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[ZeoVGM]

Please learn how to read the messages you quote before that kind of answer. Tahnk you very much.

What exactly did I misread?

 

[Jacce]

I thought the focus was being able to add friends via your associated social networks like Twitter?

Did they actually remove that???

 

[Tathanen]

I mean this is dumb, but that so many people's issue is "I don't want to or can't remember the digits" is bizarre to me. When are you planning to tell someone this shit from memory? What is the actual usecase? Are you at a bar? "Lemme get you my digits babe."

Am I wrong to think that 99.9% of all friend exchanges involve someone sending the other person their username over IM or something? In which case, copy the code and paste it in there?

Again, yes, dumb, but it's hard to empathise with the specific issues y'all are citing.

I thought the focus was being able to add friends via your associated social networks like Twitter?

Did they actually remove that???

Of course not. There's some crazy misinformation going on in here. This is one of like five methods.

 

[Okami Haundo]

I thought the focus was being able to add friends via your associated social networks like Twitter?

Did they actually remove that???

Nope! There's a "suggested friends" list that pulls from your Mario Run/Miitomo/Social Media accounts for easy adding. The friend code only applies for people you don't have a connection to via those services. Even then, it's just a one-way thing.

 

[wild wild rice]

Seems to be the same as asking "what's your psn name?"

 

[Jacce]

Nope! There's a "suggested friends" list that pulls from your Mario Run/Miitomo/Social Media accounts for easy adding. The friend code only applies for people you don't have a connection to via those services. Even then, it's just a one-way thing.

Then what in the world is anyone complaining about? The social network method of using Twitter/Facebook is 100x easier than any other platforms method currently. This thread made it seem like we had to use friend codes.

Everyone has their friends Facebook/Twitter accounts. Far more than a brand new Nintendo ID. This method is better than any other method I can think of. Why in the world are so many acting like we have to use friend codes? This is crazy.

 

[Metal B]

The difference makes it more difficult than it needs to be. It's needless. There's no reason for it.

There is a system that works better already. Nintendo made the conscious decision to make it a bit more difficult.

Is it the end of the world? Nope, I'm getting my Switch at midnight. But as I said, there is no defense for this decision. None.

There are two, which is security (account theft, spam, fishing, etc) and safety for children. It would be easier with usernames, but Nintendo either didn't want it or will feature it in the future.
Again it isn't a big deal, since people still can easy add there friends. The other method would be just even more easier and nice for those people, who like to remember the usernames of there friends for some reason.

 

[lenovox1]

The difference makes it more difficult than it needs to be. It's needless. There's no reason for it.

There is a system that works better already. Nintendo made the conscious decision to make it a bit more difficult.

Is it the end of the world? Nope, I'm getting my Switch at midnight. But as I said, there is no defense for this decision. None.

Boom! Right there. You've discovered the intent. You've discovered the reason.

Now what's the why behind it. That's where the discussion is.

If you have a system that has modifiable display names and unchangeable user names, you need a secure method for strangers to connect with one another. That's the why.

Is it more convoluted than what others do? Yes. Is it that much more difficult? No, not really. All you need is one person's code to add them as a friend.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Then what in the world is anyone complaining about? The social network method of using Twitter/Facebook is 100x easier than any other platforms method currently. This thread made it seem like we had to use friend codes.

The complaints mainly derive from the idea that Nintendo could have (and should have) just allowed simple swapping of User ID's. It's definitely a valid argument! The whole suggested friends thing is honestly a work-around for them deciding to assign a static set of numbers rather than allowing a User ID to be searchable.

Either way, the system itself doesn't sound too bad but there's certainly reason to complain.

The people who are most vocal seemed to expect Switch to finally compete with PS/Xbox in some way shape or form. Sadly, it looks like Nintendo is taking their own path once again for better and worse.

 

[Jacce]

I cant imagine anyone isn't already friends with their personal friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc. They'll all be there from the get go. No need to share friend codes. I am honestly lost at what the issue is.

 

[Anth0ny]

but why

 

[Tathanen]

I think the thread title is pretty disingenuous really, friend codes are like the last item in the list, it's not the "primary method." It's the "if all else fails, do this" method. They try to hook people up via all sorts of other ways first, most notably by suggesting people via existing social network connections.

If you're friends with most of your friends on Facebook/Google/Twitter already, and you both have those accounts linked to your Nintendo account, you'll never have to interact with a friend code in your life.

 

[Brofield]

I mean this is dumb, but that so many people's issue is "I don't want to or can't remember the digits" is bizarre to me. When are you planning to tell someone this shit from memory? What is the actual usecase? Are you at a bar? "Lemme get you my digits babe."

Am I wrong to think that 99.9% of all friend exchanges involve someone sending the other person their username over IM or something? In which case, copy the code and paste it in there?

Again, yes, dumb, but it's hard to empathise with the specific issues y'all are citing.



Of course not. There's some crazy misinformation going on in here. This is one of like five methods.

Obviously not hitting on someone, but say you're at a party and meet some cool new people. Easier (and arguably a lot more nonchalant) to toss out a "Hey, add me as Brofield on PSN and we can run CoD sometime." versus "Well hey, my Switch code is...Ah, let your memo app open first. Okay then, you ready? It's 6545...No, 6545, not 6455. So, 6545-8778-91...9127. No, 9127. So it should be 6544-dammit now I'm getting it mixed up. Here, just pass me your phone and I'll type it in."

Talking about video games isn't exactly cool yet in the most general social setting. Trying to play it off as whatever is the in thing with the youths.

 

[NolbertoS]

Nintendo is cautious because of the many predators out there. They don't want bad PR. I agree and disagree with friend codes. Agree that it should be implemented, but disagree in the sense that it should be a secondary security feature for people you never met online, forum, etc

 

[lenovox1]

The complaints mainly derive from the idea that Nintendo could have (and should have) just allowed simple swapping of User ID's. It's definitely a valid argument! The whole suggested friends thing is honestly a work-around for them deciding to assign a static set of numbers rather than allowing a User ID to be searchable.

Either way, the system itself doesn't sound too bad but there's certainly reason to complain.

The people who are most vocal seemed to expect Switch to finally compete with PS/Xbox in some way shape or form. Sadly, it looks like Nintendo is taking their own path once again for better and worse.

On the record: Its completely valid.

This system is also not the worst thing that Nintendo Has. Ever. Done. There is actual panic and anxiety in this thread over what is essentially a friend request system with digits.

Obviously not hitting on someone, but say you're at a party and meet some cool new people. Easier (and arguably a lot more nonchalant) to toss out a "Hey, add me as Brofield on PSN and we can run CoD sometime." versus "Well hey, my Switch code is...Ah, let your memo app open first. Okay then, you ready? It's 6545...No, 6545, not 6455. So, 6545-8778-91...9127. No, 9127. So it should be 6544-dammit now I'm getting it mixed up. Here, just pass me your phone and I'll type it in."

Talking about video games isn't exactly cool yet in the most general social setting. Trying to play it off as whatever is the in thing with the youths.

Do they have Facebook? Twitter?

 

[lenovox1]

ETA: DP

 

[cmChimera]

Seems to be the same as asking "what's your psn name?"

It's not. It's like asking "What's your random 12 digit string of numbers?" Spoiler: I don't know.

 

[Inferno313]

Obviously not hitting on someone, but say you're at a party and meet some cool new people. Easier (and arguably a lot more nonchalant) to toss out a "Hey, add me as Brofield on PSN and we can run CoD sometime." versus "Well hey, my Switch code is...Ah, let your memo app open first. Okay then, you ready? It's 6545...No, 6545, not 6455. So, 6545-8778-91...9127. No, 9127. So it should be 6544-dammit now I'm getting it mixed up. Here, just pass me your phone and I'll type it in."

Talking about video games isn't exactly cool yet in the most general social setting. Trying to play it off as whatever is the in thing with the youths.

Who does this? If anything, I offer up my facebook. Typically, I don't even do that, and just find them and add them on FB afterwards.

 

[guek]

Obviously not hitting on someone, but say you're at a party and meet some cool new people. Easier (and arguably a lot more nonchalant) to toss out a "Hey, add me as Brofield on PSN and we can run CoD sometime." versus "Well hey, my Switch code is...Ah, let your memo app open first. Okay then, you ready? It's 6545...No, 6545, not 6455. So, 6545-8778-91...9127. No, 9127. So it should be 6544-dammit now I'm getting it mixed up. Here, just pass me your phone and I'll type it in."

Talking about video games isn't exactly cool yet in the most general social setting. Trying to play it off as whatever is the in thing with the youths.

"Are you on Facebook, Twitter, Miitomo, etc.?"

"Yes"

"Great, I'll add you and we'll play together some time."

Adding people via social media is the ideal method for most people these days, especially youths.

 

[Tathanen]

Obviously not hitting on someone, but say you're at a party and meet some cool new people. Easier (and arguably a lot more nonchalant) to toss out a "Hey, add me as Brofield on PSN and we can run CoD sometime." versus "Well hey, my Switch code is...Ah, let your memo app open first. Okay then, you ready? It's 6545...No, 6545, not 6455. So, 6545-8778-91...9127. No, 9127. So it should be 6544-dammit now I'm getting it mixed up. Here, just pass me your phone and I'll type it in."

Talking about video games isn't exactly cool yet in the most general social setting. Trying to play it off as whatever is the in thing with the youths.

You think they're gonna remember "Brofield" in the middle of a conversation without typing it into something right then and there? That'll go in one ear and out the other. It's harder to write down the code, sure, but they'll be writin it down I'm sure.

 

[bman94]

For fucks sake Nintendo, why is it so hard to just use profile names?

 

[EDarkness]

Not sure what's wrong with sending someone your code to add you. Most of the games I play on mobile have friend codes. Not sure what the outrage is about.

 

[Inferno313]

You think they're gonna remember "Brofield" in the middle of a conversation without typing it into something right then and there? That'll go in one ear and out the other. It's harder to write down the code, sure, but they'll be writin it down I'm sure.

Brofield is a pretty easy to remember tag too. Try explaining to someone that your username is "lowercase x, capital x, Blasto - but the 'o' is a zero, two, three, one."

 

[Venfayth]

Not sure what's wrong with sending someone your code to add you. Most of the games I play on mobile have friend codes. Not sure what the outrage is about.

People laughing at a backwards design decision isn't "outrage"

 

[Brofield]

Do they have Facebook? Twitter?

For better or for worse Facebook is dying. Even a die-hard social media consumer for the last decade+ like myself is on a sabbatical from it and trying to stay away from it. Several people I work with, both younger and older, don't use it. Younger, "because it's for old people." Older, "because I've got better things to waste my time on."

Twitter may still be the 'in' thing right now, but it's bleeding money in the billions and unless it can patch that hole ASAP it'll go the way of Vine. Nintendo may as well ask for MySpace users to connect and find each other. Better off using Snapchat or Instagram to find friends.

Miitomo didn't retain players like Nintendo hoped. Maybe Super Mario Run will have better success. Right now SMR isn't worth $10 for always online to me and Miitomo was deleted because for 700mb I couldn't fit in two of my favourite Spotify playlists, not to mention I haven't touched it in three months.

 

[Jacce]

Why can't you just ask for peoples twitter/facebook/google handle instead? You can find accounts via all of those.

For fucks sake Nintendo, why is it so hard to just use profile names?

You can. Via Twitter, Google, Facebook accounts. People keep opting to not mention this part.

 

[King Gilga]

lol jesus christ nintendo what's so hard about usernames or phone numbers.

Literally every other service in the world lets you.

 

[Kthulhu]

Seems to be the same as asking "what's your psn name?"

Except that's easier to memorize than a randomly generated 12 character code

 

[Couleurs]

For fucks sake Nintendo, why is it so hard to just use profile names?

Because Nintendo's always gonna Nintendo, and people will for some reason continue to justify their backwards ass decisions.

 

[Tathanen]

Brofield is a pretty easy to remember tag too. Try explaining to someone that your username is "lowercase x, capital x, Blasto - but the 'o' is a zero, two, three, one."

Yeah, me tellin someone "Tathanen" might as well be me saying nothing at all.

I mean I ain't gonna argue the codes aren't still dumb, like if someone's on their Switch and they say "what's your name I'll add you" I'd sure rather just spell Tathanen than look up my code. But in all likelyhood they'll just be tapping my name in their suggested list instead.

 

[EVH]

For better or for worse Facebook is dying. Even a die-hard social media consumer for the last decade+ like myself is on a sabbatical from it and trying to stay away from it. Several people I work with, both younger and older, don't use it. Younger, "because it's for old people." Older, "because I've got better things to waste my time on."

Twitter may still be the 'in' thing right now, but it's bleeding money in the billions and unless it can patch that hole ASAP it'll go the way of Vine. Nintendo may as well ask for MySpace users to connect and find each other. Better off using Snapchat or Instagram to find friends.

Miitomo didn't retain players like Nintendo hoped. Maybe Super Mario Run will have better success. Right now SMR isn't worth $10 for always online to me and Miitomo was deleted because for 700mb I couldn't fit in two of my favourite Spotify playlists, not to mention I haven't touched it in three months.

http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

Facebook is the social network that keeps more active users with a huge margin. Twitter is actually the one dying.

 

[cw_sasuke]

We have children accounts now.... They probably don't wanna have the actual account IDs out there, to prevent stalker and predators contact and look up kids.

There still should be a search for the display name but at the end of the day I doubt this would be any faster than just typing the digit ID.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Because Nintendo's always gonna Nintendo, and people will for some reason continue to justify their backwards ass decisions.

To play devil's advocate, we also keep expecting Nintendo to follow/copy their competition. We do this time and time again despite their repeated history of ignoring trends/standards. In areas like this it ends up being quite painful to see them deviate.

 

[EDarkness]

People laughing at a backwards design decision isn't "outrage"

There's nothing backwards about it. Mobile games still do this. I've been playing Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius and it does this. So does Fire Emblem Heroes. I don't see the problem. It's a way to add friends that obviously works since so many other games use them. If not, then it would have died out a long time ago.

 

[Maedhros]

Why can't you just ask for peoples twitter/facebook/google handle instead? You can find accounts via all of those.



You can. Via Twitter, Google, Facebook accounts. People keep opting to not mention this part.

EXCEPT IT'S NOT CONFIRMED.

Seriously, why the hell are people still talking about Facebook/Twitter when there's no confirmation of them being used on the system?

Sony hasn't seemed to figure that out yet.

Probably not worth for them. And still leagues better than Friend Codes.

 

[boiled goose]

I was actually thinking of making a thread about this some time ago. There is no consistency in their choices. At all.

Nintendo DS: Friendcodes (unique to each game)
Nintendo Wii: Friendcodes (system wide)
Nintendo 3DS: Friendcodes or face-to-face method (system wide)
Nintendo Wii U: Nintendo Network ID
Miitomo: Suggested friends through social media, face-to-face method, adding friends of friends, e-mail or SMS
Super Mario Run: Player ID's and suggested friends through social media
Fire Emblem: Heroes: User ID and suggested friends through social media

And the solution is so easy...
One user ID
single friends list.

I really dont get it.

 

[Inferno313]

EXCEPT IT'S NOT CONFIRMED.

Seriously, why the hell are people still talking about Facebook/Twitter when there's no confirmation of them being used on the system?

Laura Kate Dale has a system and confirmed this hours ago.

 

[Defect]

lol people are actually defending this shit?

 

[Riesenfass]

Who does this? If anything, I offer up my facebook. Typically, I don't even do that, and just find them and add them on FB afterwards.

I do. I have a friend at work that has me on PSN and is not on any of my social media accounts.

This isn't something that's so esoteric that it never happens. I know people that don't use social media at all... They exist believe it or not.

 

[lenovox1]

Because Nintendo's always gonna Nintendo, and people will for some reason continue to justify their backwards ass decisions.

Personally, I'm just trying to quell the utter panic that this thread has caused some people. Is it more convoluted than other online systems? Yes. Could it be better? Yes.

Is it the absolute worst? No. Not at all. You're just putting in a friend code instead of a user name to add strangers. Big whoop.

 

[Maedhros]

Laura Kate Dale has a system and confirmed this hours ago.

I'll believe when I see a picture with a suggested person from Facebook/Twitter.

 

[Otnopolit]

lol people are actually defending this shit?

It's really questionable and should be 100% username based, but at the very least, we are glad we don't need the other person to have our code to accept. It's basically a serial number system that is simplified from the one before it on 3DS. I hope to God this is temporary and that Reggie has a come to Jesus moment, but it is what it is.

 

[Jacce]

I'll believe when I see a picture with a suggested person from Facebook/Twitter.

lol you are claiming she is lying, why?

 

[Immaculate]

what the fuck is the point of Nintendo Account then

 

[lenovox1]

I do. I have a friend at work that has me on PSN and is not on any of my social media accounts.

This isn't something that's so esoteric that it never happens. I know people that don't use social media at all... They exist believe it or not.

If they're that private, they should have zero problems with this method of adding friends.

 

[lenovox1]

what the fuck is the point of Nintendo Account then

This is tied to your Nintendo account. This keeps your Nintendo account completely private.

 

[Inferno313]

what the fuck is the point of Nintendo Account then

To play online, manage eShop information and purchases, access your MyNintendo rewards, etc, etc. Ya know, account-type shit.

I think friend codes are dumb too, don't get me wrong, but some of y'all are starting to just sound stupid.

 

[DigtialT]

lol you are claiming she is lying, why?

Because the person who wrote this article stated there is no way to add people via twitter or facebook.

I posted this article and can confirm. It's very unfortunate. The one person that I had been friends with on Super Mario Run and also has a Switch was there for me to add and it was seamless, but it appears that unless you've played with a person before online or are in the same room as them, you'll need to use a 12-digit randomised friend code.

You can 100% as far as I can tell, not add people that are on Twitter or Facebook. This is not mentioned AT ALL. If you can, then it's not listed as an option. It clearly said friends on Super Mario Run and Miitomo.

 

[Kyuur]

-snip-

Decided I'd rather not descend into meta-thread shitposting territory.

 

[HerpDerpstreit]

EXCEPT IT'S NOT CONFIRMED.

Seriously, why the hell are people still talking about Facebook/Twitter when there's no confirmation of them being used on the system?



Probably not worth for them. And still leagues better than Friend Codes.

Not saying either is better or worse. I just personally find it odd that Sony won't even allow a user to pay for the change the same way XBL does. (which as a mostly PC user is still shit when you can change everything but Battle.net for free)