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Remember Your Wii Friend Code the 1-800 Way
MTV's Stephen Totilo has a simple, common-sense solution to the issue of friend codes on the Wii: friend sentences. Using a tool like PhoneSpell.org, he advocates turning your incomprehensible code into something a bit more manageable. Instead of the sixteen digit mishmash that the Wii offers me, I can instead offer up "a-010-lure-texsku-50". Not a heck of a lot better, but certainly more memorable. "Each time, I had to send them my code, input theirs, and then wait for the Nintendo network to recognize we both wanted to be on each other's friends lists. A couple of months ago, however, my Wii broke. I got a new one. I was excited, but then spotted the dark lining to my silver cloud: My new system would force a new Friend Code on me, a Friend Code that I'd need to send out to everyone and hope they'd be willing to cancel my old listing and type in the new. That's when I realized the true pain of these 16-digit codes."
16 digit codes are a pain. It still beats hearing every 12 year old kids opinion of me on XBox live, IMO.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I prefer to play with my wii by myself. And I'm most certainly not interested in calling some telephone number while playing with my wii. I tried that before and it got REALLY expensive.
have no friends. Issue solved!
Or just use WiTendoFi.com. They worked great for the DS and now they have Wii System Code support too. In fact, you can see my card here:
mywifitag.com/gweedo767
That is a lot easier to remember than coming up with that crap.
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Or, better yet, use screen names like every other online service.
You know Nintendo is going to come out with new colors of Wii with extra features like DVD playback in a year or so. (Or they could add a 120GB HD, paint it black, and take out the WiFi adapter then call it "Wii Elite." ;-p ) The question is, will I be allowed to move my Virtual Console games to the new machine if I purge the old one before reselling it? It seems like we should be allowed to, but so far I haven't seen evidence that we will, which kind of screws over the early adopters who want to upgrade later.
whocares
Is that so freaking hard? If so, then use one of the Wii friend code web sites out there. I agree, the system sucks from a usability stand point, but unless Nintendo finds their balls or you can get all the parent's groups, children's advocates and right and left wing game censorship nuts to simmer down, you're going to have to live with it.
Brian Hastings made an excellent point earlier this week: Your friend Reggie invites you over for a Wii Party. It's awesome. You and your friends partake in whatever beverages are legally appropriate for your age group. The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii. A week later Reggie hosts another Wii Party. This time only half the group comes. It's still fun, but there isn't quite as much shoving to get at the Wiimote. The next week Reggie hosts another Wii Party. You tell him you have bird flu. That's how it goes. It's only fun for so long. Now, mind you, from a business standpoint it's excellent. Consider the distilled truth: "The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii." What other console can say that? Hell, what other product?
Even if you do play it, you can't do much with each other's friend codes. At least not yet.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I don't know, but when Nintendo replaces a Wii, they normally transfer all the data over (VC games purchased, account with Wii points, game saves, miis, etc) - does this not include the friend code as well?
Just would seem odd that Nintendo would transfer everything over except the friend code...
seems to be the case, anyways. you should mention that in your post if you're going to pimp your site. "full disclosure". without it, you must be new here.
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The examples offered are no easier to remember than a numerical code, and have the added hassle of having to convert it back to numbers before you enter it.
(not owning a Wii, IDK how the code is entered: if it's a 0-9 keypad with the letters also printed on the keys (like a phone) the conversion isn't necessary).
To me, it seems the problem is more fundamental. Why did Nintendo assign random 16-digit numbers instead of allowing users to choose their own 'friend code'? My name (if needed, with a 3-digit number attached to prevent namespace collisions) is much more memorable than any code Nintendo can come up with.
Seriously. Pen and paper are your friend. But since brain games are all the rage these days, 16 digit Wii Friend Codes offer a great opportunitiy for everyone to master the The Major System for memorizing numbers:
e /newTIM_07.h tm [mindtools.com]
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/articl
It has a learning curve up front, but once you get it down, you can mop up the floor with 16 digit numbers.
High level summary:
Map numbers to consonants. Insert vowels and the letters h, q, w, x, and y freely to make the consonants into words. For long numbers, make multiple words, preferably that have some relevance to the person or thing the number is associated with.
0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'
1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke
2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes
3 - m - has three downstrokes
4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back
5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)
6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.
7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7s
rotated and glued together
8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluent
pipe discharging waste (letter image of F in
alphabet system)
9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.
Example (banged on number pad to get this number):
4276930814557292
4 27 6 9 3 0 8 1 4 55 7 2 9 2
rank job maze, father will con ben
If your string of words is hard to remember, the link mentions ways to memorize that as well.
A couple of months ago, however, my Wii broke.
Ummm...the Wii is only a couple of months old. How did you break it almost immediately after buying it? Did you impale it with your Wiimote or was there a hardware failure? Also, if there is such a huge shortage of Wiis right now, how did you manage to get your hands on another one, and how long was your wait?
------RM