When I received the invitation in early February from my contact at Brand About Town (the company that handles these logistics for Nintendo), my first feeling — after excitement — was unworthiness. I don’t blog nearly as often as I did when I first became a Nintendo Brand Ambassador in July 2009! Isn’t that why they chose me in the first place?

This feeling was unjustified, of course. There are many ways to represent a brand. You can use Twitter to talk about your favorite games, and you can whip out your Nintendo DSi — the predecessor to the Nintendo 3DS — on the plane (or on the DC Metro), both of which I’ve done.

When I got to Seattle last Thursday evening, I stopped feeling bad about my status as a not-so-frequent blogger. Yes, some of the Summit attendees were bloggers I recognized from past BlogHer conferences who have a lot of readers, but most attendees varied widely in their level of internet popularity. I met people like me who have blogged more in the past than they do now, and I met some people who don’t blog at all anymore. There were more women than men, but that’s because the Nintendo DSi was marketed to a female audience to create more lady-gamers (that was my interpretation of it at least, when I was asked to host a Nintendo DSi party for around 20 lady friends).

On Friday we spent most of the day at Nintendo Headquarters in Redmond, WA. The building itself is super nice — squeaky clean and open and bright (we were only allowed to take pictures in the conference room, though, so I can’t prove it). The President/COO of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, talked about how happy they were to host us and how we shouldn’t let any kids under the age of 6 play with the Nintendo 3DS — apparently the potentially-negative effect of 3D graphics on young eyes is unknown. (What I was thinking at the time: “This information doesn’t concern me because the youngest person who will be playing with my Nintendo 3DS is my 13-year-old nephew. Plus, shouldn’t young children be outside making mud pies like I did when I was a kid?”)

After the announcements were over, they divided us into smaller groups of 10 or so and we took turns going around the building and trying out a number of games on the 3D screens. One of the games we tried is still in pre-production, so the units were tethered to a table to discourage anyone from slipping one in their pocket and selling it to a Nintendo competitor. I also played: Super Street Fighter (liked it and would play it again), Steel Diver (you have to turn 360-degrees while you play it, so I felt kind of dizzy after a while), and Pilotwings Resort (I was horrible at this game). There was also a game called Nintendogs + Cats, which seemed geared towards kids. Or adults who like taking electronic animals on walks. (Seriously, the Nintendo employee who was showing us this game said she loved it and played it all the time. I looked at her with quite a bit of suspicion after this.)

The Nintendo 3DS itself is pretty cool. I found the 3D graphics very realistic (some games more than others). In fact, sometimes the graphics were so realistic that I felt a little nauseous…but when that happened I’d just turn the 3D slider to 2D for a while, and I was able to continue to play and felt fine.

The Nintendo 3DS comes with some built-in applications (like the Mii Maker, which allows you to create your own personalized character — using either animated graphics or a picture that you take of yourself), but not any of the cool, full-length games. Those must be purchased separately. However, it will play the games I already own from my DSi (they just won’t be in 3D graphics, of course).

In short: Fun unit. Awesome experience in Seattle.

(Disclaimer: I became a Nintendo Brand Ambassador in 2009 and sometimes they give me free stuff. The trip was paid for by Nintendo and the Nintendo 3DS was a gift. All opinions are my own.)

I recently received this text message from my friend Dana: “3 days post-Nintendo party and I am frighteningly addicted to the DSi.”

Dana was one of a terrific group of ladies who attended a Nintendo-sponsored party in Washington, DC on Friday, July 17th. Who was the hostess? Me. (I know! I can hardly believe it myself.)

The fabulous ladies from Brand About Town asked me if I’d be interested in hosting a party. My role: invite up to 25 females of my choosing. Their role: provide the location (G Fine Art), food and drinks, and entertainment. Oh, and everyone who attended the party would go home with a Nintendo DSi of their very own. For free.

(Yes, I realize that I had a very difficult job, being forced to invite and hang out with a big group of my girlfriends for three hours. It was tough, but I persevered.)

The cool thing was, I’d never hung out with all of these ladies at the same time before. I invited local bloggers, local non-bloggers, three friends from Richmond, my two sisters (also from Richmond), and one co-worker.

It was an awesomely good time. Many of the attendees contacted me afterward to tell me what a great time they had — but as I told them, the pleasure was all mine. It was really cool to see my blogging and non-blogging friends interact.

There were four game stations set up, and everyone took turns playing each game. While everyone played, there were waiters walking around offering champagne, white wine, and various appetizers.

I was too busy socializing with my guests to sit down and play anything (but that’s okay; my DSi was mailed to me the week before the party so I was able to play with mine in advance). I did miss out on the ability to play Mario Kart with someone sitting next to me — apparently the system can seek out other DSi players nearby and you can play against each other instead of just the computer (how cool is that?).

Here are various pics to recap the party. I took some of them from the Nintendo gals’ photo set on Flickr, and some were sent to me by my friend Dana. My complete set can be viewed on Flickr at Nintendo Party, 7/09.

(Some of the bloggers who attended the party are anonymous, so rather than trying to remember who uses their real name and who doesn’t post photos of themselves on their sites, I’m not posting pictures below unless I’m sure these people either don’t blog at all, or they’re not anonymous.)

First of all, I had my very own sign out front. How cool is that? So of course I had to pose. (Please excuse the flip flops. I hadn’t changed into my heels yet.)

This was a chalkboard where my guests were supposed to write something about me, finishing the sentence: “We *Heart* Zandria Because…”

Everyone’s favorite reason for why they *heart* Zandria was the one my roommate added at the very bottom:

These are two fellow BlogHer.com writers, Laurie and Sarah.

Three of my friends from Richmond (Teresa, April, Dana).

This is me with my two beautiful sisters, Elissa and Angela. (Yes, my hand is wrapped around Elissa’s thigh. What of it?)

Receiving my Nintendo-themed charm bracelet.

I was so happy to be sitting on the pink couch (that matched my dress!) and talking to my friends.

Some people had already left by the time this group photo was taken.

All in all, it was a fantastic time. Many thanks to Nintendo and Brand About Town!

(Note: I read today on DCist that the gallery where the party was held, G Fine Art, will close next month.)