If you own a Wii (And probably do if you’re reading this article), then you know what a pain—or a necessity—those pesky/important! 12 digit friend codes are. But what do you personally think of them? I for one, if you haven’t already gathered, am adversely against them, but at the same time, feel they’re a necessity for a newly formed young market and a surprisingly growing geriatric crowd.

In other words, I have no real point I can stand on because I stand on both sides. I know, what a rip-off. But that doesn’t mean the issue isn’t worth discussing, because it is, especially since Wii is an overall powerhouse in sales right now, which begs the question, is online gaming really all that important to consumers at all?

In so many words, yes. It’s very important. While the online service the Wii offers is a fresh new novelty for Nintendo, the lag time on Super Smash Bros. Brawl is said to be pretty atrocious. I say, said to be atrocious because I found that I didn’t play it for very long because I really couldn’t care less about searching out potential victims, er, players, on message boards and forums. Instead, I found plenty of fun just checking out the Spaceship Emissary mode, which provided me with plenty of hours of enjoyment with the game. So, what that means is that I’m not Nintendo’s target audience as far as online gaming is concerned. I still find enjoyment in the simplicity of playing without Wi-Fi.

Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good game of Mario Kart Wii online here or there, because I do. But I think that’s part of the point Nintendo’s trying to make with going online in the first place; overall, they have a very narrow online market. If you haven’t already noticed, the Wii is not a system full of frag-friendly FPS’s or intensely hardcore RTS’s. Instead, the Wii has a lot of niche games that wouldn’t translate well to the brag-hardy, w00t friendly audience you’d commonly find on PS3 or 360. So, even if you’d think that Wario Ware would be absolutely perfect online, really sit down (Or waggle about as you Wii owners are prone to do) and think about it—is the game really any fun unless you can actually watch the person doing ridiculous squats or holding the Wii-mote on their nose? The answer to that is no. And if you said yes, you have no soul.

If that be the case then, then why NOT have simplistic friend codes that do nothing but protect little tykes who just got Mario Kart Wii from being called the N-word? Because that’s not what playing online’s all about, stupid! No matter the game, from Mario Kart Wii to GTA IV, the ability to chat with friends and strangers over a great deal of distance is what online gaming’s all about. Without chat, online gaming is just a soulless replica of what you rightly deserve in this modern day-age of flying cars and meals in pill form—relationships shared over a strange looking, often times uncomfortable, microphone earpiece. In other words, what’s the point of killing somebody with the Ice Climbers if you can’t brag about it seconds later?

But the children! Won’t somebody please think of the children?!

Obviously, I’m still quite undecided on this case, but what do you think? Are friend codes man’s best friend, or the mark of the devil? Either or, it still allows me to whup your ass in Mario Kart Wii, and anything that does that can’t be all that bad.