http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20677

This is a very good read i thought =)

I had to read that article, seeing the words 'failed' and 'Wii' in the same sentence.

You know, he's actually right. I've been trying to pinpoint why exactly the Wii annoys me, and this is it.

Really good read.

Opinion: Two Years In - How The Wii Has Failed

[Following his ebullient first installment praising Nintendo's Wii, designer Brice Morrison looks at the flip side - discussing just how the console "has failed to deliver on the magic it promised."]

Released in November, 2006, the Nintendo Wii is revolutionary to say the least. With its innovative user interface, it has completely taken the world by storm by reinventing what video games are and who they are made for.

With nearly 30 million sold worldwide and over 160 million lifetime sales predicted (more than twice that of the Xbox 360 or PS3), Nintendo has clearly hit the ball out of the park.

Critics are raving, the crowds are cheering, it seems as though the once sagging console industry has been rejuvenated and ready to run at a blistering pace for years to come.

To this day, two years after launch, you still have a hard time finding a Wii in stores. But what consumers are lining up to buy isn’t the Wii, what they are buying is the idea and the dream of the Wii.

Consumers, many of whom have never played games before, have been picking up a Wii, enjoying it for a few weeks, and then watching it collect dust by their TV. They can’t explain why, but for some reason they just don’t play it anymore.

This is because the Wii has failed to deliver on the magic it promised.

A License to Dream

When I first heard about the Wii, I was completely ecstatic. Though the idea of movement-based controls are now obvious, at the time it was completely and utterly original. Such an idea had never even crossed the average gamer’s mind.

All we saw for the future was a jump from button-mashing to VR Headsets, with nothing in between. This first step off of the classic game controller was nothing short of mind blowing.

Everyone who watched in awe at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006 also watched their minds begin spinning with ideas. This is a godsend, we thought. We can do everything!

We can make fitness games that work your body, shooting games with actual movement, puzzle games with tactile interface, and much more. Truly, the Wii seemed like a license to dream anything.

But the ceiling was bound to appear.

Waggle: The Empty Promise

The principle failure of the Wii and its Wii remote is in its promise of immersion through movement. When many people imagine what playing the Wii would be like after seeing the commercials and experiences of other players, they imagine an incredibly immersive experience.

The movement based controls of the Wii hearken to a completely visceral play session, becoming one with the virtual world in front of them. We all drooled at the opportunity to dive behind couches in our living room to escape gunfire, being able to replicate a real tennis match without leaving the house, or having a sword fight that was even more real and tactile than the ones we had as children with wooden sticks.

It has been a disappointment, therefore, to see our promised virtual experience reduced to shaking the controller.

The problem is that waggling the Wii remote does not, in itself, add to a gameplay experience. If I want to open a virtual door and am asked to turn the Wii remote instead of pressing a button, that doesn’t make the experience more immersive.

While it may be novel once or twice, the simple movement itself does not enrich the game. In fact, it can become tedious and frustrating. Developers are just as guilty as players in this regard.

Creating one game after another that is essentially a recycled last-generation title, but with new Wii remote action, does not make it any different than the title was before.

The sad truth is that substituting Wii remote movement for a button press is nothing more than an empty promise. Upgrading to a new technology only to have the freshly minted fun evaporate after one run through is not technology well spent.

Looking Behind the Curtain

I remember teaching my cousin how to play Wii Tennis, and when he went to serve the ball, he lifted his left hand, the one not holding the Wii remote, to toss. At that moment, he didn’t understand how the Wii worked.

All he knew was that it was some sort of magical machine that mimicked your real life movements. It was a joyous occasion and a incredible exploratory experience.

But the innocence did not last long. Upon further experimentation, he learned how the controller worked, discovering that a quick snap of the wrist gave the same forehand as a loopy swing of his whole upper body. As the initial amazement wore off, Wii Tennis became simply another video game.

When the public imagined what was possible with the Wii, we imagined complete, full-on physical experiences akin to backyard football. Perhaps, we thought, you may even get a little bruised up in a game on the Wii, playing with competitive friends.

Many of the early press responses to the Wii held this view, with parents saying that they enjoy it because it gets them and their kids off the couch. But to say that you think the Wii gets you off the couch is to reveal a naive understanding of its fundamental gameplay.

Sure, it may get kids off the couch, but when they’ll be doing off the couch is flicking their wrists, not playing basketball.

The limitations of the Wii remote’s accelerometer (even with Wii Motion Plus) reveal it to be far short of the dream machine that players were pining over. The necessary later release of Wii Fit shows that Nintendo developers have come to terms with the limitations of the Wii remote by itself.

Wii Fit may be fantastic for those who want exercise, but it’s too specialized of a peripheral to do much for those who want to explore the virtual worlds present in other games, but in a more immersive way. We wanted the Wii remote to satisfy our needs outside of exercise, too.

What We Bought Vs. What We Have

The Nintendo Wii is an elegant symphony of hardware, software, marketing, and imagination. At first glance, it appears that it can do everything you could think of, an experience full of promise.

Everyone loves the idea of the Wii. The idea of a totally immersive experience. The idea of games that are more like kickball and less like Tetris. The idea of entering a brand new world. But after some time, we learn that we have purchased nothing more than a shakable A-button.

Without doubt, future console releases and peripherals will attempt to satisfy us further. The Wii has made a great leap forward, but those who think we have already arrived are mistaken.

[Brice Morrison is a game designer who has been developing quirky titles since he was in middle school. Before taking a job at Electronic Arts, he developed several successful independent games such as Jelly Wars, an action adventure franchise, and QuickQuests, a casual MMORPG.

While at the University of Virginia, Brice founded Student Game Developers, an organization which continues to produce games every semester and open the doors to the games industry for students. His blog at BriceMorrison.com discusses games in a broader context and how they can be more than simply entertainment.]

Thanks ^ =)

The article seemed like just a hate filled opinion. Calling the Wii a failure is silly in just about any regard. And those who thought it would bring you into a virtaul reality world was just being ridiculous. It's still just a game console with motion sensing gameplay.

The problem isn't that the Wii is nothing more than "a shakable A button." It's that any game that uses motion controls for anything more than a shakable A button is ignored by the gaming press.

Plus, this guy may be the only person in the entire world (outside of a handful of misanthropic "hardcores") to be disappointed with Wii Sports.

most people buy the wii do so because its a new idea. and it seems cool. most then, aren't really looking for 'games' per se, and only trying to be part of the new cool scene. these are what have come to be called as casual gamers, or in my eyes, those who get into games just for the sake of being part of it and not really for playing.

that's why, as the article describes, the wii's magic only lasts for a few weeks before it gathers dust under the tv. my business man brother's wii hasn't been played in months, my friend's wii has been stuffed into his attic since last year, and my sister's wii has been sold already.

the article is pretty well written in my view, but the wii is no failure. its poised to outsell even the ps2's lifetime sales. failure is, in any industry, a lack of profit. if something is profiting, it cannot be called a failure, no matter how shitty the product really is.

Commercially, it´s a smashing success.

On a personal level..well, I bought the system for 1st party titles such as Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, Zelda, etc...and as such, I had a lot of fun with those titles, and still do when friends come over for Mario Kart and Smash sessions.

So, it´s been a good system for me since it´s stayed within what I expected, which was great 1st party titles and occasionally a good 3rd party title.

a very interesting and well thought out article. better summed up then i could do it but very close to my feelings, how will motion plus effect it

Interesting article as long as you read without a pre determined idea of what he's saying. In a way I agree because thee was a lot of hype surrounding the possibilities of the Wii and/or Revolution. So much we all knew that it could never be lived up to. After release that same hype persisted even when we got the reality of the Wii and of course it's going to eventually end up in a negative connotation.

Now although I disagree on another aspect that everyone is feeling this. I've bought close to 35 Wii games and persistently play it all the time. Only reason my Wii collects dust is because it's in a stationary position haha... anything that doesn't move collects dust. But I play it regularly... more so than my 360. Why? Because I like to play games on the Wii... it may or may not have anything to do with the wiimote on some genres but on most it'll turn an average game into a new experience for me.

Of course I'm the weird one apparently out of the bunch... I mean a persistent Wii gamers that buys a lot of games... unheard of. But I think most would be like this if they simply bought games persistently on the Wii or took a chance with something. A lot of Wii games aren't these epic adventure games that you know you'll like... a lot of them are eccentric or quirky titles that you really only know they are awesome because you've played it such as de Blob or Zack and Wiki or No More Heroes.

So in a way I agree and in a way I don't. I agree because Wii didn't live up to the hype because it simply couldn't. Nothing could have. Although I would like to point out that Motion+ should give that early hype about what the wiimote can do some relevance. But I don't agree though that everyone feels the Wii is a disappointment because I know I'm not apart of that group.