The Nintendo... Wii? W-T-F?

[Ryan A]

It's a term generally used for children. I mean, I can't remember the last time I told someone I had to go poo poo either. But we all know what it means.

Hey! New Nintendo marketing book!

Everybody Wiis

[MattKeil]

Yeah, but some people who are afraid to curse say "poop" as adults, so that's the first thing you think of. "Wee" is not related to any adult term, and I'm really starting to think I shouldn't let any of you guys except Dave use my bathroom, lest you start gyrating during the act, delighting in the sight of your golden "wee" arching towards the walls and creating designs that seem truly artful in the moment.

You are really stretching it here.

[Ryan A]

I would so totally pay five dollars to punch the ad retard responsible for this hard in the face

[extarbags]

You are really stretching it here.

Well, it's the Games forum after all. But it just seems to me that if you see that name and the first thing you think is "piss!," it might be a little bit like when you're playing that word association game with your girlfriend while she's wearing a low-cut shirt, and she says "dog," and you say "tits." If you know what I mean.

[steve]

Seriously, I have to know, because the closest I've come to ever hearing someone actually say that word is when they had the retarded character make that joke on Rocko's Modern Life.
If you're too young to "take a piss," you "go wee wee," or "wii wii," or something like that. Maybe it's an older term, I dunno. Everyone at work--the non-gamers--just started laughing when I told them the name, and they all thought about peeing.


Ok, but this! This is a great idea.
Can you imagine the response if they just called it the Nintendo Entertainment System? I can't imagine people saying anything but, "Awesome!" They could say, "It's about more than just the games every plays; it's entertainment for everyone! It's the games you loved! It'll remind you why you loved games in the first place!"

[Theodore Rex DX]

Well, people are probably just gonna call it the 'Nintendo' because Wii sounds so stupid. So it'll be like the old days.

[jim crawford]

Nintendo could have made up ANY weirdo word they wanted, and they went with one that is recognized universally by the English-speaking world as a childish word for urine and a childish exclamation of delight.
Ok, this is interesting. Personally, I didn't even notice the urine connection until someone mentioned it here, and then I figured it was just an additional, minor issue with an already awful name. Would anyone here think it was good, or even decent, if it wasn't a homophone of a bodily function?

[extarbags]

If you're too young to "take a piss," you "go wee wee," or "wii wii," or something like that. Maybe it's an older term, I dunno. Everyone at work--the non-gamers--just started laughing when I told them the name, and they all thought about peeing.

Then I wouldn't invite your coworkers over. But seriously, "pee" is term I used growing up. I'm aware of the word "wee," I mean, I get your incredibly high-brow humor on this one, but it definitely wasn't my gut reaction.


Can you imagine the response if they just called it the Nintendo Entertainment System? I can't imagine people saying anything but, "Awesome!" They could say, "It's about more than just the games every plays; it's entertainment for everyone! It's the games you loved! It'll remind you why you loved games in the first place!"

Yeah... "awesome" is about it. Maybe if someone suggests that to them, they'll change it, because that would be truly great.

[Drastic]

They really should have gone with the Nintendo WTF. That'd be a cool console name.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

I think this was a good idea. Wii disassociates itself immediately from words such as "game", "play" and geeky "oh pleeeeeease"-names like "Xbox". The logo is neat, the brand itself has a kind of iPod-ish quality to it. After it has entered collective consciousness, Wii is a great brand. We all laughed at the Xbox 360, and wondered how the Microsoft could come up with that. But now it's accepted. It's grown on us.

Wii targets someone else. And with that name, they've sidestepped the expectations of ten million hardcore gamers. Mission accomplished?

[extarbags]

We all laughed at the Xbox 360, and wondered how the Microsoft could come up with that. But now it's accepted. It's grown on us.


It hasn't grown on me. I still think it's a stupid damn name. But that just goes to show you how little the name of a console really matters; right now, all we have of the Wii is the name, and if we don't like it, we can tear it apart. But when the system comes out, and the games come out with it, nobody is going to be thinking about the name anymore.

[Ben]

I wonder if anyone has done a study tracking the distribution of 'spin'/'talking points'/etc. from forum to forum. For example, the idea that the "Revolution" was too arrogant. It's clearly around ~8 hours old. Where did it start? How did both Dave and that blog guy arrive at disseminating it?

[Ben Sones]

The logo is neat...

In what way? It's just the word "Wii." In a font that they stole from NASA, I guess, but it barely even qualifies as a logo.

[Ryan A]

Ok, this is interesting. Personally, I didn't even notice the urine connection until someone mentioned it here, and then I figured it was just an additional, minor issue with an already awful name. Would anyone here think it was good, or even decent, if it wasn't a homophone of a bodily function?

You mean like if was the Nintendo Yay or the Nintendo Woot?

While my first criticism of the astoundingly-stupid Wii name is firstly the urine connection and secondly the potentially juvenile penile sound (hey! come play with my wii!) I also object to the clearly childish sound that "wii" carries even without the piss and penis connotations. It illustrates all that I hate about Nintendo: Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, and Toadstool.

I was really getting excited about the Revolution and Third Party launch titles like Red Steel. Now I'm just hoping the PS3 is affordable and has a good launch library. Because while I won't boycott a system just because it has the dumbest name in the history of consumer goods (seriously.. no hyperbole there... it's dumber than trying to sell a Chevy Nova in Mexico) I will boycott a systemt that... because of its name... convinces me the company is committing to more of the saccharine crap I hate.

[steve]

Ok, this is interesting. Personally, I didn't even notice the urine connection until someone mentioned it here, and then I figured it was just an additional, minor issue with an already awful name. Would anyone here think it was good, or even decent, if it wasn't a homophone of a bodily function?
It's hard to think of it otherwise, but when you read what they were trying to accomplish, I think it's a total failure. Were they picking it for its look, the two lower-case i letter forms representing two people? That's logo design, not a naming issue.

If it's supposed to represent "We," that's only appropriate in English language countries, right? So as a worldwide name, it's a failure.

The Revolution was a good name, assuming it truly introduces all of these new ways to play games. It was also a word that resonates with non-gamer types, immediately conveying, "This is different."

I think casual people will be even less inclined to consider something with such a juvenile sounding name. It sounds like a toy for a 4-year old.

[BobJustBob]

You will say whee.

[extarbags]

Because while I won't boycott a system just because it has the dumbest name in the history of consumer goods (seriously.. no hyperbole there... it's dumber than trying to sell a Chevy Nova in Mexico) I will boycott a systemt that... because of its name... convinces me the company is committing to more of the saccharine crap I hate.

This is how much I trust your knowledge of the history of names of consumer goods (http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp).

[Ryan A]

alright alright... bad illustration (is it too late to point out I knew it was an urban legend?)

[extarbags]

dude -- I didn't say it happened

Why would it be dumb to try?

[Ryan A]

Forget the Nova reference... can anybody else think of a dumber name than Wii?

Hey cool... full circle

[Not One Of Us]

You mean like if was the Nintendo Yay or the Nintendo Woot?
I'd love it if they'd change the name to the Nintendo Huzzah!

[Derek Meister]

Thank god right-minded people like Dave (http://meisterplanet.com/images/quartertothree/nintenpope.png) are around to fight what's wrong with this forum (http://meisterplanet.com/images/quartertothree/qt3groupthink-nintendo.png)!

Also, thank god for opportunities to re-use old images.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

In what way? It's just the word "Wii." In a font that they stole from NASA, I guess, but it barely even qualifies as a logo.
Yeah, and iPod is just some tightly kerned Adobe Garamond. I mean, honestly, Apple didn't even make the typeface themselves. Jeez.

I don't see the problem. It's an untraditional name for a gaming console and that's it. The logo and the image of the Wii is far more "mature", as in "sophisticated" rather than "edgy" than every other Nintendo console, and most other efforts too. It has that certain quality of a brand name that, after it enters social consciousness, becomes the natural embodiment of a concept in language. When you hear Wii, you're not thinking Play or Games or anything like that. The brand severs a lot of the connotations and associations that gaming brands have had before. Xbox and N-Gage sounds aggressive and geeky. PlayStation and GameCube builds the impression that the interactive experience is something frivolous, via the words game and play.

Nintendo Wii is the Revolution. They've branded it as if it was a cell phone or a neat, little MP3 player. I think that's a step in the right direction. We don't any more abbreviations or numbers. And we don't need to imply the concept of play.

[Ryan A]

I'd love it if they'd change the name to the Nintendo Huzzah!

Given they came up with "Wii" they'd be more likely to change it to the Nintendo Nip.

[extarbags]

Forget the Nova reference... can anybody else think of a dumber name than Wii?

Hey cool... full circle

I've already said: Xbox 360.

[Ben Sones]

If it's supposed to represent "We," that's only appropriate in English language countries, right? So as a worldwide name, it's a failure.

And in Japan, it's a nearly unpronounceable word. In Germany, it's a homonym for "cow." I have to hand it to them--they came up with a name that's lame in nearly every language. That's impressive.

[Geekman]

Yeah, but some people who are afraid to curse say "poop" as adults, so that's the first thing you think of. "Wee" is not related to any adult term, and I'm really starting to think I shouldn't let any of you guys except Dave use my bathroom, lest you start gyrating during the act, delighting in the sight of your golden "wee" arching towards the walls and creating designs that seem truly artful in the moment.

I can categorically say that "wee" is used in England by adults -- not particularly frequently, but it wouldn't turn heads. Women would probably say it more than men and only to people they're familiar with. It's obviously a verbiage hold over from childhood, but acceptable.

"Oooh, I've really got to go for a wee before we go."

Watch an episode of any U.K. soap for examples.

Brits also ask where the toilet is instead of the "bathroom" without thinking it sounds crude. And piss isn't considered quite as harsh a swear.

I hope this has been enlightening. "Wii" is simply dumb as a name for any product (in electronics or otherwise) targeted at an English-speaking audience.

[extarbags]

Heroes V has a map feature called "Garden of the Wee Folk." Do you guys think you should stay away from them because they're going to pee on you?

[steve]

Heroes V has a map feature called "Garden of the Wee Folk." Do you guys think you should stay away from them because they're going to pee on you?
No, because we know what "wee" means. "Wii" means nothing, so we're just going by how it sounds.

[steve]

And in Japan, it's a nearly unpronounceable word. In Germany, it's a homonym for "cow." I have to hand it to them--they came up with a name that's lame in nearly every language. That's impressive.
Actually, the Nintendo Cow would be a better name.

[Ryan A]

Actually, the Nintendo Cow would be a better name.

I'm udderly in favor of such a system.

[Tyjenks]

Is it too late to change the 360 to the Moist Box? It would still sell and I would love to put Wii up against the Moist Box in a battle of names which have no bearing on sales arena death match.

[extarbags]

What is "moist box" supposed to even mean?

[Dave Long]

Saw these avatars at GAF. Neat!

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6830/nintendologo042706qtlow1gs.gifhttp://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f346/Saoh/wiiavatar3.gif
http://www.themanandhischeese.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wiiavatar4.gifhttp://www.themanandhischeese.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wiiavatar1.gif

[Nathan]

I'm udderly in favor of such a system.

That name would moove lots of units. It would behoove them to rename it immediately.

[Kitsune]

On the topic of good console names, I think they come in three categories:

1) Names that don't sound as good until they are burned into your brain with repeated use. PlayStation did sound a little hokey at first, but with the terribly effective little jingles Sony used at the end of every commercial...well, it just shows you how far marketing can go, because now I think PlayStation intrinsically. (And if you feel like pointing I "fell" for the marketing hooker, quickie and condom, I feel like pointing out I'm not the type of person who rejects any kind of marketing instantly and am all too glad to enjoy brands if I like the image they project.) Its like how the US ads of Majora's Mask were so damn cool it actually made the unwieldly name sound better.

Other beneficiaries of this phenomenon include Dreamcast (because so many people are still enthusiastic about that's console phenomenal run, the name sounds nice and cute now) and Famicom, as Family Computer does not exactly inspire wonder and awe, but Famicom is perhaps the coolest made-up Japanese game word you can use. Maybe it doesn't have that same aura outside Japan though. Like Dragon Quest, its kind of cheating, because the name is part of the culture now.

2) Those that just get it right in all ways and just sound cool, as people have pointed out, many of Sega's names were: Saturn and Genesis especially (which makes you wonder why we got saddled with Mega Drive).

As a subset, there are those that don't use meanings or sounds that resonate in an instrinsically cool way, but were gold from the start. In this category, I put Gameboy and PC Engine. PC Engine doesn't sound like it would be much, but when you think about it has this aura of a high tech roar emanating as if a train engine is getting started and about to bowl you over and of course, its a PC's engine. Nice!

In order to "Gameboy" your lips have to smile twice and its got this cute, fuzzy feeling to it that perfectly connotates the many years of purely unpretentious, technogically quaint, but wonderful games its line has birthed over the years. I hope Nintendo abandons it for the DS.

3) Those acronyms that may be made up of perfectly normal words, that when you abbreviate the console, make it sound cool. SFC is my favorite. Ess-Eff-See. It just has a nice ring to it. As does, PSP, which coincidentally, repeats urine themes twice. :P

But hey! I'm crazy, I wanted them to call it Astrosexy.

-Kitsune

[bago]

What is "moist box" supposed to even mean?

It's a slick way to stash your Wii.

[runesword forger]

Well, I guess I'm in the 3% so far that didn't think "piss" when I read the first story on it. My initial reaction was, "That's odd." And I kind of liked the Wii logo thing.

My only negative reaction to a video game system name was "Gameboy" back in the day. Thought that was the stupidest and most immature name EVAR. It's done pretty well, though...

But as far as whether this whole piss thing goes away -- at least among normals, in the fanboy wars, piss is forever -- I dunno.

There's something about Nintendo that just causes complete meltdowns on the Internet every so often. It's kind of funny.

[Dave Long]

There's something about Nintendo that just causes complete meltdowns on the Internet every so often. It's kind of funny.

They've been around a long time. People want them to fail. Just ask Doug Erickson.

[Kunikos]

Puerile immature boys... like the ones writing for CNN Money. Renowned for their love of piss and shit jokes.

Jesus H Christ, have you ever seen the inbox of a banker or wallstreet type? It's all forwarded video clips of bouncing Japanese breasts selling chocolate (http://www.jengajam.com/r/Choco-Party-Good) and monkeys drinking their own Wii...

[Kunikos]

It just has a nice ring to it. As does, PSP, which coincidentally, repeats urine themes twice. :P

Yes, but it isn't called the PeeEssPee. Neither is it called the PeniSPee.

[Theodore Rex DX]

And the Wii isn't called Wee or Donkey Piss or Urethra Dew anything like that. Those would be better.

[OblivionSHO]

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/3ff939d1fc.jpg

[GlaziusFalconar]

I'm sorry, but regardless of how it's talked up as "sure it'll enter the lexicon in no time", it's always going to be the Nintendo Human Waste Product in my brain (with perhaps a side order of Nintendo Gonads And Strife).

It's like if "iPod" had been slang for some sexual practice years before the iPod was introduces.

--GF

Also, iPod was really really easy to iKnockoff. Get a silhouette, draw some white squiggles on it, and boom, instant recognition.

[steve]

They've been around a long time. People want them to fail. Just ask Doug Erickson.
Doug Erickson may want them to fail; that doesn't mean anyone else does.

[Toddy]

If you're too young to "take a piss," you "go wee wee," or "wii wii," or something like that. Maybe it's an older term, I dunno. Everyone at work--the non-gamers--just started laughing when I told them the name, and they all thought about peeing.

Also, adults use the phrase when speaking to their kids, or to their pets. You don't have to be using the word about yourself to be fully knowledgeable that wee=piss. Dave, extar, you guys are really, really reaching here. Wii is absolutely idiotic. I can't imagine the system will make it to market with this name intact.

[Doug Erickson]

So the Nintendo Wii is:

a) a console with a terrible name
b) last-gen hardware
c) a novelty controller which, like the Nintendo DS' touchscreen, will be forgotten about in six months as fans flock to games that don't rely on it

you're enthused for a Gamecube overclock kit with a gag controller, a half-baked pseudo-Apple shell, middling emulation support for games already released ad nauseum for other platforms, and a name that will make it the butt of endless parking lot and game store jokes?

Yeah, there's a reason you Nintendo folks (now: Wii Folks) think gaming isn't fun anymore. You haven't liked games for quite a while, it seems.

And since when am I any sort of indicator of hardcore gaming sentiment? I just want Nintendo third-party, where they belong, since they can't be bothered with practical innovation anymore.

[Kitsune]

It's Doug! Quick!

BUY METAL SAGA OR I'LL CHOP OFF YOUR PENIS!

Hope you see this! Bye now!

-Kitsune

[Toddy]

On the topic of good console names, I think they come in three categories:

1) Names that don't sound as good until they are burned into your brain with repeated use. PlayStation did sound a little hokey at first, but with the terribly effective little jingles Sony used at the end of every commercial...well, it just shows you how far marketing can go, because now I think PlayStation intrinsically. (And if you feel like pointing I "fell" for the marketing hooker, quickie and condom, I feel like pointing out I'm not the type of person who rejects any kind of marketing instantly and am all too glad to enjoy brands if I like the image they project.) Its like how the US ads of Majora's Mask were so damn cool it actually made the unwieldly name sound better.

Other beneficiaries of this phenomenon include Dreamcast (because so many people are still enthusiastic about that's console phenomenal run, the name sounds nice and cute now) and Famicom, as Family Computer does not exactly inspire wonder and awe, but Famicom is perhaps the coolest made-up Japanese game word you can use. Maybe it doesn't have that same aura outside Japan though. Like Dragon Quest, its kind of cheating, because the name is part of the culture now.

2) Those that just get it right in all ways and just sound cool, as people have pointed out, many of Sega's names were: Saturn and Genesis especially (which makes you wonder why we got saddled with Mega Drive).

As a subset, there are those that don't use meanings or sounds that resonate in an instrinsically cool way, but were gold from the start. In this category, I put Gameboy and PC Engine. PC Engine doesn't sound like it would be much, but when you think about it has this aura of a high tech roar emanating as if a train engine is getting started and about to bowl you over and of course, its a PC's engine. Nice!

In order to "Gameboy" your lips have to smile twice and its got this cute, fuzzy feeling to it that perfectly connotates the many years of purely unpretentious, technogically quaint, but wonderful games its line has birthed over the years. I hope Nintendo abandons it for the DS.

3) Those acronyms that may be made up of perfectly normal words, that when you abbreviate the console, make it sound cool. SFC is my favorite. Ess-Eff-See. It just has a nice ring to it. As does, PSP, which coincidentally, repeats urine themes twice. :P

But hey! I'm crazy, I wanted them to call it Astrosexy.

-Kitsune

Has "PlayStation" burned into anybody's brain, though? Everybody just uses the abbreviation, especially since PS2, since three-letter acronyms seem to roll off the tongue. PSP works great, too, as you mention. Some names need the acronyms to escape lameness. PlayStation on its own was awful, and so is GameBoy (tacking that "Advance" onto the name made the system grow up overnight, as GBA sounds so much better than the fruity GameBoy).

This is going to be an issue with the Wii, too. You can't shorten this name, or derive any kind of nickname with it, so Nintendo will be stuck with piss jokes for the entire life of the console.

[Jackstar]

What, eight pages without a mention of Pee-Wee Herman?

THE JOKES! THEY WRITE THEMSELVES!!

[MatthewF]

So the Nintendo Wii is:

a) a console with a terrible name
b) last-gen hardware
c) a novelty controller which, like the Nintendo DS' touchscreen, will be forgotten about in six months as fans flock to games that don't rely on it

you're enthused for a Gamecube overclock kit with a gag controller, a half-baked pseudo-Apple shell, middling emulation support for games already released ad nauseum for other platforms, and a name that will make it the butt of endless parking lot and game store jokes?

Yeah, there's a reason you Nintendo folks (now: Wii Folks) think gaming isn't fun anymore. You haven't liked games for quite a while, it seems.

And since when am I any sort of indicator of hardcore gaming sentiment? I just want Nintendo third-party, where they belong, since they can't be bothered with practical innovation anymore.
I'm going to laugh imagining how pissed off you'll be if this thing succeeds.

Oh, and CHOCO PARTY! GOOD GOOD!

[Dave Long]

If it succeeds, Doug will need to be on suicide watch.

[Not One Of Us]

c) a novelty controller which, like the Nintendo DS' touchscreen, will be forgotten about in six months as fans flock to games that don't rely on it.
What?

[Ben]

People want them to fail. Just ask Doug Erickson.

Are you sure it's not because you, extarbags, and Erlend write fanboy marketing pap like:

After it has entered collective consciousness, Wii is a great brand.



Meanwhile, everyone else in the world will play it, say "Who cares what it's called, that fucking rocks!"

???

[Dave Long]

If you hate Nintendo because of me, it's you who has a problem.

[Ben]

No, no, I'm not saying I hate Nintendo because of you. I'm saying the reason we have internet meltdowns when Nintendo does stuff is because of the legions of fanboys on either side who are entirely impervious to logic or reason.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

So the Nintendo Wii is:

a) a console with a terrible name
b) last-gen hardware
c) a novelty controller which, like the Nintendo DS' touchscreen, will be forgotten about in six months as fans flock to games that don't rely on it

you're enthused for a Gamecube overclock kit with a gag controller, a half-baked pseudo-Apple shell, middling emulation support for games already released ad nauseum for other platforms, and a name that will make it the butt of endless parking lot and game store jokes?

Yeah, there's a reason you Nintendo folks (now: Wii Folks) think gaming isn't fun anymore. You haven't liked games for quite a while, it seems.

And since when am I any sort of indicator of hardcore gaming sentiment? I just want Nintendo third-party, where they belong, since they can't be bothered with practical innovation anymore.

The real question here is ... do I bite? Do I really bite? Okay, I'll have the sinker. I love gaming. I desperately want gaming to be relevant and interesting and fun.

But I think games suck. They're culturally irrelevant. They're thematically immature. I fucking dread getting promotional copies, because I know there's going to be so much shit I have to rake through and try not to sound too bitter about. Every now and then, of course, great games come along. Actually, they come along often enough for me to have a fairly constant smile on my face. Every other month or so, something hits the street that I know I just got to have.

But that's because I like their genre, or think they bring an interesting twist to a concept. I don't buy them because I know they're going to have a profound impact on me, and I don't buy them because they'll do anything but give me some hours of fun with a medium I love. Games that give me new impulses? Try every other year.

Just the concept of the Wii has given me new impulses and new ideas. I don't care about next-gen hardware, even if you can argue that they have the potential to make my "believable contexts" even more believable. Well, the devil is in the details. If you need that much more power than what the Wii offers you in order to make a good gaming experience, then you don't appreciate games. You appreciate technology.

Games aren't about polygons, textures, pixel shaders, ray-tracing, inverse kinematics or AI. They're about experiences. And if you can't have fulfilling experiences today, then I don't think they're going to be any more relevant tomorrow.

That was the sinker, here's the line: If the Wii can't change gaming, then what can? If gaming can't change, then why are we even bothering?

[The Bitter Cynic]

What, eight pages without a mention of Pee-Wee Herman?

THE JOKES! THEY WRITE THEMSELVES!!

Pee-Wee Herman got caught playing with his Wii.

[Ben]

If the Wii can't change gaming, then what can? If gaming can't change, then why are we even bothering?

One of us is getting paid right now. It isn't me.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

One of us is getting paid right now. It isn't me.
One of us is making scathing assumptions about another person's integrity.

Oh, wait. That's me.

[Ben]

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. Because my God,

Just the concept of the Wii has given me new impulses and new ideas.

A) You're in the employ of Nintendo
B) You're trolling by taking the fanboy schtick to a new height or
C) You honestly and truly believe what you write.

If it's C, you should be getting paid for it. I mean, new impulses? From a tilt sensitive dildo that you wave around to play rhythm games?

Edit: That's you already adopted the tremendously stupid "Wii" nomenclature over "Revolution" makes me lean towards A.

[Frumple]

I dunno about you guys but this has been one of those days where I suspect I woke up in a parallel universe where everything is constant except the Nintendo marketing division....not that I can tell either way! A similar situation happened the first time I saw Boobas on the kids channel.....

Carry on!

[Angie Gallant]

Ugh. Awful name. I will be doing whatever modification necessary to remove all branding from my mine when I get it.

[Doug Erickson]

That was the sinker, here's the line: If the Wii can't change gaming, then what can? If gaming can't change, then why are we even bothering?

Why does gaming need to change? I'm having a fuckin' blast.

And innovation lies in ideas, not controllers. Look how quickly the Nintendo DS touch screen became largely irrelevant. 90% of all the games that excite fans of that platform the most -- Advance Wars, Mario and Luigi, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Brothers, Castlevania, Animal Crossing, Zelda PS -- could be done on a PSP with better visual and audio fidelity and only minor changes to some ancillary gameplay mechanics.

Innovative software design is facilitated by increased memory and system resources. More visual horsepower means more artistic styles of expression are supported in the imagery. The controller is just an interface, and outside of adding specific genre convenience or some goofy gestural/peripheral immersion, is largely irrelevant as an obstacle to good gaming if the designer is intelligent and thoughtful.

As Tom points out, you can make a console RTS control well with a standard pad, ala BfME2 on the 360. Besides, if you were an intelligent RTS designer, what would be more important -- a controller that allows you to better ape traditional mouse controls, or increased screen pixel real estate for vastly improved GUI detail and feedback?

In realistic, practical terms, the "Wii" is step back -- we have a gimmicky gestural controller purchased at the apparent expense of hardware resources of the variety that make games like Oblivion possible. Waggling the wii-mote instead of pushing a button or performing some slightly more abstracted physical interface action is NOT any sort of real leap. Besides, even the Wii had come with a standard controller, the Nintendo set would still be hyping it to high heaven, largely because it's a platform for Nintendo games -- which, if Nintendo is as good at game design as their hyperbolic fans would like everyone to believe, shouldn't have the essential "fun" of their games limited by any physical interface. Really, would using a stock controller make Metroid Prime 3 any less entertaining to the Nintendo devout?

[Doug Erickson]

If it succeeds, Doug will need to be on suicide watch.

If it fails, will YOU be on this "suicide watch"? Or is your faith strong enough?

If it succeeds, I'll simply be baffled.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. Because my God,

A) You're in the employ of Nintendo
B) You're trolling by taking the fanboy schtick to a new height or
C) You honestly and truly believe what you write.

If it's C, you should be getting paid for it. I mean, new impulses? From a tilt sensitive dildo that you wave around to play rhythm games?

Edit: That's you already adopted the tremendously stupid "Wii" nomenclature over "Revolution" makes me lean towards A.

I didn't keep calling Xbox 360 "neXt Box" after its proper moniker was announced. Why should I keep calling Wii by its codename?

A) I'm a student and freelance writer
B) I own two PS2s, one Xbox, two GameCubes, a DS, a Micro and a PSP.
C) Why shouldn't I hope?

I honestly hope that Nintendo can come up with new ways of playing games. Does that make me some sort of frothing fanboy or an unquestioning acolyte of their half-assed marketing sentiments or the Cult of Miyamoto? No. But I like the idea of change, because I think it's time someone gave the interactive medium a swift kick in the ass, if we don't want it to stagnate.

I don't think Nintendo will save gaming. I don't think gaming needs saving either, per se, but I hope they can bring about some change. Can't I think so without automatically being the enemy of everyone who thinks otherwise?

[Doug Erickson]

I really don't trust the tastes of anyone who owns *one* Gamecube, much less TWO.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

I forgot to mention the Dreamcast. Am I hardcore now?

[roguefrog]

Nothing is wrong with owning a Gamecube, as long as it's not the only gaming platform you own.

[E-phonk]

For what it's worth, when I told my girlfriend she said it was the best console name ever, instead of geeky toysnames like "playstation" and "revolution".

[Doug Erickson]

My wife said it sounded "gay" and she didn't know how any self-respecting person could ask for one in the store. I can add more pointless anecdotes to match yours, if you'd like!

[Doug Erickson]

As an adult largely independent of his own sense of nostalgia, I have no idea what I'd play on a Gamecube if I owned one.

[dmiller]

If we're doing this highly scientific polling, my wife said 'what?'

[Kitsune]

Come now, come now. One can both be excited for whatever Nintendo et al. come up with and believe that gaming as it is right now doesn't need the difference the controller and such will bring.

Analog sticks and the current button set-ups, minus a little more userfriendliness to someone who has never set hands on a console controller before, are plenty enough interface for interdeterminate future. They are sensitive and varied to handle all kinds of input, and really, you can't take bad interfaces as signs that certain control schemes wouldn't work but for the Wii.

In fact, it would be quite nice if whatever is putting the hornets in people's bonnets about RTS and FPS control on a console was solved by people making an effort to extend and broaden the genre with different types of gameplay dynamics that demand different sets of controls. Nintendo was doing that just fine with Pikmin 2, Sega showed it works with their recent Tenkabito. It would be REALLY nice if someone designed an FPS that didn't demand the dual analog control, but instead emphasized something other than aiming while on the move.

In the end, its quite possible that N's new console will have people think up new schemes for the controller which they find they can replicate on a typical controller because it was the radical departure that got them to think in the first place, not necessarily that the interface was required in order to generate the input.

At the same time, I'm sure there will be many uses that don't have the same resonance without the Wii controller, in much the same way as Track & Field games just don't have the same oomph if you aren't mashing buttons to run as fast as you can or a lightgun without a lightgun isn't as engaging, or rhythm games without their instruments lose much of the kinesthetic pleasure.

And there is a need to go to the basics, so to speak, and produce games that educate new gamers into all the lexicon and common knowledge of playing a game, the language of gaming, of a sort. Playing a lot of today's games is like asking someone to enjoy War and Peace after they just learned the alphabet. Sure games have number of tutorials and such, but they're not yet at the kind of crossroads where any effort is put into educating the average guy into what the appeal is of playing them. You can explain in a manual that you need to wait until your drive gauge and then when you hold down the R1 button, you can access psych powers on the four face buttons until you deplete the gauge and you can walk them threw this. But its much harder to communicate what is entertaining about accessing psych powers, what is satisfying about building up a gauge, what the appeal is of using it at the right time and why gamers like to be able to do things like customize why psych powers they map to each of the face buttons. I can't communicate that easily to my grandma, but she can easily see the appeal of reading a story about the Shining Prince Genji and his loves. Even in Japan, that type of thing isn't communicated in daily culture. Especially since the vast majority of the things game designers design games around is violence. I don't think the industry will collapse, or we'll never have new gamers, or innovation is dead, or anything like that. I just don't think there's anything wrong with an approach that fosters making the language of games broader and more easily seen, especially since in the past, due to things like genius one button interfaces, designers have shown they can make due with a lot of depth out of a little input. So you'll excuse me if I don't buy that its all gimmick.

Whenever I hear someone on the polar extreme of either side they sound either like frowny overly serious frou-frous with an inflated sense of their own intelligence or us vs. them dramatics who stare agonizingly at today's games so navel-gazingly that they end up not seeing anything but the peach fuzz on their own skin.

If people can decide that they want to roll dice to generate responses in a make-believe world where they buy books to follow someone else's rules and pretend to be characters in a super-advanced version of House or Doctor that we played as children, and have fun with that, then it seems ridiculous to argue about whether playing games by pushing buttons, tilting rods, pointing sticks or waving at things is going to be, objectively, better or worse, than any other method of deriving entertainment.

-Kitsune

[Theodore Rex DX]

More sophisticated graphics technology is going to translate to more realistic graphics, not more creative aesthetics. Artistic expression will flounder in that environment. You'll get innovation from George Lucas-types, not John Waters-types. Great art is always done with serious limitations (usually self-imposed), not generous budgets. Meanwhile, actual gameplay design will be replaced with immersion, and small developers will get absorbed and enslaved or go bankrupt - just like always. You know I'm right, quit squirming. Also: Look forward to more monochromatic game environments as developers struggle to work out ways to repeat textures without the game looking like shit.

[Doug Erickson]

I can safely say that I'm not interested in bringing anyone else into my hobby.

Kitsune, if you're agreeing with me on the point that the waggle wand is a largely lateral move for controller design -- gestural "immersive" games get a bump, other more traditional genres take a hit -- how do you feel about it getting packaged with hardware that is roughly analgous to an Xbox 1 in memory, graphic features, and screen resolution?

[Doug Erickson]

Ted, so we could do Okami on a PS1? Wind Waker on an N64? Psychonauts on a 3DO?

And what does the waggle wand facilitate if NOT half-baked immersion?

[Angie Gallant]

All I am hearing right now is "Someone might have fun with this thing and that enrages me!"

[Doug Erickson]

Why would that enrage me? I'm boggled, not enraged. I don't see the point of paying for Xbox-quality hardware with a lateral controller shift.

I can understand being excited for Nintendo games, if they're your bag. But that would suggest their quality exists independent of any controller advances, and that the overstimulated fanbase would still exist regardless of any spatially-sensitive controller. Really, all of this Nintendo fanboy rhetoric sounds like cult-think -- specifically, the elevation of triviality to significance. All y'all'd be shitting your pants if Nintendo had offered the current "Wii" hardware with a stock Wavebird. You're infatuated with the Nintendo name.

[Ben]

I can safely say that I'm not interested in bringing anyone else into my hobby.

Exactly. Games already entertain me. Games currently don't entertain some other people. Personally, I don't care about that. The optimal state of the industry, personally, would be every game targetted directly at me. Now, maybe you dickheads would want to play games besides Elite clones, nonlinear RPGs, and college football simulators. You might also want people besides the cast of Firefly to do voice work. That's one reason I hate nearly everyone. You're killing my soul.


You'll get innovation from George Lucas-types, not John Waters-types.


Perhaps, but Return of the Jedi is still a better movie than Pink Flamingos.
(Edit for Andrew: For some reason I thought he was involved with Priscilla. Mea Culpa.)

Also, what about James Cameron and Peter Jackson? None of the LoTRs, Terminators, Titantic, The Abyss, etc. could've made been without cutting edge technology. Cameron and Jackson use technology to tell stories that couldn't have been told properly in 1960.

[Kitsune]

I'm not sure yet whether traditional games will take a hit, though I can certainly see their concerns. I don't like Nintendogs, but I really enjoyed Kirby for instance. You know very well, Mr. Erickson, that I don't tend to like to make predictions about these things. I'll just wait and see.

Graphics, eh, whatever. There's going to be plenty of new horizons there on the PS3 alone, which is the console that barring lightning striking me dead, I'll be buying first.

For instance, I have no idea why there's an A button right below or above the d-pad AND you move the thing through the air at the same time. How is attaching a separate part to get more utility out of the thing, a part that could be lost or trampled on or have the wire cut or whatever, make things easier for gamers? It does not make sense to me, but then again, I've never really used it yet. *shrugs* I'm pretty sure you don't make an obvious mistake like that for a rookie like Nintendo, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, even though it looks dubious now.

You might have missed the part I added up above, that I think this Wii, along with the DS has more value in stirring up ideas in people because they are FORCED to deal with a new interface and that I hope it just broadens the types of games out there and makes a lot of the things I've learned in my many years as a gamer more approachable for new people. Not the controls, so to speak, but the appeal of games. Why, for instance, it feels good to figure out a trick and get suddenly powerful in the definition of power that the game employs. I think as time goes on and games do get more complex, some of that gets lost more easily, but I'm not going to say its going to result in the death of gaming or its something that won't solve itself with the regular application of good minds with traditional controllers.

Bringing in new people to gaming is not something that will necessarily make my experience better, its just a concern that people have about the industry in general, like its sales health, or good games getting their time in the sunlight.

I personally, am not much for Amulets of Yendor or Chain Guns or Devil Orbs, I always resonate more with games that draw their pleasure from an inspiration of things modeled in life, and so even though I don't think story in games is necessarily important, I'd like characters who are pleasingly real for a change, if you don't mind. I'd like someone to think about gameplay that could be about hanging out with friends in a town. I'd like someone to probe the secrets of why dusty book shops are compelling in a game. Most of the pleasure I derive from gaming is by comparing it to the pleasures of real life. It really annoys me when I play games that only self-reference endless reams of sci-fi and fantasy wankery that doesn't have an anchor in something real.

For instance, Mario games recall the pleasure of pillow fights, bouncing on a bed, shooting downstairs to get your day ready on the first day of vacations, those types of kinesthetic pleasures. So for the Wii, there might be some cool stuff. Dragon Quest recalls in me many of the things I enjoy about my own culture, and everyone here knows who absorbed I am in that, the type of humor, the intonation (not that Japanese has intonation) and rise and fall of the language, the way we adapt things from other countries. I'm sure there's lots more to be advanced there with traditional gaming methods.

Plus, it just sounds like some of the applications are going to be fun, in addition to what we already have. I can't really complain that I can get it all on top of what's already here, because what's already here is fantastic. If its lamenting that Nintendo will not be doing things the same way, well okay, but its not like Nintendo is the only company out there who can consistently design a good game.

And buy Metal Saga, or suffer my wrath, Drinkyboy! >:(

-Kitsune

[Andrew Mayer]

Perhaps, but Return of the Jedi is still a better movie than Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

First off, John Waters didn't direct...

Nah, never mind.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Doug: Exceptions that prove the rule, I thank you. Okami will sell like shit, and that will be the end of that. More crucially, it will lose a lot of money. Psychonauts sold like shit, lost millions for MS and Majesco and that's the end of that. These are examples of Terry Gilliam-level excess. They can only con the suits for so long (and more power to them if they do). Wind Waker looked better when it was called Minish Cap - and it sold well under expectations (yes, it was also a weak game). Now how many *more* awesome, artistic games are there made on a nothing budget and released free on the web out of love? Most decent artists have nothing much to work with and they do well with it. Indie flicks get shown in smaller theatres, indie music gets quiter releases etc. That's how it works. Do you disagree? How could you possibly? Look me in the eye and tell me I'm wrong.
Going into the future with next-gen consoles, there is going to be less and less of this kind of stuff seeing major retail release. You would have to be a thumb-sucking idiot to bet against me on this. Looking forward to seeing Viva Pinata bomb. Can't wait.
Hopefully places like XBLA and the Wii (lol) dl service will facilitate indies with the rewards they deserve, because that is going to be about the only viable outlet they have left.
Re: The waggle wand: It can do a bunch of stuff. I guess it could make things more immersive. That's one way it can be used. If the graphics were better I'd be much more wary about that, but they're not, so hey. Hopefully it will go beyond that sort of tripe.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Perhaps, but Return of the Jedi is still a better movie than Pink Flamingos.

OH MY GOD, KILL IT. KIIIIIIIIIILL IIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Also, what about James Cameron and Peter Jackson? None of the LoTRs, Terminators, Titantic, The Abyss, etc. could've made been without cutting edge technology. Cameron and Jackson use technology to tell stories that couldn't have been told properly in 1960.

Exactly what I was talking about. You'll get a bunch of innovation, but not so much imaginative expression. Bunch of stuff that looks good as bullet points on the back of the box - radiant ai, dynamic lighting etc., not so much Liquid Kids.

[Ben]

Now how many *more* awesome, artistic games are there made on a nothing budget and released free on the web out of love?

Uh, zero?

[Theodore Rex DX]

Great, Ben. Nice post.

EDIT: Wait, I should clarify that I didn't mean they are more artistic and awesome - I meant there are more games that are artistic and awesome.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

I can safely say that I'm not interested in bringing anyone else into my hobby.

Kitsune, if you're agreeing with me on the point that the waggle wand is a largely lateral move for controller design -- gestural "immersive" games get a bump, other more traditional genres take a hit -- how do you feel about it getting packaged with hardware that is roughly analgous to an Xbox 1 in memory, graphic features, and screen resolution?

First: Are you a developer?
Second: Have you used a Wii or a Wii dev kit?

If the answer to these two questions is no, then I'd love to ask how you know so much about the hardware capabilities of Wii. If the answer is yes, then I stand duly corrected.

And you don't want anyone else in your hobby ... well, damn. I always told them they should never let niggers make music, and look what they did! Now we got nearly every single modern genre of music derived from what those blues and jazz cats did way back when. Imagine how much better it would be if we were still hiring composers to write symphonies we could all play in our courts. Music really went downhill when the proletariat got their grubby mitts on it.

Kitsune: You're a terribly reasonable individual. I admire that. :)

If we bring new audiences into gaming, we will have new markets. New markets attract new designers who are eager to tap the potential of these markets, or who stem from outside the traditional videogaming community, and thus brings new ideas. If you think this is bullshit, then I suggest you take a long, hard look at the last hundred years of cultural development. The current cultural climate is the result of new audiences inspiring new artists, not of niches cultivating their own ideals.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

The nonsensical names are designed to evoke a response that doesn't require an explanation. Lucent is presumably supposed to sound vaguely high-tech, or make you think of "lucid."

Words have meanings (http://www.answers.com/lucent&r=67). And connotations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer).

And connotations have stupid pictures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lucifer.gif).

[bago]

Depends. And I'm not talking underwear.

[Ben]

I meant there are more games that are artistic and awesome.

And I meant there aren't any. Seriously, I'd be totally stoked if you can prove me wrong, but let's get some names.


I always told them they should never let niggers make music, and look what they did!

W
T
F

[Erlend Grefsrud]

You caught my sarcasm, I gather?

[Theodore Rex DX]

Ben: Samarost and its sequel probably qualify. There are a bunch of nice shooters that are pretty to look at: Warning Forever, Tumiki Fighters, Platypus and so forth. Alien Hominid started out as a Flash game and that has a nice, striking visual style. Dad 'n Me shares it. Orisinal does a ton of clever little games, many of which are pretty to look at. That Cloud Game probably qualifies. I think Gish probably does too. Golf? does. Treasure Box. Mono. A Murder of Scarecrows. And so forth.

They had this: http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/ on the front page of Wicked Small Games, just randomly visiting the site.

If nothing there does the trick, there's no pleasing you. Sorry about no links - I don't have any for most of them. Smart Googling might help.

[Ben Sones]

More sophisticated graphics technology is going to translate to more realistic graphics, not more creative aesthetics. Artistic expression will flounder in that environment.
Sorry, but I have to go with Doug on this one. Artistic expression will flounder? If that's true, then where is the evidence of that? Are there fewer aesthetically creative games on the PS2 than there were on the PS1? In my experience, the opposite is true. The idea that artistic expression flounders when the artist is given greater technical capability is the sort of idea that you'll never hear from actual artists.


Great art is always done with serious limitations (usually self-imposed), not generous budgets.
Ask any great artist whether a generous budget would help or hurt their work. See how many you can find who would say "hurt." My prediction: zero.

I agree that the industry has a problem with the blockbuster mentality, where every major game made has to be a big budget production. That's hardly the hardware's fault, though.

[Gordon Cameron]

Ask any great artist whether a generous budget would help or hurt their work. See how many you can find who would say "hurt." My prediction: zero.

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.

Shakespeare would have enjoyed the production values of modern cinema.

But I happen to agree that limitations can sometimes stimulate artistic innovation, whether the artists desire those limitations or not.

[Ryan A]

Eriend -- stop writing. Now. You're not nearly as clever as you think.

[Ben Sones]

But I happen to agree that limitations can sometimes stimulate artistic innovation, whether the artists desire those limitations or not.

Sure. But on the other side of that coin, if your artistic innovation dries up just because someone gives you a larger budget, then maybe the problem is that your art isn't as great as you thought it was, and not the budget.

[Ryan A]

Hey Doug: if Nintendo fans can be characterized as "willing to put up with inferior technology for the sake of cutesy gameplay" is it fair to characterize xbox fans as "willing to put up with soulless game design for the sake of cutting-edge technology"?

[Ben Sones]

I just perused the GAF's threads on the name change, and I think my opinion of the name is changing after all. From amusement to irritation. Now that all the Nintendo fans have recovered from the initial shock and remembered that it is their solemn duty to like whatever Nintendo tells them to like (even if it's "Wii"), they have actually started to insert the word into everything they write, just like that cringeworthy marketing spiel on Nintendo's site. Thanks, Nintendo! Here's to six years of crappy puns!

[shang]

http://images.cafepress.com/product/48918751v7_150x150_F.jpg (http://www.cafepress.com/rightnation/1232884)

[Midnight Son]

After a good night's sleep I can only say this: "What a pissy name for a console!"

Also: "Choco! Party! Good good!" (More japanese ads please!)

[Theodore Rex DX]

Sorry, but I have to go with Doug on this one. Artistic expression will flounder? If that's true, then where is the evidence of that? Are there fewer aesthetically creative games on the PS2 than there were on the PS1? In my experience, the opposite is true. The idea that artistic expression flounders when the artist is given greater technical capability is the sort of idea that you'll never hear from actual artists.

Except that's not what I'm saying. I am not saying having more resources stifles creativity, or that technology limits imagination or anything like that. That would be crazy. Up to a point, technology greatly enhances that stuff. Colour being an obvious example. But the further you go in that direction, the less room you are going to find yourself to explore it because of other considerations. Budget considerations. Market considerations. Time considerations. And the more creative you get, the fewer people are going to be interested - unless you get super fucking lucky and strike a chord with a lot of people. That's just a sad irony of making art in any medium. And now that we *can* make things look realistic, all of a sudden people are going to be much less satisfied with bubble-blowing dinosaurs collecting fruit. That has been the trend, and I'll put on my prediction hat and say that the trend is going to continue. Pretty soon, because of the technology, you will find developers have little choice but to make games that look realistic - especially in a hyper-competitive and tech-driven industry like videogames. I think that unless your game is based on a popular franchise or a license, or aimed squarely at kids or a budget title, people are going to be much more critical of esoteric or cartoony graphics. More than ever. This sort of stuff will affect gameplay too. Fewer abstractions for purposes of gameplay, rules will have to be better hidden, etc. etc. Turn-based stuff and 2D stuff is just going to dry right up - even more than it has been. This has been happening for a while now, don't tell me you haven't noticed. Sometimes this stuff is good: "Why the fuck can't I climb that tree? Why the fuck is there an invisible wall here? Why the fuck is there one case of shotgun shells in a giant crate?" Sometimes it is bad: "Health bars WTF?" This is absolutely related to technology and you are a lying liar if you say otherwise.

There have been lots of beautiful and creative games this time around. Katamari Damacy. Jet Grind Radio. Pikmin. Ico. Loads more. There were a whole heap last gen too, probably fewer, but 'arthouse' games were also kind of a new thing then so that's an unfair comparison (it is, however, a great way of countering the 'I don't want games to appeal to new people!' stupidity, so I thank you). Before then - especially in the 8-bit era on home computers of the C64/Spectrum variety and consoles - many games were crazier than Katamari just because people didn't know the 'rules' and were cartoony because they looked like crap otherwise. If anybody tries to tell me that's nostalgia: that is a damned lie and I will fucking cut you up for it.
Anyway - so yeah, in a sense things were good for creativity this gen. I think we've peaked. There were lots of spectacular failures, but also a few modest successes and a couple of mini phenomenons. Lots of indie devs going under, same as always. Lots of mergers and acquisitions. Same old same old. But there are also fewer new ones to take their place. Like I say, I think XBLA or whatever could help - these people need a viable, profitable medium and right now they don't have one. I'm sort of hoping the Wii (lol) is it, but who the fuck knows?


Ask any great artist whether a generous budget would help or hurt their work. See how many you can find who would say "hurt." My prediction: zero.

First of all, that's just silly. Any good artist will tell you that unless you have restrictions of some kind you are going to make nothing or you are going to make crap. Most of the time - or all of the time - we don't get to choose our restrictions. That's just the reality of living in the physical universe. The best artists are able to pick the restrictions that best suit their work. Most don't like other people restricting their work, but I guess some like the challenge. You are talking about hypotheticals and pipe dreams and I am talking about reality. Artists do not have unlimited budgets or freedom to do what they want. Truly creative people usually have less to work with because they have no choice.


I agree that the industry has a problem with the blockbuster mentality, where every major game made has to be a big budget production. That's hardly the hardware's fault, though.

It is the hardware's fault ... in conjunction with the publishers, the audience, the developers, society at large, humanity in general - it's everybody's fault.

I'm gonna have to cut this short because it's 12:28 am here and I spent too long on this already. Hope to hell I'm making sense.

[Bee]

What kind of release of Wii can we expect from Nintendo? A steady stream of Wii or will it be more of a trickle?

[Stroker Ace]

I pretty much never read console war threads unless they have piss names, so I have to ask - is Doug Erickson trolling?

[metta]

From Wired:


Nintendo has named its new system, and it's called Wii. Pronounced 'we'.

You don't need me to tell you that the Internets have exploded. That GAF has slowed to a crawl and isn't even accessible half the time. That 1up's editor blogs are currently almost entirely dedicated to discussing why the name is a major misstep.

I often find myself in the position of having to explain why Nintendo's latest move isn't stupid. Why not -- I'll pick up that task again today. Wii isn't a bad name.

Let me start out by saying that it's not as if I like the name Wii. In fact, as I glance up at the Title: field that I filled in two minutes ago, it looks utterly oxymoronic. Wii doesn't sound like something that's defensible. It isn't the name of a video game system.

And that's where its power lies.

http://blog.wired.com/games/wii.jpg

Again: I'm not saying that the particular name choice strikes me as brilliant. But the type of name is really what matters. It's distinctive, it's simple, it's iconic. It's half-word, half-picture. And damn if it's not going to get people talking.

Is it a homophone for a British slang word that means "urine"? Yes. But so is the first-person plural pronoun. If I said, "What are we doing tonight," would you repeat back to me, "What are wee doing tonight? Huh? Huh? Get it?" I would wonder what the hell your problem is, quite frankly.

The French word for "yes" also rhymes with "wee," and indeed this was the subject of much hilarity in French class. When I was in sixth grade. By seventh grade, when we turned thirteen, we were over it. That the Internet in toto is less mature than a group of thirteen-year-olds is not surprising, but neither is it damning to Nintendo's fortunes.

Of course, I expect the Internet to brim over with toilet humor; that is what the Internet is for. But the Internet is not real life. They've already proven this in a variety of ways related to Nintendo product announcements. Remember the almost universal outpouring of disdain following the announcement of the Nintendo DS? Nintendogs?

And look where that got the Internet. Nintendo DS is nothing short of a nationwide cultural phenomenon in Japan. Nintendo pushed hard away from the traditional notion of a video game system and did quite well for their efforts.

In short, the fuss over Wii is an Internet Problem, not a Real Life Problem. In real life, the name's soundalike will pass almost entirely without notice. The positives of Wii will vastly outweigh the negatives.

I do like something about Wii. I like that it is further evidence -- very strong evidence -- that Nintendo has stopped paying lip service to the mainstream and started aggressively pursuing them. You can't run after the mainstream with a ball and chain that reads VIDEO GAMES around your ankle. There needs to be a clean break.

Nintendo is so intent on breaking free from the shackles of traditional notions of "video games" that it is even abandoning its own name.

It's not the "Nintendo Wii." It's the Wii.

Why not stick with Revolution? Because global branding is of paramount importance. The "Genesis/Mega Drive" days are over. One world, one name. And "Revolution" was never going to fly in Japan, where the word is nearly unpronounceable. The end. If it's a shock to anyone, it's only to those who can't imagine a world beyond their tiny corner of it.


Full Story (http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1467976)

[Erlend Grefsrud]

Sorry, but I have to go with Doug on this one. Artistic expression will flounder? If that's true, then where is the evidence of that? Are there fewer aesthetically creative games on the PS2 than there were on the PS1? In my experience, the opposite is true. The idea that artistic expression flounders when the artist is given greater technical capability is the sort of idea that you'll never hear from actual artists.

I agree that the industry has a problem with the blockbuster mentality, where every major game made has to be a big budget production. That's hardly the hardware's fault, though.
The blockbuster mentality is at least partly a result of the focus on hardware, though. Whether that focus is being maintained by the industry or its consumers, there's no denying that games are expected to be technologically advanced, or at least make good use of the resources at their disposal.

If graphics mean a lot to the success of a game, then games with less technically advanced graphics are at a disadvantage. Expectations to graphics are driven by hardware. Creating assets is expensive. New hardware increases the cost of producing assets by a significant amount. As developing costs spiral, developing games become more risky. You want big hitters. That climate is less likely to produce interesting artistic expressions, because the safest way of avoiding risk is copying last years big seller.

But then again, that depends on what you define as a "relevant artistic expression" ... but is there very much room in the current climate of the industry for low-budget, artistic games? If there isn't, then that might be attributed to the focus on technology, right?


Erlend -- stop writing. Now. You're not nearly as clever as you think.
Got a little carried away there. Will moderate myself more in the future. Could you point out what was so silly? Or is it just what I've been writing in general?

[Chris Nahr]

Thank you, Nintendo, for providing me with the funniest thread in weeks!


In Germany, it's a homonym for "cow."

No, "cow" would be "Kuh". But that wouldn't be so bad since Wii is actually a homonym for "wie" which means "how". So we're buying the Nintendo How.

"Haben Sie den Nintendo Wii?" -- "Do you have the Nintendo how?"

Even better with an appended "please" because the combination translates to "excuse me":

"Ich will einen Wii, bitte!" -- "I want an excuse me!"

Truly, this name is astoundingly retarded. The French should love it, though.

[worm]

I'm really glad that Wired is there to tell me that the name sounds stupid to me because I use the Internet.

[Talisker]

Meh, it sounds stupid now, but we'll get used to it, just like "Pentium".

[LarryLard]

What if it had been 'Pootium' ?

[instant0]

I have never understood the fascination with the word "poo" over there...

[Warning]

Or Poontangium?

[Ben Sones]

Except that's not what I'm saying. I am not saying having more resources stifles creativity, or that technology limits imagination or anything like that. That would be crazy. Up to a point, technology greatly enhances that stuff. Colour being an obvious example. But the further you go in that direction, the less room you are going to find yourself to explore it because of other considerations. Budget considerations. Market considerations. Time considerations. And the more creative you get, the fewer people are going to be interested - unless you get super fucking lucky and strike a chord with a lot of people. That's just a sad irony of making art in any medium. And now that we *can* make things look realistic, all of a sudden people are going to be much less satisfied with bubble-blowing dinosaurs collecting fruit.
Well, okay. That seems different than what you were saying before, and I don't disagree with this. I'd add, though, that you aren't likely to make people go back to being satisfied with "dinosaurs collecting fruit" by hobbling your hardware--not as long as your competitors are still offering those realistic games. If "dinosaurs collecting fruit" is not what the majority of people want and they have an alternative option, they will go with it. The only thing you limit by limiting your hardware is your own ability to deliver it to them. On the other hand, there is no good reason why you can't still do dinosaurs collecting fruit on more powerful hardware. There is no law that says that every game must use every last feature or ounce of horsepower that the hardware offers. And before you say it, I totally agree that game publishers too often don't understand that, and that's one of the industry's big problems. But I'm not sure that "weaker hardware" is a good solution (or any kind of solution, unless your goal is to chase all the publishers away to other platforms).


That has been the trend, and I'll put on my prediction hat and say that the trend is going to continue. Pretty soon, because of the technology, you will find developers have little choice but to make games that look realistic - especially in a hyper-competitive and tech-driven industry like videogames.

I think there will be games like that, but there are plenty of games on, say, the PS2 that choose a stylized aesthetic over a realistic one and still sell millions of copies. But even if you're right, and those sorts of games are doomed to dwindle, I still don't see how making a console with weaker hardware is going to do anything to change that. Again, if gamers really prefer the realistic games, then making a console incapable of delivering them is just going to chase gamers away to other platforms.


There have been lots of beautiful and creative games this time around. Katamari Damacy. Jet Grind Radio. Pikmin. Ico. Loads more. There were a whole heap last gen too, probably fewer, but 'arthouse' games were also kind of a new thing then so that's an unfair comparison (it is, however, a great way of countering the 'I don't want games to appeal to new people!' stupidity, so I thank you). Before then - especially in the 8-bit era on home computers of the C64/Spectrum variety and consoles - many games were crazier than Katamari just because people didn't know the 'rules' and were cartoony because they looked like crap otherwise. If anybody tries to tell me that's nostalgia: that is a damned lie and I will fucking cut you up for it.
At the risk of being, uhm, cut up, I'll say that I partly agree. But I think there's a lot of nostalgia there, too. We tend to forget how many of those old games were terrible (and sometimes downright unplayable) pieces of crap. People were trying new things because they didn't know the rules, sure, but for the same reason, the majority of the games just ended up being not very good. In fact, it got to be so many that the whole console industry crashed and went away for a number of years.


First of all, that's just silly. Any good artist will tell you that unless you have restrictions of some kind you are going to make nothing or you are going to make crap.

I guess we're just going to have to disagree here. Being an artist, I talk to artists all the time, and I can't say that I've ever met one that would agree with that statement. I certainly don't.


Most of the time - or all of the time - we don't get to choose our restrictions. That's just the reality of living in the physical universe.

Well, yeah. But I'm not talking about some sort of hypothetical situation that can only ever exist in theory. I'm talking about the practical reality of making art. And in reality, all other things being equal, it's pretty much always better to have a larger budget rather than a smaller one, and a wider range of choices in media and techniques rather than a smaller one. Or, to bring it back to consoles, more hardware capabilities that you can opt to take advantage of rather than fewer.


You are talking about hypotheticals and pipe dreams and I am talking about reality. Artists do not have unlimited budgets or freedom to do what they want.
Huh? I never said that--you did. All I said was that artists would prefer a generous budget to not.


I'm gonna have to cut this short because it's 12:28 am here and I spent too long on this already. Hope to hell I'm making sense.
No offense, but: not really. If you are tired, though, then your comments make more sense in context. I recommend coming back to them after getting some sleep.

[Ben Sones]

Is it a homophone for a British slang word that means "urine"? Yes. But so is the first-person plural pronoun. If I said, "What are we doing tonight," would you repeat back to me, "What are wee doing tonight? Huh? Huh? Get it?"

Well, I guess you might if you have a habit of confusing nouns with personal pronouns, which most people don't. That's the problem with this name, actually, because when you say "the Nintendo Wii" to someone, they aren't at all likely to assume that it's a play on "the Nintendo We," because that doesn't make any sense. "Wii" should be a common noun in that phrase, and all of nouns in the English language that fit that bill fall into the category of "vulgar slang."

So in order to keep people from making vulgar connotations, Nintendo has to explain it to everyone. That alone makes it terrible branding.


You can't run after the mainstream with a ball and chain that reads VIDEO GAMES around your ankle.

Because it's so much better to trade that in for a ball and chain that reads URINE, or maybe PENIS.

[Ben Sones]

Or, to quote Penny Arcade:


Nintendo clearly felt the name was so cryptic it required a Rosetta Stone (http://revolution.nintendo.com/) alongside to contextualize it, which doesn't really speak to its deep strength or intuitive character.

Funny, and true. Also, someone someone on the GAF asked if the Wii will have streaming content, and I just about blew coffee out my nose, laughing. I guess I'm just juvenile that way.

[Rob_Merritt]

In any case, I'm buying the system for the Bob Ross game.

hmmm

Wii Painting with Bob Ross Or Painting with Bob Ross Wii..... Maybe not then...

[Ben Sones]

Wii Painting with Bob Ross Or Painting with Bob Ross Wii..... Maybe not then...

At least we now know why those little trees are so happy.

[claybob]

Names do matter. British english speakers also use wee in the context of small or insignificant. When I was in NZ I noticed folks said "wee bits" instead of "stuff". So we have small, insignificant, urine, and penis. I can only imagine all the different conotations of wii wii.

People in latin derivate language countries would not buy the El Camino.

I think Nintendo has a good product, but they are making a huge mistake. Educated degree bearing adults are *still* not the biggest comsumer of electronic games, unfortunately. Image is very important. Just look at, cringe, cyber-atheletes. Atheletes that are sitting down. And the gaming market completely buys into it.

I can look past the name because I am a 30 something gamer. But, do you think the teenage and low twenties folks will too? I wasn't that mature at that age, thats for sure.


P.S. I should also add that companies choose non-word company names and product names because of the translation/globalization issues. Companies got enough black eyes over the years that they found pasting together syllables with some kind of loose conotation works best. Just look at drug names.

[Aeroplane]

I think Nintendo has a good product, but they are making a huge mistake. Educated degree bearing adults are *still* not the biggest comsumer of electronic games, unfortunately. Image is very important. Just look at, cringe, cyber-atheletes. Atheletes that are sitting down. And the gaming market completely buys into it.

I can look past the name because I am a 30 something gamer. But, do you think the teenage and low twenties folks will too? I wasn't that mature at that age, thats for sure.

I think that this name is intended to announce as loudly as possible that Nintendo isn't marketing to those people anymore. They've given them up to Sony and Microsoft. Every decision they've made with the Wii, from the specs to the controller to (now) the name has been calculated to send that message. I'm not sure how well it's going to work out for them, but I do think that they know exactly what they're doing with this name.

[Ben Sones]

I think that this name is intended to announce as loudly as possible that Nintendo isn't marketing to those people anymore.

See, that's not the part of the equation that I question. I question the unstated assumption that there is some other demographic that will somehow find that name appealing.

[steve]

They've given them up to Sony and Microsoft. Every decision they've made with the Wii, from the specs to the controller to (now) the name has been calculated to send that message. I'm not sure how well it's going to work out for them, but I do think that they know exactly what they're doing with this name.
Well, you're certainly drinking their Kool-Aid. That's pretty much parroting their entire marketing message. Good job!

I suspect some high-up decided "this would be the name," ignoring every underling that said how bad it was. Then it was turned over to marketing, which had to come up with a nutty story to explain it.

[Aeroplane]

See, that's not the part of the equation that I question. I question the unstated assumption that there is some other demographic that will somehow find that name appealing.

Oh, I understand. It's definitely a gamble. Somebody at Nintendo must think that the people they are after will think that "Wii" is offbeat or cute or intriguing. But the fact that there are mildly negative connotations to the pronunciation (can I call it a "word"?) in English-speaking countries is certainly a disadvantage that they wouldn't have had to deal with if they had come up with another name that also carried the "we aren't playing this game anymore" connotation.


Well, you're certainly drinking their Kool-Aid. That's pretty much parroting their entire marketing message. Good job!

All I'm saying is that the name they chose, misguided or not, is pretty consistent with that message. Do you disagree?

[steve]

All I'm saying is that the name they chose, misguided or not, is pretty consistent with that message. Do you disagree?
I think they had to come up with some wonderful fiction to tie "Wii" to "a game system for everyone with a wireless, motion sensing controller that lets you play games in a different way and lots of retro games." The Ninetendo Motion, Wave, Revolution, NES... all convey this in a much more direct--and better--way.

I'm not saying those are all good names, per se. But they're better than Wii.


But the fact that there are mildly negative connotations to the pronunciation (can I call it a "word"?) in English-speaking countries is certainly a disadvantage that they wouldn't have had to deal with if they had come up with another name that also carried the "we aren't playing this game anymore" connotation.
I'm not sure why people would think a phonetic match for peeing and "small" think this is a "mildly" negative connotation.

Maybe Nintendo focused-grouped it for 11-year olds, and they all squealed with glee. I know I probably would have at that age, because bodily functions were funny at that age. And as this thread shows, they still are.

[claybob]

I had not really thought of it that way before, Greg. The more it rolls around in my head the more I think that this might be a choice based on their experience with the GameCube. If it pans out and there are some great games...well, dare I say it, revolution. *pump fist*

But, my opinion of the name still stands. There *had* to be some better choices on the table.

[Aeroplane]

I think they had to come up with some wonderful fiction to tie "Wii" to "a game system for everyone with a wireless, motion sensing controller that lets you play games in a different way and lots of retro games." The Ninetendo Motion, Wave, Revolution, NES... all convey this in a much more direct--and better--way.

I'm not saying those are all good names, per se. But they're better than Wii.

Possibly. I don't mind the name, but it does seem a bit overthought (assuming that their justification is to be believed, and wasn't just slapped on after the fact). I can't think of any other names that are intended to remind you of something both visually and phonetically. It's almost as if it's meant to be an emoticon as much as a name.


I'm not sure why people would think a phonetic match for peeing and "small" think this is a "mildly" negative connotation.

I left the "mildly" out at first and then I thought "Well, it's not like I associate it with 'rape' or 'pedophilia'", so I added it. As negative connotations go, there are plenty worse.

[JM]

Wired:

Is it a homophone for a British slang word that means "urine"? Yes. But so is the first-person plural pronoun. If I said, "What are we doing tonight," would you repeat back to me, "What are wee doing tonight? Huh? Huh? Get it?" I would wonder what the hell your problem is, quite frankly.

Er, no. "Wii", with the double-i, suggests a longer tone, much like the difference between "we" and "wee". Where do they get these people from?

Office straw poll (2 australians, 5 english):

7 people thought it was hilariously stupid.
0 people thought it was new and revolutionary.

also

I thought Revolution was the name? Actually, I guess that was rather short-sighted of me, since isn't Revolution like a curseword in the U.K.? (Dance Dance Revolution -> Dancing Stage, etc...)

What the fuck?

[madkevin]

Perhaps, but Return of the Jedi is still a better movie than Pink Flamingos.

You, sir, are crazy.

[RickH]

I do like something about Wii. I like that it is further evidence -- very strong evidence -- that Nintendo has stopped paying lip service to the mainstream and started aggressively pursuing them. You can't run after the mainstream with a ball and chain that reads VIDEO GAMES around your ankle. There needs to be a clean break.

Heaven forbid that you label your product as what it is. Exactly what the hell else is the NNS (New Nintendo System) supposed to do? VIDEO GAMES is hardly a "ball and chain" when it is exactly what you're selling. This is typical Wired Attitude.

[McBain]

Great Blunders in Marketing, Volume IX

[Ben Sones]

I left the "mildly" out at first and then I thought "Well, it's not like I associate it with 'rape' or 'pedophilia'", so I added it. As negative connotations go, there are plenty worse.

"The Nintendo Wii. It's not as bad as rape or pedophilia."

Could there be a Clio award in Nintendo's future? ;)

[Aeroplane]

"The Nintendo Wii. It's not as bad as rape or pedophilia."

I've never been able to figure out why I can't get a job with a marketing firm.

[MarchHare]

I think they would have been much better off calling it the Nintendo Whee. Same pronunciation, different spelling, but Whee implies "Look at me, I'm having fun! Whee!" whereas Wii just reminds me of urine.

Still a stupid name though, regardless of whatever justification Nintendo gives it.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I really don't care if it sounds like a childish term for taking a leak. What word or sound left doesn't sound like a slang term for urination, defecation, sexual organs or fucking anymore?

I just look at it and remember what I thought the first time I saw it: Is a there a letter missing? Is that supposed to be 'Wi-fi?'

Nintendo's flash ad explanation is fucking terrible. It's bush-league marketing bullshit. It ineptly tries for mystique, majesty, and wonder, and fails at all three by being embarassingly transparent, cliche, and awkward. I mean, it goes for the Wii=we homonymous relationship, yet ignores it half the time so that if you use it, a lot of the ad copy is gibberish.

And, again, "Nintendo needs your help" is without doubt the worst fucking ad marketing phrase I've ever read from a company that isn't trying to save orphaned puppies or stockpile soup cans.

Will this affect sales? I doubt it. Nothing dissuades fanboys and good WOM about the games (which I would hope there will be some about some of the games) plus an acceptable price point will sell the system, just like it does for any system. This will prove that point, most likely, that a dumb name ultimately probably means nothing in terms of sales for a gaming console.

But anyone who is arguing that the name Wii will boost sales because of its mystique and universal intrigue is a fucking idiot or a shill. When I read stuff by pro-Wii apologists it sounds just like that - apologist and/or damage control verbiage. "Oh, nobody's really going to care about the name" sounds a Hell of a lot different than "The name alone will have it flying out the door!"

[jim crawford]

Heaven forbid that you label your product as what it is. Exactly what the hell else is the NNS (New Nintendo System) supposed to do? VIDEO GAMES is hardly a "ball and chain" when it is exactly what you're selling. This is typical Wired Attitude.
Distancing themselves from the term worked for them with the NES.

[Dave Long]

Distancing themselves from the term worked for them with the NES.

And that's why they're doing it again. Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different. You can't do that if your machine's name screams videogames as loudly as possible.

Cue Ben Sones with another piss joke.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

You can't do that if your machine's name screams videogames as loudly as possible.

Doesn't the fact that it is Nintendo already scream videogames at superhuman volume?

"The Nintendo Wii! It might make bagels! Buy one and find out."

Troy

[Bill Dungsroman]

Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different.
Games are fucked up? That's Nintendo's message? Wow.

[claybob]

Personally, I want my machine to scream gaming. Just not pimpin' ubah x-treme cyber-athlete.

Fun and gaming should be synonymous, after all. I think the discrepancy between what is fun and what is cool gets down to the heart of the matter.

[Chris Nahr]

And that's why they're doing it again. Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different. You can't do that if your machine's name screams videogames as loudly as possible.

Prior to this unfortunate naming decision, weren't we in agreement that the Revolution was going to be great because Nintendo was focusing on... you know... the games? As opposed to Sony's and Microsoft's multi-purpose media machines? The fact that "Wii" doesn't have any relation to video games makes the name even less appropriate for the one home console that's exclusively about gaming.

[Warning]

Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different.
I really wish their message was that games are fun as they are right now but hey here's a way to make them even more fun!

[Ben Sones]

And that's why they're doing it again. Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different.
Wow, that's so utterly nutty that I'm even going to pass on the piss joke.

1. What the hell are you talking about? Nintendo didn't go with "NES" because games were fucked up and gamers were crying for change, they went with it because toy distributors wouldn't touch a video game console with a fifty-foot pole after the home console industry crashed in '83. (That's also the reason they bundled that stupid robot with the system, and then dropped it as soon as they no longer needed to continue the charade.) I can't imagine a situation that is less analogous to today's game industry.

2. I thought Nintendo was all about the games? Or was that last week's marketing propaganda reel? Now it's "Games are so fucked up that we don't want anyone to know that they might end up playing them on our product?"

3. As I said before, even if they wanted to come up with a name that doesn't scream "video games," they probably should have considered coming up with one that also doesn't scream "urine."

All right, I lied about the piss joke. But how can I resist when they make it that easy?

[Ryan A]

Nintendo Gamepod

[Simpilot]

Everyone needs to check out http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic today. Hilarious!

[Wholly Schmidt]

And that's why they're doing it again. Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different. You can't do that if your machine's name screams videogames as loudly as possible.
Yeah, boy did Revolution scream videogames or what?

[BobJustBob]

Everyone needs to check out http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic today. Hilarious!

Eh, not really. Vagina would have been a better name.

[Fugitive]

Eh, not really. Vagina would have been a better name.
No way. Half their potential market would already have one!

[Greg417]

I think the name is silly. Having half a page of text explaining the name and what it means shows that the name is a poor choice. Then interchanging it with the word "we" just expands on that.

Should that have any bearing on the quality of the games? Nope.

For the people saying they should've stuck with Revolution: it may not have been possible for them to use it as the product name, due to already existing products.

Xbox 360 is a pretty poor name. Most people have shortened it to just "360" and that is far more acceptable. Just like "Playstation 2" is generally called PS2 (even in speech).

[Jackstar]

I'm going to laugh my ass off if this thing ships with only one controller.

[BobJustBob]

I'm going to laugh my ass off if this thing ships with only one controller.

Wi?

(damn you vbulletin)

[Charles]

No way. Half their potential market would already have one!

Yes but the ones they have probably aren't Nintendo branded. Unless of course they are super hardcore female geeks with Tattoos. Please god let me never meet one of those.

[Jackstar]

Wi?

(damn you vbulletin)
Because We is plural.

[bago]

I dunno. The interactive 3d controls might be kind of fun.

[Mike Cathcart]

I think the name is silly. Having half a page of text explaining the name and what it means shows that the name is a poor choice. People keep saying this. Who cares? It doesn't have to mean anything other than "the new Nintendo console with the remote control thing". There may have been 20 pages explaining what iPod means or why the Xbox skipped 358 generations but I can't remember them, couldn't tell you what either one "means" and I still own both and use them all the time. iPod means that music thing and Xbox 360 means the thing I play Oblivion on.

"It sounds like pee", OK, fine. "I don't like the marketing speak", though? Who ever likes the marketing speak? Didn't Microsoft have a bunch of similar bullshit about how the 360 was about community and bringing people together and on and on?

I hope Sony explains to us what PS3 means. "The Sony Playstation 3. It's like...you know, 3 of 'em...ah fuck it you're all gonna buy it anyway."

[Aeroplane]

Yes but the ones they have probably aren't Nintendo branded. Unless of course they are super hardcore female geeks with Tattoos. Please god let me never meet one of those.

Oh man, Nintentoos. Coming Winter 07 for the Wii.

[Justin Fletcher]

People keep saying this. Who cares? It doesn't have to mean anything other than "the new Nintendo console with the remote control thing". There may have been 20 pages explaining what iPod means or why the Xbox skipped 358 generations but I can't remember them, couldn't tell you what either one "means" and I still own both and use them all the time. iPod means that music thing and Xbox 360 means the thing I play Oblivion on.
Yes, but no one will even know how to pronounce it, let alone be able to dissect its meaning (see my earlier rant in this thread). Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people love impenetrable names like V//V.

As for iPod and Xbox 360, the consumer was at least anchored by a previous entry in the same or similar line to give some sort of context to the product names.

[tromik]

While gamers are calling it "Nintendo Wii," remember that CNN anchors will most likely be calling it "Nintendo's Wii," or "Nintendo's new Wii."

[Midnight Son]

I would have called it the Nintendo Shizz. But that's just me.......

[LesJarvis]

Yes, but no one will even know how to pronounce it, let alone be able to dissect its meaning (see my earlier rant in this thread).

Strange, as I know how to pronounce and know what it means (as far as it means anything at all.) I must have magical powers, huzzah!

[Wholly Schmidt]

When will you clowns stop explaining that because you get it, it must not be that bad? Just because you can figure out it, doesn't mean it's not still harder to figure out than about a million other names they could've picked, and therefore a pretty bad choice.

[synic]

And that's why they're doing it again. Their whole message has been how games are fucked up and they need to do something different. You can't do that if your machine's name screams videogames as loudly as possible.

But it uh... plays games still right? I mean, does Nintendo make urine fetish DVDs now? I'm a little unsure why you would need to distance yourself from games when you are a game company. If you want an "interesting" name, which I won't disagree with is a decent idea, maybe you should bother to check your target markets to see if they will just start spontaneously sniggering at it before you launch it. They mention "viiv" as an inspiration, but maybe intel bothered to check to see if in Europe and Asia it didn't accidentally translate into a colloquial juvenile term for "the act of urinating."

Maybe you'd like to fly on Jack Air? The slogan is "Need a vacation? Just Jack it!" I mean, it works for Nike and Craig's List... right??

[SpoofyChop]

Houston, Wii have a problem.

[Mike Cathcart]

Yes, but no one will even know how to pronounce it, let alone be able to dissect its meaning (see my earlier rant in this thread). Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people love impenetrable names like V//V.

As for iPod and Xbox 360, the consumer was at least anchored by a previous entry in the same or similar line to give some sort of context to the product names. Yeah, you're right, that's a big problem. People will hear "Hey that Wii thing is pretty cool" so they'll go to the store and look at it and the guy will be all "You wanna buy that?" and they'll say "I'm not really sure what the name means, so no. I'd rather have an Xbox 360 because I am anchored by a previous entry in the same or similar line. Also, piss. LOL!"

[Justin Fletcher]

Strange, as I know how to pronounce and know what it means (as far as it means anything at all.) I must have magical powers, huzzah!
On your first glance, without reading Nintendo's Mission Statement? Jolly good, Holmes!

[synic]

Distancing themselves from the term worked for them with the NES.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was called the Nintendo Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan, while the phrase Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was only for the European and US markets. From what I understand the whole reason why they named it the Famicom was because the rival game playing systems were sometimes also computers (the MSX comes to mind, but I think it may post-date the Famicom, I'm sure someone else can come up with a better example that predates it). Which is silly because the Famicom literally can't do anything but play games-- you can't word process on it, or anything else for that matter.

Call me crazy but the PlayStation has been the #1 selling game system because it is easily identifiable as its function. The iPod however, when it first launched nobody knew what the fuck it did unless you were a hardcore techie. There is no mysterious benefit to having an inpenetrable name. Viiv will die a silent and swift death, because frankly nobody gives a shit about the technology. Its "interesting" name means nothing at all, and in fact probably detracts from it. Last I checked the most important thing about a product is about what it does for you better than what is out there, and you can probably market the Nintendo Wii based solely on that in *SPITE* of its ludicrous name. It just won't *HELP* their sales any, potential buyers who are concerned with being "cool" (as some casual gameplayers are wont to do) probably won't be too keen on it since even something juvenile can tarnish their hipster-alpha pack status.

[Justin Fletcher]

Yeah, you're right, that's a big problem. People will hear "Hey that Wii thing is pretty cool" so they'll go to the store and look at it and the guy will be all "You wanna buy that?" and they'll say "I'm not really sure what the name means, so no. I'd rather have an Xbox 360 because I am anchored by a previous entry in the same or similar line. Also, piss. LOL!"
Dear Everyone in this Thread Who Has Made this Counterpoint:

The argument that the name is retarded and the argument that the retarded name will significantly impact sales are two different things. Some might be arguing both; as for me, I don't think the Wii is now doomed to failure. Despite the name being a stumbling block, if the hardware and software pan out, consumers will be forgiving.

None of which changes the fact that the Wii has the weakest name and one of the worst marketing lines in gaming history.

Best regards,
Justin

[SpoofyChop]

None of which changes the fact that the Wii has the weakest name in gaming (and, possibly, marketing) history.



Slow down there Cheetah.

Are you saying it's worse than:

Microsoft Bob
The Moolatte
Nooger Black Icecream (http://www.slate.com/id/2117270/)

Or these

http://www.jdbshow.com/bad_product_names.html

[steve]

I hope someone makes The Varghina Incident II for the Wii.

[Justin Fletcher]

Nogger Black Icecream (http://www.slate.com/id/2117270/)
I stand corrected. My post is too.

[instant0]

Who cares what they call the machine as long as the games are good.
Its not an AMiGA after all.

[RepoMan]

I hope someone makes The Varghina Incident II for the Wii.
VI II 4 Wii FTW!!!

[RickH]

Who cares what they call the machine as long as the games are good.

You know I thought that a while back, but then they had to go and pick some name that makes it sound like a CD rack at Ikea.

It's

Just

Fucking

Stupid.

[MattKeil]

Anecdotal evidence time!

Five casual gamer friends IMed to ask about price and release date last night. Of the five, one didn't see anything weird about the name. Two thought it was stupid but still want it. Two thought it was the Nintendo WiFi.

[BobJustBob]

A guy at work missed this whole thing because he was home yesterday. So today he overheard me mention the name and I explained it to him. His response: "I was planning on buying one until just now."

[Jazar]

A guy at work missed this whole thing because he was home yesterday. So today he overheard me mention the name and I explained it to him. His response: "I was planning on buying one until just now."

Nintendo didn't want him anyways.

[Rob Beschizza]

http://www.celestialmechanics.com/avatar/unintended.jpg

[Bob Violence]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was called the Nintendo Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan, while the phrase Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was only for the European and US markets. From what I understand the whole reason why they named it the Famicom was because the rival game playing systems were sometimes also computers (the MSX comes to mind, but I think it may post-date the Famicom, I'm sure someone else can come up with a better example that predates it). Which is silly because the Famicom literally can't do anything but play games-- you can't word process on it, or anything else for that matter.

I don't think there was a word processor (at least not from Nintendo themselves), but there was a keyboard and BASIC programming software, along with a cassette peripheral for saving your programs (since the BASIC software couldn't be used with the Disk System). There was also a network adapter that could be used for banking, stock trading, and betting on horse races. None of this ever made it stateside, of course.

[Mike Cathcart]

Dear Justin Fletcher,

If the name doesn't hurt the sales of the product how is it the worst marketing line in history or whatever it is you were saying? How many times have there been products that were so poorly named that people boycotted them and/or brought lawsuits against the company that made them? Wouldn't one of those be the actual worst? Sounds like this would be just another name. Except with piss and/or French people saying yes and maybe a few people referring to themselves in the first person. But still, if you admit that with a decent software lineup it will do fine is it really the worst marketing line ever? Or maybe just not a great one?

Best regards,
Mike Cathcart

PS Is my sarcastic letter format OK? Do we have to do this all the time? Because I don't remember Tom saying anything about it. Thanks!

[Old Man Gravy]

I HOPE THEY RELEASE A SPECIAL CONTROLLER IN JAPAN FOR KITSUNE AND HIS FRIENDS AND IT'S CALLED THE WII WII CUP

LOL LOL LOL

[LesJarvis]

On your first glance, without reading Nintendo's Mission Statement? Jolly good, Holmes!

Yep. Maybe I should join Mensa or something.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Yep. Maybe I should join Mensa or something.
We don't want you.

[Shadari]

Nintendo's new name is a bit odd, but let's be honest here, the whole purpose of this thread is just to piss off Dave Long....





























....not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

[Justin Fletcher]

Dear Justin Fletcher,

If the name doesn't hurt the sales of the product how is it the worst marketing line in history or whatever it is you were saying? How many times have there been products that were so poorly named that people boycotted them and/or brought lawsuits against the company that made them? Wouldn't one of those be the actual worst? Sounds like this would be just another name. Except with piss and/or French people saying yes and maybe a few people referring to themselves in the first person. But still, if you admit that with a decent software lineup it will do fine is it really the worst marketing line ever? Or maybe just not a great one?

Best regards,
Mike Cathcart
As I conceded, I can't think of anything that beats Nogger Black Ice Cream.

"One of the worst marketing lines in gaming history" is not the ridiculous looking and ridiculous sounding name; it's the dreck that the Marketing folks came up with to try and explain the ridiculous looking and ridiculous sounding name. Hyperbole? Perhaps. I'm sure that someone will bust out another Nogger-esque example if I'm wrong.

You lost me in the middle there, but, yes, the Wii (shudder) will still triumph if it's got the goods. But this weirdo marketing will either be an embarrassing blemish or, best case scenario, a non-starter when it could have been a huge asset.


PS Is my sarcastic letter format OK? Do we have to do this all the time?
Only if the mood strikes.

[LesJarvis]

We don't want you.

Damn, I guess I'll have to settle for whatever second-tier Mensa equivalent I can find.

[Jason Cross]

See, that's not the part of the equation that I question. I question the unstated assumption that there is some other demographic that will somehow find that name appealing.

More to the point -

When you talk to those people (moms, girlfriends who don't normally buy game systems, whatever) and you tell them what the name is, they all think it's retarded, too.

I can fully appreciate the idea that you would name something with a un-gamer-centric moniker to help make it appeal to non-gamers. But if you do that, you gotta pick a name that non-gamers at least like.

[bago]

The Washburn Institute for Intellects? Also known as ....

[Shadarr]

I can fully appreciate the idea that you would name something with a un-gamer-centric moniker to help make it appeal to non-gamers. But if you do that, you gotta pick a name that non-gamers at least like.
Unfortunately, Great Little Box (www.greatlittlebox.com) was already taken.

[DaveC]

I didn't keep calling Xbox 360 "neXt Box" after its proper moniker was announced. Why should I keep calling Wii by its codename?



Well, that would have been silly considering it's codename was Xenon.

[DaveC]

From Wired:

Full Story (http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1467976)

Blah, blah, blah... more mental masturbation from WIRED. They lost my respect when they gave Kahney, the not-ironic Mac worshipper, a soapbox to preach from. That little piece carries no more weight than any of the points brought up here.

[Lizard_King]

I HOPE THEY RELEASE A SPECIAL CONTROLLER IN JAPAN FOR KITSUNE AND HIS FRIENDS AND IT'S CALLED THE WII WII CUP

LOL LOL LOL
Awesome.

I'm not in love with Wii -- but Wii works.
Lollerskates.

I think this is the point. Viral advertising via potty humour. What could be a better sign that Nintendo is ready to welcome grownups who want to feel like kids for a little while?

[SpoofyChop]

Damn, I guess I'll have to settle for whatever second-tier Mensa equivalent I can find.

I think that group is called Womensa.

[DaveC]

D'oh - http://www.weimagineinc.com/index1.htm http://www.wii.gov.in/

[Simpilot]

Can you imagine how much the Nintendo PR folks are dreading E3 now? They know they are getting about 1,000 questions per day about this silly name. Wouldn't want to be Perrin Kaplan or beth lewellin right now.

[Dave Long]

Nintendo's new name is a bit odd, but let's be honest here, the whole purpose of this thread is just to piss off Dave Long....





























....not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

If that was the goal, it failed miserably at doing so.

[runesword forger]

Can you imagine how much the Nintendo PR folks are dreading E3 now? They know they are getting about 1,000 questions per day about this silly name. Wouldn't want to be Perrin Kaplan or beth lewellin right now.

Nah. There's no place for followup questions and it's dead simple to stay on message. Someone asks about the name, its connotations, the controversy. PR flack sez it's dandy, it means we're all together, visually shows controller, yadda yadda.

Can't go anywhere then. What's the followup?

"But, but... it's like piss!"

[claybob]

Unfortunately, Great Little Box (http://www.greatlittlebox.com) was already taken.


Ohh, the bite size box people now come in a party-pack!!

[bago]

So when it comes time for me to move my Wii I can put it in a great little box? Sweet.

[Terrence]

In lieu of an existing library, we're reduced to pissing over specs and the fruitiness of names. Sheesh. This is gonna keep y'all from recommending XBox 1 games for me, aren't you?

Why am I agreeing with Kitsune, anyway? I'm agreeing with his principled stances, but I'm sure to disagree with his opinions of the games taht are eventually released :)

[jim crawford]

Haven't been keeping up with the thread, so forgive me if this has already been posted:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/punkd/did-nintendo-punk-us-with-wii-170381.php


... there are no trademarks registered by Nintendo nor by any dummy corp in the U.S or over there for Wii. This is unprecedented for Nintendo and it is not possible that his is an oversight. If Wii were the name, they would have registered it. In fact, no new trademarks have been registered by Nintendo at all. This leads us to conclude that Nintendo has in fact registered the real name under a dummy corp, which is SOP when trying to keep a name a secret prior to launch.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Well, okay. That seems different than what you were saying before, and I don't disagree with this.

It's not different - no goalpost shifting or anything like that. It's just expressed better.


I'd add, though, that you aren't likely to make people go back to being satisfied with "dinosaurs collecting fruit" by hobbling your hardware--not as long as your competitors are still offering those realistic games. If "dinosaurs collecting fruit" is not what the majority of people want and they have an alternative option, they will go with it. The only thing you limit by limiting your hardware is your own ability to deliver it to them. On the other hand, there is no good reason why you can't still do dinosaurs collecting fruit on more powerful hardware. There is no law that says that every game must use every last feature or ounce of horsepower that the hardware offers. And before you say it, I totally agree that game publishers too often don't understand that, and that's one of the industry's big problems. But I'm not sure that "weaker hardware" is a good solution (or any kind of solution, unless your goal is to chase all the publishers away to other platforms).

It will give the games an outlet and a dedicated audience. If it's cheap, the audience will be broad and even competitive with other, tech-focused platforms. Development costs for Wii (lol) are reportedly in the single-digit thousands, whereas those of 360 and PS3 are more than ever. Games will be cheaper for Wii (lol) across the board to buy and to produce. But really, I wasn't advocating Nintendo's system as a savior of artistic games or anything - that was just a vain hope. I just know they need an outlet, and that is increasingly unlikely to be on next gen systems.


I think there will be games like that, but there are plenty of games on, say, the PS2 that choose a stylized aesthetic over a realistic one and still sell millions of copies. But even if you're right, and those sorts of games are doomed to dwindle, I still don't see how making a console with weaker hardware is going to do anything to change that. Again, if gamers really prefer the realistic games, then making a console incapable of delivering them is just going to chase gamers away to other platforms.

At this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best_selling_computer_and_video_games - there is a list of ... well, you can see in the link there. It doesn't look good. Oh, cool - looks like Pikmin 2 broke a million. I heard it bombed horribly.


At the risk of being, uhm, cut up, I'll say that I partly agree. But I think there's a lot of nostalgia there, too. We tend to forget how many of those old games were terrible (and sometimes downright unplayable) pieces of crap. People were trying new things because they didn't know the rules, sure, but for the same reason, the majority of the games just ended up being not very good. In fact, it got to be so many that the whole console industry crashed and went away for a number of years.

Did I say they were good? It was just a great time for insane crap, is all. People could just make stupid games in their garage and make a few bucks off it. I think this generation of consoles has been the best yet, but there are aspects of those old systems that I miss because they were genuinely good aspects. No nostalgia - I think it was great how you could make a game like Gribbly's Day Out or Thing on a Spring or Nebulus or whatever - pretty much by yourself - and it would sell enough to buy you a scooter or whatever. Good times.


I guess we're just going to have to disagree here. Being an artist, I talk to artists all the time, and I can't say that I've ever met one that would agree with that statement. I certainly don't.

But the thing is, you're loading the dice in your favour. If the developers had a generous budget, and a pony, and an ice cream factory - would they be happy? No shit they'd be happy. In real life, however, there is always a problem. In this case: Inevitable financial disaster for artistically-inclined games with large budgets.


Well, yeah. But I'm not talking about some sort of hypothetical situation that can only ever exist in theory. I'm talking about the practical reality of making art. And in reality, all other things being equal, it's pretty much always better to have a larger budget rather than a smaller one, and a wider range of choices in media and techniques rather than a smaller one. Or, to bring it back to consoles, more hardware capabilities that you can opt to take advantage of rather than fewer.

Better for the art? Not always. And my whole point is all other things are not equal. Ever. That is not a practical point of view - it's hypothetical, wishy-washy fantasy logic. Artists like huge budgets. And then the projects fail. That is the restriction. So most choose another one, because good artists don't like to waste other people's money.


Huh? I never said that--you did. All I said was that artists would prefer a generous budget to not.

But you're not telling them about the inevitable crushing financial failure that comes with the big budget. Or the compromises they will have to make if they want it to succeed. Thus, you are talking about hypotheticals.


No offense, but: not really. If you are tired, though, then your comments make more sense in context. I recommend coming back to them after getting some sleep.

Looking back, I'm pretty happy with what I wrote, so I guess I was just worrying needlessly. I think it's you.



Hey, Something Awful posted some links to arty free games - check it out, Ben (not Sones). Some are ones I posted, but not all. Didn't know about The Swarm or Zen Bondage.

[Ryan Markel]

You mentioned development costs and the fact that it will be substantially easier to develop for Wii from a fiscal standpoint. Sure, the hardware is less powerful than what you are seeing from the other two major players.

But how many of you here have invested some money in the independent PC game market? Star Chamber? Oasis? Darwinia? How many of you have taken a chance on these smaller games with small dev teams and small budgets, and come away from the experience with a game that's less technically accopmlished, requires less in the way of graphical horsepower, and is (often) easier to get into and also loads of fun to play?

A lot of those games are unusual because it's easier to take risks when you're not dumping millions of dollars into God-knows-what in your development budget. (disclaimer: I am not a game developer; I manage a one-man development team and twelve testers for a church application; I am, however, a game player.)

Isn't is possible that someone at Nintendo just took the logical jump and applied this to console gaming? We're already seeing it in microcosm in Xbox Live Arcade, and I have to say for myself that I'm very, very intersted in seeing what a full platform based off this kind of philosophy will look like and what it will do (especially with such a unique control scheme).

Sure, there will be people who won't get it. Oasis and games like it don't sell blockbuster amounts of copies like the big, expensive-to-develop games do (hasty generalization). But it will, in theory, be easier for companies to turn a tidy profit if their games don't cost an arm and a leg to produce, and development houses will go where there's profit. All it will take is Nintendo reaching out to the right people.

I'm hopeful for the futures of the Wii, even if I also think the name is marketing nonsense.

[GH33DA]

http://www.gh33da.com/wtf.avi

I think that sums it up.

[Bill Dungsroman]

In lieu of an existing library, we're reduced to pissing over specs and the fruitiness of names. Sheesh. This is gonna keep y'all from recommending XBox 1 games for me, aren't you?

Why am I agreeing with Kitsune, anyway? I'm agreeing with his principled stances, but I'm sure to disagree with his opinions of the games taht are eventually released :)
Wow, I really care about all of this.

[dannimal]

I got through page 7 of the Dave-baiting (and the expected fanboy response), and then gave up.

I went to my wife, typed "Wii" on her laptop screen and said "That's what Nintendo is going to call it's new console."

Her response? "That's dumb. Is it 'Why'?"

In the end, the name isn't going to have a meaningful impact on the number of consoles sold. That cuts both ways. It blunts the arguments of the haters who say "This is going to end up killing the console" and the lovers who say "This name is so inviting it will draw in the non-gamers!" (which includes the marketing morons at Nintendo who came up with that paragraph about what Wii means).

Names don't matter. Dreamcast didn't "fail" because of the name any more than Playstation succeeded because of the name. People laughed at iMac and iPod and the fact that Apple throws an "i" in front of anything it can. People still call platform gaming of all kinds (at least, the people Nintendo seems to want to draw in) "playing nintendo" or "playing playstation" regardless of what platform it is.

A non-gaming example: Our campus e-mail service is named "ITCS IMAP Service". Users don't call it that, and they never will. When they call for help and are asked what e-mail service they use (since there are multiple on campus, some by individual colleges, and such), they'll reply anything from "I use your e-mail service" to "Mulberry/Eudora/Outlook/Mail.umich.edu" (all programs or URLs to interface to the IMAP service). We've recently added an Exchange service, and in a meeting there was some discussion as to what to call it (one of the groups involved didn't like that it was named "After" another group). Since my job lies both in the provider and end-user space, they asked me what I thought. I said "Come up with a name you can all live with, because the users won't ever use any name you come up with".

All that said, it's a terrible name. All the reasons have been covered. People trying to cast aspersion on Revolution are doing it ex post facto to make things seem better. Nintendo has just made it easier to do what people would have done anyway. SeXBox, Gaystation, whatever.

[Wholly Schmidt]

You know what I decided today? Much worse than any euphemisms, it just sucks because it doesn't sound grammatically correct to say "I have a Wii". At least Playstation, Xbox, whatever, all sound like nouns, like actual objects. "I have a Wii" just doesn't sound natural to say. Also, any time it's prefaced by "a", it runs all together when you say it and sounds even worse. "Have you tried the Wii?" sounds so much better than "Yes, I've tried a Wii." Uh-weee. Bleh.

[Uncle Larry]

As a brand logo, it's actually kind of striking, and not just for being retarded. But that effect only lasts until you hear yourself saying it out loud, then it's embarrasing again.

[Andrew Mayer]

What they need now is to have ad campaign starring Dave Chappelle where he just stands up with the machine and shouts "Wii Bitches!" into the camera.

I think that would cause everyone's heads to explode.

[jiffy]

Get the dude from the Super Mario Bros Super Show.

"It's a-me on the a-weeee." :D

[wildpokerman]

Also, what about James Cameron and Peter Jackson? None of the LoTRs, Terminators, Titantic, The Abyss, etc. could've made been without cutting edge technology. Cameron and Jackson use technology to tell stories that couldn't have been told properly in 1960.

Oh Wii-lly?

I thought that King Kong had been told several times over, and many would say while Jackson's version was visualy impressive the past versions were very satisfactory. Also they are classics while Jackson's King Kong is forgettable summer fare.

Also hello dog, LOTR? That story was told very well with paper and pencil.

King Kong (the classic) was made in 1933, JRR Tolkien started writing LOTR in 1937. By the time your 1960 rolled around both of "his" great stories were classics, and he wasn't even born yet.

And uh titanic, what an original story. Thank god we have technology to make blockbuster movies or people would have completely forgotten about this ship right?

[MattKeil]

You know what I decided today? Much worse than any euphemisms, it just sucks because it doesn't sound grammatically correct to say "I have a Wii". At least Playstation, Xbox, whatever, all sound like nouns, like actual objects. "I have a Wii" just doesn't sound natural to say. Also, any time it's prefaced by "a", it runs all together when you say it and sounds even worse. "Have you tried the Wii?" sounds so much better than "Yes, I've tried a Wii." Uh-weee. Bleh.

The weakness of the name goes far beyond the homonyms, yes. It's just the homonym aspect that jumps out first. Yesterday I was talking about various upcoming things with a friend, and he wondered if Super Monkey Ball was the only game Sega would announce for the Revolution. I corrected him that it was for the Wii. There was a pause, and he commented, "That's so stupid. It sounds like air escaping from a tire, not the next big game phenomenon."

It really does feel dumb to be saying the word. Even mentioning the name in meetings makes everyone in the room pause due to how silly it sounds. Every once in a while it hits me all over again that we're stuck saying "Wii" for five years.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I brought this up with my girlfriend yesterday. I put it to her (har!) that the code name was Revolution and they decided on Wii.

"What? Why didn't they use the codename? Is that short for something?"

[Slothrop]

I knew they were going to give it a stupid name, and I knew it was going to be stupider than I could imagine. But... I still can't believe it.

[Wholly Schmidt]

"Is that short for something?"
I expect more from you Bill. Like a "Not in my case baby" *winkwinknudge* response.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I expect more from you Bill. Like a "Not in my case baby" *winkwinknudge* response.
Eh, big dick jokes only work on chicks who don't know how big my dick isn't yet, you know?




PEE ESS fire, who refused to let me email a pic of my erect penis after I'd just hooked up my PC cam.

[quatoria]

There's nothing PC about a picture of your dick, Bill.

[instant0]

"Wii" is not a name... its a symbol, course it will be hard to express that with the sound the letters make, although 'We' is a close bet I'd think.

Dont look at it as 3 letters, but as a 'design'... see how the font works.

I think it looks good :)

[quatoria]

"Wii" is not a name... its a symbol, course it will be hard to express that with the sound the letters make, although 'We' is a close bet I'd think.

Dont look at it as 3 letters, but as a 'design'... see how the font works.

I think it looks good :)

So it's the 'artist formerly known as prince' of the video gaming world. Is that supposed to make me like it MORE?

[Lizard_King]

Fuck you. Prince rocks. Or whatever his (its?) name is now.

[RickH]

He rocked up until the point he disappeared up his own ass about the time of, say, Graffiti Bridge.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Yeah quatoria, fuck you(?)

[Qmanol]

While Wii is a rather stupid name, I can already feel my irritation at it wearing off. Why, only a day or two ago, I would have used the qualifier 'immensely' instead of 'rather'. I don't think it'll be a problem, though I do wish they'd chosen something different.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Metal Slug Collection for Wii. Awesome. Uses the wiimote - hopefully like Abuse uses the mouse cursor. And hopefully just optionally. SNK wouldn't have done it if it wasn't cheap, so already things are going pretty well.

EDIT: So what is the bad news, I wonder?

[Chris Nahr]

Gamasutra (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060501/sheffield_01.shtml) asked a few industry types about the name. They all agree it's amazingly stupid but won't really affect sales, or their support for the console.

Also, this feature has the first Greg Costikyan quote ever that I agree with:


I want to be a brand consultant and make big bucks coming up with completely idiotic names for things and chuckling all the way to the bank as suits make fools of themselves announcing their new name. Hence Wii, which I will henceforth commence to pronounce as "vih-ee;" clearly it is an Anglicisation of the plural of the nonexistant Latin noun "vius". Just as I insist on pronouncing Glu as "gluh." If it were "glue," after all, it would be spelled that way.

Revolution was a good strong name. Wii is... silly.