Virtual Fools

Originally posted on the Georgia Tech News Games blog.

Nintendo’s ultra-popular Wii gaming console is a piece of hardware that, out of the box, is designed to do more than play games. The Wii comes a number of “channels” that aren’t related to video games. These serve as dedicated portals for a few different media formats. It’s worthwhile to note that the Channels attach themselves to the familiar namesake of television while behaving more like Internet sites.

The Photo Channel assumes that the Wii is the kind of thing a person might have in their living room and would turn on to share their photos friends and family. The presence of the Forecast Channel suggests that the designers at Nintendo wanted the Wii to be the kind of hardware that people turn on in the morning like they would sit down at a computer. The same can be inferred by the News Channel, which was added a couple of months after the Wii’s launch and was clearly a part of their original design plan for Channels. Nintendo did not just want a media hub like the video and audio streaming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but rather they sought to encourage people to integrate play into their daily habits and their daily habits into play.

I must admit that as a regular game player more interested in a console with great games than multi-faceted software, the News Channel put me off. I assumed that because I had a computer with a world of information at my fingertips that there was no need for a News Channel in my life. However, as I’ve become more fond of convergence devices (my iPhone is yours if you can pry it from my cold dead hands) I have actually grown an appreciation for what the News Channel is trying to do.

The News Channel is actually quite a pleasurable experience that stands apart from other methods of news delivery. For one, it isn’t plastered with overlays, scrolling graphics, and ads. Instead, it uses large fonts, minimal colors, and plays a typical soothing Wii tune while browsing. The opening screen is a menu of “sections” as seen in print newspapers and print-emulating websites. These sections include national news, international news, sports, arts/entertainment, business, science/health, and technology. Selecting a section brings up a list of headlines, clicking on a headline brings up an AP story taking up 3/4 of the screen and a satellite image of the globe flashing the related location. The user (player?) can increase or decrease the font size, which is rendered nicely for high-def televisions, go back to the list of headlines, or choose to use the globe as an interface for browsing stories by location.

Browsing in the Globe view is one of the more satisfying experiences on the Wii. You can use the hand icon to click on a part of the Earth and drag/pull the planet around. There is a nice tactile feeling associated with this action and I dare anyone not to spin the planet around like they did a globe back in elementary school. News events show up on the map as either little newspaper icons or as photos pulled from the stories. Clicking on them brings up a list of regional headlines. You can also zoom in and out on the map to refine regions. When I zoomed out as far as I could I noticed that almost all the United States stories get lumped into “Chicago Area”, but rotating it a bit causes “Chicago” stories to be populated in a US city more close to the center of my television. This seemingly insignifcant sorting algorithm actually illustrates the complicated nature of geocentric news.

While certainlly not a news game, the News Channel is one of the best examples available of a gaming company thinking about how a game platform can be used to deliver information. Had this just been a series of menus and some multimedia, it would have been disappointing. Instead, it makes good use of the Wiis pointing and motion controls and presents the news in a simple and appealing way.

I mean no offense to any of my friends in this post, but because the Wii has had unprecedented sales to a new range of people, I’ve seen a lot of bad video game purchases. Not to say this doesn’t happen with other video game systems, but as I browse the shelves of Wii games the sheer amount of shovelware amazes me. And people buy these games! I would love to conduct a nationwide survey of people who bought low rated games without knowing any better and ask if they’re actually satisfied with their purchases. I just imagine a lot of people out there like me who got all excited about a Wii (especially if they haven’t purchased a game system in a long time) and never play it. So how can these new buyers negotiate their new world of games?

Mention the title Wii for Dummies to the general to those of us who often play games and you might receive a chuckle. “Wii for Dummies? The Wii is already the most simple thing on the planet!” they might say. But Kyle Orland‘s book is not for this demographic. It is targeted toward the other group that Nintendo has been trying to woo: people who have haven’t ever owned a video game system (or at least not in a while). For these people the Wii is not the intuitive piece of hardware Nintendo claims. It’s a complex piece of technology that requires hardware and software setup, has confusing system preferences menus, has unexplained features, and has an array of games that vary in quality. Wii for Dummies covers all these bases.

The Nintendo Wii is easy to learn, but to learn we need a teacher. Wii for Dummies is aimed directly at those people who want a Wii but have no one to teach them. It explains (with accompanying photos!) how to set up the hardware on a TV and how to navigate the system’s software. It explains the intricacies of creating Miis, how to use the various Channels, how to buy games on the Virtual Console, tips on browsing the web, and even a nice history of the Nintendo company.

Wii Sports and Wii Fit are also covered in great details in Wii for Dummies, two of the games that are the main draw for the non-game buying market. Kyle Orland also makes recommendations on games for different groups: the non-gamer, partis, and families. These mini reviews not only explain a bit about the game but make recommendations on who the game both is and isn’t intended for (though some of the reason are tenuous). Between these recommendations and the Virtual Console recommendations, the new Wii owner is bound to find something to make their investment worthwhile. If you haven’t played games in a long time (or ever) and need a teacher, Wii for Dummies is a well written and well organized guide that’s sure to answer all your questions.

We’re just busy doing things like this. In the normal Virtual Fools way, we’ll be back after we’re done with our obligations.

Source: Flickr ‘Big Daddy Traffic Cone’