[thatmariolover]

Right, a Hot Spot is only necessary for online play. You can always just wirelessly link up with your friends if you're hanging out - no Hot Spot necessary.

What else is Nintendo supposed to do for portable online access? They'd have to either put Satellite linkage into the DS (expensive) or use a Cell Phone Tower system to relay the data (also expensive).

You can't blame them - there's no other good way to do it. We're lucky they're doing it at all.