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NoE = Stars Fascists?
LewieP
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
For anyone outside of Europe, Nintendo stars are a Europe wide Nintendo customer loyalty scheme thing, where in all 1st/2nd part games, some hardware and some 3rd party games, you get a PIN, which is redeemable online for an amount of "stars" 250 a game is standard. You can also get stars for doing things online (every day if you log into the site, you get 5 stars for example)
The idea of the stars is that you redeem them in the "Stars Catalogue" online. The only problem with this, is that the stars catalogue is always empty. There are wallpapers, and screensavers, and other downloadable crap, that no one ever buys, and whenever any games get put in it, they sell out almost immediately. I was lucky enough to catch a Donkey Konga Bongo bundle before it sold out, but most people have never got anything. Tonnes of people have 1000's of unspent stars, which they have saved up in the hope of eventually being able to buy something.
There have been lots of hints of of them allowing users to convert stars into VC points, including a test put up on the site that some people used before it was taken down.
Latest news is -
So looks like they may finally be getting around to having something useful to but in the stars catalogue, at the expensive of allot of non-active users loosing out.
The idea of the stars is that you redeem them in the "Stars Catalogue" online. The only problem with this, is that the stars catalogue is always empty. There are wallpapers, and screensavers, and other downloadable crap, that no one ever buys, and whenever any games get put in it, they sell out almost immediately. I was lucky enough to catch a Donkey Konga Bongo bundle before it sold out, but most people have never got anything. Tonnes of people have 1000's of unspent stars, which they have saved up in the hope of eventually being able to buy something.
There have been lots of hints of of them allowing users to convert stars into VC points, including a test put up on the site that some people used before it was taken down.
Latest news is -
If you have a NoE membership, you probably received an email this morning. NoE is letting their members know that there are new privacy guidelines that you have to accept. You have up until July 15th to accept the changes. If you don’t do so by then, your account will be closed out. Any stars that you have in your account will be lost.
On top of that, every star that is added to your star account will be deleted after 24 months. You will have that time period to put your stars to use. Looks like you have a limited time for star hording now.
Finally NoE reconfirms that you will soon be able to trade star points for Wii points to make your VC purchases. Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
So looks like they may finally be getting around to having something useful to but in the stars catalogue, at the expensive of allot of non-active users loosing out.
LewieP on
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I'm looking forwards to Metroid Prime Pinballs release in two weeks time
Lies. It is not in all of Europe. We don't have it at all in Denmark.
really? sorry, my mistake.
Well, now, that you have my sympathy for. But let's be honest, it's not like the crappy Stars thing was making up for that, right? :P
Nintendo Japan, and now NoE have a better club than NoA. All we get is a few issues of Nintendo Power.
Edit: What was the exchange rate for VC points during that test? It was only up on the UK section of the site, which I couldn´t even access during that time.
I vaguely remember it being a random 3 digit number to get 1000 VC points, I think something like 937 for 1000 vc points. IIRC someone on these boards managed to get some with it. But since it was a random number, I am pretty sure it was just a software test, and not the actual exchange rate.
So I haven't actually registered any, I've got over 12 stars cards that I'll register when there is something I want, that way I don't lose anything.
Yeah, major ripoff. Fuck NoE.
do you have a source on this? or is it speculation?
I have 13,000 stars I do not want to lose!
For those have had the email how did you accept these conditions? A link from the email or what?
Coke Rewards does the same thing too. Your points expire about 12-14 months after you input them, so you're better off if you hold onto the original code until you have enough..
I was one of the ones to get it. They were pretty good about it and gave me the option of the VC points or my stars back (who would go for that?) even though it was an obvious mistake on their part.
Also I've had no email but the vague feeling I accepted a while back, as well.
On the one hand, I agree somewhat. On the other hand, think of all the games we get earlier then Europe, and the games that we get that they don't. I mean, we got Super Mario RPG, they got...Doshin the Giant.
I really can't imagine they'll do a cull of stars before they add the VC points. They're incompetent, not evil.
Nintendo Denmark are the laziest bunch of scoundrels, though. They can't even spell the games' names right on their website (they still have Medal of Honor Vanduard on there), and some parts of the site doen't even support our typesets of æ, ø and å. I remember registering my Gamecube and not even getting any wallpapers out of it, either. In fact, I don't even remember anything happening at all :P
But yeah, the offer only counts for UK/Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France and Italy. So the rest of Europe can go jump in a lake. It's like there's the main part of Europe, who have it bad enough, but then there's the rest of Europe which is like 3rd world Nintendo - some games released in the UK aren't seen here at all. I don't know if they still do that, but I never saw Secret of Mana in Danish stores, for example.
Oh man. I always wanted to play Doshin the Giant.
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
But still - July 2008? If they give us anything worth buying, I'm sure I can spend them by then...
NoA used to have an awesome club thing with Nintendo Power but lack of interest probably killed it.
Nintendo Power Supplies I think they called it. Lot of awesome Nintendo related merchandise you could get through gathering Power Supply stamps or outright ordering it.
Not a lot of reward for signing up...
But I'm still not able to trade in my stars for points, darnit. I got 5,335 of the things just slowly going very stale.
That was long before registering for stuff online, unfortunately.
And even then, a lot of the merchandise was sort of... eh. Though there was some cool stuff.
Ought to form a letter-writing campaign to Nintendo or something, tell them we want more stuff like Japan gets. Tingle's Balloon Fight? Man, I'd be all over that like you don't even know.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
All you get is a few issues of Nintendo Power once if you register 3 items. If you register 3 more items you get nothing.
And if, like me, you didn't have a mailing address when you hit 3 then they mail your subscription out to nowhere. That's how I "got" but never received my Zelda Collector's Disc for the GCN.
When you get something for nothing you don't get to cry about how much you are getting! Who ever told you to expect one Wii Point per star anyway?
Sure we don't get it as good as Japan but bear in mind you are essentially getting free games here. I'm damn happy to be getting anything and so should you be.
No, it hasn't, he's talking shit. He might be right, but he's still talking shit.
Hmmm. I know Nintendo aren't evil, I know it won't be abused, and I know it will be very useful information for them, but I'm still not sure I'm ok with that. Not in exchange for a handful of Wii points at least.
But reading through it - you can email them, and tell them to remove all the data they have on you. So I'll agree, clear out my 5000 Wii points, and then shut it all down.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
YOU DID NOT PAY FOR THESE STARS!