Sending Messages Through Nintendo SwapNote via SpotPass is Dead

[Nz17]

Did you enjoy sending drawings and messages to people on your Friends List over SpotPass (A.K.A. the Internet) through Nintendo SwapNote? Well Nintendo killed that functionality on Halloween night. I was surprised when I got a message in-app saying the function was discontinued and thanks for using the service. There was no explanation at the time, but during the early morning hours of November 1st Nintendo sent out a notice through the 3DS Notifications board (represented by the word balloon icon from the top-most row on the 3DS main menu).

The reason given is that people were using the Internet to swap Friend Codes, then getting on each other's Friends List after double-verifying the code (once at each end), and then some bad users were sending abusive images and messages to others (the implication being that some people were being tricked into adding people to their List). Now keep in mind you can remove people from the Friends List at any time, delete any and all messages and attachments, parental controls can block out functionality, and people only show up on the List when you and the other person both enter in each other's codes. But Nintendo's reaction to a few bad users' actions was to "solve" the problem by completely killing the service without any advance notice. And yes, this will also prevent any future messages from being delivered from Nikki or other official Nintendo staff members like Aonuma, Iwata, and Miyamoto.

Needless to say, I am irked by the removal of such a key feature of SwapNote. It's how I expressed myself, communicated with the Digital Press people on my Friends List, and arranged Animal Crossing meetups. There were some really great messages I had been sent over the years too!

Oh sure, the StreetPass function of SwapNote still works, but it is highly unlikely anyone on my Friends List is going to waltz down the street by my house!

[Tanooki]

Wow Nintendo actually managed to find a solution more asinine and immature than the dicks that prompted their behavior. Stay classy Nintendo, it's not like the 3DS is your only cash cow right one fools. Glad I don't use the feature or I'd be pissed.

[kupomogli]

Leave it to Nintendo to patch things out after launch. What next, DS backwards compatibility?

While I'm just kidding, but this is like PS3 aside from removing backwards compatibility prior. A whole four people have ever used Other OS to use Linux on their PS3, a feature no one used yet people constantly brought up. While I'm pretty sure most people won't use SwapNote, it's probably been used far more than Linux on PS3 has ever been used. A mostly useless feature will be ignored.

Anyways, did SwapNote have wireless so you could send stuff online? If they did or they didn't, I'm sure they could have patched it so it could be still used as an art program.

*edit*

Thought you couldn't use it at all. I was wrong. It's still usable as a program.

[BlastProcessing402]

Wow Nintendo actually managed to find a solution more asinine and immature than the dicks that prompted their behavior.

Wait... are you calling the people who ruined it for everyone dicks, or are you talking about what the people who ruined it for everyone were drawing? It works either way!

[JSoup]

Welcome to a week ago, DP.

It's not been directly stated what these inappropriate things were, but a few Japanese news blogs noted that this happened shortly after two pedophiles in Japan were caught using the SwapNote doing pedo things, so it seems the most likely reason. The Escapist has a summary: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...hiles-In-Japan

[Tanooki]

Wait... are you calling the people who ruined it for everyone dicks, or are you talking about what the people who ruined it for everyone were drawing? It works either way!

I had meant the losers who abused the feature, but seeing that Nintendo also acted like losers abusing and removing the feature -- BOTH.