I was in these very forums defending the Wii during its heyday. (There are some people in this thread who were there too!) The consensus was that the general public loved the Wii. You could bring one to anyone's house, and everyone would gather to play Wii Sports or some other party game like Just Dance. The Nintendo fans liked it because it was an upgrade from the drab GameCube days.
The more 'graphic' intensive gamers thought it would destroy gaming. This was a time when AAA games were released monthly, and the worry of 'diminishing returns' had not yet reached its full stride as it does today. (Wii Fit was considered the four horsemen of gaming's apocalypse.) These gamers predicted the Wii would die and never return. Eventually, they were right, after the generation was over.
In general, the Wii was believed by the general public, and the hardcore were against it. But its influence will be forever entranced. Nintendo's warning that better graphics would not make gaming more popular forever proved true. It's hard to argue that console gaming is more popular now than it was twenty years ago.
Also, angrypoolman would get banned every week because he trolled Ps3 and 360 in every post.
