IMHO Slow Day; Let's Talk About:

Thursday's Office Episode

Just watched last night's office episode for the second time, and I like it even better. But I need your opinion on something...

I've got nothing on the Wii today. I haven't even played my Wii in a couple days because I've been so into Animal Crossing: Wild World. Honestly, I am so into that game right now! I've had outstanding status in my town for the past three days (that means my town is freeaaking beautiful!!) and I just nailed a classic carpet today thanks to my bud, Barina.  Things have never been better for Gay Nerd in our tidy village of Nor' Tit. 

*If you've never played Animal Crossing, I apologize if you had no clue what that meant. Noelle, since you asked, Animal Crossing is a quirky life simulation game where you play as a human who's set out on their own (just like all of us college kids!... sort of) and move to a small country town full of anthropomorphic talking animals. Those are your neighbors and they say the most hilarious things. You're pretty much free to do whatever you want. Lately I've been gardening and that's why my town is so beautiful. You get rated by the HRA (Happy Room Academy) on how well the interior of your house is set up, so when I say "classic carpet" I mean that I got the flooring that belongs to the "classic" furniture set, which I've been collecting. You can read more about Animal Crossing games here. 

I want to talk about my current favorite show as of the past two years, The Office. I'm sure many of you, like me, watched the new episode the other night. "Night Out", as it's called because Dwight and Michael head out to the big apple to pick up femininas. 

Like the "Dinner Party" episode two weeks ago, The Office has been really painful to watch, much like the original UK series. Watching Jim eff up everyone's night with what he thought was a good plan to prevent them from coming in on Saturday was not pleasant. This was interesting for me just to see the evolving dynamics between Jim, Pam, and the other coworkers. 

The real hilarity for me, and why I love this episode, is Michael's whole "it's not the horniness as much as the loneliness" mantra. Seeing Ryan's new douche character turn out to be on drugs was a great dose of dark humor to compliment Michael's at times ironic behavior: best example of this is the classic ending Michael epiphany scene after Ryan passes out from the drugs and Michael looks at the camera to say "best night ever." Michael goes on to say how this night was so awesome in spite of him not "getting laid" because "it's not the horniness, it's the loneliness" and he's spending the night with "his boys" (Ryan and Dwight both sleeping in the background, after anything but a fun night -except perhaps for Dwight).

I'm wondering how everyone feels about Jim and Pam? I really think they're going to break up eventually. I know there's people who interpreted last week's episode as the pair's definitely going to be engaged, but I couldn't feel more the opposite. Jim said he got the ring one week after they started dating? I'd be amazed if he ever proposes. That relationship's gonna hit the fan eventually. 

What do you all think will happen with Jim and Pam? What would you like to see happen? I've got more questions: What did you think of this episode or any of the post-strike Office episodes? Please discuss!

Taking A Closer Look at Wii Fit

IGN Discusses Wii Fit With Fitness Expert

Esquire Magazine's fitness columnist, James Mitchell, tests out Nintendo's killer app: Does it live up to its name?

Great rundown of Wii Fit over at IGN today– they've brought in fitness guru James Mitchell of Esquire to help turn a better trained critical eye towards the game. You can read the story, Wii Fit: The Professional Opinion, here. 

Overall he seemed to like it a lot, especially the aerobic portions and clever use of the Wii Balance Board. 

"The good thing about the aerobics and balance stuff is that it's fun so just crack on. It's a great way of doing fitness, it's interactive. One of our biggest problems with clients is getting over the fact that training can be boring – some people can't stand gyms, can't stand running. Wii Fit can potentially make fitness feel more accessible to people who don't think it is –a gym is a very intimidating place for a lot of people."

"If someone has a use for it and uses it in a responsible, educated manner, then it's definitely worth it," says James, "after all, it's cheaper than an exercise bike and, frankly, a lot more fun."

It's going to be really crazy when Wii Fit is launched in North America. I can definitely see my mom being interested in it, not to mention millions and millions of other Americans. The fitness obsessed culture here is going to eat this up like noone's business. 

Are you (or do you know anyone) interested in Wii Fit? What sort of splash do you think a Wii game like this will make stateside?

New Installment in Malstrom's "Disruption Chronicles"

Malstrom Delves Deeper into the Blue Ocean of Disruptive Technology

Fascinating series of essays continues with Disruptive Storm

I happened upon Sean Malstrom's site today and found out he added a new piece to his series of articles about the Wii and disruptive technologies. The new essay is called "Disruptive Storm" and it's comprised mostly of quotes from business leaders and market scholars in addition to giving examples of previous disruptions. You can read it here.

These essays are really long, but I can't stress enough how interesting they are –even if it isn't video games you're interested in. If you didn't catch it when I blogged about Malstrom's article, "Birdmen and the Casual Fallacy", these are a series of essays explaining what Nintendo is hoping to accomplish (and, so far, succeeding) with the Wii:

"While the Wii may be inferior in graphics and horsepower, it contains attributes that fringe customers value such as cheaper, smaller, simpler, and frequently more convenient to use. Due to the experience and investment, the developers of disruptive technologies will always take over the older markets."

"Well managed companies fail because the very management practices that have allowed them to become industry leaders also makes it extremely difficult for them to develop the disruptive technologies that ultimately steal away their markets."

This may be of interest to those of you in our mass communications course when we're asked: why are newspapers giving way to the internet, blogging, and beyond? The internet has been a disruptive technology to more than one industry. These articles are great for understanding this concept.

What do you think of disruption theory? Do you think Nintendo's plan with the Wii is working, or is the real revolution a ways off?

Potential in the Press

Gray Lady Discusses Wii's Poor Attach Rate

A New York Times article this morning looks at a problem belied by the Wii's tremendous success, a problem Nintendo fans are already well aware of. 

I named this blog "Wii Potential" because the Wii has a lot of potential, mostly unused. An article in the Times today, "New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience", focused on that untapped resource. It's not often that video games garner a careful observation by the mainstream press, unfortunately.

An important thing in video games is the attach rate of a console, which refers to the amount of games purchased per console. The Times quotes one source saying the Wii's is 3.7, compared to 4.7 for the Xbox 360 and 4.6 for the PS3. This comes off a great month for Nintendo: in March, Nintendo sold 720,000 Wii's in the U.S. alone (a ridiculous amount, easily beating other systems by more than double) in addition to having the bestselling game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Unfortunately, many retailers are surprised by how quickly sales of smash dropped off:

"Some major retail chains – including Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us – have already begun bundling the Smash Bros. game with Wii machines for sales online, a sign that the base of hard-core gamers who went looking for the game has been depleted."

It's something I fear all the time: that there are mostly people out there just buying Wii Sports, getting bored with it, and letting their Wii gather dust. Nintendo hopes to expand the casual market, and that's fine, but until they do that they must work harder to attract hardcore gamers to the console. Just this morning an article on Spong, "Epic: Nintendo's Wii Like a Virus", quoted an interview with the head of Epic Games, the makers of Gears of War. Apparently Epic Games has refused to develop for the Wii; here's what he, Mike Capps, said:

"It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, 'Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it.' So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. Obviously there's a class of people who really love it and enjoy it and are getting into the games but I'm still waiting for that one game that makes me play it. Who knows, maybe Wii Fit will be it."

I'm not sure if he was being facetious by saying "Wii Fit" or not, because that of course is a game directed at the non-gamer –exactly the people he wishes not to develop for, and the ones he sees not playing the Wii after two months with Wii Sports. The entire interview with Mike Capps can be found here, at IGN's Xbox 360 Channel.

One analyst quoted in the Times Article would agree with Capps; his name is Colin Sebastian, and he had this to say about the Wii's user base:

"My in-laws from Texas have a Wii sitting on their living room floor next to the TV, which to me is kind of amazing. They have Wii Sports, a Brain Age game, Wii Play. That's about it."

Can't say I'm surprised. This is exactly what Nintendo wanted, but it could so easily backfire. And it already backfires for third party publishers who still can't seem to grapple, or are loathe to try like Capps, this new demographic. According to the articles by Sean Malstrom about the disruption theory and Nintendo, Nintendo hopes to raise a new, greater generation out of these non-gamers and casual gamers. If they succeed we'll be in gaming paradise, if not –we'll remember the fad that was the Wii and Wii Sports. 

For the time being I have high hopes for growing the Wii base with Mario Kart Wii, set to be released on the 27th, and Wii Fit. 

How do you feel about the games available on the Wii? If you only play Wii Sports, is there more you'd like to know about what's available for the Wii? Or are there types of games you'd like to see made in the future that aren't available right now?

Animal Crossing Diary

Flower Fest in Animal Crossing Over, My Garden Begins to Bloom

Up until recently, gardening was one aspect of Animal Crossing: Wild World I took zero interest in. Now my special breeds are starting to appear: pink roses, pansies, and cosmos, and I'm sorry I've missed out up to this point. 

My friend Stephen, "Barina Boxkid", tried very hard to breed flowers and beautify his town in Animal Crossing a few months ago in an effort to attain the golden watercan. If you've played Animal Crossing: Wild World, you know what I'm referring to –maybe. Barina would spend hours every day for weeks watering his flowers in the game for this purpose. One time I stole one of his Jacob's Ladders and he freaked out. 

In Animal Crossing I've traditionally enjoyed fishing and bug catching, talking to my neighbors and designing clothing –and that's been about it. But now I've started to enjoy gardening too. Maybe it's because it's Spring, but I really think the concept of it just intimidated me before. 

A week ago the Flower Fest ended in Animal Crossing. It was a week-long event where I compete with my furry neighbors to see who can maintain the best garden in our town, Nor' Tit. Unfortunately I lost to Bill (a duck in my town), but it got me started on growing flowers for once and, for the time being, I'm not looking back.

Now I actually understand how to arrange the flowers in order for them to breed properly, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. 

In the past week, my first un-Nook-purchasable flower breeds have begun to appear -all pink- and it's always a joy to wake up and visit my town to see what new colors have sprung forth.

Have any of you spent time with the flower breeding component to Wild World? What types of flowers have you bred?

Looking Forward to Playing:

Okami (Wii) Meta Wiki

This 2006 Playstation 2 classic has finally been rereleased for the Wii

I remember hearing about Okami two years ago because there were constant comparisons to the Zelda series, not to mention it was winning multiple Game of the Year awards. I've never played it, so I'll be happy when I get the chance to experience it fresh on my Wii in widescreen. 

Okami is an action-adventure game heavily influenced by the Zelda series (as said by its director) about a god named Amaterasu, the sun god in the Shinto religion, who has taken the form of a white wolf. The game, as you can tell, builds a lot on Japanese religion and mythology. The game itself is well known for its outstanding gameplay, storyline, unique graphics and art direction. 

Anyway, if you have a Wii, definitely look into buying this game; it won IGN's GOTY award in 2006, beating out Nintendo's own Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and, from what I've heard, it's aged not at all. 

What do you think of Okami? Do you like action-adventure games like Zelda, or do you find them too time-consuming?