Like I said, this is more difficult in the U.S. But someone did try to make the idea of being able to go out and increase your shot at random rewards anyway: Aspyr's Treasure World, a game I really enjoyed. Sadly, it seemed that not a whole lot of people out there—at least not people who write about games—shared my love of that pure concept enough to get into it; random trinkets with no real "game" to speak of seemed to turn a lot of people off. But Treasure World tried to make an end-run around the population density problem by latching on to something that is rather prevalent in the U.S.: Wi-Fi access point signals. Walking (or driving) down nearly any sub- or urban street will net you tons of these, which the game called "stars," netting you treasure with which you could work on completing your trinket collections.
So where does the 3DS fit into this? Well, Nintendo talked a little about the next generation of Tag Mode this past E3. It seems to actually be a twofold system. The one mode most Western journalists took note of was the online component, which seems from my vantage point to be rather like WiiConnect24—leave your 3DS in sleep mode, and when it sees access points it's configured to use, it'll go online and exchange data for games that support it. And this is definitely a good thing to have, in my view, provided games actually step up and support it; WiiConnect24, for all the flack it gets (I've given some of it myself), is still a neat system for the games that do take advantage of it. And looking at some of Nintendo's more recent efforts in the user-generated content space, such as WarioWare D.I.Y., it doesn't seem too much a stretch to think that Nintendo has plans to use this mode to make content exchange much less clumsy than it currently is on the DS. But I think the real star of the show is the new system-wide Tag Mode service.
It's still all about automatic communication between sleeping handhelds, and I don't expect the game applications themselves to look all that different. But it also does something that I think has the potential to crack the population-density nut, at least somewhat. Tag Mode on the 3DS will run for all the supported games that you have, not just the one you have stuck in the card slot and booted up. You will, most likely, be able to set your 3DS to always go into this mode, vastly increasing your chances of engaging someone in Tag Mode. And the fact that it does all your games simultaneously means that you may even find that people are still out there months or years after a game's shiny newness has worn off, potentially breathing new life into those older titles as your 3DS pops up and says "hey, you ran into someone still playing Nintendogs + Cats!" in 2014.
3DS is full of a lot of nice things to have. The 3D effect, as I said, is very cool. The upgraded graphics capabilities are nice to have and the slide pad feels great. Built-in tilt is also going to be lots of fun. But for me, this new, upgraded Tag Mode probably excites me the most. I'm not expecting many new applications from it, but the simple notion that its upgrade means it's much more capable may just result in some anyway as more developers choose to consider using it, having seen its possibilities.
I hope they do. But mostly, I just hope that we'll finally be able to realize this network effect, no matter where we live.
So where does the 3DS fit into this? Well, Nintendo talked a little about the next generation of Tag Mode this past E3. It seems to actually be a twofold system. The one mode most Western journalists took note of was the online component, which seems from my vantage point to be rather like WiiConnect24—leave your 3DS in sleep mode, and when it sees access points it's configured to use, it'll go online and exchange data for games that support it. And this is definitely a good thing to have, in my view, provided games actually step up and support it; WiiConnect24, for all the flack it gets (I've given some of it myself), is still a neat system for the games that do take advantage of it. And looking at some of Nintendo's more recent efforts in the user-generated content space, such as WarioWare D.I.Y., it doesn't seem too much a stretch to think that Nintendo has plans to use this mode to make content exchange much less clumsy than it currently is on the DS. But I think the real star of the show is the new system-wide Tag Mode service.
It's still all about automatic communication between sleeping handhelds, and I don't expect the game applications themselves to look all that different. But it also does something that I think has the potential to crack the population-density nut, at least somewhat. Tag Mode on the 3DS will run for all the supported games that you have, not just the one you have stuck in the card slot and booted up. You will, most likely, be able to set your 3DS to always go into this mode, vastly increasing your chances of engaging someone in Tag Mode. And the fact that it does all your games simultaneously means that you may even find that people are still out there months or years after a game's shiny newness has worn off, potentially breathing new life into those older titles as your 3DS pops up and says "hey, you ran into someone still playing Nintendogs + Cats!" in 2014.
3DS is full of a lot of nice things to have. The 3D effect, as I said, is very cool. The upgraded graphics capabilities are nice to have and the slide pad feels great. Built-in tilt is also going to be lots of fun. But for me, this new, upgraded Tag Mode probably excites me the most. I'm not expecting many new applications from it, but the simple notion that its upgrade means it's much more capable may just result in some anyway as more developers choose to consider using it, having seen its possibilities.
I hope they do. But mostly, I just hope that we'll finally be able to realize this network effect, no matter where we live.