New to Nintendo's Miitomo? A lot of us are, but we've had a good day or so with the app to get a good feel for it and help fellow newbie Mii's.
A cross between a game and a self-contained social network, Miitomo is Nintendo's first foray into the mobile gaming market, and so far it's proving to be a hit.
In Nintendo's homeland of Japan, Miitomo rose to the top exceeding messaging app Line with more than 1 million downloads. Here at home and across the Atlantic, Miitomo has racked up more than 3 million downloads since its release.
Making A Mii
To get started, Miitomo players will need a Nintendo account where their profile will be imported from an existing Mii from a Wii U or 3DS using a QR code. If not, the rest of us will be prompted to create one.
Mii's are Nintendo's equivalent to internet avatars with the exception that Mii's are more than just a plain icon - they're a sort of anime Sim of ourselves. In making a Mii, players use the in-app camera to use their face as the foundation for how their Mii looks.
After taking a Mii-selfie, players also get the option to adjust hair style and other facial features in shape, color, and style. But it's more than just about looks. A Mii's voice can also be customized in pitch, depth, energy, accent, and speed; and its personality style modified by movement, expression, attitude and manners.
Getting To Know Mii
The next step after creating a Mii is to answer questions about your Mii. Players should be answering these questions completely. Remember, Miitomo isn't just a game; it's also a sort of social network. Miitomo's main form of communication is the asking and answering of open-ended questions.
So, for other Mii's to get to know your Mii, questions should be answered in complete sentences, and with as much detail as possible. As in real life, conversational exchanges with little content end quickly and are easily forgotten.
That'd be a shame too as Miitomo's use of Q&A's between other Mii's offer pretty good laughs between friends and newly made Mii friends. Mii's will ask players a set of questions ranging from what made you smile recently to what your favorite thing is about cats and how you'd like to spend your retirement.
Player's answers to these questions will then appear on a friend's Miitomo app, and that's where conversations begin. Instead of having to think about a post to start a conversation, Miitomo's Q&A's already get the conversations going.
Mii Meet Mii
Miitomo integrates with other major social networking apps such as Twitter and Facebook, so making friends is a snap. To make even more friends in the Miitomo-verse, players can create a QR code unique for the Mii and share that publicly on any social network feed.
Nintendo, more importantly, is committed to their player's privacy and won't allow the Miitomo app to search for contacts by name on a player's smartphone. The app does, however, keep track of a player's Facebook friends and Twitter following to ensure friends find other friends easily.
Privacy will be of utmost concern especially since questions on Miitomo can get a bit personal. A question such as, "What is my best feature?" will appear between Mii friends that might not want to be shared with the rest of the world. Thankfully, an answer beginning with "Just between you and me..." will keep answers between both parties, only.
Show Mii The Money
To keep players coming back for more, Nintendo has created a monetary system of gold coins to allow players to buy sets of clothing including different shirts, shoes, jackets, and complete outfits for their Miis.
There's even a mini-game with Miitomo itself called Mii Drop. The game has players aiming and then dropping a falling Mii down a pachinko-type board. The goal is to land on one of the themed areas to win, yes, a themed set of even more clothing.
Making gold coins is quite easy, nonetheless. Players can earn a limited number of coins everyday simply for answering questions, listening to answers, commenting and even just logging in for the day.
Miitomo is a free-to-play app, and doesn't bombard players with any kind of advertising. There are, however, in-app purchases and for those of us are willing to go all-in with their Miis, Mii money can be bought for as little as just $0.99 for 1,000 Miitomo coins or for as much as $49.99 for 67,500 Miitomo coins.
