nintendovip.com

Loyalty schemes come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, whether it be the ones we take part in online at Ciao and the rest, or the ones we take on in our offline life - like the Tesco clubcard points. Nintendo were not about to get behind the times apparently, and coinciding with the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube home console they also launched Nintendo VIP. This was all happening on May 3rd 2002, meaning that the 5 year anniversary of the whole ...
...performed over this time? Well now is a good of time as any to review it.

Nintendo VIP covers the whole of Europe, so whilst everyone was happily picking up their Gamecube consoles and playing them at home in May 2002, the last thing on their minds was probably the little pieces of paper welcoming them to a new loyalty scheme at the bottom of their boxes. I know it took me a while to work out what was going on with the whole scheme. ... more

Loyalty schemes come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, whether it be the ones we take part in online at Ciao and the rest, or the ones we take on in our offline life - like the Tesco clubcard points. Nintendo were not about to get behind the times apparently, and coinciding with the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube home console they also launched Nintendo VIP. This was all happening on May 3rd 2002, meaning that the 5 year anniversary of the whole scheme is coming up very soon. How has it has performed over this time? Well now is a good of time as any to review it.

Nintendo VIP covers the whole of Europe, so whilst everyone was happily picking up their Gamecube consoles and playing them at home in May 2002, the last thing on their minds was probably the little pieces of paper welcoming them to a new loyalty scheme at the bottom of their boxes. I know it took me a while to work out what was going on with the whole scheme.

Joining is explained in 3 easy steps. First you find the VIP card that comes with a lot of the games and hardware you purchase for Nintendo consoles. I say a lot because not all of it will have VIP points for you, it's typically only 'first party' products such as Mario games. A game is typically worth 200-300 points, whereas hardware is about 500 points. So by getting you to buy these things for points, they are really benefiting themselves. Once you've found the card, you'll notice it's like a scratch card, and you have to scratch off the silver covering the reveal a code made up of numbers and letters. Then once you've entered your first ever VIP code into the site, you can become a VIP member.

To be a VIP member you also need more than the code though, because you also need to sign-up as a member to the site, this will enable you to use the forums and the like. This is all really easy though, pretty much just creating a username, password and entering your email. Once you are a member to the site you will notice your member status is three bars of green; the highest status you can have, the VIP status. This allows you to use the 'VIP Lounge'.

Yet it's really not exciting in the lounge. It just offers content that non-members can't see, like; reviews, screenshots and videos on upcoming games. Also there is a breakdown of what you've done on the site under a 'Lounge Pass' heading.

STARS EARNED - A total of all the stars you have earnt, including the ones you have spent.

STARS NOW - Your current star total.

SITE VISITS - How many times you have visited the site.

GAMES RATED - How many games you have scored.

CONTENT ALERT - How many alerts you have on new information.

COMMUNITY POSTS - The amount of times you have posted on the forums.

COMMUNITY WATCH - The amount of posts you are watching on the forums.

SURVEYS COMPLETED - How many Nintendo surveys you have completed.

PRODUCTS REGISTERED - How many VIP products you have registered for points.

AMBASSADOR SIGNUPS - How many friends you have invited to the site.

Underneath all that you also have a 'Badge' section, which is possibly one of the most interesting things about being a VIP member. Basically, for different products you have registered and amount of points you have totalled you receive badges with Nintendo related products/chatacters on them. For example, for earning 2500 points through site visits I received a badge with Fox McCloud on it.

Time for the most important part - what you can redeem your stars/points for. Well... nothing really. The site very rarely updates what you can purchase with your stars, and when it does it has a limited stock amount. When you factor in the WHOLE of Europe uses this one site, it doesn't take very long for all the stock to disappear. They have had actual Nintendo consoles and games on there for 10,000 and 5,000 points respectively though, so when they do update the Star Catalogue it's not that bad. It just hasn't been updated for months, so I'm saving my points until I see something I really want on there. One day hopefully.

What is on there right now though? Well you can get Nintendo related ringtones for your mobile at 350 stars a hit. Or perhaps you'd prefer a wallpaper for your computer for 50 stars? Nah, didn't think so. With the release of the Nintendo Wii console the VIP service has continued and Nintendo have claimed that in the future you are going to be able to swap your stars in exchange for Virtual Console games (basically games from old Nintendo consoles that you can play on your Wii). There's no set date for this yet, but if it is put into action it should be a really interested service.

There are a couple of ways to gain star points besides buying Nintendo products. For every friend you get to sign-up to the site you shall receive 250 stars, and also for every time you visit the site you receive 5 stars (one visit per day limit). These 5 stars per day though can add up, what I did was set my homepage to the Nintendo website so I never forget to visit the site on any particular day and claim my free points.

All in all Nintendo VIP is a very poorly put together loyalty scheme, and over the five years I've only ever seen one survey (on the new Zelda game) and I can't even remember how many stars I got as a reward for completing it. Couldn't have been a very memorable amount. On the plus side at least that means I've never been locked out of a survey by them. The site layout is simple enough and very rarely has any technical problems, but the site layout doesn't really have much to do with the reward scheme because the site is primarily for those who are just looking for the latest Nintendo news, not for points and prizes. I've only earnt about 9,000 stars over course of being a member. It's definitly not a reward scheme to take seriously, as there's pretty much nothing you can claim as a reward just yet although perhaps it could be good practice for younger internet users.. practicing how to save every last point/penny they can for when they one day join Ciao.  

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