:yesnod: found this and thought was interesting reading..................................no seriously, they hate it.
Given the sales prowess of the Wii, you might think that the only haters left are people with paychecks stamped "Microsoft" or "Sony." After all, the console sales data for October just came out this week, and Americans bought 518,000 Wiis, compared with 366,000 Xbox 360 systems and a meager 121,000 PlayStation 3s.
Apart from September, when Halo 3 temporarily gave Microsoft the monthly console sales crown, it's been a Wii world almost since the console was released last year. So everyone and his grandma must be cheering the success of Nintendo's little white box, no?
Well, that "grandma" thing is what's causing the problems.
While Nintendo has insisted all along that it remains committed to the so-called hard-core gamer – and points to Wii versions of Metroid and Zelda as proof of that commitment – there's no doubt that casual gamers, lapsed gamers and never-been gamers are the biggest piece of the Wii's success.
In other words, the Wii is grandma's console, and she doesn't want to play Metroid. She wants the simple, colorful, partylike gaming fun of Wii Sports, Wii Play and Mario Party 8.
Which is why those titles have sold extremely well despite middling review scores, a point noted recently by Austin resident Bill Harris both on his personal game blog, Dubious Quality (dubious quality.blogspot.com), and on a guest post on Newsweek's Level Up blog.
So the rabid, longtime gamer who lives and breathes epic, 30-hour-plus games with complicated controls, sophisticated graphics and intricate storylines is looking at these collections of minigames and snorting in derision.
A lot of the comments on message boards from those gamers revolve around the issue of whether the Wii is a fad destined to fade in a year or so as casual gamers get bored and move on to something else and hard-core gamers become ascendant again.
I don't think that's going to happen.
The sales numbers for the Wii are just too huge, and I still get more questions about the Wii from my co-workers who don't play games than questions about the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.
But I do think the game market is splitting. With all the success it's enjoying with the Wii, Nintendo is never going to go back to relying on the hard-core crowd.
The company's next console (at least five or six years away, I'd bet) likely won't be much more than a souped-up version of the Wii, probably with support for HD graphics and maybe slightly more accurate motion sensitivity.
Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, seem more intent on battling for the hard-core gamers who prefer to see alien brains splattered all over the floor than teaching fluffy puppies to jump and heel.
There's nothing wrong with any of this. If the market is big enough to cater to every type of gamer, that's only good news.
If you want your ultra-high-def, shoot-anything-that-moves thrill, Microsoft and Sony will be there. And if you want to train your brain in minutes a day, Nintendo will be there.
It's not the good old days, which a lot of gamers seem to miss.
It's the good new days, which everyone should be able to enjoy.
Given the sales prowess of the Wii, you might think that the only haters left are people with paychecks stamped "Microsoft" or "Sony." After all, the console sales data for October just came out this week, and Americans bought 518,000 Wiis, compared with 366,000 Xbox 360 systems and a meager 121,000 PlayStation 3s.
Apart from September, when Halo 3 temporarily gave Microsoft the monthly console sales crown, it's been a Wii world almost since the console was released last year. So everyone and his grandma must be cheering the success of Nintendo's little white box, no?
Well, that "grandma" thing is what's causing the problems.
While Nintendo has insisted all along that it remains committed to the so-called hard-core gamer – and points to Wii versions of Metroid and Zelda as proof of that commitment – there's no doubt that casual gamers, lapsed gamers and never-been gamers are the biggest piece of the Wii's success.
In other words, the Wii is grandma's console, and she doesn't want to play Metroid. She wants the simple, colorful, partylike gaming fun of Wii Sports, Wii Play and Mario Party 8.
Which is why those titles have sold extremely well despite middling review scores, a point noted recently by Austin resident Bill Harris both on his personal game blog, Dubious Quality (dubious quality.blogspot.com), and on a guest post on Newsweek's Level Up blog.
So the rabid, longtime gamer who lives and breathes epic, 30-hour-plus games with complicated controls, sophisticated graphics and intricate storylines is looking at these collections of minigames and snorting in derision.
A lot of the comments on message boards from those gamers revolve around the issue of whether the Wii is a fad destined to fade in a year or so as casual gamers get bored and move on to something else and hard-core gamers become ascendant again.
I don't think that's going to happen.
The sales numbers for the Wii are just too huge, and I still get more questions about the Wii from my co-workers who don't play games than questions about the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.
But I do think the game market is splitting. With all the success it's enjoying with the Wii, Nintendo is never going to go back to relying on the hard-core crowd.
The company's next console (at least five or six years away, I'd bet) likely won't be much more than a souped-up version of the Wii, probably with support for HD graphics and maybe slightly more accurate motion sensitivity.
Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, seem more intent on battling for the hard-core gamers who prefer to see alien brains splattered all over the floor than teaching fluffy puppies to jump and heel.
There's nothing wrong with any of this. If the market is big enough to cater to every type of gamer, that's only good news.
If you want your ultra-high-def, shoot-anything-that-moves thrill, Microsoft and Sony will be there. And if you want to train your brain in minutes a day, Nintendo will be there.
It's not the good old days, which a lot of gamers seem to miss.
It's the good new days, which everyone should be able to enjoy.
