Topic: the official : "telling family about wii" thread

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: vudu
Most people watch TV.  Most people's first real impressions will be from commercials.  I find it unlikely that Nintendo will just say Wii and end the commercial like that.  At least in the beginning, they'll explain the name, the concept and how it works.

I have zero faith in Nintendo's marketing. They've been so god awful at marketing for so long that I don't think marketing could ever save them.

[jasonditz]

People ridiculed the starwars kid, but if he released an action figure of himself, or maybe an energy drink with him on the label, a lot of people would buy it, too.

[vudu]

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
I have zero faith in Nintendo's marketing. They've been so god awful at marketing for so long that I don't think marketing could ever save them.

At first all they need to do is buy a few one-minute ad spots during major programs and air the video at revolution.nintendo.com.  That will work nicely for letting the world know that Nintendo's rebranded itself.

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: vudu At first all they need to do is buy a few one-minute ad spots during major programs and air the video at revolution.nintendo.com.  That will work nicely for letting the world know that Nintendo's rebranded itself.

Maybe.

Nintendo basically needs to convince the entirety of NA that it's actually in the running this time around and intends to make a serious play for 1st place. It's going to take some serious marketing and probably some LUCK to get this to happen.

[thejeek]

My girlfriend immediately said 'what? like "wee"?'

The problem is that there actually is a subtle pronounciation difference (short versus long vowel) between the pronoun 'we' (when it's part of a sentance) and the noun 'wee'. And the way that 'Wii' it's written suggests a long 'e' as in 'wee' not a short one like 'we'... I find it hard to say 'Wii' when explaining it to people without people hearing 'wee' :-(

[Requiem]

What are you talking about?

It's not the short "e" sound or "Whe" as in "when."

"We" and "Wee" both have long "e" sounds. Simply adding an extra "e" doesn't change the fact that it sounds the same.

[thejeek]

Listen to the sound of 'we' when used unemphasised in a sentence - it's not the same as the sound when either 'we' is emphasised, used alone or the sound in 'wee' - instead it runs into the following word and is quite curtailed. At least in the English I speak (London) - it might be different elsewhere.

[thejeek]

 [DELETED - accidental post]

[Hostile Creation]

You're taking the wrong approach.
Don't go say "hey. . . what do you think of the name Wii?" and then "well it's the name of such and such".

It's a brand name, throw it at them all at once.  Most people will acknowledge it without caring, they won't go "har har like pee pee" unless you A) emphasize the eeee, and B) build up to it in some big, elaborate way.
You all have a very negative outlook on it, and that spreads.  Whereas my outlook is more positive, and everyone I've told either likes it or is indifferent toward it.

Ian, your brothers obviously had a negative outlook from the get-go.
Also: "You can't have double i's in English."
Nope, sure can't (Hawaii, for instance).  Not to mention it's a brand name, and those don't have to follow grammatical rules.  It's obvious you're presenting it in a negative manner.

[eljefe]

try what Joystiq did

Quote
As a way of formalizing the "all my friends think Wii is [insert adjective here]" meme that's flowing through our comments system, we've set out three questions that will reveal what friends, relatives and strangers really think about the Nintendo Wii. All the people in this informal vox populi were shown a piece of paper with the word "Wii" drawn on it and asked:

how they think it's pronounced

what type of product they think it might be

once they're told that it's the name of Nintendo's next-gen console, what their immediate reaction is.

 

[Hostile Creation]

I don't even think you should make that big a deal out of it.  Just mention it like it's anything else.

[Artimus]

Joystiq's IS great. But don't use those questions, use the ones they actually did:

1. How do you pronounce the name?
2. Lets say this is a product of some kind. What type of product does it make you think of?
3. What if I told you it's for a games product?

I did it for my girlfriend, she pronounced it right. Didn't have any idea what kind of product it would be, but wasn't surprised when she heard it was a games product. I showed her Traveller's video, then, and she thought it was really pretty. lol She's not a gamer but she does play my DS (Mario Kart and minigames) on car rides or while doing nada.

[Athrun Zala]

I've telling friends and family, and the reaction is pretty mixed......mostly positive though (mind that most are spanish-speaking only)

a couple laughed and thought the name was stupid
few believed the name was stupid, but were fine with it and would get used to it
some were indifferent (thought was ok/didn't mind/care)
most found it intriguing, and liked it
one thought it was simply brilliant
and another one liked it so much, that said "the responsible for that deserves an award!"


Although I don't like it, I must admit it's slowly sinking in me.....

[bustin98]

So I went looking to see if Hawaii was an English word (because I'm a geek), and came across another meaning for "ii"

Quote
Though Captain James Cook called the islands that he discovered in 1778 the Sandwich islands, this honor to the Earl of Sandwich would be short-lived. King Kamehameha I united the islands under his rule by 1819 as the Kingdom of Hawaii.

A couple of theories exist on the origin of the name Hawaii. One theory has it that the name comes from a combination of the words "Hawa" and "ii" and means a small or new homeland; "Hawa" meaning a traditional homeland and "ii" meaning small and raging. The other theory is that the name comes from the traditional discoverer of the islands, Hawaii Loa.

[Hostile Creation]

I don't think ii is a traditionally English word, but foreign words like Hawaii (if it is), kawaii, etc. can be incorporated into it and become English.  Wii technically fits under that category, anyway.

[denjet78]

Quote
Originally posted by: pap64

See, this is one of the things that bugs me the most about all the recent Wii discussions.

And this is where I'm going to stop you because, even though your overall point is right, that it's all just opinnion and that none of us has the right to tell other people what they should or shouldn't believe, at the same time you're defending the same group of people who said they would never buy a "LameCube" and how horrible a color choice that purple was. And... AND... they're also the same people who threw a HUGE fit when Nintendo unvailed Wind Waker and proclaimed that they would never ever play another Nintendo game again because of how they fagged up "Celda". I still remember that day. It was me and maybe ONE other person on the forums that were willing to give it a chance. Hell, I actually loved the new art direction and was exstatic when they revealed it. Everyone else though, they were just angry because they weren't getting another "me-too" PS2 or XBox style game.

The people here, like on most internet forums, are only interested in snap reactions. If you actually have to think about something, well that's just too much effort. You might be able to find one or two people willing to have an adult conversation on the internet but as for most people, their internet age is 8 and bellow.

What am I actually trying to say? Just give up already. It's not worth the effort. You might as well just join in with the corus and start bashing as well.

Here, let me give you something to work from:

"Ooops! I just slammed my Wii in the car door! Hur! Hur! Hur!"

...

I am so cynical these days that it's not even funny.  

[wandering]

Looking over the responses from the family members, and maybe I'm living in a reality distortion zone here, it still seems like Nintendo has a blank slate with 'Wii'. Yeah, some people feel it's kind of stupid, but that always happens with new product names. The one response I'd be concered about was the 'fruity' comment...but since that came from capamerica's father, who has ideas about how electronics names 'should' be...eh. The impression I'm getting is that most people don't think it's gay or urine-related, they just think it's different. And if that's the biggest stigma Nintendo will have to deal with, I don't think things will be all that bad for them.

[eljefe]

wandering, true

for example my dad is the type that EVEN if Wii is smashing success and he ends up playing it regularly, HE WILL NEVER CALL IT Wii!

just like he doesn't call his phone a RAZR

he just doesn't memorize gadget names.


If someone asked him the name of his cellphone for a million dollars I honestly think he would lose out. He would say "Motorola?.." because he can remember company names.

the name of product cannot affect those who don't even use it (positively or negatively)

[mantidor]

I told my mom.

The question was? "what do you think of a product name Wii?"

She said she had no idea, but she was constantly giggling, because it just sounded silly.

Then I told here it was the name for the Nintendo console and she say "ok" completly uninterested, and by now Im sure she completly forgot about it. Probably she just thought "games, thats not for me" and left it at that.

The name did nothing for her.



 

[eljefe]

the name by itself means nothing to anyone

after people play it , that will change. They'll remember it for WHAT IT DOES not WHAT ITS CALLED.

[Requiem of Darcness]

Quote
Originally posted by: eljefe
the name by itself means nothing to anyone

after people play it , that will change. They'll remember it for WHAT IT DOES not WHAT ITS CALLED.

The average joe isn't going to care what it does once they hear what its called. It shouldn't have mattered that the GC was purple, but it did. It seems that a lot people here are thinking that because something should happen it will. That is not always the care, especially in our image conscious society.  

[wandering]

Where is this assumption coming from? How is the letter W and 2 letter i's so offensive to people that they won't even consider picking the console up? You act like they named the console Gaylord Focker...

[eljefe]

requiem, color is different than name

someone (in fact many people) will play Wii
without knowing its name. They might be hooked by its gameplay before they even have a chance to be repulsed/confused by the name. Do you agree that this scenario is possible?

That's all I'm sayin'

[Hostile Creation]

I linked my mother to the site and told her about the name.  She said she liked it.
Then again, she's also really interested in the system.  I showed her the trailer a while back and she's been asking if it's out yet constantly.

[NWR_pap64]

I just noticed a pattern here...

The Nintendo Wii haters have said that they showed the name to their friends and family and that they supposedly hate it...

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii followers have said that they showed the name to their families and they supposedly loved it...

How do I know that they aren't pulling some BS just for the sake of argument...