Koshi goes out to play

This past Sunday I was invited by Nintendo to attend their “Dog Days of Summer: Girls’ Gaming Event” at the Nintendo World Store. The event was designed to celebrate girl gamers and the release of Nintendogs. It was an invitation that I could not pass up, and proved to be a great opportunity to take my Nintendog Koshi for a walk to test the “bark mode” as well as to check out the scene.

Based on the reviews and great sales coming out of Japan for Nintendogs, I was curious what type of buzz there would be for it in New York City. I was also curious about Nintendo billing this event as a celebration for girl gamers. Now Nintendo is not saying this was a For Girls Only event or for that matter that Nintendogs is only a game for girls; however putting the two together so close to this game’s launch does seem to suggest that Nintendo hopes it appeals to that demographic. Personally, as a guy who plays Nintendogs and given some of our recent discussions here at The Game Chair, I was curious about the approach Nintendo was going to take regarding girl gamers at this event. So I packed up my DS, ventured down to the subway, and headed over to Rockefeller Center to see what there was to see.

The last time I was at the Nintendo World Store was for the store’s launch. It was a hard place to miss then since one whole section of Rockefeller Center was filled with an amusement park of vans, flat screens, Pokemon, and other Nintendo gaming goodness. This time there was nothing doing outside, but once I went inside there was a slew of puppy filled activities going on. There were contests to win a DS, some sort of journal decoration area with paw stickers and stamps, a dog house where you can get your picture taken with some life size stuffed animal pooches (not real ones mind you), a tattoo station for some temporary paw ink, food and refreshments, DJs spinning tunes, and most importantly a whole lot of DS gaming going on in the “virtual dog park.” It was good to see that even though the event was billed to celebrate girl gamers, there was a balanced crowd of both boys and girls. Nothing visually struck me as an obvious additional attempt by Nintendo to appeal to girls. In fact if it wasn’t for the title and press release I received, I would have just thought this an event to promote Nintendogs This helped dissuade my slight concern that Nintendo was trying to market Nintendogs as a game only designed for girls. Young and … my age (I’m not going to say old), there were all types of people walking about, DS and stylus in hand, and with puppies at play. The event was one small example that illustrates that it’s possible to create quality games that can be appreciated by all types no matter how they may be perceived by or marketed to one demographic or another.

As tempted as I was to break out my DS, I purposefully was curious how well the “bark mode” would work with my DS sleeping quietly in my bag, so I decided to play the role of passive observer. I set up my DS on the way to the event and closed it to let it search for another DS with Nintendogs wirelessly. I have tried this twice before on my daily commute and have not had any luck making a friend for Koshi. However, this time around Koshi came to play.

One of the really neat features of Nintendogs is how as soon as you start it up you immediately see your puppy. He often will turn his head and react as if you had just walked in the door. If you’re lucky and liked, he/she might just come running over to pounce the screen to get at you. This entry into your play experience tugs you in such a way that it makes you wonder who’s on the leash, Koshi for me or me for Nintendo. In any event, when I opened my DS and it woke from sleep there was my man Koshi except this time he was hanging out with a cute yellow lab.

Tippi is a lab trained by Jay and she certainly didn’t come to the party empty handed. When she saw me she reached back and came over with a nicely wrapped gift box for Koshi and me. I ripped open the package (just in my imagination mind you) to find that Tippi brought us a brand new … stick. Koshi was not able to curb his lack of enthusiasm as well as I was. In fact, the stick really freaked him out as he just kept jumping back and forth, barking like crazy. Though we may not have shown our appreciation appropriately, it was a very nice gesture and I wish I had returned the favor. I had bought a yellow ribbon just for that purpose, but had forgotten about it when it was time to wrap it up.

Event turnout was good while I was there and overall people were having fun with their pups. I know I did, even if it was during the after party. It was cool to see so many DSs in action, and interacting via Wi-Fi. Wirelessly networking with a handheld is really cool technology and is exciting to see it being explored and utilized the way the DS does. Once again, The Nintendo World Store proved to be an excellent venue to gather with other gamers for some fun Nintendo gaming.

To get a taste of the event and to provide Nintendog fans with a bit of inside info, Nintendo produced a podcast of the event that includes interviews with gamers, Nintendo Public Relations Manager Amber McCollom, Teen People Trendspotters and Nintendogs experts. Click the link below to play it or right click, save as to save a copy to your computer. Please note that I have yet to listen to the whole podcast at the time of publication. I hope to check it out soon and will post any comments if need be.

Dog Days of Summer Podcast
http://nintendo.pwop.com/dogdaysevent.mp3

Oh and Jay, if you are out there, you are now on my friends list (though I am not really sure what that means) and it would be very cool if you read this and then posted a comment … come on Jay, don’t let me down.