The Swapnote/Flipnote 3D SpotPass Shutdown Debacle

[Sarki Soliloquy]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35863

Swapnote was such a neat tool for friends to exchange messages, drawings, photos, and recordings between each other. But as recent as last week, many 3DS owners around the world were appalled to find a notice on their systems that disables the SpotPass functionality of Swapnote. This also occurred with the Japan-released Flipnote 3D.

Nintendo has apologized to users of these software titles, but have ultimately taken this measure because of alleged instances of minors exchanging Friend Codes with strangers on the Internet and seeing offensive material. One can only imagine what that kind of material was.

Effectively, this defeats the purpose of these applications. Friends registered between 3DSs had a free space for conversations and drawing whatever they want. Nintendo would also send out special stationary to advertise their latest games, which was pretty cool.

The only feature that has been enabled for Swapnote and Flipnote 3D is StreetPass functionality. At least 3DS owners passing each other are still able to exchange messages, albeit one at a time.

What do you guys think about Nintendo's way of handling this issue? IMO, Nintendo really needs to grow the **** up when it comes to the exchange of online content and sociability. The actions they've taken do not eradicate the source of the problem. Instead, they put everyone under this blackout of service and not find ways to trace those who are using Swapnote and Flipnote 3D for offensive purposes. Also, to quote John "Ghost" Conquest, "Where are the parents!?" Parental control settings are pre-installed into the 3DS system and can cut off access to these services or people. Minors may be free to use their system to their own devices (no pun intended), but a decent parent would enact what they see fit and unfit for them to be exposed to. This oversheltering course of action really makes me think back to how Nintendo regarded their consumers back in the Sega vs. Nintendo era; children. To think that one of my favorite companies still hasn't learned their lesson from back then or keeps in touch with the reality of our society honestly makes me feel sick.

 

[Squidberg]

I agree with you. I went off on a huuuge rant the other night to my one friend about the path that Nintendo is going down. Honestly, being an adult male and using the features of Swapnote on the 3DS (without breaking the terms of service) I was shocked and appalled when I could no longer send funny drawings or cool 3D pictures to my friends at work. Nintendo claims they appeal to "all gamers," but when they pull stuff like this, I feel like I'm using a device meant for a 7-year-old. As you stated, parental controls are built into the system. It blows my mind that parents don't use them, and then gets mad at Nintendo when their child adds someone (probably from an internet site or facebook, which their parents should also be monitoring at their age) and get's sent a dirty drawing or picture. It's the EXACT same concept of a parent buying their 11 year old child GTAV and then getting mad at the manufacturer when their child makes a sexual innuendo at the dinner table. All systems come with parental controls, all games have ratings on them. If the parent doesn't take advantage of them, their child should not be playing video games or interacting with people online without the parents knowledge and consent. As an adult, I feel like Nintendo is trying to 'parent' me, and it's irritating and frankly kind of offensive to me.

Nintendo no longer appeals to "all gamers." In fact, they did a better job at appealing to "all gamers" during the very beginning of their video game manufacturing. My entire family would play Duck Hunt and Hogans Alley when I was little. Later, we would all play Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo and N64, among many many more games that everyone in my house would get involved in. Those games were not 'easy' games for an entire family to play, with everyone having different levels of gaming experience, yet they were still EXTREMELY fun. Now, it feels like Nintendo advertises their games as "Look at our games! Everyone will have fun playing our games!" when in reality, it's more like "Hey, we know you grew up with us. Sit back and watch as your grandma and little baby nephew play our overly-simplistic games. Don't worry though, we'll give two good titles a year that you can enjoy."

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little because I'm just irritated about the Swapnote thing, but honestly I've been getting that vibe for the past 5 or so years. When I was in elementary and middle school, I swore by Nintendo. When I got to high school and the Wii came out, I loved it, but it just didn't live up to the Gamecube. There just weren't enough satisfying titles for me. The 3DS was about to come out just as I was finishing high school, and everyone thought it was gimmicky but me. I thought it was revolutionary and amazing, I thought this was Nintendo's turning point. I went to the midnight release with my girlfriend at the time. They let us in early and I held the device and experienced glasses-free 3D for the first time in my life and I was blown away. This handheld was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
.......
Then a year went by and it had no good games. Sure, there was a really good lineup, most of which was for a 2012 or 2013 release, but I got this device in Q1 of 2011, why weren't there fun games to play at it's release? Yeah, Ocarina of time was awesome... But I beat it quickly. I've beaten the game probably over 10 times since 1998.

So then the Wii U comes out. I'm not too psyched. The Wii and 3DS both had amazing potential, they still do, but Nintendo didn't push their consoles to their limits. They sat on the side lines in my opinion. The Wii never amounted to much, it had a few amazing titles, but no where near it's predecessors. The 3DS is finally making a name for itself with it's newer titles, but it's been out for almost 3 years now so naturally I'm still a little discouraged. Anyway, in my area, the Wii U didn't even get a midnight release, which I was okay with. I got it, along with Nintendo Land and Zombie U, both of which I was disappointed with. Honestly for the first few months I had it, I used it for Netflix. I thought it was really cool that you could transfer the video to the gamepad. That meant I never had to pause my movie when I had to go to the bathroom! Other than that, my Wii U collected dust until recently when Wind Waker HD came out. I beat it in a weekend, started playing it on Hero Mode and then I actually got a little bored and put it down again. For a console, it honestly wasn't really worth it. I think I should have waited until more games came out, same with the 3DS.

But anyway, this all comes back to how I feel about the 3DS and the Swapnote thing. Like I said earlier the 3DS was FINALLY making a name for itself. They're now releasing SO MANY good titles for the system! Especially ones that appeal to their core audience who's been with them for 20+ years! But right in the midst of that, they pull this crap with Swapnote, and it makes me feel like they pulled a "one step forward and two steps back" kind of deal.

Again, maybe I'm over-reacting and over-analyzing everything because I'm still shocked that they would do this, but who knows.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

It's okay. Your rant may be lengthy, but you're communicating a lot of what many gamers feel about Nintendo. And Nintendo rarely our concerns at all.

I dunno what sort of mindset they are in that puts them so far back in the past in terms of business decisions and fan support. As clearly indicated, parental controls COMPLETELY negate this problem and Nintendo damn well knows they programmed it in for purposes such as this. This especially sucks because among my 3DS friends, I had a good net of people I knew from an old forum and someone who ended up with a friend's Wii and has talked to me regularly since. And Swapnote was our only communication line.

I don't want to turn this into a Nintendo skepticism thread, but yeah, Nintendo should really clean up their mess. What are some ways Nintendo can manage this problem? I'm sure they can be more aggressive against parental complaints and demonstrate to them parental control features, for one.