Are Wii the Children of the Revolution?
Technological revolution? Are you kidding? The Wii is the current generation console for Nintendo. Their main focus is to make the Wii small, affordable and to play games in a whole new way using what current technology could do. So yeah, the Wii is not a technological revolution, and future generation consoles will also never be.
If you mean by technological revolution as a huge advancement in modern technology, something that has never been done before, the Wii console doesn't meet up with the requirements. No other console could meet up with this requirement. To have a technological revolution would require a huge sum of money to research and home console producers are not willing to pay for such research. Even if one does happen to have the money, either the price of the console becomes only affordable by the wealthiest people or they'll lose a whole lot of money for selling the consoles cheap; lose so much money that its not worth the effort. Companies like Nintendo and Sony just want to apply current affordable technology, they won’t try to be scientists and invent more advance technologies.
Technological revolution is a bit too far and impossible so instead, I'll use gaming revolution as in something that in the gaming industry has never done before. This is the goal of Project Revolution, the Wii.
If anyone remembers the day Nintendo showed their new console to the world, everyone was amazed. It was different from everything out there; no one could ever imagine this will be the next console. People like to compare the Wii controller to ParaPara, a dancing game that involves moving your hands over sensors, but it is completely different. ParaPara is no different from automatic door sensors, it detects only in 1D space, a straight line. The Wii detects complete 3D space. Any movement: up, down, left, right, front, back or even rotating the controller, would be detectable by the console. Don't tell me ParaPara could do that. This is the same with light guns. Can the game tell how close you are to the monitor when you shoot? Not only the controller could detect position, it could detect motion. It could recognize the difference if you're chopping meat or rolling dough. It could read some more complex actions like recognize what type of swing or serve you do in tennis. Nintendo truly made something that’s new and works perfectly.
Many people tend to overlook the design of the Wii. It took a lot of work to design a device that was originally the size of a computer to only 3 DVD cases stacked up on top of each other. The first impression I usually hear when people first see the Wii is, “Wow, it’s that small?” If you haven’t been keeping up with technology, things keep getting better and smaller. The Wii is obviously doing that. The Wii’s design is also made for everyone. With this in mind, Nintendo tried something different than its competitors, from the ordinary to the revolutionary. The controller is designed specifically to look like a normal TV remote so it would be familiar to all, not like the traditional controller shape the Xbox or PlayStation has. The materials and structure of the console is also designed to be durable and cheap. You could smash the Wiimote all you want, it’s not going to break. Seriously, if you fling it against a wall, it would dent the wall and the controller would still work (Don’t try that at home). The console with a Wiimote only cost $289.99 with such sturdy material. The Wii has a great compact design and durability for a cheap price, what more could you ask?
Nintendo has its priorities and has successfully accomplished those high on their list. They wanted a console about the size of 3 DVD cases stacked together, a console that uses so little power that it could be left on 24/7, a console that puts gaming in a whole new way, completely changing the way people think about games, a console that could bring people together, whether they played video games for years or never played before. And they did it. Same as the PS3, their aim was for the highest graphics and processors possible. I would say they achieved this with its high price. The Wii's aim should be mostly criticized while everything else being minor points and meaningless. If you do criticize something that was not intended, it's like criticizing a ruler for not being able to write. After all that, my point is it is stupid to even mention the other consoles have better graphics than the Wii. You might as well say, "My pencil writes better than your ruler so my pencil is superior to your ruler." Also, what is with the Wii being an exercise machine? It was never meant to be one and has never been Nintendo's goal therefore going back to the pencil-ruler business. If Nintendo wanted their games to exercise people and make people more active, they might as well put 50kg weights in the controller and make it shape as an exercise machine, not a remote.
People don't seem to truly understand the purpose of the Wii. It was meant to be a console that allows players to play games a whole new different way, in a way that everyone would want to try it. To do this, the console was also made very small, affordable and home friendly. The controllers are shaped as remotes so people could put them along the other remotes they have. What the Wii was never meant to be was to have high graphics or to help people become more active (even though it seemed like it was a goal at first sight). The controller is no where near previous and current generation controllers with motion sensing at a high accuracy and being able to recognize different movements. I believe the Wii revolutionize gaming, changing everything in the past to something new. It even made Sony add the six axis function to the PS3 controllers which were announced only after Nintendo showed off their Wii. (I said I wouldn’t write a longer post, I lied.)
posted by Kenneth Leung @ 12:00 a.m.
1 comments
1 Comments:
This is a great entry, Kenneth! Great arguments and rhetoric devices. An original point-of-view.
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