FACTS 2012 Convention - The 3DS Experiment

You can discover what Facts had to offer here.

Nintendo does not attend Facts convention, even if the event is directly catered to them. No; instead, they set up shop at Tomorrowland, a festival that treats everything like a commodity and where appearance is more important than substance. No one cares about silly games there, but it’s important to draw this effervescent crowd of glitzy people for whatever reason, rather than address a hall with tens of thousands people with Nintendo branding already on them. That wincing observation aside, I too was one of those people that repped for Big N at the show, by using my Nintendo 3DS like I did last year. In reality, it’s the only time of year where the thing does its job.

The current count.

A sizable test prior to the convention already came up empty, as shown by my Twitter and later tested even more thoroughly. Even in a crowded city filled with youngsters, there is not one that thinks about carrying a 3DS along. This would show that its social features don’t work as intended, at least not in a day to day setting. Thank Unicron that there are giant events where these handheld enthusiasts merge. Here, the context of carrying a connected device around would make more sense. In fact, this was an overwhelming success, as this year’s haul boasted an incredible 56 encounters, which almost triples the total count I had amassed before. Credit for this goes to a different strategy than last year; one I will henceforth address at every convention.

Walking and Plaza statistics pre-Facts.

The idea came while waiting in line to get inside the convention. As my 3DS was on anyway, I decided to slip it out and kill some time. To my surprise, I already met 5 people in just a few minutes. So I broke out Mii Plaza and started playing. After I was done, the same thing happened: More people had shown up.  This led me to realize that I should periodically purge these rapidly succeeding entries if I were to keep up. I was right to do so. Nintendo caps entries at 10 encounters, meaning that if you should pass more or just not pay attention, other visitors go by unnoticed. Given the rare occasion of an overflow of these characters, another plan was needed. Luckily, this made the perfect excuse for me to periodically rest my feet from walking around all day and place myself against the sides of the hall to welcome my new visitors. Even better, I sporadically spotted a fellow 3D enthusiast doing the same. Birds of a feather truly do flock together.

Walking and Plaza statistics on Facts day.

Still, all this glee came with my always critical brain that can’t just enjoy the moment for what it is. I pondered the service’s downsides while enjoying climbing through dungeons in StreetPass Quest and trading pieces in Puzzle Swap. For one, there’s no reason to give the Plaza a visitor cap, let alone one affixed so low. Furthermore, some visitors don’t have any new puzzle pieces and contribute nothing to the game, which can get annoying later on. In the RPG section, a visitor’s magic is based on their shirt, which also highly limits possibilities. These are smaller, vain flaws though.

A more sizable flaw is the device’s step meter (it’s also called a pedometer). For one, it doesn’t register fully, unless you’re going at a certain velocity. Given my experiences include a convention where the average speed is a snail’s pace, the meter simply doesn’t believe there’s any walking involved at all. Steps earn coins that can be used in mini-games, so the incentive is broken once the device stops recording progress. Furthermore, there is also a cap on these coins, once more putting up a barricade and forcing people to stop to spend these pieces on elongated trips. It’s hard to keep focus of this element in transit. Think for a moment that you’re headed to 2 or 3 stores for supplies. Rightfully, the focus should be on your actual life. After the second store however, your meters could be full, also excluding slow motion in the buildings themselves. This leaves a system to be desired or at least one that should get looked at in the future.

Full house.

Still, the most sizable flaw is simply that the overall appeal hasn’t caught on, as statistics on the device itself have revealed. While you could argue that conventions are the ideal place to break out the 3DS, these aren’t a representation of day to day use. Instead, it’s a vast concentration of likeminded people that facilitate the use of a 3DS. Anywhere outside of that context, lugging the thing along is an effort in pointlessness, due to its many flaws. One of those might be that the social setting for it is just too fleeting to catch on. This should be an added call to reality for Nintendo to prove that they need to present themselves at Facts. Let people grow aware of the device’s social feature, so they’ll remember and use it in the future. I’m a gamer; I don’t perform thousands of steps for my enjoyment or physical fitness. I need functionality.

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Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)