear their hallmarks of suppleness, elegance, fun and strength -- but I believe that they eventually will. And when they get serious about offering robust online, watch out, because Nintendo tends to excel at what they do.