Topic: Don't talk!

Hello, everyone!
I have 3DS XL for 4 month now and it's my first legit Nintendo console. I wonder why there is such strict prohibition on communication with fellow gamers? You cant write anybody, it's hard to find new playmates. Why?
They removed SpotPass in Nintendo Mailbox. Very few games have some messaging features but these are limited as hell. How cool it would have been if u could write letters to your friends in AC:NL not being in their town?
Or why can't I chat with my opponents in SSB 3DS or somehow add them in some firends list so i could once again play with them?
Or here, on Nintendolife, no private messages. I tried to find playmates here with friend-exchange-code threads, but couldn't actualy play with them due to lack of means of coordination.
I know that big N is notorious for making stupid decisions. But I love Nintendo anyway and just hoping that there is some reason in that case.

95% certain it is because of pedophiles. And Nintendo wants to stay as far away from that potential issue as much as possible.

If it's true it's so ridiculous...

People abused the services by sending lewd pics to kids. So Nintendo shut it down. One thing I do is keep games I own marked in miiverse as well as tossing a post in my activity feed when I buy a new game. That helps me find people that own the same games as myself.

_{Please be serious. If you don't have a genuine answer for the OP, don't bother answering — TBD}

It may work, but for me the main problem is to somehow to catch people online and invite them to play.

I believe some pedophiles used Nintendo Letter Box to send porno images to a child, which is why the service was shut down.

@Ufaowl What Beetlejuice said was a joke, in case you thought otherwise.

_{Please just describe it if you must, people can search Flipnote Studio 3D via Google Images on their own if they like — TBD}

How not safe? Because it wouldn't be too hard to accidentally click that spoiler, especially since it's so big... (And I broke the link in my quote if you were wondering)

The problem in Nintendo's case was pedophiles. IIRC what happened in japan with Swapnote was a couple of little girls had been communicating with grown adult men, parents had set the controls to disallow this but they were circumvented. They had been using Swapnote to organize a meetup for sex IRL, which is probably the main reason Nintendo goes out of their way to disallow communication of places, websites to meet up and chat freely, and FC information on Miiverse. Something on the scale of what was able to happen in Japan would be an absolute PR nightmare here in the west due to their strong connection to children's gaming and they know it.

As for Nintendo Life with no PMs though, we would have no way of moderating them — not only for inappropriate messages but also for spam, discussion of illegalities, or threats. That's why we do not offer them. Most of us use other sites (like the Backloggery) if we really need to say something in private to another user, you're welcome to put links to such into your user signature and/or profile information.

@Jaz007: it's two still-shot images found via searching Flipnote Studio 3D on google, one shows what looks like a five-year-old standing in only her underwear from an angle that looks like the floor (panty shot) and the other is a censored image of a very large-breasted woman wearing only underpants in what seems to be a quite suggestive pose (if her eyes are any indication). they're part of an image macro asking if they're what is found acceptable on the service.

Pretty much it. The issue of paedophilia has become arguably the most sensitive social issue in the last decade or so (probably cos before then no-one seemed to mind) so companies and public entities will go to irrational extremes in order to avoid it. The cost/benefit analysis isn't worth it from their point of view so they'll happily keep 1000 people quieter just so no-one talks to that 1 bad guy. I'd do the same if I were them in the current climate. Most of what gamers say to each other online is, lets be honest, worth very little.

Well actions speak louder than words and if you don't have nothing nice to say or do don't do it at all.