A lot of people are telling Nintendo to just “copy Xbox Live already” and get an online community going. It seems like most folks are vehemently against Friend Codes for online games, whether it be on DS or Wii. Infendo commenter Caion makes the case for Friend Codes and an example of what purpose they can serve:
My nephew wanted to play Halo 2 and I saw no harm in allowing him to (Halo may be M rated, but it’s not THAT bad). What I neglected to notice was that he quit the single player campaign after a while and went online. I passed by the room just in time to overhear some players talking about their private parts (in explicit detail) and exactly what they were going to do with them. I never pulled an ethernet cable from my router so fast before. Xbox games are officially off the family play list unless the game is family-friendly and DOES NOT have Xbox live play.
Nintendo Friend Codes offer some protection against situations like this, but Xbox Live offers a pretty good online gaming experience. Is there a way to combine the best of both worlds?