Wii’ve come along way baby!
December 6, 2006
It’s a while after the D3’s came to town (Danish Electronic Entertainment Expo) and I have been meaning to do a big write up, but winter preperations seem to have overtaken, and this space has suffered 
However, I have mustered up the energy to do a tiny spot on the Wii experience from the D3’s, followed up by a little anecdote on the power of marketing (excited or what!) …
Whilst the D3´s themselves were fairly tame in terms of event size and wow-factor, the Wii zone was dressed to impress: minimalist style. The very 2001: A Space Odyssey white layout played the perfect background to all the physical movement going on by the anxious Wii players.
Wii Sports was the game of choice on the 10+ machines, and it was an attraction in itself to watch people happily make utter fools of themselves. My personal favourite was Wii Boxing, and it must be said that I was laughing at the pair of “air boxers” in front of us — right up until I got into the make-shift ring. I haven’t sweated so much in 2 minutes, since, ever! Needless to say that I think I pulled several muscles in my forearms from swinging wildly at the air. D3´s I could have left behind, but the Wii experience coloured me happy, 100% … (moving towards the anecdote) …
I was sold on buying the Wii, without having even thought about the PS3 (which was presented at the D3’s in a locked off area, protected by a lonely security guard). Nintendo had been doing everything right in my books – marketing towards women as players, innovative game-play, and easy on the wallet. But then, the terrible happened – a guild mate spoiled my Nintendo dream by sending me a rather provocative ad that set PS3 vs. Wii in the fine metaphor of “Serious overweight woman Vs. Silly skinny girlie”. Interestingly, after seeing this ad (real or not real – you tell me?), I found myself googling PS3 and all its doo-dads & games.
Whilst the PS3 is still out of my league in terms of cost – I am definately writing up a for and against list for “What I really want from a console”: frivilous and cheap or serious and engaging … hmmm … what kind of gamer am I?
