I had a chance to play with a Wii the other night, and I have to admit, it's the first time I've really gotten into games. Maybe it's because I'm lacking a penis, but for whatever reason, games just never really interested me all that much. The Wii, on the other hand, was pretty awesome, especially after a couple drinks. I'm still not going to go out and spend $300 on one, but I might consider it when it drops to around $200. Do any of you own a Wii? Do they get boring after a while when the novelty wears off?

For me, the novelty definately wore off after maybe a week... and it seems to be the same for every game I've picked up... I have about an attention span of 10 minutes, so I don't enjoy the more "in depth" games like Zelda, the only stuff that I particularly like is stuff like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Big Brain Academy, etc.... and I find that it's great to pick up and play once in awhile, but it isn't a big enough draw to make me actually play something every day.

I find we mostly use our Wii for reading the news (the News Channel is a direct AP feed) and for watching YouTube.

I enjoy playing the Wii at somebody else's house. But I don't think I actually want to buy one. I have to agree that the novelty wears off fairly fast. It's a brilliant machine with some truly amazing innovations, but I think, at least at this point, game developers haven't been able to really harness the potential of the system in a way that breeds long term addiction.

Is that a bad thing?

I've played Zelda (the BEST!), Paper Mario, Mario Party (it was OK), Wii Sports, SSX Blur (awesome!), and look forward to playing Metroid Prime Hunters, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Bros.

Needless to say, I love the Wii. And it (and the DS) has really proven itself through numbers. Their profits have gone up around 90% in Japan, UK, and US over the last year. Everyone, literally, loves the Wii whenever they visit, and most ask about it when they visit.

And it isn't just the Wii - the PC will soon be joining the revolution with its own force-feedback controllers.

The Wii is revolutionary. No hype about it. It's proven (and will prove) itself, and is riding the innovation of intuitive controls that is creeping into most next-gen products (iPhone anyone?).

Naaaaawww... has nothing to do with a penis. Lots of girls like games and lots of guys don't.

I have a Wii, but I sort of approached it from a whole different angle. I was looking sideways at the wiimote, wondering just how annoying it was going to be. Now I'll admit it's kind of fun to wildly swing that thing around like a sword while I'm playing Zelda but in the end I'd rather have a D-pad and some shoulder buttons. Or WASD plus a mouse. Whatever. It's just a gimmick.

I think the Wii is revolutionary in that it's reaching out to a new demographic but in the end, the people it really hooks are going to be the closet gamers; people who didn't know they liked games because it was geeky or they just never exposed to it and don't know they like video games. The price of the Wii is pretty darn cheap in gamer-land and I think a lot of people will try it out because of that and because it's new and different, but I also bet a lot of people will discover they really couldn't care less about games and their Wii will end up collecting dust. It doesn't even play DVD's. All it does is play games and in the end, a game is just a bunch of puzzles, reflexes, trouble-shooting and role-playing (varies depending on which genre you focus on). If that's not your bag, a different type of controller probably isn't enough to keep you coming back.

I'm sorry - I fail to see how the Wii is a gimmick. You said it, but you didn't really explain it. As for the shoulder buttons, the nanchuck has two there, and the Wiimote itself has a D-pad. Both are used perfectly in Zelda.

Right, because of the amazing controls which can cater to everyone (not just new people). The games are what's lacking right now. The few examples that we have (Zelda:TP, Metroid Prime Hunters) really do show how hard-core games stay hard-core but merely change controllers to widen the audience and still maintain difficulty. (TP was easier by design, not because of the controls.)

In the end, people who don't like golf won't play it. In the end people who don't like to take early-morning walks won't. In the end people who don't like video games won't play them. It's common-sense, but that doesn't make the Wii any less because of it.

The DVD thing isn't an issue for me. Most people have a DVD player already - the Wii's would be redundant. Besides, if it weren't for the things Nintendo left out, the price would be much higher.

To clarify, this and the above "in the end" point both apply to all consoles, not just to the Wii. If video games in general just don't "click" with you, then you won't be playing any console. Again, that doesn't make the Wii any less because of it.



Whoever said easy-to-play, hard-to-master games weren't fun? The Wii brings intuitive games to everyone, but that doesn't mean they will be easier to beat.

I think you hit nail on the head with this post - I'm sorry I never read it until now. I basically said the same thing in my post above, but you summed it nicely.

Penis?

Well, my Wii was great and "innovative" the first month. The last three it has just been collecting dust. Maybe I should get that mod-chip installed soon. Seriously, I don't think I have turned it on once in at least the past two months. And by the way, Zelda still dissapointed me. Not that its not okey...it is. But nothing more, which I had come to expect considering the quallity of the previous games.

...maybe Im just getting older....
(and on the other hand thats proberly not it because I still use more time on WoW than I should)

Your later comment about WoW may explain this.

Are you talking about how easy it is for Zelda veterans to beat? The quality of this particular Zelda game was exceptional when it comes to graphics and storyline compared to the Zelda games I've played.

I have a wii but it won't boot

Let me say it again: the game is okey, but not great. And anything less than great is dissapointing in a Zelda release!

Talking about gameplay Zelda has nothing new to offer. Its OOT over again with shiney new graphics. On a personal note I dont think the music is as good as some of the previous game. And voice-acting was introduced in computer- and videogames 1993 and yet is still absent from this late 2006 release. What's up with that?

What I really do like is the level-design. That's where this game really shines through. All the time the player is masterfully guided through the levels without it ever being noticed. That's good game/level-design!

I am looking forward to try out Paper-Mario some of these days. That game looks exciting.

That was kind of my point. The Wii has some great games out now and will undoubtedly be seeing many more in the near future. But if you're really not into games in general, I just don't see how a different kind of controller is going to hold your interest beyond a passing fancy.

Please don't get me wrong here, I love that it's inexpensive and it doesn't have multiple functions that it doesn't need to have to be a game console. But for the average non-gamer, there's no reason to get one aside from the new and different controller. And my argument here is that a different kind of controller may initially sell more consoles but it's not going to hold the attention of someone that just isn't into games as a form of entertainment.

I find myself at line what Gamespot wrote in one of their reviews:
"The control scheme [for the Wii] is not any better [than other consoles], it is just different!"

Ah, this is where I differ. I think the new controls open the system up to everyone. Everyone, literally everyone who's tried my Wii has loads of fun. And I'm talking from 75 to 5 year-olds have tried it. Nothing but fun.

It's not just "different" - it's more accessible while retaining the same amount of flexibility other consoles have in their consoles. Games such as Brain Age use the simplest controls, while games such as Mario Strikers Charged and SSX Blur use the controls to their fullest to let you pick what exactly happens next.

You'll have to prove to me it's not better instead of just stating it isn't.

True it's better for people who are not into consoles, but not any better for the ones that are.

you, my friend, have not tried playing halo 2 with a wiimote...

i havnt either, but the video looked very cool...


i honestly am addicted to my good old keyboard, but who knows, one day...

I think we could dispute this fact as well. In my opinion, games such as Madden Football use the flicking motion to throw the ball, or a pull-back motion to snap the ball. Buttons are used to select different players to throw to, etc.

It's not that the buttons or amount of control is lost - it's made easier to understand, allowing you to actually enjoy the game without thinking about which button to push. I think people who enjoy consoles can say they enjoy not having to think about the buttons.

Sure it's fun. They come over, it's social, it's highly interactive... fun. I get that. But would they purchase a Wii for themselves and enough games for themselves to make it a viable contender in the marketplace? Maybe some people do purchase enough multi-player games and have game parties to make this a competitive system, I really don't know and that's probably something that's still remain to bee seen.

But my guess is that consoles are sold on a very thin margin and what makes them profitable is the amount of games that can be developed and sold and the people that buy those games are those that would be playing no matter what kind of interface it had. The days of a couple of guys in their garage making games just for the sheer joy of it are long gone. It take a lot of money and resources to produce a game today and most of the major players are just not going to take a chance on something that doesn't have a very broad user base.

I give Nintendo a lot of credit for entering the scene when it was dying niche, pumping life into it and taking it to whole new levels. They also have been masters at telling the public what it wants regardless of what anyone else was doing at the time and have generally been right about that. But it still comes down to console sales being the driving force behind getting more games developed and produced. That's where I'm still not sure enjoying a friend's console translates into buying your own and subsequently buying enough titles to support the console comes in.

The sales figures look pretty impressive (Nintendo's profits when up by 70%-110% across the world!), and according to Nintendo, show beyond a doubt that the console is indeed being bought by people who never bought a system before. Watch Nintendo's E3 presentation - they present some convincing statistics.