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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."
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.
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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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.
Press Guide Button -> Personal Settings -> Voice - > Set Volume to 0
It's just that easy.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
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
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.
Well, that's the easiest way if you're playing games with random people you don't want to talk to.
Others include, if you're playing with only 1 friend, being in private chat with them.
Or mute the specific fucktard who's talking crap, and make sure to submit feedback (a voice ban or two calms some of them down).
Or play games with friends only, just like on the Wii, without the pain of friend codes.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
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.
Coming up on Slashdot:
Using color-coded jewelcases to separate LiveCDs from porn "backups", reducing monitor glare with opaque curtains, and applying previously learned lessons in moderation towards the past-time of drinking Mountain Dew. CowboyHeloise brings us all of these, plus fifty helpful tips to prevent shitting in your pants during an all-night coding session!
<SPOILER> - the #1 tip: "Make sure to remove your pants before defecating. A little hand-written sign scotch-taped to the wall across from the toilet can be a last-minute life-saver!" </SPOILER>
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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.
butter the donkey
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand