Why the Wii is winning

I've started and not finished this post several times.

The question can be asked, why the Wii? Why not go with the Xbox 360 or the PS3?

We own a PS2. My wife and I purchased it on our anniversery about 4 years ago with the intention of using DDR to get in shape and have fun. Bad knees have kept me from playing DDR for most of that time. We own about 10 titles for the PS2, most of them purchased by or for our kids. The only one which has held my attention for more than 20 minutes is Crazy Taxi.

Is this indicative of myself or the game machine?

I'd have to say mostly it's me.

I started gaming on a computer more than 25 years ago (1981 if you want to be exact.) Back then, it was all text based, with the occasional ascii game. You could also use a modem to get to MIT and play this game called Zork, if you had access to an academic service (I did.)

Even prior to that, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons back at the old White Box set.

As time has gone on, most of the games I find myself drawn to are story/puzzle/strategy based with the occasional sports simulation thrown in. However, unlike the character of Brodie in Mallrats, I would not, and have not left a warm, occupied, bed to go play on a video game, especially not a sports simulation.

When the PS3 was announced, I was interested, but more in the "shiny new toy" syndrome way. The Xbox has never really held any interest to me, the 360 less so since you have to pay for the HD DVD as an add-on. When the cost was announced for the PS3, I cringed.

When the Wii came out, I was interested, but not enough to wait in line to buy one. As time went on, and several of my co-workers purchased Wii's and raved about them, my curiosity level was raised. Then, last May, while wandering through Costco as the guests of family (we ended our Costco membership about 8 years prior when they stopped taking Discover Card, and renewed it that day) lo and behold, there was a Wii bundle for sale, and there were many in stock. So, on an impulse, I convinced my wife we should get one.

Having now played on the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii ( the others courtesy of friends,) I now know why Nintendo is winning.

1. First and foremost, the darn thing is fun out of the box. Are the graphics on the included Wii Sports so spectacular that they make your eyes pop? Absolutely not. But the 5 games, plus training simulations plus Wii Fitness are all fun. Sure, there are frustrations with them, but that first night we had the Wii was the final performance (and the reason my wife's Costco card bearing relatives were in town to begin with,) of our oldest son's appearance as Motel in Fiddler on the Roof. I was taping the show and had arranged to get into the theater when dropping our son off for cast call an hour prior to the doors opening. As part of my taping, I was also reserving the best seats in the house (by my observance,) for my wife and her parents with the understanding they would arrive at the time the doors opened.

6:30 came and no family. People were streaming into the theater and giving me ugly looks as my camera bag and microphone stretched out over the premium seats.

6:45, still no family. I've now had to demurely say "yes these seats are taken" more than 20 times.

Finally at 6:52, they arrive. Their reason for being late? They were bowling on the Wii and so lost track of time that they also forgot to eat dinner (which they were supposed to do as well.)

As time has passed, we've purchased several games for the Wii and been given a few others. And I still keep coming back to the Wii Sports as the games I want to play.

With a PS3 I'd have made a much larger investment in money just to get the machine with a game, and thusfar I have not seen the "wow factor" game that makes me want to own one.

Same with the Xbox 360.

2. The Wii as exercise. Yes, I'm aware of the study which says exercizing on the Wii is minimally better than walking to the fridge to get a beer and snacks and you would be better off doing actual exercise. I also think the study is inherantly flawed.

First and foremost, I use the Wii for exercise. Is it my only form, no. However, you try and do the Wii Punching bag training exercises for boxing for over 15 minutes and see how you're doing at the end. Unless you are languidly sitting on the couch doing it, you will move, build up a sweat and get your heart racing.

The same with Tennis, though it can take longer to build up your heart rate.

Secondly, the Wii gets you up and moving. And, the more you move, the more likely you are to engage in more exercise, not neccessarily on the Wii. I do expect within 3 years you will start to see studies in gerentology that show elderly people living longer in rest home situations where the rest home has a Wii. Because, as they get up and move, even if it is to play a non-cardio game such as Bowling, it gets them up and moving, which increases their immune system and their ability to fight disease.

3. There is also the Wii as a theraputic/learning device. My wife dislocated her shoulder severely this summer. To the point where they were talking surgery. A lot of the exercises she was prescribed were mimicked by the Wii Tennis simulation for returning balls. When she mentioned this to her physical therapist, he suggested she try it for two weeks to see what could happen with the usual caveats about not overdoing it, if it hurts, stop etc. Two weeks later, he insisted she continue doing so as her arm was making remarkable progress. A month after that, she was out of physical therapy. As the Wii games and periphreals (i.e. the Wii Fit aka the Balance Board) advance, it's possible that more and more simulations can be created for range of motion therapy as well as the addition of games which can be used for testing simulation (i.e. I can easily see using the Wii as an aid to help people train for the SAT's by helping them visualize the math problems where train A starts at 45 miles away running at 8mph and B starts 85 miles away and runs at 19 mph etc.)

4. Though obvious, price really has something to do with it. Beyond the fact that it takes a lot less time to save up for a Wii, the $249 entry price makes it in the realm of possibilty of an "impulse" buy (which is what we did.)

5. Casual gaming. There are alot more causal gamers out there than hardcore gamers. If you're in doubt, take a look at sites like Pogo.com and Popcap.com. In 3 years Pogo has gone from the ugly red-headed stepchild of EA, shunted to a seperate building, to their highest money making
division. Popcap started modestly with download games and has since expanded to retail outlets. I would even go so far as to suggest that World of Warcraft is a casual game (more on this in a later post.) But, in short, WoW was the first MMO to make it fun out of the box without a steep learning curve, which attracted the casual gamer. Causal gamers don't think about state of the art graphics. They want games which they can use as an escape, but don't need to commit a large amount of time to playing. Nintendo brought that to them with both Wii Sports and Wii play, then followed it up with Big Brain Academy, Mario Party 8 and the Zelda training game for the Wii Zapper. And, from what we've seen so far, they are continuing the trend with the upcoming Wii Fit. Once I actually give my kids Super Mario Galaxy, I might have to include that in as well.