Topic: Everyone's talking about the Wii...

[Requiem]

I don't know how many times my friends and I have been watching TV only to see a Wii advert that immediately starts discussion. These people, mind you, aren't hardcore gamers. Some don't even have a game system, and the ones that do have a PS2 or N64. They are the type that when told that the GC is more powerful than the PS2, their immediate reaction is "bullsh*t, I don't believe that..."

So you see where they're coming from.....

Anyway, since the Wii came along (and especially the commercials) they have been excited just to try the damn thing. One friend had a chance to and his impressions made the rest of the group even more hyped. All he played was some of WiiSports (bowling and boxing specifically) and like 10 minutes of Zelda (said the sword mechanic is "f*cking sweet"), but he's hyped....really hyped.

This trend has been growing. While walking to class, I've over-heard many conversations talking about the Wii and how it looks "sick," with COD3 being one of the games that stand out (due to the commercials, me thinks). This specifically builds up my confidence in Nintendo.

Once they release games that live up to the Wii's potential, Nintendo has the opportunity to become as popular as the DS. And because so many people are so anxious just to try it out, it gives Nintendo the opportunity to do what they do best and prove to them that this is what gaming is all about. After that....it's a downhill battle....

[matt oz]

where do you people live that everyone talks about games?

I've never encountered that anywhere.

[ProtoNY]

It is viral.  I commute to work via bus every day.  One person I know saw me in line for the Wii, and when I get back from vacation this morning to take the bus, I had no less than ten people ask me about it.  The Wii is creating chatter - honestly, more chatter than I have ever seen for a console.  Mainly, because it is not limited to children and young adults.  Whether Nintendo gets their older audience to play is still up in the air, but they are definitely aware of the Wii.

[willie1234]

this is great to hear, and if true (and it is judging by how much NY Times & NY Post have written about it already), is a validation of the non gamer approach.

reading gaming web sites, their reviews and comments this season has brought one thing home to me.  The "hardcore gamers", are a bored, cynical, spoiled bunch of brats who are impossible to please. It has become so "cool" to be "edgy" and criticize games and platforms on the most pointless and minute details that I think the whole internet gaming culture has poisoned itself.  

Look at the reviews for Wii Sports (a game that has generated a LOT of buzz, perhaps more than Zelda).  You can see that rarely do they get it.  Every review says it's fun, but no depth and leaves it at that.  What they don't understand is that for people who don't game 6 hours a day and go to gaming sites the other 18 hours, Wii Sports is a revolutionary game that is generating buzz in a way that nothing has since the NES (the only thing close being the DS).

[couchmonkey]

The game reviews are written for hardcore gamers.  As one guy put it in an article I read lately - the mainstream gamers use mainstream press for their news, because the gaming press is full of manchildren who talk on the level of hardcore gamers and nobody else.

[Crockinator]

Well, all I can say is that one of the main reasons that my mother-in-law (approx. 68 yrs old) was looking forward to coming over for Thanksgiving was to "bowl".  Apparently, she has told all of the older women in her church about it and is planning to bring a bunch of them (and her minister) over to our house to play some night pretty soon.  It's not just that she is telling everyone about it, but that she always sounds so excited.

As a looong time gamer, this completely blows my mind.

The question now, is that if they are pulling in people in that genre (older non-gamers), will they be able to come out with new games that will continue to appeal to that market.  Although I think WiiSports is turning into a phenomenon, I can honestly say that I can't see someone like my mother-in-law being attracted to any of the other launch titles (she wanted to watch Tony Hawk, but it really didn't appeal to her).  

That said, some of the games announced may just fill the gap (WiiPlay, Cooking Mama, etc.).

I think one of the biggest hurdles that Nintendo has actually CREATED with their new philosophy is to provide new games that appeal to ALL segments of the market - considering that no system that I know of in the history of gaming has even attempted to appeal to the over 50 crowd (which happens to be, as far as I know, the fastest growing segment of the population).

In addition to my mother-in-law, I am a bank consultant that travels all over the country and when a few people at the bank I was working at found out that I was going to camp-out for the wii I had several people talk to me about it.  I would say that at least two had decided to pick it up.

BTW - I got the Wii for myself for my 40th b-day (and I remind my 12 yr. old of this everytime I want to play and I have to boot him off the system).

Has anyone noticed the number of "wii experience" videos posted on the net by new Wii owners who couldn't believe that their parents or in-laws were having a blast with Wiisports?  I have seen more videos of adults than I have of kids.

[zakkiel]

Quote
he "hardcore gamers", are a bored, cynical, spoiled bunch of brats who are impossible to please. It has become so "cool" to be "edgy" and criticize games and platforms on the most pointless and minute details that I think the whole internet gaming culture has poisoned itself.

They're also immune to irony, as witnessed by their willingness to post such comments on a forum dedicated to a gaming company without apparently understanding that they're talking about themselves.

Honestly, if you post here regularly, you are a "hardcore gamer" by any reasonable definition. Most of the people that disdain Nintendo, in my experience, are the softcore gamers that own Halo and one or two other games.

[willie1234]

zakkiel - what can I say, that's a very semantic argument you've made there.  Saying folks who come here are automatically hardcore, while halo players are not is tenuous.  I tend to think hardcore gamers are self defining, ie, if you think you are one, you are.

I'm aware of the irony though, but consider this, I haven't picked up a Wii yet.  So in a sense my argument stands, since I too am a grumpy old fart who is too cynical to get excited about it. (actually, I just don't have the pennies or the time right now for a new console).

[RiskyChris]

There are these clowns that sit behind me in one of my EE classes at college.  Today I heard them talking about the Wii -- 2/3 of them expressed interest in "buying it soon."

I think the Wii will be bigger than the PS2 and NES combined.

[WuTangTurtle]

Quote
Originally posted by: willie1234
zakkiel - what can I say, that's a very semantic argument you've made there.  Saying folks who come here are automatically hardcore, while halo players are not is tenuous.  I tend to think hardcore gamers are self defining, ie, if you think you are one, you are..

Well I agree but I would also say that some people can be classified as Hardcore by others rather just by themselves.  I for one play almost every genre from FPS, music rythm games, RPG's, etc but I don't really consider myself hardcore.  Reason being I hardly ever nowadays finish any of my games.  However some people think I'm hardcore due to the amount of games I have and what not.

I dunno maybe my definition of being hardcore is doing every side mission in Zelda Wind Waker or unlocking everything in Soul Calibur, niether of which I have done rather than the games that I own.

And on a different note, here in AZ there seems to be some talk on a radio show that now seems to talk about video games every once in awhile.  The radio hosts have been ripping on the Wii ever since it came out claiming if you buy a Wii or play a Wii u are a homo.  People have been calling in and disputing them but, since this is the radio were talking about the host can always hang up on u.  Anyone else heard any bad talk like this?

[TrueNerd]

Anecdotal evidence is lame, but I've heard TONS of chatter about Wii Sports from friends/coworkers/family/customers. It makes me happy. Although, it has a negative side as well. My sister bugs me to play Wii Sports multiple times a day to which I respond with, "Can't. Zelda. Gotta repair the mirror." To this she usually gives me a "you're such a loser" quip and walks away.  

[segagamer12]

Take this for what its worth, my mom hasnt played a game since Tetris, that is the ONLY game she plays (well ok Mario Party but that doesnt ocunt EVERYONE plays that)

My sister and her husband do not even have TVs, my brother in law (her husband) is an evengelist who thinks Tv and video games are bad for people and wotn let his kids play them (please respect his views and dont reply with thats BS cuz he has a good reason for this and I agree somewhat)

One of my best friends Hagen Dauz hates Nintendo, he owns PS1, PSOne, 2 PS2s, 2 PS2 Slims (one for house one for car), PSP and wantsa  PS3 pretty bad.

A friend of my friends whos dad owns a casino in town has the money for eveyr game system out there and all he wants is Wii and maybe a Ps3 for the car but only to show it off cuz he is a spoiled rich kid


ALL of these people want a Wii after only trying Wii Sports. My mom was even getting into teh boxing for crying out loud. My dad has yet to try it but he is really wierd and maintians the "Sony player is better" cuz he is brand name oriented and Sony is his brand. But he is still amused at watching us play.
Everywhere I go I hear people talk about Wii.

Where I work at they know I got a Wii and they keep asking me about it cuz they all want it and im the only guy at work under 50!

I think if Nintendo keeps it up they are seriously going to surpass PS2 sales and kick Sony off the face fo the earth.

[Hostile Creation]

My sister really likes it.  She's playing the hell out of WiiSports and she kicks butt at boxing.  She's played games before, but generally only with me; I suspect she'll play Wii on her own time, like she does sometimes with the DS.
My mother and father both really like it, too.  My mom was impressed with how much of a work-out boxing was.  They both played it, and were enthusiastic about playing it; we bought two at launch, one to keep and one to sell, and I think we may end up keeping both now.
All my younger cousins loved it a lot, although that's not particularly surprising.  I convinced them to buy a Gamecube, which they liked.  The older, Xbox owning one really liked the Wii too, though.
Even my grandfather played it with me, and called it "neat" and seemed to enjoy it.

Played it (WiiSports) with my friends a few days ago.  Two of the three were really casual gamers, and they usually only play games with me and my other game-playing friends; mostly Super Smash Brothers and the like.  The third refused to play Wii because he already intends to buy one and didn't want to tempt himself into buying it before he had expendable money.  My one friend was fascinated by how it worked, and was really impressed with it, enjoyed it thoroughly.  The other didn't express such a fascination with it, but he definitely had lots of fun, and he's not even into sports at all (none of us particularly are, yet we all liked WiiSports).
Haven't shown it to any of my friends at college yet, because I didn't bring it up (lack of TV), but I'm bringing it up to show them next week, probably.  They all have a mild interest in it, ranging from "Oh, I heard about that" to the one who's a mild gamer (definitely not casual, but far from hardcore) that's pretty excited about it; he's a bit of a Nintendo fan.

I've had no bad response to it yet.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I admit, I didn't take the time to read most of this thread, but i didnt see this posted anywhere else.

Tonight on the Colbert Report (I don't normally watch this show, it just happen to be on the channel), Steven Colbert had a Threat Down report and Wii was the #1 threat.

He said it was 'possibly the biggest threat of all because he couldn't tear himself away from the thing and it is quite possibly the best videogame(machine) ever!!'

He then went on to demostrate some Wii Sports Boxing after showing off his personalized Mii and another Mii that he made to box.

More FREE advertising for the Wii and directed to the non-gamer older audience too.

[Hocotate]

It is very strange for me to hear people who aren't normally Nintendo "fans" hype about the Wii. There are many people I don't Particularly like, and it's odd to hear them say something like "Wii is so awsome, I love Zelda!"

It's going to take some getting used to. We've been a minority for 10+ years and in a way I think I am going to miss that. I am very glad Ninty is the #1 console now though.

[vudu]

Quote
Originally posted by: segagamer12
One of my best friends Hagen Dauz hates Nintendo, he owns PS1, PSOne, 2 PS2s, 2 PS2 Slims (one for house one for car), PSP and wantsa  PS3 pretty bad.

Your best friend is ice cream?

[couchmonkey]

Quote
Originally posted by: Crockinator

I think one of the biggest hurdles that Nintendo has actually CREATED with their new philosophy is to provide new games that appeal to ALL segments of the market - considering that no system that I know of in the history of gaming has even attempted to appeal to the over 50 crowd (which happens to be, as far as I know, the fastest growing segment of the population).

Has anyone noticed the number of "wii experience" videos posted on the net by new Wii owners who couldn't believe that their parents or in-laws were having a blast with Wiisports?  I have seen more videos of adults than I have of kids.

On the homemade Wii experience videos - I haven't seen them but it makes sense, older adults are the ones who setereotypically don't play video games.  Good news for Nintendo that they're enjoying Wii Sports.  I should look these up!

As for trying to provide games to all segments, it is a challenge, but I bet it's a fun challenge and in some ways and there's a big advantage: you don't have to live up to expectations.  Voice acting, HD graphics, and as many hours of gameplay as you think you can get away with -  these are the types of things gamers expect from a "top notch" game.  I hear Gears of War's single player campaing is kind of short - but if you think about it, adding 10 more hours of single player time to Gears of War would mean adding millions of dollars to the budget.

Adding two new sports to Wii Sports probably cost Nintendo under a million.  Nobody needs professional atheletes and teams, liscenced music, "real-life" graphics or even more realistic movement to make Wii Sports fun.  Of course, some of those things would be nice additions but the point is that all you need to make a successful game on Wii is a good concept.  Big budget items like voice acting are just icing on the cake as opposed to PS3 or Xbox 360 where they're almost considered a necessity.  

[Requiem]

Quote
Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1
I admit, I didn't take the time to read most of this thread, but i didnt see this posted anywhere else.

Tonight on the Colbert Report (I don't normally watch this show, it just happen to be on the channel), Steven Colbert had a Threat Down report and Wii was the #1 threat.

He said it was 'possibly the biggest threat of all because he couldn't tear himself away from the thing and it is quite possibly the best videogame(machine) ever!!'

He then went on to demostrate some Wii Sports Boxing after showing off his personalized Mii and another Mii that he made to box.

More FREE advertising for the Wii and directed to the non-gamer older audience too.

You got a link to the video? (you can find them on ComedyCentral/Youtube)