Dave Donaldson

Critical thinking in software development

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Wii = Fun

Wednesday, August 01 2007

Earlier this month we bought a Wii. The decision to buy it was made mostly after my wife got hooked on Wii bowling over at my good buddy Jayme's house (who is James Avery's brother-in-law and now an employee of Telligent). For days after that night my wife searched everywhere for any store that might have a Wii, but nothing turned up. Fortunately, we got lucky as some other friends of ours (who knew we were looking for a Wii) happened to be at a Target store and called us as soon as they found out the store just got 60 Wii consoles in.

The main thing to know about the Wii is that its whole point of existence is fun. This isn't to say that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 aren't, but it's a different kind of fun. It's old school fun. It's get-every-member-of-the-family-together-for-game-night fun. Literally. I can't do that with any other console. There's only a handful of games I let my kids play on Xbox, and my wife certainly doesn't get into any them. It's not like I can get my wife, two boys, and daughter together for a rousing good time playing Gears of War ;-)

There's a certain charm about the Wii that is hard to explain to people who only know the high-end gaming consoles. You have to *feel* the Wii to truly appreciate its charm. After spending time playing it you realize just how damn ingenious the thing is.

Nintendo quite possibly is going to come out on top of the console wars because they went back to the reason of why people play games to begin with: to have fun. Again, this isn't to say that Playstation and Xbox aren't fun (God knows I loves me some Gears of War and Oblivion), but as someone who truly appreciates spending time with his wife and kids, the Wii has provided me an outlet to do that every night. That's what I call fun.

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1 comment(s) so far

Geronimo wrote on January 23, 2008

Yeah, the Wii is the bomb for group involvement. Also, it shines when drinking is involved.

Only problem I have with it is the inconsistency of the controller on games that require more precision. (ie Tiger Woods!!)

Although Tiger isn't really a game that you would play very much as a group or while drinking.....so I guess this post is pointless.

And for those of you who are wondering what this Gears of War craze is all about, be warned...the game is only fun if the following 3 criteria are met:

1. You can except some severe lag issues and a HUGE host advantage.
2. You don't suck ass.
3. You aren't playing the game with a super-ultra-over-competitive asshole (that's me!) who ruins it for everyone by bitching at his teammates when they lose, since he is a God at the game and couldn't have possibly been the reason for the defeat.

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