So I’m walking through the halls of the third annual Long Beach Comic Con (now the Long Beach Comic and Horror Con) with my 3DS in my pocket just because it’s the cool thing to do while surrounded by fellow geeks when I feel the sudden need to check out my Street Pass. You see, this was my first time taking my 3DS into a heavily populated area where I could possibly make connections. So when I opened up my 3DS, I was surprised to see the flood of Mii’s enter my Plaza.

My initial goal was just to collect all those dumb hats for my Mii through the Find Mii game. In case you don’t know, each Mii you connect with via the 3DS Street Pass will share a piece of a 3D photo with you as well as join the fight in the Find Mii mini game. In the Find Mii game, you can either hire a hero by using coins you’ve collected or find a hero that walked into your plaza. These heroes will travel from room to room defeating enemies. Some of these rooms will have treasure chest that contain hats or your Mii. These were the things I was after. What I got instead, was very interesting.

Instantly, I would get Miis coming into my plaza ten at a time. Each with it’s own customized greeting pimping out their own site. That’s right! My Mii would greet their Mii and they’d be all like blablabla.com as they stroll into my plaza. I knew this was the digital equivalent of passing out a flyer or a business card, but this was much cooler. I found it fascinating that that’s where we are now. Our video games are being used to social network and all I had to do was hold it in my pocket.  

And then, I read what these people were playing.

Aside from the greeting, each and every Mii will tell you what they’ve been recently playing. At first I thought these were just a means of letting you know what was popular on the console itself. I would usually find out people were playing either Super Street Fighter 3D or using one of the apps that came with the system. Nothing special. Until this one asshole came around with his Mii and made me jealous as all hell.

This guy was playing Super Mario 3D Land!

Now you can’t tell the 3DS what to tell others what you’ve been playing. The system says it for you. So this means this guy was walking around with an unreleased game in his pocket, a game that I would love to get my hands on. Oh, the jealousy. But this wasn’t normal jealousy. Super Mario 3D Land was the kind of game I’ve been waiting to play since the 3DS came out! It’s the type of game the console was made for. This guy ruined my day.

So I learned a lesson that day. A 3DS is not only a portable game console. It’s a way to spread the word. It’s a way to share an experience. It’s a way to make people jealous. But i found it to be a great way to share information without even having to take it out of your pocket.