{"id":648,"date":"2013-05-02T09:08:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T13:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/?p=648"},"modified":"2019-06-27T11:06:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T15:06:33","slug":"confessions-of-a-puzzle-swap-junkie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/?p=648","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Puzzle Swap Junkie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I first upgraded to the 3DS, there were not that many compelling games available, so I&#8211;like many others, I expect&#8211;played around with the extra doodads: Face Raiders, the AR Card stuff, and Find Mii and Puzzle Swap via the Mii Plaza. Then I pretty much forgot about all of them.\u00a0 Unlike the first two doodads, the Mii Plaza &#8220;games&#8221; held my interest, but since they required the StreetPass feature to truly work (In a nutshell, being near another person with a 3DS so the two devices can communicate) and I live in the U.S. where I rarely pass anyone on the street, well&#8230;other than running into the occasional nerd at GameStop, that was that.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cgb-dragoncon-parade.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-666\" src=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cgb-dragoncon-parade-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"cgb-dragoncon-parade\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cgb-dragoncon-parade-300x207.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cgb-dragoncon-parade-434x300.jpg 434w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cgb-dragoncon-parade.jpg 591w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>All of this changed during DragonCon 2012.\u00a0 Nerdy Cons are apparently great places to StreetPass, and since my oldest wanted to see the costume parade, it was a win-win.\u00a0 The parade was crazy crowded, a fun spectacle, and&#8211;oddly enough&#8211;a particularly good showing for Ghostbusters fans.\u00a0 My son had a fun time, but I suspect he enjoyed the subway ride and one-on-one time just as much as the actual parade.\u00a0 I later headed back downtown to have dinner with some nerd friends, and then walked among the crowds&#8211;to people watch and hopefully snag a few more tags.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-676\" src=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap1-300x178.jpg\" alt=\"p-swap1\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap1-300x178.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap1-1024x610.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap1-500x298.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It was a good haul.\u00a0 With StreetPasses galore, I made real progress saving myself in Find Mii. More importantly, I received a boatload of pieces in Puzzle Swap&#8211;including a bunch of the\u00a0purple pieces one can ONLY acquire via tagging.\u00a0 It was a fun accomplishment, and I started to understand what Nintendo was trying to do with StreetPass.\u00a0 But what was I going to do now?\u00a0 Where would I get my fix for puzzle pieces?<\/p>\n<p>I decided I would have to &#8216;grind&#8217; for them.\u00a0 I started carrying my 3DS around in my pocket wherever I went.\u00a0 Hopefully I would luck into the occasional StreetPass, but at least I would earn my ten daily &#8216;Play Coins&#8217; via the pedometer.\u00a0 It all went downhill from there.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I started visiting Targets and GameStops solely to hit up the demo kiosks for tags.<\/li>\n<li>I became really annoyed when the demo units at those stores switched to the Style Savvy demo that DISABLED StreetPass.<\/li>\n<li>This devolved into playing Mii Plaza on said demo units to unlock any additional puzzle pieces from other visitors.<\/li>\n<li>I subsequently made enough progress that any random Tag I receive, while out and about, will be from some normal kid who doesn&#8217;t have <em>any<\/em> puzzle pieces I need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-675\" src=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"p-swap2\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2-300x210.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2-1024x717.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2-428x300.jpg 428w, http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/p-swap2.jpg 1794w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>On the plus side, I did figure out a decent strategy for using Play Coins wisely.\u00a0 If I load up Puzzle Swap just a couple of times a day (usually mornings and evenings), and buy no more than three puzzle pieces, I usually end up with a new piece.\u00a0 Also, once I unlock a new piece, I stop.\u00a0 With luck, I reveal a new piece both times.<\/p>\n<p>Looking forward, I&#8217;m excited about the upcoming Zelda concert.\u00a0 Again, I&#8217;m taking my oldest&#8211;for some father-son time and yes, to expose him to music, but I&#8217;d be lying if I didn&#8217;t say I&#8217;m really hoping to score some purple puzzle pieces.\u00a0 I am <em>supposedly<\/em> a grown man.\u00a0 I&#8217;m pushing 40.\u00a0 And I carry this 3DS with me in my pocket every day!\u00a0 Learn from my tale, gents (and ladies). Go outside, chop some wood, or capture a live animal and eat it&#8230; before it&#8217;s too late.<\/p>\n<p>Ben<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>ecto-1 photo courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/carolinaghostbusters.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/carolinaghostbusters.com\/<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I first upgraded to the 3DS, there were not that many compelling games available, so I&#8211;like many others, I expect&#8211;played around with the extra doodads: Face Raiders, the AR Card stuff, and Find Mii and Puzzle Swap via the Mii Plaza. Then I pretty much forgot about all of them.\u00a0 Unlike the first two &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/?p=648\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Confessions of a Puzzle Swap Junkie<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nintendo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/trainspotting.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gkjg-as","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1567,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/1567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.legeekretrogaming.com\/geekblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}