Wii:Nintendon't - The case against the Wii.

November 20th, 2006, 23:34 Posted By: gunntims0103

news via slate

I'll admit it—I was in love with the Nintendo Wii long before we'd ever met. And then, a few seconds after I touched those strange, new motion-sensing controllers, months of giddy anticipation vanished. I've played and won 14-hour-long Halo tournaments. I was a bird-slaughtering Duck Hunt master back when Times Square still had arcades. But the Wii, which is being marketed as the ideal system for newbies, made me feel like an incompetent novice. I don't blame myself. The ugly truth is that the Wii's already-legendary motion-detection system doesn't work very well.

Everything about the console is designed to welcome casual gamers, from that unfortunate name to the remote-shaped controller (aka the Wii Remote) that translates movement into in-game action. Internal gyroscopes and accelerometers detect tilt, rotation, and acceleration as you pantomime steering a car or slashing a sword. The wireless controller also acts as a pointer, using an optical sensor and a TV-mounted sensor bar to let you sweep crosshairs or a cursor across the screen. For complex games you can use an additional controller, which doesn't work as a pointer but can sense motion and has a traditional thumbstick. This device is called a nunchuk, since that's kind of what it looks like when you connect the two wireless controllers with a cord. But if you think you'll be able to whip them around like Bruce Lee, you're in for the first of many disappointments.

Nintendo wants you to believe that the Wii will tear kids off the couch and get them swinging virtual tennis rackets. There's also the suggestion that its intuitive game play could eliminate the steep learning curve that tends to repel both "casual gamers" and people who've never held a joystick before. When Time ran the first hands-on preview of the Wii, they included a photo of an ecstatic grandpa standing on his couch, controllers in hand.

I like to hear from user's about what they think about this. Do you believe that the wii motion detection doesnt work very well, when its suppose to be user friendly but is confusing even the most experienced gamers?

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