Speculating on spectatorship: when Wii becomes a performance art

Wii spectatorship: we watch, you play - Image 1 

We know how the Wii has made such a revolution in gaming. The innovative factor that the Wii remote has put into the arena has certainly stirred things up. It has redefined interactive gaming, and right now, only Time will tell how far that will take us. Good thing is, Father Time is on our side, and we’ve been able to have quite a chit-chat about the future.

We’ve been speculating about how interesting things have been going for Nintendo, and while everyone is thinking of their motives and strategies as something that’s avant garde in nature, let’s push this even further.

Hypothesis: Would the Wii become the next quasi-spectator sport?

Observation: Well, if you take the cross-section of what a lot of people are saying about the Wii and its interactivity, it basically all boils down to how fun it is just to watch your friends and family doing their own thing. Really, the crazy things people end up doing with their Wii-motions (meaning the bodily movements they make when controlling the Wiimote).

Go, Grandpa! Go! - Image 1Grandpa bowling his 91 pins in one go. Little Johnny doing a breakdancing “Finish Him” move in Wii boxing. Uncle Scott trying to buck a cow onto the finish line in Wii Play. Or your best buddy Tyler nuking it out with his girlfriend in DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2. It’s fun watching other people play; some would even go so far as saying that it’s more fun watching the players themselves rather than watching the screen.

Now while all this is done for leisure and recreation, all it takes is for just one guy (*ahem* like me) to put two and two together, and say, “Hey! Why not we bring this to the next level? I’m going to make Wii-motions… into an ART FORM!” Pretty ambitious for someone who still doesn’t have a Wii console (harhar), but hey!, I’ve been practicing my backhand down at the local retailer’s shop. *wink*

Anyhoo. It’s not that hard to imagine how video gaming could be translated into a spectator sport. To name a few games which have already going down this definition of interactivity: Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and, to an extent, even Samba de Amigo. (interesting how these three games all involve music)

On with the discussion, and some more insight on how learning the best way to ride Epona can bag you a guesting on Oprah, right behind the Full Article link! We talk more of the three mentioned games, some Las Vegas shows, and cheerleaders!

Wii spectatorship: we watch, you play - Image 1 

We know how the Wii has made such a revolution in gaming. The innovative factor that the Wii remote has put into the arena has certainly stirred things up. It has redefined interactive gaming, and right now, only time will tell how far that will take us. Good thing is, Father Time is on our side, and we’ve been able to have quite a chit-chat about the future.

We’ve been speculating about how interesting things have been going for Nintendo, and while everyone is thinking of their motives and strategies as something that’s avant garde in nature, let’s push this even further.

Hypothesis: Would the Wii become the next quasi-spectator sport?

Observation: Well, if you take the cross-section of what a lot of people are saying about the Wii and its interactivity, it basically all boils down to how fun it is just to watch your friends and family doing their own thing. Really, the crazy things people end up doing with their Wii-motions (meaning the bodily movements they make when controlling the Wiimote).

Go, Grandpa! Go! - Image 1Grandpa bowling his 91 pins in one go. Little Johnny doing a breakdancing “Finish Him” move in Wii boxing. Uncle Scott trying to buck a cow onto the finish line in Wii Play. Or your best buddy Tyler nuking it out with his girlfriend in DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2. It’s fun watching other people play; some would even go so far as saying that it’s more fun watching the players themselves rather than watching the screen.

Now while all this is done for leisure and recreation, all it takes is for just one guy (*ahem* like me) to put two and two together, and say, “Hey! Why not we bring this to the next level? I’m going to make Wii-motions… into an ART FORM!” Pretty ambitious for someone who still doesn’t have a Wii console (harhar), but hey!, I’ve been practicing my backhand down at the local retailer’s shop. *wink*

Anyhoo. It’s not that hard to imagine how video gaming could be translated into a spectator sport. To name a few games which have already going down this definition of interactivity: Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and, to an extent, even Samba de Amigo. (interesting how these three games all involve music)

Many a time have I found myself walking around a mall, and stopping by the arcade to watch some silly-looking people strut their stuff on the stage in DDR. In fact, if the gamer/dancer on the platform is good enough, he or she could attract whole crowds of shoppers. The DDR phenomenon is so widespread now that tournaments have been held; some go there to compete for the highest score, some go just to perform their dance routines, while some are there just to have a fun time.

Who's your hero? GUITAR HERO! - Image 1As for Guitar Hero, well, just go to YouTube and try to look for Guitar Hero vids. It never fails: you’re bound to hit a couple of clips with people just looking oh-so-cool as they “strum” to the beat. There’s probably a 1:1 ratio of vids that show 1) gameplay or 2) someone playing the game itself. And if you check out the views of these vids, they can rise up from anywhere between 100,000 hits to a whopping 500,000. Jeezus. From that alone you can observe how much a lot of people find it interesting to watch people play Guitar Hero.

Now Samba de Amigo wasn’t quite as much of a hit as the previous two, but it still did make quite an impact on a lot of people. What’s good about it is that you could say that it paved the way for games like DDR and Guitar Hero to be ported over from the arcade to the console. Samba de Amigo was one of the first console games that redefined videogame-to-player interactivity. And for that it gets brownie points.

Think about these three titles for a second. Aside from the fact that they all concern music, each of these games were at some point or other either wished, rumored, and/or confirmed to come to the Wii. So clearly, interest for these kind of games – franchises that have already established themselves to crowds to watch the players “perform” the game – exists within the Wii universe.

Comparisons: to take real-world examples that have transformed through time into performance arts, one doesn’t need to look far. In Ancient China, martial arts was born with a practical reason in mind. You train yourself in order to gain some practical advantage over enemies or, in general, life itself. Now? Check out some show schedules in Las Vegas. How many of them involve martial arts? Kung-fu, sword fighting, et. al. Check out the movies you watch, the TV shows, heck, it’s even on Oprah!

Kung Fu! - Image 1 

Martial arts wasn’t considered to be performed in front of an audience when it started. So, could it be that playing on the Wii would follow this track? We’re not proposing that “Wii performances” would have concert-degree events in a coliseum requiring people to buy over-priced tickets and whatnot.

But in the same sense that Tennis Open athletes in Australia playing Wii Sports Tennis in a local mall could attract crowds (or how interesting it’d be to watch Conan O’Brien pwning Serena Williams on Wii Tennis), “Wii performances” could be a hit in the future. Be mindful of those Wii-motions you make in the living room. You just might earn a living in the future, when people would invite you to their shows, demonstrating the perfect way to shoot rabbids with plungers, showing the most graceful way how to ride Epona across Hyrule, or how to inconspicuously dispatch a sentry as Sam Fisher.

Set-up: the next time your high school cheer squad would go out into the field, tell four of them to carry Wiimotes and Nunchuks. They’ll have a TV monitor in front of them, with a Wii console connected, running the upcoming DDR. And while they strut their stuff, the crowd can also watch a broadcast of the TV screen out on the field, while the cheerleaders are controlling their in-game avatars for the perfect dance routine. Makes for an interesting performance, don’cha think?

Now excuse me while I go back to the local retailer’s. They probably have a copy TMNT. I wanna practice my Sai-wielding skills. Who knows? The next time you see me, I’d be in Oprah! Here I come, Wii-motion fame!

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