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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo Wii is a fad claim revisited.

 

Was Wii a fad?

Yes 219 55.30%
 
No 147 37.12%
 
Hesitant to say one way o... 29 7.32%
 
Total:395
TruckOSaurus on 25 March 2013
cyberninja45 said:

Ok let me bring some reality to this thread.

If you consider wii a fad so to are all other successful videogame console, from the wii, PS2 (look at your own analogy for skateboarding being a fad), ps1 , snes, nes and atari and yes personally I consider all video game consoles a fad.
Let me explain it like this.
Look at the music industry for the past 50 years, over these years their has been many different ways to listen to music, from record players, to cassette players, walkman's/disc man's, Ipods, phones etc. All these devices were popular at some point in time (a fad you could say), but their main purpose was to play music, in other words it was nothing more than a form of listening to music each one being out done because of technological advances or whatever.

Now how does this apply to videogames?
Simple really each video game console is just a means to play video games at that point in time. The consoles are nothing more than a means to play video games nothing more (just like music players), they will be popular for a period time and as advances in technology are made a new form of playing video games will take over (ie a next gen) and as this takes place the older form will naturally become less popular, as has happened every gen.

So yes all popular consoles can be called fads, which I agree with.
Also you don't need to have an English major to see that calling only the success of the wii a fad can be considered a negative.

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.



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J_Allard on 25 March 2013
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Absolutely not. Not unless you consider all game systems a fad. Its sales peaked in year 4 and year 5 had sales similar to year 2 and 3. It was a very typical console life. I would call a fad something that is big for 1 Christmas and dies afterward. Wii did not do that at all.

I wouldn't consider motion controls a fad either, as the Gamepad uses upgraded versions of it and Wii Remotes are still used, PS4 devoted a significant portion of the reveal to Move and its DS4 has motion sensing, and Kinect played a major late-life role for XBox360 and will likely be a major interface for Nextbox.

The only Wii-related thing I might call a fad is the Wii-series. Since many game series bridge generations, it should be reasonable to expect that a Wii game would have life in the following generation. Games like Guitar Hero have died off, so I call them fads. The test will be be Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and so on. I'm a bit skeptical on Wii Fit U and the others, but we haven't had the test yet to determine if they still have draw. We'll know soon enough.

Nice post, well put and pretty much sums it up imho.

The "all game sysytems are a fad" arguement is the worst I've seen and holds no water. The guys definition of fad is absolutly ludicris. 1 christmas? Give me a break. Skateboarding was a HUGE fad in the late 90's and lasted multiple years.


No more "ludicrous" than yours.

Skateboarding is still around and is still big. Just not "Extreme Games" or "THPS era" big.


My definition has been academically defined LOL!!!! How is that ludicris. As for Skateboarding... Backstreet Boys are still around also, yet they were a huge fad and skateboarding is a shadow of it's former self when Tony Hawk was active. Skate parks were huge and over crowded... now you can get the skate park to yourself almost every day.

I live in a North Texas town and we still have a very active skate park. So anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

The difference between consoles and skateboards is skateboarding is still around and still bigger than it was before it exploded. Will the Wii still be around in 5 years? No. Is the original Xbox still being made? No. So by your definition the Wii is a fad. But then so is pretty much every console. And every game. It all depends on how much you want to strip it down to a basic definition.

However, the guy I quoted, did a great job of explaining how it isn't a fad when you apply some logic and common sense. Many of its elements are being used in the WiiU. Hell its own peripherals work with the WiiU. Not only Nintendo's own console but Sony and MS now have motion controls. Not a fad. Unless, again, you're stripping it down to an extremely basic definition. In which case PS3 is also a fad. BluRay is a fad. Halo 4 is just a fad. I mean wow those sales sure have tapered off.

 

Skateboarding Culture

Skateboarding evolved from surfing – that's why the laid back counterculture nature found in the two sports makes sense.

The big difference is that surfing is now accepted by society and skateboarding is still struggling for mainstream acceptance. The youth culture and mindset has a lot to do with this.

This overall lack of acceptance has led to a gradual decline in the popularity of the sport: many skate parks sit empty, unused. Why?

  • The sport of skateboarding itself is in a period of decline
  • Skateboarders typically refuse to be fenced in - they don't want to be told what to do
  • The parks are sometimes poorly designed
  • The parks may be inaccessible to the youth who typically ride skateboards – I know of one city's skate park that is on an abandoned Navy Base, far from most neighborhoods

You wish it was anecdotal

No one is arguing that skateboarding is not in a period of decline. And the next 3 reasons it lists just prove my point. The park in my city is easily accessible and well designed. So yeah.. yours may vary. Doesn't make it factual.



Max King of the Wild on 25 March 2013
TruckOSaurus said:
cyberninja45 said:

Ok let me bring some reality to this thread.

If you consider wii a fad so to are all other successful videogame console, from the wii, PS2 (look at your own analogy for skateboarding being a fad), ps1 , snes, nes and atari and yes personally I consider all video game consoles a fad.
Let me explain it like this.
Look at the music industry for the past 50 years, over these years their has been many different ways to listen to music, from record players, to cassette players, walkman's/disc man's, Ipods, phones etc. All these devices were popular at some point in time (a fad you could say), but their main purpose was to play music, in other words it was nothing more than a form of listening to music each one being out done because of technological advances or whatever.

Now how does this apply to videogames?
Simple really each video game console is just a means to play video games at that point in time. The consoles are nothing more than a means to play video games nothing more (just like music players), they will be popular for a period time and as advances in technology are made a new form of playing video games will take over (ie a next gen) and as this takes place the older form will naturally become less popular, as has happened every gen.

So yes all popular consoles can be called fads, which I agree with.
Also you don't need to have an English major to see that calling only the success of the wii a fad can be considered a negative.

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.

On of the worst I'd say as the assertion that all game consoles are fads is absurd beyond belief. None of the media devices he named are fads in the music industry. That would have been the mini disc player (which is the only one I can say in my lifetime) and vinyl would be a rivival that was not a fad in it's prime but is now



Max King of the Wild on 25 March 2013
J_Allard said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Absolutely not. Not unless you consider all game systems a fad. Its sales peaked in year 4 and year 5 had sales similar to year 2 and 3. It was a very typical console life. I would call a fad something that is big for 1 Christmas and dies afterward. Wii did not do that at all.

I wouldn't consider motion controls a fad either, as the Gamepad uses upgraded versions of it and Wii Remotes are still used, PS4 devoted a significant portion of the reveal to Move and its DS4 has motion sensing, and Kinect played a major late-life role for XBox360 and will likely be a major interface for Nextbox.

The only Wii-related thing I might call a fad is the Wii-series. Since many game series bridge generations, it should be reasonable to expect that a Wii game would have life in the following generation. Games like Guitar Hero have died off, so I call them fads. The test will be be Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and so on. I'm a bit skeptical on Wii Fit U and the others, but we haven't had the test yet to determine if they still have draw. We'll know soon enough.

Nice post, well put and pretty much sums it up imho.

The "all game sysytems are a fad" arguement is the worst I've seen and holds no water. The guys definition of fad is absolutly ludicris. 1 christmas? Give me a break. Skateboarding was a HUGE fad in the late 90's and lasted multiple years.


No more "ludicrous" than yours.

Skateboarding is still around and is still big. Just not "Extreme Games" or "THPS era" big.


My definition has been academically defined LOL!!!! How is that ludicris. As for Skateboarding... Backstreet Boys are still around also, yet they were a huge fad and skateboarding is a shadow of it's former self when Tony Hawk was active. Skate parks were huge and over crowded... now you can get the skate park to yourself almost every day.

I live in a North Texas town and we still have a very active skate park. So anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

The difference between consoles and skateboards is skateboarding is still around and still bigger than it was before it exploded. Will the Wii still be around in 5 years? No. Is the original Xbox still being made? No. So by your definition the Wii is a fad. But then so is pretty much every console. And every game. It all depends on how much you want to strip it down to a basic definition.

However, the guy I quoted, did a great job of explaining how it isn't a fad when you apply some logic and common sense. Many of its elements are being used in the WiiU. Hell its own peripherals work with the WiiU. Not only Nintendo's own console but Sony and MS now have motion controls. Not a fad. Unless, again, you're stripping it down to an extremely basic definition. In which case PS3 is also a fad. BluRay is a fad. Halo 4 is just a fad. I mean wow those sales sure have tapered off.

 

Skateboarding Culture

Skateboarding evolved from surfing – that's why the laid back counterculture nature found in the two sports makes sense.

The big difference is that surfing is now accepted by society and skateboarding is still struggling for mainstream acceptance. The youth culture and mindset has a lot to do with this.

This overall lack of acceptance has led to a gradual decline in the popularity of the sport: many skate parks sit empty, unused. Why?

  • The sport of skateboarding itself is in a period of decline
  • Skateboarders typically refuse to be fenced in - they don't want to be told what to do
  • The parks are sometimes poorly designed
  • The parks may be inaccessible to the youth who typically ride skateboards – I know of one city's skate park that is on an abandoned Navy Base, far from most neighborhoods

You wish it was anecdotal

No one is arguing that skateboarding is not in a period of decline. And the next 3 reasons it lists just prove my point. The park in my city is easily accessible and well designed. So yeah.. yours may vary. Doesn't make it factual.

Bolded the important part. Skate parks that are poorly accessible or designed are the ones that remained empty even as skateboarding was big



TruckOSaurus on 25 March 2013
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.

On of the worst I'd say as the assertion that all game consoles are fads is absurd beyond belief

Tell me why.



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Max King of the Wild on 25 March 2013
TruckOSaurus said:
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.

On of the worst I'd say as the assertion that all game consoles are fads is absurd beyond belief

Tell me why.

Edited the response now. Mostly because the media he listed werent fads like he claims they were. The obvious media fad was the one he obviously forgot existed (most likely because of the fad status)



TheLastStarFighter on 25 March 2013
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Absolutely not. Not unless you consider all game systems a fad. Its sales peaked in year 4 and year 5 had sales similar to year 2 and 3. It was a very typical console life. I would call a fad something that is big for 1 Christmas and dies afterward. Wii did not do that at all.

I wouldn't consider motion controls a fad either, as the Gamepad uses upgraded versions of it and Wii Remotes are still used, PS4 devoted a significant portion of the reveal to Move and its DS4 has motion sensing, and Kinect played a major late-life role for XBox360 and will likely be a major interface for Nextbox.

The only Wii-related thing I might call a fad is the Wii-series. Since many game series bridge generations, it should be reasonable to expect that a Wii game would have life in the following generation. Games like Guitar Hero have died off, so I call them fads. The test will be be Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and so on. I'm a bit skeptical on Wii Fit U and the others, but we haven't had the test yet to determine if they still have draw. We'll know soon enough.

Nice post, well put and pretty much sums it up imho.

The "all game sysytems are a fad" arguement is the worst I've seen and holds no water. The guys definition of fad is absolutly ludicris. 1 christmas? Give me a break. Skateboarding was a HUGE fad in the late 90's and lasted multiple years.

 Either all consoles are fads because they have limited life, or no consoles including Wii are a fad.  Here is the anual sales of PS1 and Wii.  Very similar life, very similar lifetime sales.  Now, what is the argument that one was a fad and the other was not, other than a desire to put down Wii?  PS1 actually had its big drop off quicker, but that's no knock on PS1.  It's just both systems had a drop of almost 10 million in the year their successor was released.

PS1 Wii
4.3 3
9.2 16.5
19.3 24
21.6 21
18.5 17
9.3 13
7.4 5


TruckOSaurus on 25 March 2013
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.

On of the worst I'd say as the assertion that all game consoles are fads is absurd beyond belief

Tell me why.

Edited the response now. Mostly because the media he listed werent fads like he claims they were. The obvious media fad was the one he obviously forgot existed (most likely because of the fad status)

I'm still interested in your reasoning as to why all consoles can't be fads or as to why the Wii is the only console that can be considered a fad.



Signature goes here!

Max King of the Wild on 25 March 2013
TheLastStarFighter said:
Max King of the Wild said:
J_Allard said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Absolutely not. Not unless you consider all game systems a fad. Its sales peaked in year 4 and year 5 had sales similar to year 2 and 3. It was a very typical console life. I would call a fad something that is big for 1 Christmas and dies afterward. Wii did not do that at all.

I wouldn't consider motion controls a fad either, as the Gamepad uses upgraded versions of it and Wii Remotes are still used, PS4 devoted a significant portion of the reveal to Move and its DS4 has motion sensing, and Kinect played a major late-life role for XBox360 and will likely be a major interface for Nextbox.

The only Wii-related thing I might call a fad is the Wii-series. Since many game series bridge generations, it should be reasonable to expect that a Wii game would have life in the following generation. Games like Guitar Hero have died off, so I call them fads. The test will be be Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and so on. I'm a bit skeptical on Wii Fit U and the others, but we haven't had the test yet to determine if they still have draw. We'll know soon enough.

Nice post, well put and pretty much sums it up imho.

The "all game sysytems are a fad" arguement is the worst I've seen and holds no water. The guys definition of fad is absolutly ludicris. 1 christmas? Give me a break. Skateboarding was a HUGE fad in the late 90's and lasted multiple years.

 Either all consoles are fads because they have limited life, or no consoles including Wii are a fad.  Here is the anual sales of PS1 and Wii.  Very similar life, very similar lifetime sales.  Now, what is the argument that one was a fad and the other was not, other than a desire to put down Wii?  PS1 actually had its big drop off quicker, but that's no knock on PS1.  It's just both systems had a drop of almost 10 million in the year their successor was released.

PS1 Wii
4.3 3
9.2 16.5
19.3 24
21.6 21
18.5 17
9.3 13
7.4 5

Very pathetic attempt comparing a system that launched when consoles reached their limit at 60mil compared to a console that launched when consoles reached their limit at 160+mil



Max King of the Wild on 25 March 2013
TruckOSaurus said:
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:
Max King of the Wild said:
TruckOSaurus said:

Best reply in this whole thread. Thank you.

On of the worst I'd say as the assertion that all game consoles are fads is absurd beyond belief

Tell me why.

Edited the response now. Mostly because the media he listed werent fads like he claims they were. The obvious media fad was the one he obviously forgot existed (most likely because of the fad status)

I'm still interested in your reasoning as to why all consoles can't be fads or as to why the Wii is the only console that can be considered a fad.

Poor logic you've used there. I never once said the Wii was the only one that can be considered a fad. All I've said on the subject is the people claiming all consoles are fads (Ps2 more specifically) are completely wrong.