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by MaximumMadness 2240 days ago
One of the most interesting parts of this is the story behind Nintendo's use of friend codes rather than Gamertags.

There was a presentation [0] leaked that outlined that usernames "weren't simple enough". It's a great look into Nintendo's Wi-Fi Strategy

[0] https://www.docdroid.net/Qr3JNsl/wi-fi-concept-pdf#page=11

1 comments

All of their points looks like an attempt to justify bad decisions.

SW-7899-1252-5983 is simpler than username systems children could figure out on Neopets and Club Penguin? People can guess your username because they know your name is Billy?

Discord and Blizzard have the ultimate ez solution: What username do you want? Billy. Alright, if you want someone to find you, give them this string: Billy#1201.

Nintendo still hasn't made an online system as good as Xbox Live in 2002. How they justify SW-7899-1252-5983 as the ideal trade-off sheds some light that they might have an institional-level lack of intuition about what a compelling online experience looks like. Which is interesting because I think most people by now assumed catastrophic indifference.