When one takes a job as a Video Game Culture Columnist, one’s mind is an endless fountain of ideas. One thinks to oneself that each is destined to become a priceless combination of insight and wordplay. The cold wake-up is that after the low hanging fruit is all picked, finding something worth writing about each week is hair-pullingly stressful task, so when something just drops into your lap like this, it’s like a gift from the cosmos. So let me start off by first thanking Nintendo. Secondly let me ask two questions: How the blinking blue hell they could be so stupid? AND: Has the world underestimated how smart they are?

As you should know by now, this is not the place for breaking news about the world of gaming. So if your reading about this here first, even for a gamer you should get out more. So I’ll take it that you’ve already heard about the “Wii.” It’s the name the storied Nintendo Corporation has bestowed upon their entry into next generation’s consol war. Beyond the fact that it doesn’t bode well that the name is the only thing released by Nintendo (even though the 360’s been in the market for months), the name itself has come across as a lead balloon.

Those whose job it is to sell us on this name, and eventually the product itself, will tell us that Wii stands for a utopian state of multiplayer gaming bliss. The name itself is a hybrid of the word “we” and two anthropomorphic letters “i” symbolizing the spirit of togetherness that video gaming generates. IN FANTASYLAND MAYBE.

Honestly, among the things that this name does conjure up when spoken aloud, urine aside, is the feeling of immaturity, of it being kid’s stuff. This is not new to Nintendo, as their tendency to embrace mostly all-ages titles was considered a major factor in the less-then stellar life cycle of the GameCube. Only their tendency to release top-shelf quality titles like Metroid Prime and Zelda: Wind Waker kept the system afloat. Now we have a system that is not doubt going to be the home to many brightly colored fun family games that will drag down the Wii just like it did the Gamecube. The most storied corporation in modern Gaming history has apparently hitched itself to a falling star.

Or have they? Diligent observers of game culture, like me, have observed the aging of the gamer community. More and more of us are out of school, starting careers and more to the point, starting families. We are spawning a new generation of gamers. In the coming years children growing up with be as technologically capable at age 7 as we were at age 15. Our elders couldn’t program a VCR, what will our kids be able to do that we just won’t get? We will want to share something important to us with our children, and even the most open-minded parent won’t want their kids playing GTA or RE4 right out of the crib. They’ll want what they had when they were that age, family titles, fun titles, games they can play with their kids. Games that will no doubt be plentiful on the “let’s play together” system, the Wii.

Which outcome will come pass? Maybe both, maybe neither. I guess Wii’ll find out together.

This is my stop.

Comments? Questions? E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com. Complaints? Too late, this little pig went Wii Wii Wii all the way home!
Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.