I'm kind of surprised at this article considering the praise Wii fans have been giving the Wii's controls.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/25/dave-perry-gamers-ignore-wiis-sloppy-controls/

Dave Perry: Gamers ignore Wii's 'sloppy' controls
by Jason Dobson Sep 25th 2007 1:58PM

"Much ado has been made of recent comments spat by Shiny founder David Perry regarding the Wii's longterm success and ability to draw players away from the crisp graphics and high-defness of Xbox 360 and PS3. Now the always outspoken development veteran has called out Nintendo fans themselves in an interview, stating that while he is himself a Wii owner, Perry still believes that "there's just many issues with the Wii, and the fans just don't want to hear it."

He does offer the Wii kudos for its accomplishments so far, but adds that he finds it "interesting to see how people turn a blind eye to its flaws." What flaws exactly? Perry specifically takes issue with the Wii's 'sloppy' waggle control, and he's "surprised" that players are willing to accept this level of inaccuracy in their games.

While we agree that the Wii experience is definitely a mixed bag, it seems unfair to lay the burden of imprecise controls at the console's feet when games like Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 3 make such strides to validate a full range of motion controls. Still, he does have a sliver of a point when it comes to what players are willing to accept in the face of innovation."

He probably only played one game with bad controls to come up with his "proof."

sloppy controlls? What sloppy controlls? I don't get any. How about you guys? No never heard of it. There ARE no sloppy controlls. Now close your eyes and pretend this has never happened!

Sorry bad joke;) But although I think the Wiiremote's not perfect, I really didn't sense that kind of ehhh.. sloppyness. Maybe this guy should switch Wii's for a while or something, maybe it's a hardware glitch/bug.

 @dtewi: could be. I don't know. How anti-Wii is he?

Maybe he played SSX and couldn't get it "working" and says it's sloppy controls ?

Perry always says stupid stuff. What he doesn't realize is that using dual analog sticks is very sloppy compared to using an accurate pointer like the Wiimote's infrared, and people are already starting to notice that.

The waggle/motion control has been misused/overused quite a lot already. It makes sense for some things -- works great for tennis, bowling, golf, etc, but where it makes sense to use traditional controls you can use traditional controls. Look at RE4: it's obvious that the Wii control scheme is superior to using the gamecube or even classic controllers. I tried to switch back as a test, and it was hard to be nearly as accurate or aim as quickly with the sticks.

Developers are learning that you don't need to use motion control where it doesn't make sense, and that the infrared aiming is invaluable for gaming. There are very neat uses for motion control (displayed by many games) and very satisfying/simple uses (Godfather: Blackhand, Mario Strikers), but the infrared pointing is an innovating in console gaming.

Look, using the Wii-mote motion sensing to get accurate figures out of thin air is possible, but difficult.  It's not what it was intended to do.  I liked SSX Blur, but it took a lot of practice to make those figures.  It's not the input so much as it is the player -- s/he won't make perfectly clean motions.  If you develop your game with this in mind and make the motions distinct enough not to misinterpret them, you'll find the motion control is very satisfying to use.   It made games like Godfather awesome for me.  I wouldn't have otherwise been very interested in the game.

"Gamers ignore Dave Perry's sloppy games"

Generally it's up to programmers to have decent control.

And there are some games that have issues with it. But judging by the majority responding amazingly well*, one can surmise the problem is mostly user/programmer, though more tight controls would be great. Few people would not want more responsive accurate controls, even in cpntroller games (See: All games released with consoles)

* - It's laughable to say all games control well, or make sense though. Some games in Rayman, Boogie, etc show that poor controls do exist on the Wii. But games like Wario or Trauma Center, showed controls can be rediuclously accurate for the pointer, even for early build games. Nunchuk, well, the less that is used, I'm okay with. That one, easy to see flaws.

I pretty much said this the last time DP made some comments, but he's about the last person that should be allowed to talk about success. Especially long-term success.

While I think Dave Perry is a grade-A douchebag, there's no denying that many of the games released on Wii so far have had somewhat imprecise/sloppy controls, sadly very much including the launch Zelda (which was hella-fun, but if the combat was any more difficult, I would've been fucked. maybe my motions are just strange, but the movement tracking didn't recognize many of the gestures I made correctly).

HOWEVER, the reason for that is that most have been quick and easy ports. As the WiiMote is new technology, it takes a bit more effort to make it work precisely and well in-game. I've found that some of the more recent games (MP3, for example) have started to reach the levels of control accuracy I want from Wii games.

Complicated motion-based (not pointer-based) controls are still up in the air. I still hope they pull through.

I have been irritated at times with Madden 08. But, that is about it. Every other game I have played hasn't had any issues.