pharmboy044
Member
near has so much potential.
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near (Vita App) | Scanning local Vita chums for all dat Game Goods
- Thread starter chubigans
- Start date
They should do Gamer Match for all PSN users, not just those near to us.
Whilst I think that sounds great in concept in reality I'm sure it'd be a clusterfuck. (I'm looking at you CoD and your iterations.)
I mean surely you'd have to limit it somehow? And near seems a pretty reasonable way of doing it.
That said I don't think PSN has a way to bring folk together other than Home does it?
Need to know how Gamer Match works first.
Home, XMB chatroom are PSN systems to bring folks together. They really should be unified or integrated somehow.
opticalmace
Member
So it'll automatically discover game goods when I do the search right?
Pretty nifty, I'll have to try this while I'm out.
Pretty nifty, I'll have to try this while I'm out.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Yep, and you get goods for adding friends over PSN
You can send/receive challenges for different games as well, so far I've recieved;
2 Near exclusive avatars for hustle king
1 ingame item for modnation racers
and 1 collection challenge for Katamari
It seems pretty unique
It does need a lot of work though, aside from general issues with sync, it could do with a better explanation for what's going on, and the menus and such
Plus even for stuff that is there, such as rating games - the emoticons are very limited (only positive emoticons) and the 'buzz' rating isn't really explained. And I'm not sure what determines how many players you've 'discovered' - because mine says just one player, yet there's plenty about and I've even received gifts off of none friend list players
So yeah, it needs some work but it looks very promising
Yeah, I s'pose. I just assumed it went by "proximity" and "games played". Can't think of any other way.
Home is good, maybe even great, at bringing folk together in concept. I haven't used it in a while and don't know any stats about it but have assumed in terms of total PS3 users that those that do use it to socialise are in a small minority. Please do correct me if you know different though.
Chatroom... meh. Surely you'd need an invite which already assumes a level of "integration" with folk you're interacting with? But I can see how it could bring folk with similar tastes together. Just that in this day age the way it works seems antiquated.
Wow, Home at one end and the chatroom at the opposite end of the scale. I'd never noticed that before.
^^Ahh, ok. If it'd been an abandoned village somewhere I would've been very impressed!
Near seems to have an awful lot of potential. Hoping it's fulfilled.
EDIT: I'm assuming that whilst geo locint acquisition may be whatever method it is the data is only stored locally on your machine. I don't need folk, remote parties, knowing where I've been. Otherwise I'll switch it off, assuming I can, or just use it around home.
Near seems to have an awful lot of potential. Hoping it's fulfilled.
EDIT: I'm assuming that whilst geo locint acquisition may be whatever method it is the data is only stored locally on your machine. I don't need folk, remote parties, knowing where I've been. Otherwise I'll switch it off, assuming I can, or just use it around home.
Raonak
Banned
It doesn't work like streetpass.
all you have to do is go somewere with a internet connection (or anywhere if you have 3g)
then click the update button, and near will update your location and check the servers for people who've also updated near you. Everything is done server-side. the vitas don't
directly connect, rather they trade information from the servers, thus it has a very large (theoritically unlimited) range.
So it doesn't really use up any extra battery or anything. you can just even do it once a day just to ping your location and you should be set.
Found 8 people near me. friended them
The Grim Heaper
Member
"Could not obtain data for your location."
Well, this is good!
Well, this is good!
There is also timezone of your playtime, which is arguably more important than proximity. Although I'm on West Coast, US, I usually play with Asians and EU folks because I game late at night.
It's a little hard to tell what Gamer Match do unless we know how Near calculates the score.
Both Home and Chatroom are only used by a minority of the Playstation population. GAF people use the chatrooms to organize games sometimes, and some of us don't know each other. This is because any user can invite his/her friends onboard, these friends can invite their own friends, so on and so forth.
If Sony have metrics/stats/analytics/ladder for the user base, Sony can work with the enthusiastic users on promotion and community building activities for the entire user base.
Autofokus
Member
It doesn't work like streetpass.
all you have to do is go somewere with a internet connection (or anywhere if you have 3g)
then click the update button, and near will update your location and check the servers for people who've also updated near you. Everything is done server-side. the vitas don't
directly connect, rather they trade information from the servers, thus it has a very large (theoritically unlimited) range.
So it doesn't really use up any extra battery or anything. you can just even do it once a day just to ping your location and you should be set.
Found 8 people near me. friended them
Very helpful, thanks for clearing that up.
rbanke
Member
I was having the "Could not obtain data for your location." problem. I am in the coverage area of Skyhook, but my router has not been submitted (prior to this). Taking my system outside finally allowed near to find my location.
I don't know the specifics of how Skyhook works, but I'm guessing that because when you register your Wifi AP with Skyhook you give them the MAC address of your wireless radio, they are able to use that combined with whatever internet connection you are currently on to find your location even though you are not actually connecting to the other access point. When I was inside, my Vita was unable to see any of the other access points around me.
In short:
-Any available Wifi that has NOT been submitted on its own = "Could not obtain data for your location."
+Any available Wifi that has NOT been submitted + an access point near you that HAS been submitted= Success
+Any available Wifi that HAS been submitted = Success
At least this is my hypothesis. Hopefully this helps someone. I've now submitted my personal AP, we'll see how long before its added.
I don't know the specifics of how Skyhook works, but I'm guessing that because when you register your Wifi AP with Skyhook you give them the MAC address of your wireless radio, they are able to use that combined with whatever internet connection you are currently on to find your location even though you are not actually connecting to the other access point. When I was inside, my Vita was unable to see any of the other access points around me.
In short:
-Any available Wifi that has NOT been submitted on its own = "Could not obtain data for your location."
+Any available Wifi that has NOT been submitted + an access point near you that HAS been submitted= Success
+Any available Wifi that HAS been submitted = Success
At least this is my hypothesis. Hopefully this helps someone. I've now submitted my personal AP, we'll see how long before its added.
Ahh, thanks for clarifying. I couldn't tell from the screenshot you posted that timezone was factored in. One more thing to get excited about. Shame it's not covered in the manual as you said.
Yep, I'd assumed they were the minority. I did know chatrooms were kind of "open invite" (at least that's how I remember it, and you, from the B3D rooms). Regardless, and I'm sure you'd agree, once we know more about near, I'm sure it's a much more elegant way to "meet" people. I'm not sure it'll be as global, despite the timezone aspect, but here's to hoping.
Cheers.
Day 2, and near is still behaving as if I have never left the house...
Here's all my settings:
When I left the house near was open. I put the Vita on standby with a single press of the power button. 3G connection on, wifi on.
Went out, lots of different places, came back, refreshed...still just seeing my own home location and none others.
Any ideas GAF? :\
Here's all my settings:
When I left the house near was open. I put the Vita on standby with a single press of the power button. 3G connection on, wifi on.
Went out, lots of different places, came back, refreshed...still just seeing my own home location and none others.
Any ideas GAF? :\
BlazingDarkness
Member
I'm at 89 people found, pretty impressive!
Looks like the flickr app is proving popular around these parts, must be people getting those screenshots
Looks like the flickr app is proving popular around these parts, must be people getting those screenshots
So isn't this app too creepy? Am I missing the point? Why would I want someone to know where my house is and that I'm playing Vita?
I loaded it up on Wifi just to try it out and it showed me a map of someone and showed the exact dot on the street in google maps where they were. Seems really scary...Could someone explain it to me a little better? I think I'm not completely understanding how it works.
I loaded it up on Wifi just to try it out and it showed me a map of someone and showed the exact dot on the street in google maps where they were. Seems really scary...Could someone explain it to me a little better? I think I'm not completely understanding how it works.
llaannccee
Member
Near doesn't give out my exact location to other people does it? People can only see the radar?
I thought it was just a radar too but I saw an address, clicked it and it brought up Google maps with a dot on their location...so I'm not sure. I'd appreciate if anyone could clarify.
The only address I've seen is the one which it thinks is your location, are you talking about the address line at the very top of the radar screen?
So, when this says there's say 90 people on the Out-and-About history screen but when viewing the radar it only shows 10 profiles - is near saying you've met 90 in total, or are they actually 90 in the area and it's just choosing to show the closest ones on the radar?
Dead Prince
Banned
44 people so far now. it's going up! now people need to play more games and add gifts LOL. and devs need to use near! i like finding new items!
So I see the address at the top. I guess that is my location? It's not correct but it's close. If that's what it does I'm fine with it as long as it isn't an exact location.
Yes. Not sure if that is user forced standby or system getting bored going to sleep standby though.
Mine tracked me at the post office the other day and it was deffo in standby. Just can't remember which.
I've also noticed that iot does actually go down as well as up. I've had some today at 13 and 25 and 37 and back down at 15.
It's also scary accurate!
I like it though, got 3 Stardust music unlocks so far, I imagine the Black Market for Uncharted will be cool too,
Can anyone explain why my Near logo in the top right has a blue line around it about 1/4 of the way? It seems to get longer each day.
Can you only get gifts if you choose to share your psn id? I'm on private and haven't found any gifts.
Pretty sure that's the case, it's right down to the street for me (3G).
CamHostage
Member
BTW, if you are in SF, head down to Embarcadero, a bunch of the game websites (1UP, GameSpot, IGN) and some of the game companies (Ubi ... can't think of who else, but I know there are a few?) are within that area between Market and AT&T Park.
You're probably matching plenty as it is in a big city, but you'll see specific StreetPass or Near activity as you head down to like the stadium.
Dead Prince
Banned
same. i took it to work and it doesn't even have any sort of data for it there lol. wanted dat distance traveled.
The Google Maps widget in Near is for setting your Private Zones. You can configure up to 5. Within these zones, Near won't track you.
The regular Near use cases won't reveal your present location. However if you encountered another gamer somewhere, his card would later report which street you met him.
You can also set up Private Games so that Near won't report them to other gamers.
The regular Near use cases won't reveal your present location. However if you encountered another gamer somewhere, his card would later report which street you met him.
You can also set up Private Games so that Near won't report them to other gamers.
So I was out again...this time when I was at another location I turned my Vita on, played some Stardust. Didn't go into near.
When I went home and went back to near, it picked up that location. Found several people there.
It didn't pick up any locations in between though. Just the one I had it turned on in.
So maybe it is something about how you put it in standby? Tomorrow I'll try without explicitly putting it to standby.
In my home location it still doesn't show any avatars though. In the other location it shows 9 or 10...I can't imagine my home location is so different.
When I went home and went back to near, it picked up that location. Found several people there.
It didn't pick up any locations in between though. Just the one I had it turned on in.
So maybe it is something about how you put it in standby? Tomorrow I'll try without explicitly putting it to standby.
In my home location it still doesn't show any avatars though. In the other location it shows 9 or 10...I can't imagine my home location is so different.
Callibretto
Member
you can receive gifts for games you don't even have. and the way to psn store is just 1 click away. I almost impulse buy Modnation because of that.
If you set your home location to be anonymous, then you probably won't see any avatars.
Which, for people worried about the app being creepy, might be a setting you want to look into. You can set up 5 separate areas to be anonymous, home and work might be good starting points.
DangerousDave
Member
Yep. I'm on the line of buying Hot Shots Golf. If I receive a gift, probably I'll cross that line.
DangerousDave
Member
I never have this problem. My near is completly accurate.
3G master race!
3G master race!
Dead Prince
Banned
I think my Near is broken:
That or i have a very busy second personality
Perrfect. Organize a Fight Club in your neighborhood !
Callibretto
Member
Hsg dont support near, even though it has a shit ton of unlockable in character lobby customization part. I almost want to blame them for being jp developer.