Your intelligence is “collecting dust”
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:51pm by Blake
You don’t have to like something to respect it. Sadly, many dedicated gamers seem set on drawing parallels.
You see, there are two types of non-Wii gamers. Let’s call them John and Mike. Both like video games and have played them for many years — well before motion-controls entered the mainstream. They may or may not consider themselves “hardcore” gamers.
John, the first one, may not like the Wii personally, but he still respects its industry-leading sales and its skillful designer, Nintendo. He doesn’t feel the need to discount what Nintendo has done with insipid comments because he knows his favorite games and genres can and will coexist on competitor platforms, maybe even on Nintendo systems once in a while.
John may have owned a Wii at one time before realizing it didn’t meet his expectations for whatever reason. In that case, he likely doesn’t brag about selling it. If he’s never owned one, he wouldn’t be opposed to considering its purchase once a game piqued his interest. I consider myself friends with many modern day Johns.
In short, John is to Wii as the author of this article (me) is to Pokemon: a game I don’t “get,” but one I know and appreciate as the best selling game of all time. For the record, I’ve never felt the need to belittle Pokemon players. But I digress.
Mike, on the other hand, has probably never owned a Wii or even entertained the idea (though he may have owned one before feeling buyer’s remorse, as is the case with any consumer product). He doesn’t like it nor does he respect the fact that 25 million others currently do, enough to warrant its initial purchase at least. He earnestly believes all 25 million have been duped. He has decried, ever since Wii’s launch in November 2006, that the motion-sensing system will fade; that it’s novelty will wear off. Eighteen months later, he maintains this belief, though his case is close to being thrown out in court.
The Wii’s industry-leading sales scares Mike. He feels threatened by the console because he thinks by some inexplainable way, all his familiar games will suddenly become extinct. As a result, Mike feels the need to degrade the system whenever and wherever he can, usually in the comments section of blogs and forums. Since he can’t aggress the system’s poor sales, which don’t exist, these trite phrases have become his mighty shield and sword of this generation: “I haven’t played my Wii in months,” he says proudly. “It just sits there collecting dust,” is another favorite.
Mike is convinced there are no games for him on Wii, even if there is. His unpaid PR efforts may also be the result of ulterior business motives.
Those are the two kinds of non-Wii gamers. I suspect there are way more Johns than Mikes out there. Nevertheless, I’m not sure the Wii will ever be respected as a gaming console by many long-time players, even though the system’s sales will likely become the PlayStation 2 of this generation. But I guess it doesn’t really matter. Nintendo will sell another 1.5 million worldwide units next month, and the majority of owners (not everyone) will likely continue to enjoy their refreshing, albeit underpowered console.
By all means, the gaming industry, enthusiasts, and Wii owners should vehemently continue to critique and probe Wii’s flaws, of which there are many (excessive ports, undercooked games, lack of lengthy single player titles, questionable third-party efforts, insufficient storage, and cumbersome online multiplayer quickly come to mind). But the same tired remarks by naysayers should be more targeted and intelligent if we wish to collectively implement change.
You may not take risks in your choice of games, but can you at least take risks when discussing them?
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
nice, but i am left wondering who this is targetted at? who is meant to answer that last question?
i generally find most infendo readers open to discussion of the wii… maybe this post is directed towards joystiq posters?
oh, but don’t forget ‘jake’- the long time nintendo lover who, whether he has a wii or not, had to put up with the forum hate ps2 fanboys directed towards other systems, and is bothered to see some nintendo fans channeling that attitude now. a person who wishes for the time when nintendo fans all basked in their systems’ many heavenly glories, unsoiled by the pedestrian joys found by defaming other games/ systems.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
One thing that kills me when I hear from the dissatisfied Wii owners is the fact that they actually create the problems they complain about. They bitch that they have no good (sometimes third party) games to play, but if you asked them if they played No More Heroes or Zack and Wiki they will make up some excuse for avoiding those fine products. The fact is they never wanted it to succeed so they damn well won’t do anything to help it. Hell sometimes it feels like they just wanted one to be able to bitch about it.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
My favorite line is the grandmothers and soccer moms buying it only to play Wii sports. Doesn’t explain how Smash Brothers, Mario Kart and Guitar Hero are selling so well.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I have watched this battle rage over several dozen forums for the last…oh lets say 18 months. Like what HunterGrant offered, every time you asked these, “The Wii has no good games/3rd party support” types. They never seem to be able to cite any game they’ve played on the system…or if they have, it’s something they wouldn’t have touched with a ten foot pole on another console.
Oh…nevermind I have a headache.
Suffice to say, I have simply retreated from general gaming forums…so that I can play my games.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
^An anecdote; I remember when Guitar Hero was a hardcore game; until it was released on Wii and sold impressively.
Then it became a casual/party game.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
@ dlindema
actually, I think it first moved to casual category when it was featured on ‘veronica mars’
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Nice article, good read!
I agree with the general Wii bashing you see on all the major sites. In my opinion, IGN is the most favorable to the Wii, which I believe is the product of a dedicated Nintendo team (including Cassamasina who has followed Nintendo since the Ultra 64 days).
As cliche’ as it may sound, I think Nintendo has ushered in a new paradigm shift in what a “gamer” is, and in a matter of 5 years or so, the heat should dissipate when all parties reap the reward of a wider scale gaming audience.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:43 am
jack, are you logged into the wrong account? lol
good article of course
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 am
I think the accessibility of high tech hardware off the shelf has lead the current gen of console gamers to think a bit too highly of themselves.
don’t forget, hardcore gamers always existed, and they always play on computers.
consoles have always lagged behind, by nature. sure there have been some great advances lately, but i think it will be many more years before a console can compete with the raw power of the newest pc hardware.
i love my wii, the nunchuck/wiimote combo has freed my hands from each other, an ergonomic triumph rarely pointed out. a true innovation.
and the graphics are dope! yeah my alienware can do better but i’ve been playing video games since they cost a quarter, and mario still knocks my socks off.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
@daverage: LOL! You actually think the people on IGN are favorable towards Nintendo??
Please get back into the today times.
They’re as much of Nintendo-bashers like anyone else on the other popular video game websites.
Take a review at all of the stuff they’ve done in the past 2 years since Wii came out.
Take a real, good study.
You’re on something if you really think IGN is a great site to do video game reviews for Nintendo consoles.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@Joltman
IGN’s Nintendo team does a great job and seem to genuinely enjoy the Wii. A site that doesn’t give away high scores for games on Nintendo’s system does not make them an anti-Nintendo site. Good reviews are earned, not given. It’s pretty much the same for respect.
As for labeling as bashers, one person’s respected critic is another person’s hated basher. It’s all a matter of perspective and opinion and my opinion is that IGN is a great site for Nintendo news and reviews.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I’m happy to say my friends are Johns in the sense that they may not necessarily like the console but they see no need to bash it and definitely wouldn’t be opposed to playing something on it. In some cases it’s more of a case where me and a friend own the Wii so friend #3 gets another console to enjoy his HDTV but wants us to bring the Wii over to his house to play (and generally we don’t touch the other consoles for long).
I do hope that with things like Wii Ware Nintendo will get more respect, but the company itself still has a lot of things to do if it wants said respect. Things like friend codes are tolerable but not really defensible, at least not after we found out that the Wii code did not mean we’d already have instant access to play our buddies online. But that’ll probably be best left for another editorial, eh Blake?