Tinier Me Review (long version)

The Sign-Up on TinierMe.com:

Signing up is easy, as always anymore, with one little difference to other sign-up sheets I've encountered online - you choose a Login ID and a username (so, essentially, your Login ID does not have to be the same as your username, making it harder for accounts to be hacked unless of course you tell everyone what your Login ID is). I personally think this is a neat feature that should be implemented by all websites - then maybe less people would complain about their account be hacked, and their might be less scammers at places like GaiaOnline who say their account has been hacked and ask for a donation.

The Sign-Up for TinierMe on Facebook:
This sign-up is still easy - you login to Facebook, go to TinierMe for Facebook, make a username, pick a gender and a non-changeable skin color, then begin. I kind of like the ruffled dress I started with, though I'll never use it again because it is pink; I kind of hate pink...

The Avatar:

Like with most of the other online avatar communities I've visited, you make an avatar and you start off dressed. Yay!
Also, to change your outfit and hair and accesories, look at your avatar to the right and click "CHANGE".

The Login:

You can login to Facebook to play TinierMe there; or you can login at its actual site (www.TinierMe.com), and sign in with your Login ID or by clicking the Facebook Connect logo and signing into your Facebook account.

The Tutorial:

The tutorial shows you how to chat, change your clothes, and buy Gacha (more on Gacha further down); of course you keep the Gacha item from the tutorial. Even though I'm sure the average user could figure out the site on their own, it's still nice to have a tutorial that gives you a free item.

The Virtual Currency:
There are two kind of virtual currency on TinierMe - Chibi Coins and G-Coins. I assume G-Coins stands for Gacha Coins (again, more on Gacha later), and it's not usually free; you can buy G-Coins - there's currently a promotion for that as well, the G-Coin Gift Campaign (October 19th to October 26th, 2010) - or you can go to SELFY Town and click the offer board to complete offers and surveys in exchange for G-Coins. The other kind of currency is Chibi Coins, which you get daily and are somewhat free.

SELFY Town:

If you're on TinierMe through Facebook, this is the first place you are every time you go to the TinierMe on Facebook page; on the actual website you have to click a large button, located above your avatar, with the words "SELFY Town" upon it. SELFY Town is a place to chat, fish, listen to Hatsune Miku (6/20/2010 - 11/30/2010), receive random friend requests, get bonus Chibi Coins, click the board to do offers in exchange for G-Coins, explore, and play with your ChibiPet.

Bonus Chibi Coins - once a day, for visiting SELFY Town, you will receive 5 Chibi Coins PLUS another bonus of Chibi Coins which depends on the number of friends you have. I love this feature, hehe.

The Offer Board - not all of these offers are free, but it's useful if you don't want to spend anything to get G-Coins, which are used for some Gacha. I use it even though I don't like it, since it's there anyway and I might as well; but I personally think it takes away a bit of TinierMe's uniqueness, since everyone else is doing the same thing for virtual currency on their site anyway.

Daily Gacha - it's totally free, you get one item from it if you play it; you can use this Gacha once every twelve hours, but it's only a feature available on TinierMe for Facebook.

Poker Gacha - exchange 250 G-Coins or five items from a particular G-Coin Gacha Sheet; some of the items look so much cooler, though.

Chatting - it's not something I do much of, but that's because I usually do my chatting while playing Old Maid.

Tinier Fishing - yes, you can fish;I explain this further down in the Games part of my run-down.

Listen To Hatsune Miku - this is an event that began on June 20th of 2010 and ends on November 30 of 2010, where you go to the piece of land to the left of SELFY Town and click the button by Hatsune that says "Yeah, it rocks!"; you will then be granted an album cover that is equippable to your avatar. You may do this only once every two hours, though.

Play with your Chibi Pet - I'm not sure about the ChibiPet area yet, as I have been buying so many Gachas I have yet to buy a pet. Oops!

My Page:

This button, also located above your avatar, will take you to a page that lists your friends' latest diary entries, your groups' latest updates, and contains a collection of buttons to other parts of the website.

Mini Mail:

This is the PM system of the website.

Diary:

Your little in-site Blog/Journal/Diary. You get a daily 5 Chibi Coins for your first Diary Entry.

Games:

 The collection of games on TinierMe includes Sevens, Old Maid, Tinier Fishing, and Doki Doki IQ High School. You can even chat while you play! With Sevens and Old Maid, you use medals to play games - how much depends on the bet - and you start with 100 medals (which isn't enough to trade in for anything). If you win games, you gain medals; if you lose games, you lose medals. Every time you lose to the point of ending up with zero medals or not enough medals for the bet in the room you're playing in, the room will boot you out and you will be granted a few more medals. Medals can be exchanged for Chibi Coins or listed item(s), depending on how many medals you have. You can join a room (you find out how much the bet is by looking at the number by the JOIN button); or you can make a room, name it, decide to leave it open or to password it, and set its bet (but you can only make the bet between one and ten).

Sevens - it's fun and holds up to four players, but I don't really understand how to play. I wish there were better instructions on how to play.

Old Maid - I love this game. It's played the same way you would play it with real cards, only the Old Maid card is the bomb card; the bomb card is known by various names, though usually it's called Bomby. For those who don't know how to play Old Maid, you're trying to be the first or second one to lose all their cards - if everyone has gotten rid of their cards, and you have the Old Maid card, you completely lose. This game begins when you have three or four players ready to play and the person who was in the room before the other three click Play. At the end of the game, you have twenty seconds to click "Yes" to continue the game. How much you win or lose depends on the bet and whether you were first, second, third, or fourth at the end of the game.

Tinier Fishing - this is done solely in SELFY Town (but never in the the Town Square part of it), but going to this page in the Games section tells you how to play. On TinierMe, you have to go to a body of water and wait til the fish symbol is above your head; when it appears, click your SELFY, select the Fish icon, and when your bob is bobbing wildly and says CLICK, click your bob. Then a window pops up inside the window you're already viewing and counts down from three seconds; when the game begins, you have to click the fish til its energy is depleted (about five clicks) - but if you miss five times, it's game over. When you have enough of the right kind of fish you can exchange them at the Fishing Guild, located in the square of land to the right of SELFY Town's central square. The more you fish, the more you level up, the more you get rarer fish to trade in. For me at least, it's a bit challenging as some fish swim around erratically, but it's almost addictingly fun too.

Doki Doki IQ High School - Its a Solo Game, the only one at TinierMe so far, but I can't tell you anything about else this game as it refuses to load for me. I'm sorry.

Community:

This page advertises five of the Campaigns & Events in TinierMe, then suggests about twelve of the Groups found on TinierMe, before showing you a button for the Chat Rooms.

Groups:

These are fun. You can make a group or join a group, all for free, and discuss things there whether they're related to TinierMe or not. If you don't mind, maybe you'd like to check out my group, too, please and thank you? It's called Order of the Bomb.

Forums:

 Discuss things related to TinierMe, divided up into different Forums to make it easy. I can't say any more about it, because I keep forgetting to check it out (I just love playing Old Maid).

Campaigns & Events:

I don't understand why the Gacha aren't in this list, but oh well. I'm not even really sure how to explain them, so I'll just link you instead (if you click the link and find yourself looking at a list of the different Gachas available, scroll down to find the list I am talking about). http://www.tinierme.com/tinierme/html/campaign_event/

SELFY Shop:

Here is where you can buy stuff for your avatar, your room, Tinier Fishing, buy a ChibiPet or buy food for your ChibiPet. Some of these items cost G-Coins, even though a lot of them can be purchased with Chibi Coins.

ChibiPet:
Umm, I'll know when I buy one (oops).

Well, that's all I'm saying about TinierMe (for now, at least). If you made it this far, and even if you didn't, thank you very much for reading my post and visiting my Blog. I hope you found this review useful and not too annoying. If you could please leave a comment about what you thought of this post, I would much appreciate it. Please visit again soon - I plan on posting in my Blog at least once every day!