This is the question that Nintendo asked video game addicts this winter, and apparently lots and lots of people shelled out the $250 asking price. This came as a huge surprise to Sony, whose Playstation 3 (at $600) took a sound beating (for various reasons outlined in this International Hearld Tribune article: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/31/business/games.php).
In the article, Matt Nichtel suggests that the reason the Wii (call me infantile, but it still makes me giggle a little) has had such success is that now coach potatoes are looking to get off their butts and move a little. I find that hard to believe. Okay, maybe it's that I'm a relatively active person. Maybe it's that after locking myself in my room with Super Mario Brothers until I could beat it without dying once, I realized that I was a loser. I mean, I was a winner - at Super Mario Brothers. I could go to a friend's house and absolutely dominate at that game. Whoever played Luigi wouldn't even get a turn before I won the heart of the princess.
Clearly, I suspected that my skills at virtual princess-winning would lead to success in actual princess-winning. This I believe is the basis for Nichtel's opinion: he thinks that couch potatoes everywhere believe that playing this even-more virtual tennis will allow them to take Anna Kournikova in straight sets (or maybe just show her their Wii). But seriously, which skills can you develop in the virtual world tha will really make a difference in the real world? Which skills will change you from virtual-world winner to real-world winner?
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7 comments:
Well done my padawan (which, by the way, is an actual word according to Wikipedia). I enjoyed this post thoroughly and need to work on making mine as short and insightfully humorous (though still mostly pointless). Maybe the student has become the teacher...
I'm convinced that it was mostly pointless and almost rambling, as if I were getting paid by the word (but I'm not getting paid at all). To truly be good, I'd have to have insightful humor and content. I've got a long ways to go.
Wii makes me giggle as well!
I am slightly encouraged that couch potatoes will get up and do something... providing that something doesn't involve launching that little remote through the drywall or the television set...
Doesn't your question "which skills can you develop in the virtual world tha will really make a difference in the real world?" assume that there is some kind of imperative to spend all of our time developing pragmatically useful skills?
Isn't there something to be said for sometimes just playing a game -- just for playing a game's sake??
Why the obsession with having to make everything practical and applicable all the time?
I enjoy playing all kinds of games. Perhaps some of those games DO transfer some skills I can use in the "real world" (whatever that is). But, whether or not they do -- I don't really care. Doesn't concern over that sorta ruin the point??
Sure -- people can become obsessed and lose focus with their lives and spend way too much time doing trivial, waste of time things (like playing Wii for 20 out of the 24 hours in a day). But there's a pit to fall into on the other side of the coin as well. We can't be "Carpe Diem"ing it 100% of the day (to abuse the latin). The reality is that much of our lives will often be filled with trivial things. Including completely trivial games. And guess what... THAT'S OK.
I'm not sure that practical application of virtual skills is necessary (or even desireable) for hobbies to be worthwhile, but what good is a blog if you can't post your self-righteous opinion?
And what good is a blog if your friends can't come on and post their own self-righteous rebuttals to everything you say?
Ok, I have a pile of self-righteousness (not to mention more than my fair share of holier-than-thou) so I'll jump in on this one. In reality (real reality, not virtual reality), only I have something interesting to say and thus no matter how insightful or thoughtful The Coaches comments might be, I still will feel the need to denigrate them and then toss in some ad hominem attacks…poo-poo head.
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