StreetPass groups have been featured on several popular gaming websites. In addition to the press clippings below, StreetPass groups have been mentioned on Nintendo Scene, Play Nintendo, Geek Fu, Mega Pirate Ninjas, The Warp Pipe and elsewhere. We greatly appreciate the publicity and thank these websites for their support!
VIDEO GAME WRITERS (May 15, 2011)
Why StreetPass Matters
By Jason EvangelhoJoshua Lynsen’s grassroots-driven StreetPass Network has blossomed from a single, unassuming entity to a thriving organization with over 200 worldwide locations. The fact that it has done so in 3 months made us stand up and pay attention. On this episode of VGW’s Unlimited Ammo, StreetPass Network founder Joshua Lynsen joins us to discuss social gaming, the future of the 3DS, why the StreetPass Network is spreading like wildfire, and why Nintendo is paying attention.
Download the podcast here.
N00B ALERT (May 3, 2011)
3DS Street Pass Meetups In Your Area!
By Diran NazarianThe Nintendo 3DS has been out for a little over a month now and the library is still in its infancy stages. Of the launch titles, I was really only interested in Super Street Fighter IV and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars. I must say, I am enjoying every minute of the 3DS. I like how the 3D slider allows me to see and play games in a new method for gamers (without needing any special glasses), but I feel like I’m not using the handheld to it’s full potential; mainly the StreetPass feature. I asked myself why is that the case? Simply put, I don’t know that many people around me that have a 3DS and I don’t feel like just going to Gamestop or Best Buy and StreetPassing the demo unit because I want the human aspect of it all. Nothing beats knowing that when the green light pops up, someone around you has a 3DS and might even be playing at that very moment.
A few weeks back, a friend of mine informs me that there’s going to be a 3DS StreetPass meetup in my local area and that we should check it out. He sends me a link to the facebook page of StreetPassDC which laid out the events details (where and when) and I made it a point to make it. When we got to the event, Joshua Lynsen (the event coordinator) was wearing a Mario hat and welcoming newcomers as well as returning guests. I was amazed. Everything I wanted to have happened in using the StreetPass feature was becoming a reality. Almost immediately the StreetPass indicator light lit up and I was rushing to the Mii Plaza to welcome each person’s Mii to my 3DS. With each StreetPassed Mii, I am able to trade puzzle pieces as well as recruit them as heroes for a run-through of the Find Mii game. I was also able I was finally being able to use my 3DS for the fun features intended with use of the hand held. After going through the Mii Plaza I loaded up Super Street Fighter IV and went to the StreetPass battles to challenge my new rivals in simulated combat.
After the initial rush of participants, Joshua made an announcement welcoming the guests and gave a brief history for the reasons why he and his wife established the gathering in the first place. It was a means for other 3DS users to gather and make some new friends that own a 3DS and grow the community, but if you didn’t want to do the social part you couuuuuuuuld just grab the StreetPass tags and bolt! Joshua also announced that he is pushing for more Street pass events that will aid in popularity growth as well as that of the community. This is something I can stand behind and I encourage more people to participate. You can also check to see if there’s a StreetPass meetup in your neck of the woods by going to the StreetPass Network.
These meetups are fun events and ones that we here at n00b alert can’t wait to attend more of!
GAMASUTRA (April 9, 2011)
Through the Looking Glass Part II: Ubiquitous Social Gaming
By Christopher TottenTo be honest, I didn’t really expect to write a “part II” to my post on the Nintendo 3DS. In the last blog post, I wrote how the 3DS’s AR capabilities could turn the system into a looking glass for seeing our real surroundings as digital playgrounds (much to the ire of several unconvinced commenters.)
Also in the post, I glossed over several features focusing on communication between 3DS systems, the interaction between their users, and Facebook-based social events forming around these features. Having attended the first of these events, I thought that writing a “part II” would be appropriate, as I have been further inspired by the 3DS and a group of fans devoted to changing cities into social gaming spaces.
For those who don’t know, the social event I am referring to is the first meeting of “StreetPass DC”, a grass-roots group of 3DS users in the Washington DC metro area. Begun by 3DS supporter and DC resident Joshua “The Man In The Mario Hat” Lynsen, StreetPass DC strives to bring local 3DS users together to utilize the new handheld’s social gaming features.
Living just outside of DC, I decided to attend myself after reading about the group’s creation on Kotaku. In an e-mail interview with Daniel Wise of VideoGameWriters.com (who was also in attendance at the inaugural meeting), Lynsen remarked how he was inspired to create the group after observing similar portable-gaming themed groups in Japan and lamenting the lack of similar groups in the US.
Having taken my own 3DS out into the city during daily activities with StreetPass mode turned on, I could relate to his frustrations at having no game encounters. Sure enough, as I saw Lynsen’s Mario hat (which he said would be how the group could distinguish him from the normal Cherry Blossom tourist crowd), my 3DS’s green communication light began blinking in earnest and I soon had ten visitors to my Mii Plaza and my Super Street Fighter IV figurines had lost as many battles.
Truly, we had stumbled onto something amazing…
Read the rest of the article here.
KOTAKU & KOTAKU AUSTRALIA (March 19-20, 2011)
3DS StreetPass Groups Forming to Play Together Outside
By Owen GoodStreet Pass is the new, always-on wireless connection for the Nintendo 3DS through which multiplayer gaming is possible. The idea is, a couple of perfect strangers, both with 3DSes, will be buzzed when they’re near each other, inviting them to connect. A 3DS StreetPass group is forming, a week before the device’s release, to take the happenstance out of such encounters.
StreetPass DC has formed via Facebook for 3DS users in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Its first meetup will be April 9 at the Navy Memorial, and additional ones are planned at other landmarks in the District, such as outside the White House or under the Washington Monument. (The group also has a Twitter feed.)
I think it’s a great idea and a good way to get value from a new device feature, as well as socialize with others and get out of the house. I’m sure other groups will form, too. If you are a part of one, or if you want to start one, feel free to connect with your fellow 3DS enthusiasts through our comments, using the #streetpass tag.
GONINTENDO (March 19, 2011)
Washington, D.C. area 3DS fans start StreetPass D.C. group
By Kevin CassidyAre you a D.C. resident that’s looking to meet up with other 3DS owners? If so, check out the official page for the fan-created group, StreetPass D.C.! This is the kind of stuff I love to see. Japanese gamers have no trouble meeting up in locations to exchange data, and I think North Americans should put the same kind of work in!
NINTENDO 3DS BLOG (March 20, 2011)
The Power of StreetPass
By David TurnbullI was harsh on StreetPass in my review. Perhaps too harsh. I referred to it as a “broken” concept because not everyone lives somewhere with a high population density. But that’s only a potentially valid criticism if you take StreetPass at face-value in the way Nintendo is marketing it, as a totally spontaneous experience. It can be so much more than that though.
Two groups have recently formed, Meet Mii and StreetPass DC. These both have the simple idea of bringing people together to exchange StreetPass data in busy locations. So, instead of strolling around for days and potentially finding no one you’d just head to a pre-organised event and your 3DS will be pumped full of juicy StreetPass goodness. This does take out some of the surprise that makes StreetPass so cool in places like Tokyo, but it also has the much bigger benefit of bringing people together with a common interest.
I love this idea and am in full support of any events like this (as long as they’re not done in the middle of a quiet back street where you could get beaten up and robbed). And I’m trying to figure out what I can do so the reach of this blog can do a lot more than stroke my ego and fuel my arrogance. Would be brilliant if there could be weekly events around the world and thousands of friendships formed before this generation of handheld passes. But I might be getting a little ahead of myself.
VIDEO GAME WRITERS (March 21, 2011)
Nintendo 3DS StreetPass Groups Springing Up On Facebook
By Daniel WiseI am normally not a big fan of Facebook ads, those annoying little blurbs on the right of the pane that tell me to enroll in SWAT officer school — yeah, those ads. However, the facebook hive-mind knows I dig the hand-held gaming experience — boy, do I — and suggested a StreetPass DC group. Since the release date of the Nintendo 3DS is looming over the world like an ominous, money swallowing cloud called disposable income, it’s only natural that people are banding together to give credence to the devices highly touted multiplayer capability.
I reached out to, who I could only assume was the leader, the creator of the Washington, DC facebook group, and got a surprisingly quick response. Joshua Lynsen is a DC resident and a supporter of Nintendo’s ubiquitous handheld. He told me that he got the idea for the StreetPass group after a trip to Tokyo, Japan. He was envious of the handheld community due to the lack thereof in the states. He got an idea for a “grassroots effort” to bring DS and future 3DS owners together.
Lynsen started the group rather inconspicuously at first, but inquired Kotaku for coverage. “The staff loved the idea, and they decided to run with it.” He added, “After the coverage from Gawker, the Facebook group blew up from ten [likes] to over a hundred.”
Currently, there is no central governing body that coordinates the StreetPass groups. “The DC group was the only one that existed on facebook.” Lynsen said, “But the Gawker coverage attracted individuals to my operation. They created their own independent groups, and we essentially network through the groups.”
The StreetPass DC group is one of many groups in several metro areas, including: Boston, San Francisco, Melbourne, Paris and Winnipeg among others.
The first meet-up for the DC group is to be held on Saturday, April 9 at 10:00 am to noon at the U.S. Navy Memorial Grounds, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC.
Lynsen intends to keep the group exclusively DS and 3DS dedicated. He is in no way affiliated with Nintendo, but he sees this as a “perpetuation of the brand, and a celebration of what Nintendo has been doing.”
