Hacking Region free paranoia

[moloko23]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before but it popped into my head last night while playing Wing Island.

You all know how we can track our playing habits on our Wii. We can see what we have played and for how long. Now my paranoid mind started cooking up a storm and I was wondering if Nintendo use that data in some way. I mean it would make sense they can find out every gamers playing habits: what they play the most, what they play the least and how long they play.

I have a PAL Wii with a Wiikey so I can play Elebits NTSC-U, now after playing it I was wondering if Nintendo can see that a person from Switzerland using a PAL Wii is playing an American game, which isn't even released with the same name in Europe and SHOULDN'T work...

I dunno it was just a random thought, but even if they could see that I've played Elebits for 5 hours it doesn't really matter, it's not like they are gonna track me down and arrest me. It's more the question of "can they do it?"

 

[Critical_Impact]

I highly doubt Nintendo would care what you were playing and even if they did chances are they wouldn't do anything about it anyway. If you are paranoid about it, just turn of Wiiconnect 24 or disable your wireless router.

 

[AeroScap]

I highly doubt Nintendo would care what you were playing and even if they did chances are they wouldn't do anything about it anyway. If you are paranoid about it, just turn of Wiiconnect 24 or disable your wireless router.

Yep, if you are really worried just turn off your wireless router THEN your wiiconnect 24 everytime you want to play.

Referring to your question; I wouldnt say it was impossible! It is plausable and practical (though there shouldnt be any measure so far as nintendo never really saw it being cracked this fast this early).
I refer you to the DS scene, where people are flying around with their trainers and roms yet nintendo havent even bothered to cut these people out.

IMO count your blessings and just go nuts while we still can!

 

[andreq]

Actualy, if you read the term of use (I didn't) of your Wii they should write something about getting "personal" information and that you agree to share it with nintendo when using the Wii....

IMO there is nothing about this in the term of use (or whatever it is called)

 

[spokenrope]

I highly doubt Nintendo would care what you were playing...

Companies such as Nintendo actually care very much about which of their games are being played. What time of day, for how long, by how many people per household, etc. With this information, they can alter their business model if necessary to accommodate their audience, or to try and bring in different types of players.

That being said, I really don't think that Nintendo is going to be coming after you. Even though the company has taken a firm anti-piracy stance in the past, I don't really recall them ever going after specific users and prosecuting them for illegal downloading.

 

[pelago]

This is an interesting topic. Turning off WiiConnect24 or your router only when you are playing the dodgy games may not be sufficient because (as you can see on the Wii Message Board) the Wii records the games you have played in the past. It's just possible that Nintendo grab that information every now and again. You would have to turn off WiiConnect24 forever to be safe from that.

Remember that Microsoft gathered information on people with replacement (larger) Xbox HDDs for several months before banning them from the network, so companies certainly may ban people a long time after they break the rules. Just because they haven't done so yet doesn't mean they won't.

I expect there are people out there who are sniffing their Wii's network connection, especially its communications with Nintendo. They would probably notice if info about the games you've played is sent, unless it is sent encrypted of course.

 

[Louse76]

It would be a violation of privacy for them to document what you have been doing without your consent.

 

[alucard77]

THis is a very moot topic. I thought about this as well, but then I went to check the logs. If you look, WiiPlay and WiiSports are tracked in terms of how much time you spend playing it.

All other games however are seen as misc games in the logs. So it will not say game x, 12 hours, game y 12 hours, etc. So no need to fear.

 

[pandas0nic]

judt because 'you see' misc games in the logs does not mean they can't still tell what the game is or more once revieving the data and alalyzing it properly, dont be so easily convinced that they only see what they have decided you see on screen on their console, because they made it and they know how it works and can see a whole lot more.

 

[Pikachu025]

Eh... I can clearly see "Elebits", "The Secret Rings" and "Excite Truck" in my Stuff-You-Did-Today-log. You only get "Misc." when you do more than, I think, ten different things a day.