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."

Comments

Re:Easy Solution...

[Seumas]

Actually, this makes me wonder - are friends going to be redefined?

It used to be that you had very few friends and these were people close to you that you spent time with regularly. Now, it has been redefined to any person that you play with on xbox, chat with on instant messaging or add to your myspace page because you both like the same crappy band.

I wonder if "friend" will even mean what it means today in another generation or two.

Re:Easy Solution...

[Walpurgiss]

And that's not even getting into the whole business of the difference between 'my' friend and 'our' friend. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,9 60357,00.html

My concern...

[earthbound kid]

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.

Re:Easy Solution...

[asninn]

Regarding use of the term "friend", there's an interesting paper here that deals with the use of the term "friend" and its different meanings on Livejournal. Quite an interesting read, and much of it (the general principles, at the very least) probably applies elsewhere, too.

Re:Solid Snake Racing

[MS-06FZ]

Though when someone's beating me in Mario Kart, and stops at the finish line, waits 'til I get there, and then turns around and crosses it driving backwards, that sends a pretty clear message. :) What message? That you can't snake worth a darn? Something like that... I'm actually reasonably good at the game - good enough to beat the Nintendo Ghost data on Yoshi Falls and a few other tracks, anyway (though not consistently) - there are just racers who are better at the game than I am, and sometimes they taunt me when they beat me very badly. :) I don't mind losing, but I don't like when people are dicks about it. ...though I hate that the game breaks down to that "snaking" process. Powerslide boost should be a little bonus for getting around corners efficiently, not for hopping around on straightaways.