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Nintendo Talks Wi-Fi - DS

IGN sat down with Takao Ohara - the main man behind the Wi-Fi Connection - for an interview. They discussed the reasoning behind the Friend Codes set up:

'Hardcore gamers don't care, but novice gamers have a hard time going into an online game and having to deal with the expert and hardcore gamer. They might feel they'll be made fun of or have to deal with foul and abusive language from other people. Casual gamer online games like poker don't usually have these same barriers like 'standard' console online service does.'

'We looked at that and thought that if we could seamlessly take that local DS wireless experience and bring it to the online, and to make it feel like they're playing it with someone right next to them instead of very long distances, we would be able to overcome those barriers and bring in more of the mass market.'

When questioned about how everyone has a different code for each online game, Ohara remarked that 'if there's a demand for a common or universal Friend Code we may look into trying to implement something like this.'

And finally, regarding the Revolution: 'The Nintendo DS is a handheld and the Revolution is a console, so you have to take into consideration how you apply Wi-Fi and the internet to a console versus a handheld. So you can expect the way to play online to change on the Revolution.'

by Nick Schaedel » Author's Blog