Friday, September 3, 2010

The Wii Cycle


Some years ago, the Wii was announced. Immediately, it was seen as a way to get active, fight childhood obesity and secretly transform a generation of sedentary gamers into fitness machines. Today, I keep trying to find shortcuts to moving my entire arm to play.

Don’t get me wrong. What the Wii tried to do was as well-intentioned as it was revolutionary. It also ignored the fact that if video gamers were looking for a physical challenge, they probably wouldn’t be playing video games in the first place.

My first day with Wii Sports was crazy. I was running and jumping around. I was swinging my arms and diving into furniture. Of course, bowling doesn’t require any of these actions, but I was excited.

I bowled a 6, for the record.

Two years later, I get aggravated any time a game sneaks in motion controls. I bought the Wii for the novelty of movement. But I bought my couch for the novelty of remaining motionless except for my thumb and forefingers. And – to be fair – the couch was here first.

Now, I may be a bit lazier than most. But I doubt my story is totally unique. Is anyone else sick of the Wii trying to improve them as a person, or is it just me?

Though, the one upside is when my Wii warns me to use the wrist strap to keep from throwing my controller accidentally – that’s always good for a chuckle.

8 comments:

  1. I use my Wii to stream Netflix movies so I think I got your laziness beat.

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  2. I'm sick of my Wii trying to improve me as a person! Who does he think he is; my mom? XD

    Awesome comic for this article by the way! 8D

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  3. @Brandon - Probably for the best. You never seemed to be the novelty cute game type. I'm not sure how Kinect will be, but the graphics alone will be awesome, obviously.

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  4. @SilentOrchestra - Thanks. That was probably one of my favorite comics yet. And yes, the Wii definitely needs to understand that all betterment of myself will be left to a mom or girlfriend.

    Ironically, even Jess doesn't try to improve me all that much - go figure.

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  5. I got a wii purely for monster hunter tri... and smash bros.

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  6. Wise choices. I think between the two I've played about 300 combined hours. And that doesn't even include how much my girlfriend played Smash Bros. I think those two games alone would be equal to ten other games in terms of how much I got out of them. They easily made the system worth owning alone.

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