Nesrie
1568
For the 3-4 games I played online on the Wii. I had to enter the friend code for each game… if I recall. Which was also a pain. It didn’t save it like… this person is my friend and is always my friend sort of thing.
Are we really having a debate about this? That for the majority of human beings a 12-digit string of numbers is harder to remember than a username they chose? How is that controversial?
More evidence the console is early access; the full friend stuff just wasn’t finished so they jammed the 3DS code system in to tide us over.
You’d think it wouldn’t matter that much to most detractors here, who say they are not planning to buy Switch at launch anyway. It’ll be all good by the time Mario launches later this year and Switch reaches v1.0! :)
I was in one of my local GameStops an hour and a half ago (to pick up a Wii U game, funnily enough), and there were already four people lined up to pick up a non-preordered Switch at midnight, out of that store’s allotment of seven. This should be a fun weekend to read about online.
My mistake. You can currently add friends to Miitomo and Super Mario Run based on social networks, so I was thinking that the Switch would have the same functionality. Apparently not yet though.
It’s not going through an outside app; if you already have friends on Super Mario Run or Miitomo, it will auto-populate those people as suggested friends on the Switch. Then you just tap to add them, without having to use a friend code. You’re not going through the external app to add them.
Sorry, I only provided instructions for the most popular smartphone model. For other smartphones and OSes, use these instructions instead:
- Open your text-replacement app of choice.
- Enter “nnid” as the text to replace.
- Enter your Nintendo Friend Code as the replacement text.
I’m not debating that a username is easier to remember than a 12-digit code; I’m disputing the claim that “easier to remember” is of primary importance these days at all, and certainly not at the “What the everloving fuck??” level.
I have thousands of numbers on my phone, but hardly any of them that I need to remember on a daily basis. I recently changed most of my passwords because of the Cloudflare bug, and most of those are 15-digit combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols. These are passwords that I might have to enter once or twice a week, but I don’t need to memorize them because they’re easy to access when I need them.
If you’re sending someone your Nintendo Friend Code, you’re generally going to be on a computer or phone already, and it’s pretty simple to make that code just as easy to access. Or at worst, you’re talking to someone and you say, “Here, I’ll text you my friend code.” Memorizing something just doesn’t seem that crucial these days, especially when we have a million tools to electronically augment our memory.
Sure, you know what is easier? A username I made up. Here. Right now. Without clicking on anything else or going to another app or file, I can tell you my Steam, Xbox Live, or PSN name. It’s “Telefrog” and that’s all you need to know. On Origin it’s “Telefr0g” because my old email got nuked. Simple and easy.
My Nintendo Friend Code? Heck if I know off the top of my head.
It’s not a gigantic hardship to look it up, but it is a barrier, and it’s a worse solution than the ones the other networks use. It’s frankly weird that you argue so hard against that consensus opinion.
The easiest thing is to just get on a plane and bring your console for local games of 1-2-Switch.
I don’t know my PayPal password off the top of my head, and I use that much more often than I use friend codes.
I’m not arguing against the consensus opinion: Yes, a 12-digit friend code is harder to remember than a self-generated username. I just disagree with the opinion that it’s going to be anything more than a trivial inconvenience 99% of the time.
Are you giving out your PayPal password to other people? Because the more analogous PayPal memory challenge would be your PayPal email or username. I know mine without prompting.
Passwords should be hard to remember. They’re not meant to be shared.
As for your disagreement, we’ve had a couple of years of Friend Codes. No one seems to like them because they make connecting harder than other companies’ solutions to the same problem.
The use of Friend Codes on previous Nintendo systems has changed over time. On earlier systems, you had a unique friend code per game, and each person had to enter the other person’s friend code before you could see each other. Then they went to a systemwide friend code, but you both still had to enter the other person’s code to connect. Now it’s a one-way request only, augmented by many other methods to add friends. Not all Friend Codes are the same.
EDIT: Why are we fighting?? MrTibbs just got his Switch! Yay MrTibbs!
I wonder if there’s a single Switch launch system sold/shipped that doesn’t have a copy of Zelda with it.
What use would a console with no games be?
Come for the 1-2-Switch, stay for the Snipperclips.
I ask myself this every time Xbox Live goes down.
Comity! It’ll be nothing more than a trivial inconvenience 99% of the time because I suspect I’ll be playing hardly any online multiplayer with friends. I don’t think I ever did on the Wii-U or 3DS.
MattN
1586
My understanding is the friend codes are a temporary thing for the switch beta us suckers are unofficially signing up for.
I got up to go to the bathroom at like 1 AM, and got a text from now in stock. I got a Switch with Zelda from Gamestop being shipped.
