Alright Vita users, what are your feelings on Near?  Personally I'm dissapointed that its not real time gps location. I was hoping to be able to walk around and find other players, and the gift system actually being left in the real world where you could see and walk over it.  But no, Near doesn't utilize the gps or compass.

I still want to use it, it gives me access to those around me and once I and others have similar games we can challenge eachother, not to mention grabbing the gifts to enhance my games.  All I wish is for Near 2.0.  As is, the feature isn't a system breaker (so no one come on here to bash Vita), its only not as good as I hoped. What do you guys find good about Near or how best to use it?

I do not think that NEAR is as good as it was hyped up to be. It is kind of cool to receive NEAR exclusive items for games I do not own. That certainly prompted me to buy Hustle Kings when I received a cue stick through NEAR. Still, I have made a few PSN friends through NEAR. My biggest gripe is the Uncharted black market. If you receive an item for Uncharted through NEAR you must have that game in your system to claim it. Uncharted items only last for 3 hours so if you are out of the house you are out of luck if you don't have the game with you. I have also had a few instances of trying to download the item and getting an error message. When I try to download it again I get a message saying I already have it but it doesn't show in my black market so I lost it.

Sorry to hear that, I have Uncharted and haven't had a chance or seen any black market stuff.  I'll have to figure it out. I personally don't add people on PSN I don't know, unless there is a good reason like when I add myself to the PS3 Trophy league later. I guess if I was playing with someone and things were cool, but most people add me and don't even care to write a message as to why.

I'm loving it. It's a nice feature to see who's playing around.

When i first heard about NEAR i always thought it would be a great tool for muggers to find you and steal your Vita

Atleast in the US, and more notably in the smaller population sets like I've been accustomed to until now, there is an overwhelming presence of Xbox usage and just by getting a feel of an area or listening to public opinion, it can seem like there aren't very many PlayStation products.  Despite Xbox selling double over PlayStation in the early years of this gen, its not true anymore, and even 1/2 is still a lot.  I think this whole console war has created an illusion of dominance and thus some sort of social isolationism.  Atleast that's how I feel, though I lived in an area that probably had 10+ Xboxs to every PS3s for way too long.  My Near app has pulled anywhere from 20 people to 170 where I'm living at now, and I've been surprised since I'm not on the west or east coast.

Porcupine_I said: When i first heard about NEAR i always thought it would be a great tool for muggers to find you and steal your Vita

lol, defenitly one of the down sides of the Near I dreamed and envisioned, though it would be entirely optional.  It's still optional and you can include invisible zones, but really, it can only update once an hour and does not provide a compass.  In fact I don't even know if the thing incorporates direction at all, so you don't know if that person .2 miles away is north or south of you, or wether they are even there anymore.  Personally I don't care if people could find me using a Vita, I mean you don't care that a person can find you if you are walking down the street or at the grocery store? All they have to do is look at you.  *Sigh* I really wanted to see those avatars walk and move around a map centered at your location.

Chark said: Porcupine_I said: When i first heard about NEAR i always thought it would be a great tool for muggers to find you and steal your Vita lol, defenitly one of the down sides of the Near I dreamed and envisioned, though it would be entirely optional.  It's still optional and you can include invisible zones, but really, it can only update once an hour and does not provide a compass.  In fact I don't even know if the thing incorporates direction at all, so you don't know if that person .2 miles away is north or south of you, or wether they are even there anymore.  Personally I don't care if people could find me using a Vita, I mean you don't care that a person can find you if you are walking down the street or at the grocery store? All they have to do is look at you.  *Sigh* I really wanted to see those avatars walk and move around a map centered at your location.

that may actually  be because of the security concerns i mentioned earlier. not everyone would be ok with being traced that easily.

Yeah I live in the US too. Up until a few years ago all everybody ever talked about was the 360. Now it's pretty different. I always have told my friends that PS3 is better and have given them plenty of reasons. In fact i've even gotten several of them (xbox owners) to admit it. For whatever reason the 360 was really popular here and that popularity just spread. Especially to people who I don't consider to be real gamers, but rather people who only play cod because their friends do. I'm not saying microsoft fans aren't real gamers, just that the 360 lends itself more to the "i only play cod/halo/gears, and every other game must not be good because it's not popular" mentality. ( I like gears btw). When i was still in school people would literally laugh at PS3, but now i'm finding more discussions about the PS3.

I've beaten up around 5 kids for their Vitas, it's a great feature.