Topic: Journalist Returns Wii Due to "Hidden Costs"

[Chozo Ghost]

Every single one of these "hidden" costs are completely optional. As Ian said, the only thing he really needed to get was another controller, and that could have been done through Wii Play the way most seem to do it. Other than that everything is completely optional. I don't own a rock band bundle with drums and all that stuff, and I get along just fine. Why does this guy seem to think you have to own every single peripheral ever made?

99% of the Wii's library was available to him without the need of extra peripheral purchases. There are only a handful of games which require special extras. For some reason he seemed to make a beeline straight towards these handful of games. I think he did that deliberately just to have something to whine about in his article.

[EasyCure]

its a case of the uninformed informing the uninformed, or simply duping the uninformed for some cause that isn't quite clear.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Journalist must be a fancy new word for

FAT BABIES

[EasyCure]

Journalist must be a fancy new word for

FAT BABIES

so thats replacing the old word (Gerstmann)?

[Mop it up]

It almost sounds like he's calling games a hidden cost. Oh well, 4 seems a bit young to be playing games anyway.

When I was a kid, my parents let us do things like watch the telly and play videogames only after doing things like chores or homework. Using games as a reward for work seems like a good way to go about it.

[EasyCure]

It almost sounds like he's calling games a hidden cost. Oh well, 4 seems a bit young to be playing games anyway.

When I was a kid, my parents let us do things like watch the telly and play videogames only after doing things like chores or homework. Using games as a reward for work seems like a good way to go about it.

The majority of my SNES collection came from receiving A/B's on my report cards up until 6th grade or so.

[Mop it up]

Did that encourage you to get those A/B's?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Gerstmannus Fat Babus is a subset of this species.

[EasyCure]

Did that encourage you to get those A/B's?

Considering I was an honor student during all of elementary school, and my grades dipped from middle school thru high school, i'd say so But there were other reasons for the slip in grades, especially in high school. I was (sorta still am) the slacker type and i just never "applied" myself to school, becaues it was insanely boring. I started off with the grades to get in to all those honours classes at the start of high school but opted not to, so i can coast. Boy did i coast..

[BlackNMild2k1]

It almost sounds like he's calling games a hidden cost. Oh well, 4 seems a bit young to be playing games anyway.

When I was a kid, my parents let us do things like watch the telly and play videogames only after doing things like chores or homework. Using games as a reward for work seems like a good way to go about it.

I got a 3 year old in front of me right now playing Wii Fit Plus. She turns on the wii puts in the game, selects her character and then selects the game she wants to play all by herself. She even finishes some of the challenges with decent scores besting her 7 year old sister in 1 or 2 of them.

But of course she's not allowed to play until she practices her ABC's and 123's.

[Stogi]

Did that encourage you to get those A/B's?

Considering I was an honor student during all of elementary school, and my grades dipped from middle school thru high school, i'd say so But there were other reasons for the slip in grades, especially in high school. I was (sorta still am) the slacker type and i just never "applied" myself to school, becaues it was insanely boring. I started off with the grades to get in to all those honours classes at the start of high school but opted not to, so i can coast. Boy did i coast..

I blame drugs....well drugs and girls. Oh and alcohol.

[EasyCure]

Believe it or no, no drugs (ever) and i didn't get into alcohol until I was 20. I simply had no interest in studying in such a shitty school with horrible teachers and even worse students. I spent 5th-8th periods outside making friends

[Ian Sane]

I was (sorta still am) the slacker type and i just never "applied" myself to school, becaues it was insanely boring. I started off with the grades to get in to all those honours classes at the start of high school but opted not to, so i can coast. Boy did i coast..

In high school I worked my ass off and to get good grades.  Then I did the same in college and got VERY high grades.  My employer has told me I has hired because of that, since I didn't have relevant work experience at the time.  I acheived my career goals at 19, my car is paid off and I just bought a house.  If I had slacked off I wouldn't have that.
 
And yet I wish I partied more in high school and college.  I wish I seriously pursued my band when I was 18 instead of putting it on the backburner to concentrate on realistic and responsible career goals.  I was ironically more mature ten years ago then I am now.
 
But if I slacked off THEN where would I be NOW?  The odds are I wouldn't be a rock star, but rather some loser, living with my parents, working a nothing job to try to make ends meet.
 
The solution of course is to party NOW.

[ThePerm]

lol Chris O'brien, he's pretty accessable. We had a chat about Google Wave once.

[NWR_insanolord]

I was (sorta still am) the slacker type and i just never "applied" myself to school, becaues it was insanely boring. I started off with the grades to get in to all those honours classes at the start of high school but opted not to, so i can coast. Boy did i coast..

In high school I worked my ass off and to get good grades.  Then I did the same in college and got VERY high grades.  My employer has told me I has hired because of that, since I didn't have relevant work experience at the time.  I acheived my career goals at 19, my car is paid off and I just bought a house.  If I had slacked off I wouldn't have that.
 
And yet I wish I partied more in high school and college.  I wish I seriously pursued my band when I was 18 instead of putting it on the backburner to concentrate on realistic and responsible career goals.  I was ironically more mature ten years ago then I am now.
 
But if I slacked off THEN where would I be NOW?  The odds are I wouldn't be a rock star, but rather some loser, living with my parents, working a nothing job to try to make ends meet.
 
The solution of course is to party NOW.

The solution is to do both. I'm currently in college and I'm having the time of my life, making friends and having fun, but I still managed to make the Dean's List last term.

[Invincible Donkey Kong]

There's also the hidden cost of wasting my time so I can hunt you down and punt you.  You don't want to waste my time. 

[Stogi]

I was (sorta still am) the slacker type and i just never "applied" myself to school, becaues it was insanely boring. I started off with the grades to get in to all those honours classes at the start of high school but opted not to, so i can coast. Boy did i coast..

In high school I worked my ass off and to get good grades.  Then I did the same in college and got VERY high grades.  My employer has told me I has hired because of that, since I didn't have relevant work experience at the time.  I acheived my career goals at 19, my car is paid off and I just bought a house.  If I had slacked off I wouldn't have that.
 
And yet I wish I partied more in high school and college.  I wish I seriously pursued my band when I was 18 instead of putting it on the backburner to concentrate on realistic and responsible career goals.  I was ironically more mature ten years ago then I am now.
 
But if I slacked off THEN where would I be NOW?  The odds are I wouldn't be a rock star, but rather some loser, living with my parents, working a nothing job to try to make ends meet.
 
The solution of course is to party NOW.

The solution is to do both. I'm currently in college and I'm having the time of my life, making friends and having fun, but I still managed to make the Dean's List last term.

I hate parties. Parties are a god awful waste of time. All that fun and memory making..god I hate it.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

The kid you say that's not yours

[Dirk Temporo]

Believe it or no, no drugs (ever) and i didn't get into alcohol until I was 20.

lol you think alcohol isn't a drug. That's adorable. :3

[BranDonk Kong]

I can't believe any website would let such a complete moron work for them.

[Kairon]

So much hate. I don't understand. The guy's only human!

[ShyGuy]

Look, if he was Joe Forty Something who writes a human interest column, then he would be dumb but acceptably dumb.

But he is a technology journalist. And he knows nothing about the Wii and didn't bother to know anything about the Wii.

If he ran a site called crimebeat.com I would expect him to have at least a general knowledge of the criminal justice system.

[Kairon]

But he admitted those mistakes OPENLY in his original column. Bottomline, he made a mistake in not doing research, and wrote about his realization of this moment and his not making any $300 commitments until he HAS done the research like he should have, about his role as a prent, about what exact additional costs he should accept, and when would be the right time for him to jump in.

He admits error, corrects error, promises to do better in future. How is that NOT something we should respect him for?

By the way, he has written a follow-up blog post on this talking about the reaction the article got:

http://www.siliconbeat.com/2010/01/22/how-my-wii-column-drove-gamers-crazy/#more-6211

And I re-iterate: the guy's human, and "tech" is a huge multi-faceted industry. Just because you write about cover business news about one section does not automatically expose you to other almost unrelated sectors of the industry.

Are we angry at him for not magically absorbing the knowledge we all take for granted? Are we angry because he decided to return a Wii, and not an XBox360, or PS3? Are we angry at him because he didn't give his kids a $300 XMas present? Are we angry at him for regulating the amount of time he lets his kids play videogames?

Or are we angry at him for even just writing about his doubts, and sharing his experience to the world? The way I see it, NONE of these are proper reasons for the vitriol we see here!

This guy is a potential gamer, he intends to buy a Wii in the near future, he has kids who would enjoy it much, and he cares about what he's getting into. He deserves our support, help, and a friendly welcome worthy of Mario, NOT our denigration!

[brian577]

and he opens his new article with a quote from a research article about how bad games are for children, yeah I don't see the agenda there...

[ShyGuy]

Kairon, as a professional in the public eye he has responsibilities. When he fails those responsibilities, there are consequences. He made a mistake and we can respect him for admitting it, but that doesn't absolve him of criticism.