Wii U

[JessReplanted]

I spent most of today setting up a Wii U. My son is thrilled. My patience is gone, and the 1 year old is crying again!

I was just wondering if anyone has any guidelines for how to set up the parent controls (We are very conservative, but is there a reason that I would want them to be able to interact with other players online?)

 

Also, are there any tricks or tips I should be aware of?

 

And, why in the world do I have to have a Nintendo ID in order to access Netflix?

 

Thanks!

[JessReplanted]

Nobody?

[AK_Mom4]

I'm sorry. I don't have a wii U, just a regular old Wii that doesn't connect to the Internet unless I plug it in (I blocked it at the wireless as my form of parent controls)

 

Maybe someone who sees this can help you?

[Cottonwood]

We just didn't set the Wii U up to go online or interact with anyone.  There's lots of fun to be had without that being added for the time being.  DS proved to be very untrustworthy online a short time ago and that was the condition to getting the Wii U.  It's not going to give you access to online games or online, period.  We don't use it for anything like Netflix or the internet, so he just plays his own games on it.

[Greta]

I spent most of today setting up a Wii U. My son is thrilled. My patience is gone, and the 1 year old is crying again!

I was just wondering if anyone has any guidelines for how to set up the parent controls (We are very conservative, but is there a reason that I would want them to be able to interact with other players online?)

 

Also, are there any tricks or tips I should be aware of?

 

And, why in the world do I have to have a Nintendo ID in order to access Netflix?

 

Thanks!

Hello, Miss,

 

This is Greta's daughter, Lileth. I wanted to talk about the Miiverse and the Nintendo ID account system a little bit, really to just inform you as I feel I'm not in the right place to push my opinions on you. As an avid gamer, I also have a Wii-U, and I have a 3DS, both of which use the same Nintendo ID and Miiverse system.

 

I think I'll talk about the Nintendo ID account first, as that's the bigger picture and is the thing that practically enables you to do the mandatory stuff. Creating a Nintendo ID is basically just part of registering the system completely. Almost everything online will ask you for your Nintendo ID, including Netflix, as you mentioned. However, this does not automatically make you part of the gaming community online. It's really only to allow you to make purchases through the E-shop or anything else connected to the internet. (Please note that updates to software are sometimes downloaded through the E-shop and will require a Nintendo ID to do so, if I am told correctly. I'm not sure if this is the case all the time on the Wii-U, but it certainly is for my 3DS. However, I had my 3DS first and then linked both my consoles to the same Nintendo ID, so my Wii-U has not bothered me about that yet.)

 

As for the Miiverse, it's really a huge discussion board for players. It doesn't particularly add anything to the games you have purchased at all. Its just a vast internet type system with separate communities for each game. I don't particularly think there would be any need to make a Miiverse account, but I will give you a few more details just in case. Even the Miiverse itself requires a Nintendo ID. The information you have chosen for a Nintendo ID account is what will also be used in the Miiverse to some extent. You do have a user page that lists information when people visit it, such as your experience in gaming, favourite genres of games, etc. A lot of this imformation can be set to private, however, such as your date of birth or the amount of friends/followers you have. On that note, the only real benefit to the Miiverse other than geeking out with strangers about how good a certain game is is to be able to use Wii-U chat. Wii-U chat allows you to basically face-cam with people from your friends list on the Miiverse and play a few online games together with your friends over the internet. But that is really the only added benefit. So if you don't know someone else with a Wii-U that you particularly want to play with, I would suggest just leaving it be.

 

I can thoroughly assure you, though, that Nintendo has taken a lot of measures to make their consoles and communities kid friendly. In some games where you are able to enter text whether it be to chat to someone or name a character, there are certain AIs in place to make sure that no enters anything innapropriate. On the Miiverse itself, they have taken extra cautions as well. The same rules apply in text based posts -- no harsh language. However, there is the 'handwritten' post option which allows you to use the game pad to either draw or hand write a post. And although this is a neat thing for artists like me who don't really engage in conversations but just doodle, this means that there isn't an AI system that can easily recognize bad words. To counter this though, Nintendo has regulators on supervision for the few occasions that something slips. There's also an option for users themselves to report innapropriate use of the handwritten post feature.

 

I personally have not encountered anything too disturbing on the Miiverse or in my games connected online, at least that I can think of. But I can only hope that my imformation can guide you on your choice, as I feel it's not my place to tell you whether or not to make a Miiverse account. I'll end on saying that I, myself, have had a nice experience, as fans of my art have been incredibly friendly. However, I may have been somehow lucky; it's hard to judge.

 

Hope all this helps. Have fun gaming!

-L.

[JessReplanted]

Thank you!