Actually, if we could not do this thread at all, that would be swell — there's been enough of the versus BS going around to last us quite a while already. Thanks in advance :3

See, this is why we can't have 'versus' threads around here. Knock it the hell off, all of you.

you're welcome, and good luck!

@Geonjaha: what are you talking about? wait, nm, i get it now.

@NintendoFan_27: the difference being that one is 'private', and the other would be easily viewable by other users as well as the intended (and therefore we'd be able to moderate it as necessary to prevent abuse of the system). that's how i'm reading what he said, anyway :3

you'll all note that I've cleaned the crap out of this thread. now, let's talk Vita!
_{or i'll ban you all! D: D: D:}

@Nibelilt: again, it's normal :3

Feel free to advertise your clan all you like in your signature, dark-insanity, and best of luck getting things back up and running. :3

@Retro: It's normal, connection issues and whatnot. never trust that someone's actually fallen off the edge of a track until you see yourself go up a spot in the race, lol. :3

there are multiple reasons behind it, and of course access to internet (whether via wi-fi or 3G plan) is going to be an obstacle too, but yeah — IMO the average person is not yet ready to take that step into a fully download-only gaming culture. we walk into a game store/poke around Amazon and eBay and expect to see physical copies of games available for play on our brand new consoles, not to be told that most of the playable games (for now) are only available for download over the internet. we're slowly making the transition (tech-savvy and gamers perhaps quicker than most?), but we're not fully there just yet.

@Tendoboy: You pick out one sentence and then take it completely out of context, ignoring everything else I just said that qualifies it. I'm about done with the constant arguing that comes from letting you roam free. Either learn to read or go find some other place to haunt, because you are disrupting the hell out of this thread and I have had it.

@Tendoboy: You're missing my point due to your natural inclination to run threads down tangents. The Go flopping spectacularly was a prime example of the fact that John Q. Public is not ready to rely on a downloadable service for all of their gaming needs just yet. At the moment, the App Store is doing nothing but reinforce the idea that downloadable games are merely cheap diversions meant to be played while waiting in doctors' offices, airports, on the can, or in between solid, meaty retail releases gamers gladly throw their money at devs to get their grubby hands on. Retail sales have shrunk, yes, but the retail gaming store is not dead in the water just yet.

My original point was that the lack of playable retail games at retail for Vita (due to the lack of backwards-compatibility) stands a good chance of making initial Vita sales quite sluggish. At launch, people were able to walk into a store, see that the 3DS could play not only the handful of launch titles but allll those lovely available DS games as well — sure, the eShop wouldn't be around for a bit, but who cared? We'd be all right in the meantime until the 3DS titles we wanted started rolling in, right? As for the Vita, it'll have a few retail titles available and then the clerks'll have to talk pretty fast about social network connectivity and the SEN, at which point... y'know, your phone can download games too, and most downloadable games are like Angry Birds, just bite-sized little things, aren't they? And they're probably cheaper in the App Store anyway, so who cares? What do you need a Vita for just yet? that's the hurdle at the moment.

the difference you've apparently missed (so what else is new) is that people have those devices as phones first, gaming devices second. you need a phone. you don't need a Vita.

@zez, whoever's arguing atm: yes, the redesigns do generally remove backwards compatibility, but whether people bought it for the existing library of DS games or not, the 3DS is backwards compatible (at this time) and they were able to tout that ability at launch — hey, if you don't have a DS yet, just grab yourself a 3DS and you can pick up all these amazing games, and if you do already have a DS, you're in luck! just trade in your old system and keep your games, you can totes still play 'em! y'know, that kind of thing. probably made upselling that much easier in stores; i know i heard the guys in gamestop talking about it to people whenever i went in for other stuff pre-3DS-launch.

The Vita won't be able to say that, so (at first) it's gonna have the same problem the Go had — most of its available games will be download-only, and the average person isn't quite ready to go full-on download-only just yet. Yes, eventually it will have its system-sellers, but for now, without sellers being able to say that it's fully compatible with these shelves worth of UMD games over here — and of course the handful released at launch that maybe people want and maybe they don't — i can't see initial sales being anything but sluggish in terms of John Q. Averageguy.

If you'd like to advertise your video(s) and solicit ideas on how to improve, please feel free to put a link into your signature and ask for responses in comments on your YouTube channel. Thank you! :3

@Bass_X0: idk, i'm not sure if that's a blank that really needs to be filled in — maybe one case going back to that era, a la Mia's first case in T&T, but the rest i think i'd like to see happening in Apollo's present. His bracelet was a fun thing to mess with, Trucy was a trip and a half, and to be honest they've got enough to do with regards to explaining those gray Psyche-Locks and that demon-hand-thing... we already know what Phoenix was doing during his downtime anyway, pretty much. i'd like to see them tell us outright what happened to Edgey (but leave Oldbag and Butz out of it ffs, they had more than enough air-time in AAI D: D: D: )

I"d say 5+... a kindergartener would probably have quite a bit of fun with it depending on how well they read, and even then it might help them to get into reading more, you never know. the catching stuff and fishing and digging and decorating your town wouldn't really require all that much reading except to learn how it's done, and that's quite a big part of the game right there. You don't have to play the game 'right' or 'correctly' in order to enjoy what you're doing, especially in such an open-ended game like Animal Crossing.

Younger than 5 would probably need some parental guidance, but they'd still have fun too. and depending on the child, chances are they'd want to do it themselves anyway :3

i'd probably start exploring every day. doing different things. it's not like i'd run out of money, because the next time i woke up it'd be like i'd never spent it in the first place. it's not like i'd ever gain weight, so i'd probably start trying lots of new, expensive restaurants in town, lol. in fact, i don't really care if the Vita never hits or another 3DS game I really want never comes out, if time could stop and one day would wind up repeated over and over and over, that would probably be the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. I'd be able to catch up on sooooo much sleep u___u

The eShop demo suggestions thread is here if you'd like to discuss games you want demos for. thank you! :3

edit: never mind, figured it out :3

@SasukeBurnCurse: No. Now please, start editing your posts and stop spamming this thread. Final warning.

i'm seeing some new faces here at the tail end of this thread, as well as quite a bit of spamming. Please, if no one else has responded to this thread yet and you have something else to add to your comment, use the 'Edit' link above your comment to add in whatever else you had to say. double, triple, quadruple, septuple-posting to this thread is not cool and it makes it harder for other people to navigate properly in here. Be considerate of your fellow users, please, and use that 'Edit' link. Thank you! :3

If you're concerned about doing things right, i've found that most of the time you wind up doing the right thing anyway. they go hand in hand for me :3

Actually, Nintendo announces the prize for Platinum status some time after the end of the CN year, so no one knows what we're getting until our statuses are set in stone, lol. In past years, Platinum status-holders have gotten the Mario cap or PunchOut!! Wii special fight download, a Mario Bros. themed statue in a ?-block box, and this past year we got a nifty set of pins.

As always, you can redeem your Coins for cool prizes in the meantime. If you'd like to discuss the normal Club Nintendo rewards, please feel free to do so in this existing thread. Thank you! :3

@OB: idk, i disagree with the idea that purchasing a game at a low price makes it somehow more enjoyable. a mediocre game is a mediocre game no matter how much you pay.
_{Glory of Heracles for $4 still stank to high heaven, for example}