Comments on: The Great Wiivide

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:43:23 +0000

Rode up an elevator in a nice office building in PDX on Friday and 40s guy was lugging a Wii fit package back to his office. My 57 year old boss was quizzing him on where where he had gotten it! I hadn’t even realized there was a shortage. Apparently they are using more capacity for Europe, since they prefer to get paid in euros.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:15:58 +0000

> Will I continue using the Wii Fit every day? Only time will tell.

I know I won’t. I will not want to swap the disc in just for the instructions. Presumably I will remember how to do the yoga and strength training in real life and so the Fit Channel (which does not require the disc) will do the job for bookkeeping.

The balance games are fun though. So I will keep the disc easily accessible.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:11:20 +0000

What you say is consistent with Nintendo’s whole approach to the Wii. It’s not that the hardcore gamer market is wrong, Sony and Microsoft and crew are making plenty of money. It’s that there’s this whole other non-hardcore market that until recently was relatively untapped, particularly in consoles.

Wii Fit is something different again though. I haven’t tried it, but it seems to be more of a lifestyle accessory than a game.

By: logtar

logtar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:50:46 +0000

So I should stop reading this blog now that there is no chance of a shower together? or am I in that 1%… LOL

Very funny and to the point review. I might just have to not go check out the gym that I want to transfer to and just drop the money on Wii fit.

By: Weiguo

Weiguo — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:45:26 +0000

an MMO developer I know comments that the most hardcore/endgame/dedicated gamers in MMOs are the ones that literally cost the company the most. They take up the most support time calling for balance changes, they burn through the most content so new additional development costs are spent mostly on them, and they feel the most entitled due to their hardcore/longtime fan status. But they pay the same subscription fee as everyone else.

of course, an interesting reversal occurs when they inevitably get fed up over some (perceived) slight and quit in protest. But keep their account around “just in case”.

By: psu

psu — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:59:21 +0000

Hey also..

http://critical-gaming.blogspot.com/2008/05/just-call-it-game.html

Via “The Brainy Gamer”

By: peterb

peterb — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:48:22 +0000

the “running” minigame in Wii Fit provides a simulated outdoor environment. It is more interesting than any actual running outside that I have ever done. But I could understand someone not being into it.

By: psu

psu — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:40:13 +0000

I don’t get it. What’s the final boss like when you get past the grind mobs and through the last lava level?

Anyway, it’s fairly obvious to me that even the more intelligent core hobby gamers (like over at GWJ for example) want “innovation” in the context of the genres and structures where they had their earliest game orgasms back in the day. So it’s a fairly narrow context, usually including some kind of muttering about open worlds, true interactive narrative and emergent stories. In other words, stupid stuff that you can’t actually achieve.

Put something in front of them that really uses the interactivity of the medium well and inevitably they’ll just call it a cheap tech demo or a shallow mini-game collection and go back to the MMO of the week.

That said, I hate exercising while standing still inside. But that’s a different set of problems.