http://www.gamespot.com/news/6328634/nintendo-applies-for-massively-single-player-patent-mentions-wii-3d
As Nintendo does, innovation is in the air for their next generation technology. As it turns out, the patent application for "Massively Single Player" games is a logical progression that could be extended to several of their properties. However, I also think that they severely underestimate the power of anonymity across the internet. Essentially, Nintendo is trying to break ground in single player games where your actions can affect another player's experience without having to directly interact with that player.
The reasoning is that theoretically they can pair up the benefits of social interactions while also reducing the amount of undesirable interaction that normally arises in an anonymous environment. However, hiding players even more than the internet inherently does also has the potential of accomplishing the opposite. Allowing people to affect the game of another without the consequence (so far as we know) of also having to exist in the world and thereby by punished intentionally, can promote griefing.
Hopefully, Nintendo will or has come up with a series of conditions and systems for this new genre to help combat a rise in griefing incidences that will discourage others from partaking in the genre.
--Zack