Miiverse Messages Must Be Approved By Nintendo Employees

The Wii U will feature a social network called Miiverse in which gamers can post messages to each other. In order to keep these communications family-friendly, Nintendo will be manually monitoring them.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told the LA Times that the company will be hiring people to act as moderators. Each post made by users will be reviewed before being published to the feed.

The downside of this monitoring is that there could be a substantial delay between a user posting a message and its actual appearance on the Miiverse feed. Iwata acknowledged that "immediacy" is an important part of a social network but that they need to make sure that the Miiverse is safe for gamers of all ages.

"Personally, I think 30 minutes should be acceptable," Iwata said of the delay between posting and publishing. He added that user feedback will help the company determine what timing is ideal. To cut down on the workload for moderators, Nintendo will be relying on other methods to keep Miiverse clean as well. A software filter will filter out obvious violations, like swear words or sexual language. The player community itself can also flag content.

I think anything less than immediate posting is going to aggravate gamers. We've been spoiled by years' worth of instant communication through the Internet or cell phones. Posting a message on Miiverse and then hoping your friends can see it within a half hour just feels, well, backward.

I'm not unsympathetic to Nintendo's situation. They want to create a family-friendly gaming environment on the Internet, a place that is not famous for wholesome fun. However, to quote The Wire, "conscience do cost." Policing Miiverse communications is going to cause them a lot of headaches and it could also aggravate some of those core adult gamers they're intent on wooing with this console.