Wii’s Wide Appeal

The Wii’s motion-sensing and “naturalistic” approach to game control is innovative from a gaming perspective, but it also appeals to the rest-of-the-world that isn’t into gaming as much as we are. Because for that world, gamers are a completely alien culture. But, according to an editor and columnist for a respected UK newspaper, while that rest-of-the-world doesn’t get gaming, they may get the Wii.

The Telegraph’s David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor for that Brit paper, commented on the Wiimote in a post on the Telegraph’s in-house blog. And, being the Consumer Affairs Editor for a respected Brit paper, he will readily admit – and we will readily agree – that he’s no gamer. But he expresses admiration – if not outright love and an intent to buy – for the Wii. “What is liberating about the Wii is that it assumes no prior knowledge of computer games culture.”

Its big selling point is its controller… The wand is wireless, has just a couple of buttons and is motion sensitive controller. Rather than play games hunched in front of the television with a fiddly and irritating joypad, you can stand proud in your sitting room and wave the Wii wand around in the air.

Of course, we’ve seen shots of Wii players standing proud (like these guys) – then we have Peter Molyneux saying that gamers don’t want to stand proud all game long. Oh well. It’s not like those people who aren’t gamers would know the difference.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? Gamers can debate all day long about the advantages and disadvantages of different platforms, different control schemes, different tech specs, different game configurations. It’s our world. And it’s all Egyptian to everyone else. Because it isn’t their world. For those people, says Derbyshire:

… a Playstation or Xbox games console joypad is a fairly intimidating beast, packed with mysterious and intimidating buttons, marked with Xs, circles or squares… In contrast, the Wii offers simplistic, intuitive and social play. Its button-free design, and choice of simple, mostly non violent software, is wiping clean the slate of the last 15 years in an attempt to appeal to people who donÂ’t like the computer games culture of guns, sports, cars and monsters.

Call it an outreach program for those who have not been blessed by the fun that is video gaming. He does know what he’s talking about (except probably for the lack of buttons on the Wiimote, but he’s probably referring to its “natural” arrangement compared to a traditional gamepad). He’s not a gamer.

And neither was the female photographer who came with him for the demo. (She’s the one who took the picture used in the Telegraph blog and this QJ post). David probably exaggerates, but he says that it took two burly Nintendo employees to drag her into the demo for Wii’s tennis game. It took those same two men to drag her out later on. Yes, he probably exaggerated. But Wii get his point, anyway.

The Wii’s motion-sensing and “naturalistic” approach to game control is innovative from a gaming perspective, but it also appeals to the rest-of-the-world that isn’t into gaming as much as we are. Because for that world, gamers are a completely alien culture. But, according to an editor and columnist for a respected UK newspaper, while that rest-of-the-world doesn’t get gaming, they may get the Wii.

The Telegraph’s David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor for that Brit paper, commented on the Wiimote in a post on the Telegraph’s in-house blog. And, being the Consumer Affairs Editor for a respected Brit paper, he will readily admit – and we will readily agree – that he’s no gamer. But he expresses admiration – if not outright love and an intent to buy – for the Wii. “What is liberating about the Wii is that it assumes no prior knowledge of computer games culture.”

Its big selling point is its controller… The wand is wireless, has just a couple of buttons and is motion sensitive controller. Rather than play games hunched in front of the television with a fiddly and irritating joypad, you can stand proud in your sitting room and wave the Wii wand around in the air.

Of course, we’ve seen shots of Wii players standing proud (like these guys) – then we have Peter Molyneux saying that gamers don’t want to stand proud all game long. Oh well. It’s not like those people who aren’t gamers would know the difference.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? Gamers can debate all day long about the advantages and disadvantages of different platforms, different control schemes, different tech specs, different game configurations. It’s our world. And it’s all Egyptian to everyone else. Because it isn’t their world. For those people, says Derbyshire:

… a Playstation or Xbox games console joypad is a fairly intimidating beast, packed with mysterious and intimidating buttons, marked with Xs, circles or squares… In contrast, the Wii offers simplistic, intuitive and social play. Its button-free design, and choice of simple, mostly non violent software, is wiping clean the slate of the last 15 years in an attempt to appeal to people who donÂ’t like the computer games culture of guns, sports, cars and monsters.

Call it an outreach program for those who have not been blessed by the fun that is video gaming. He does know what he’s talking about (except probably for the lack of buttons on the Wiimote, but he’s probably referring to its “natural” arrangement compared to a traditional gamepad). He’s not a gamer.

And neither was the female photographer who came with him for the demo. (She’s the one who took the picture used in the Telegraph blog and this QJ post). David probably exaggerates, but he says that it took two burly Nintendo employees to drag her into the demo for Wii’s tennis game. It took those same two men to drag her out later on. Yes, he probably exaggerated. But Wii get his point, anyway.