The above image was shown to me by a member of a videogame forum I host, Project Wonderboy, showing just how efficient and useful Nintendo's Wii Friend codes actually are. As you know, Nintendo likes to protect the little kiddies who might be playing their games online and as you can see from this image of Mario Strikers Charged, the system really does work! As the poster of the image said:
Yes, I can see that the Big N successfully keeps perversion and online jack asses away from our children by the usage of those great Friend codes. Thank God we have them to prevent anything vulgar to ever reach our sensitive Nintendo playing eyes...
I couldn't put it better myself, really. Oh, and if I can be serious for a minute -- you know that Friend codes are rubbish, I know that friend codes are rubbish. They're inconvenient and a complete hindrance to online play. Besides which, even without Mr. SukItFuckr here, the Friend code system is a token gesture at best, especially with countless message boards out there where you can go trade your codes with complete strangers. If the pedophiles are anywhere, they'll be right there, where kids who want to play online congregate to have their Miis touched in less than appropriate places. Friend codes do not lessen the chance that Nintendo products could be used to abuse children, it just shunts them off Nintendo's property and allows the soliciting to take place elsewhere in potentially less moderated, easier to navigate environments.
So instead, I propose a brand new system, one that is efficient, fast and helps us all as gamers to enjoy the online experience together in harmony. It is in fact the only system that could stop children getting themselves into trouble online and keep them safe from pervoids and predators on the Internet.
I call it the "parents doing their bloody jobs as parents" system.
Contest:
8:08 PM on 08.14.2007
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YES
Not even your computers are safe
'''<=======================3-see what I mean
Who the fuck is Jim again?
<j/k homie... much love>
A common parent shopping for next gen console and video game store clerk encounter.
Parent- "But tell me clerk, do these consoles allow for my children to surf upon the World Wide Web?"
Clerk- "Why yes they do. And it allows for downloading of new games at a lower than retail cost, as well as interaction with other console owners via online multiplayer."
Parent- "What? Humans interacting with my boys on the internet, in the manner depicted in 'To Catch a Predetor'? Madness! Forget this electronic game buisness! I'm just going to get a learning game for my boys, something like Scrabble of Monopoly. Now those are real game, the games that I grew up on. They taught me the importance of spelling. and of capitailism. Furthermore, Dr Phil says that..."
(interupting)Clerk- "But, Nintendo has a friend code system on their consoles to keep your kids safe. It works by...
(interupting)Parent- "Al right already! Man, you video game clerks are so pushy! What, are you all paid on commision or something? Just give me the safest one. But it better not cost me more than $250!"
That's who friend codes are for. Parents like that.
I have more or less seen the above interaction occur several times at Wal-Mart, Target, and Gamestop. These are parents who think the X-Box 360 is a X-Box shaped like a sphere, and is otherwise identical to the original X-Box, ignoring the clerks attempts to educate them otherwise. Parents who think the difference between the PS2 and the PS3 is the same as the difference between a $120 TV and a $600 TV. "The both play games, right?" say these parents "What's the difference then?"
Let cookie monster eat his god damn cookies!
That's pretty much what I was hinting at in the article -- it makes the problem of online predation more prevalent elsewhere ... but as long as it's off Nintendo's property, they don't give a shit.
Nintendo is afraid that lawsuits will erupt over the online services created by game companies, and when and if that day comes, Nintendo will be the only seemingly omnipresent and litigation-free console maker.
nintendo will never lead into territory that risks massive lawsuits or negative public perception -especially among parents- intentionally... unless it changes it's target audience... but it seems that children and family friendly entertainment are more Nintendo's audience now than ever =(
there really is a better way to do things.
For instnace, a big shiny button (I know they can make those) that says "Email my friend code to another Wii" would be infinitely improved. Instead, we all have to TRANSCRIBE our goddamn code from the television to a piece of paper and send it via carrier pigeon to a friend, so they can reverse engineer the code on their side.
Keep trying Nintendo! don't give up!
Buried for being lame.
Tex Avery made animation for adults, so did all the early animation pioneers, later on, people like Hannah Barbara discovered you could churn out utter shit and kids will still watch it, and so the kiddie market was born. Even though animation lends itself to adult subject matter, the medium is now considered a kiddie market, and parents assume that ALL animation should be suitable for kids, which is why in America so many animations are cut and censored, and none are aimed at adults.
What's my point? Well, videogames are in danger of being thought of as a kiddie medium where a token gesture of child protection is considered over the convenience of the medium, just to appease the parents who think that anythig that isn't film should somehow be a child friendly industry. This warped view is encouraged and backed up by Sony and Nintendo when they go oit of their way to exclude software that parents may find offensive, or in Nintendo's case complicating and limiting an online feature just to keep the parents happy even though they have no more rights than any other consumer. Manhunt 2 is an obvious example, why are Sony and Nintendo policing the content of their hardware? Surely their hardware doesn't belong to any exclusive market, let alone kids. But they have already shown that they will buckle under the pressure of mainstream arrogance and basically allow the ignorance of parents to dictate how a creative medium is run.
Think I'm being hysterical? Animation went from being one of the most creative mediums in the world, America was at the forefront of groundbreaking animation from the depression era to around the late 60's. Look at it now, it's saturday morning product placement fodder for kids.
I think they should institute an open and closed type of online system where the closed system would be where only friends could be contacted and played with (for the kids obviously) and an open system where you can join any game and have anyone join (pedophiles and all).
Sounds like someone needs a big ol' bear hug to get him through today
Besides, you would have to be extremely biased towards nintendo to think friend codes are a great idea.
Dude, I love my Wii, but it still has problems.
At least they aren't breaking down on all of the editors here like the 360 is.
chill out.
P.S @whipple, thanks for the hug, lol.
Dude, Whoa, just fucking whoa.
D'toid has it's problems. Bias against Nintendo isn't one of them. (now that summa left)
But don't hold up IGN as something great. That site is a bit shit. It may actually be worse than friend codes.
Kids were part of the 80s arcade scene, whereas teenagers and adults were more into the home computer game scene (ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari, Amiga, Amstrad etc) I don't think there has ever been a time when games were kiddy though.
It's just ironic that perhaps the biggest creative risk takers - Nintendo - are prepared to put the paranoia and misunderstanding of parents, before the best interests of the interactive medium, I actually though Iwata was going to change all that, guess not.
All these issues fall under the umbrella of the "Misunderstanding of Interactive Entertainment", relatively speaking, games are a new, misunderstood medium and are thusly put into categories born from older more established mediums, "Games are fun, bright, loud, colourful, and they're obviously not films, so what are they then, what are they like? Oh yeah, they're just like Disney or Pixar, or something that's not film but colourful and loud and fun, and anything that's fun must be primarily for kids and families right? So let's regulate the entire medium for kids and parents". Until the interactive medium is universally understood like the medium of film is understood, then parents will assume that they have first rights just like they have with animation.
Again, Manhunt 2 is the perfect example, it is banned for not conforming to the idea of what a game should be, as categorised by the non gaming mainstream. The obvious problem is that people don't know what a game should be, yet infuriatingly this problem is magnified by the games industry itself when Sony and Nintendo police their own hardware and add friend codes for no other reason than appeasing a wrong assumption about their medium. Film has no such assumptions inflicted upon it because people understand that many films are made for many different tastes, which is why you don't get Panasonic or Toshiba policing their DVD players, games are yet to be understood at this level which is why we get ridiculous crap like friend codes.
I spend A LOT of time on the sites. I have mostly nintendo systems. the fanboy in me gets offended, but it's really not a big deal. Sure I'd get irritated when sites wouldn't even acknowledge the GCN last generation, but the Wii is too much of a force this time around to be a ignored as something not worth having.
If you spend a lot of time on this site, the Wii is really popular, especially with the Clogs, the 360 is loved, but derided for breaking down, and the PS3, well, let's say the PS3 is where the GCN was near the end of the last cycle.
aka, PDTBJAPS
Well done, Sir Jim. Well done. (Everyone from England is a knight, right? Dragons, swords, the whole bit?)
Oh, pdarkness - you need to read more Dtoid. I'm a big Nintendo fan. Dtoid definitely takes jabs at Nintendo when deserved, but they also give the big N praise when rightfully so.
ESRB = Comics code. Self censorship, or any censorship for that matter, doesn't work when the goal is to make an entire form of media "safe for kids". It's a broken system and I hope it doesn't take the video game industry 40 years to figure it out, as it took comics.
I own a Wii. It's my most played system. Friend codes are bullshit and Nintendo needs to get their heads out of their asses.
@Jim
Jesus, you are anti-Nintendo now, too!? You better hope nobody sees your negative posts about the XBox. Then you will be a man without a proverbial country!
@pdarkness: like other have said, dtoid used to have a huge anti-Nintendo bias, but Summa is gone now. Now it's just a bunch of excellent writers who happen to point out flaws in Nintendo's plans when deserved. And it seemed most of Summa's anti-Nintendo rhetoric was to get a rise out of everyone, anyway.
I'm going back to XYZBLORG.
Anyhow, I do think that Jim has a point here (I'm a long-time Nintendo fan and Wii owner, by the way). I think anyone who has played PC or 360 games online can understand why parents (and thus, Nintendo) might be concerned about online gaming. Potential predation isn't even the only danger here; think about the kind of belligerent, tourette syndrome-afflicted d-bags you might encounter when playing Counterstrike or Halo, for example. These are not typically the kind of people you might want your young progeny to interact with.
But clearly, there are issues with Nintendo's actual implementation of protections against this sort of behavior (i.e. Friend Codes). In my opinion, Friend Codes are more obtrusive then they strictly need to be to serve their intended purpose. Inherent in Nintendo's online strategy thus far is a trade-off: less freedom and utility for greater protections against against potential abuse. Whether or not this is the correct approach is up for debate (I'd love to hear some D'toid parents weigh in on this issue), but seeing the image above, it is difficult not to feel like perhaps this trade-off is not worth it after all.
In the end, however, I find it highly unlikely that Nintendo will perform a complete reversal of their online strategy, as Jim seems to advocate towards the end of his post. The question then becomes: is there a way to achieve the balance Friend Codes are intended to create in a manner that is less burdensome on general users who see no real benefit from this balance?
In other words, a hearty "Suk it, Fuckr" to anyone so dysfunctionally vengeful as to blame this behavior on the friend code system, instead of on the asshole who wasted hours of his life just to capture that ridiculous screenshot.
If my kid has to look at that screen, I am confident he'll get over it. If my kid is the one who makes that screen, and posts it on the internet as if it is evidence of something beyond his own fucked up value system, that's when I'll worry that I haven't been doing my bloody job.
And yes, games were intended for kids, originally. Look at the advertising. 99 times out of 100, they show kids playing it. Regardless of who was actually playing them (and let's be honest, most people playing games back then were kids) games were a kiddy medium. (When I say kiddy, I include the early teenage years.)