Sunday, April 30, 2006

Wii redesign



While still in hiatus, I have redesigned the blog to take the console´s name change into account. Very kindly, Product_Number_18 had reserved the URL Nintendo-Wii.Blogspot.com for me and installed a referral. So, until further notice, this blog can be reached through two URLs:

Nintendo-Wii.Blogspot.com
Nintendo-Revolution.Blogspot.com

Again, thanks for sticking with this site. I will begin posting again very soon.

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't wait till you can post again :)

Falafelkid said...

By the way, I really do like the new name now. At first, I was shocked (like so many people). But it makes so much sense when you think about it. Think about Blue Ocean. The console won´t be competing with PlayStation or Xbox - they want to broaden the market scope far beyond the gamer demographic. So a name like PlayStation or Xbox would have been totally ill-fitting.

Similarly, Revolution would have been perceived cool and meaningful only to gamers (who know where console gaming is coming from historically and can appreciate this console as a revolution). To ordinary people it would have meant nothing though.

Wii has all the potential of brand names like Google, Yahoo or - as IGN rightly pointed out - Banjo Kazooie, to use an example that gamers are more familiar with.

Also, as far as connotations go, it will only take days before we associate Wii with the word We rather than the childish Wee. After all, which word do we use more often? It´s just the double vowel that allows for this association in the first place. But because of usage, this will fade rapidly, I am sure.

Anonymous said...

gogo, spill the beans as long they're hot. :/

pn18 said...

I want you to know, that I also own nintendowii.blogspot.com and it also forwards you to this blog.

RGB said...

Can you please repost the times for E3 for different timezones so people know when it is. Also for live streams from websites that we could get access to would be helpful.

Anonymous said...

Hi Andi! Nice to hear from you again.:-) With the announcement of the new name, the total revealing of the console has begun and will reach its peak on May 9th!! I'm so excited!
The first time I heard from the Name i was stunned, not knowing what I should feel and think about it. But a few seconds later (with the "we" concept in mind) I liked it.

HEY FALAFEL! I found something very strange. We alle know, that Nintendos PressConference is on May 9th.
And do you remember (what a question...) Pablo Belmonte, the creator of the NintendoON-Video?
Now, hes has a new Website with a COUNTDOWN on it!! And the Countdown ends 30 minutes before Nintendos PressConference.
Probably it means nothing, but its interesting that the creator of the greatest mockup in Videogamehistory is still around.......we'll see..

Everything is possible, nothing has to be....on the 9th of May!!

HAVE MORE FUN!!!

Anonymous said...

http://www.psyco3ler.com/

Psyco3ler is his ArtistName

Anonymous said...

The best thing about Wii is that it's kind of international and not limited to the English language.It means yes in france and good in Japan.
It sounds like a name in other countries.That's clearly something it got going for it.
It kind of serves its purpose.
I still dont like how it sounds but ultimately I would say the name grows on you-Wii is okay but still nothing
too spectacular.

Falafelkid,I would very much appreciate it if you would get rid of that "lot" Wii pillar finally.
Nice writing by the way.

-Shed (former IALS)

Jon Gardner said...

One can only wonder what I'll be using the scissors for.

Anonymous said...

VIVA LA Wii!!!!!!!!!!!
I am used to the name now and i think its brilliant!!

Have you heard of the Kojima rumor via gamepot?
Exciting things!

Anonymous said...

anyone seen this next-gen-tony-hawk-animation-video?

http://www.consolewars.de/news/11680/animationsvideo_vom_next-gen_tony_hawk/

what you think about it? could this be on wii? is it real at all?! or fake?

msa

Falafelkid said...

Hi Grandmaster. Sorry, probably will have no time for this. The redesign was almost too much already and I´m flying to LA Sunday. I´ll try to make time for this but it´s unlikely. I still have to make appointments plus the music video needs my attention too.

Hi Shed.

that "lot" Wii pillar

What on earth do you mean?

RGB said...

For anyone who doesnt know the GMT for LA is -5 GMT. If this is incorrect please let me know.

If anyone knows any site which is reliable who will be streaming please post it in here.

By the way IALS, Wii does not mean good in Japanese, 'ii' does.

Anonymous said...

I plead the fifth :)!

You know that Wii underpart,bottom, basepart or whatever you want to call it.
Not that it matters or something I just felt it looked a lil cheap ever since I first saw it!
But stick with it if you like it's up to you.
Sorry,I have to nit-pick on things.
That's my nature I'm afraid.


-Shed

Anonymous said...

Yeah !

I also must confess that i was sceptical first. But now i am accustomed to the name and i even do like it. It sounds simple and mysterious and has the potential to succeed in his way like the DS. I think it will conquer the japanese market like the ds.

Anonymous said...

interesting stuff darcia. thanks for that. feels good.

on another note... DAMN, it just hit me that e3 is sooooooooo close now... i can fuckin taste it! GRRRRRRRRRR i cant WAIT.

-"superfan" tactics.

Carlos Licea said...

lord_darcia, i wasn't able to find the thread, would you mind ging us the link, either for the thread or the video (which is what i want to see :D)

Anonymous said...

Tortus has a new blog:
http://wii-nintendo.blogspot.com

Also, he owns aZrev's blog now.
http://emagindev.blogspot.com
nothing important there, I think he owned the blog to prevent aZrev's return.

What do you think about him?
Is a coincidence? or he's an insider?

Anonymous said...

Lord Darcia, cheers for the info but i must disagree...simply because of the IGN specifications that done the rounds some time ago.
Although they aren't mind-blowing they are still impressive...I would love to see hyper-realistic graphics but it isn't going to happen for Nintendo this gen.
We should just all focus on the in-game experience with the controller and be happy.
Graphics are an important part of game-play, however they are not the be all and end all

RGB said...

I dont think IGN really know anything. Nintendo and others have been giving scoops to all the other sites and IGN have basically received squat.

And I am sure Nintendo wouldnt of been happy of them releasing those specs.

Anonymous said...

Grandmaster b, some good points

I would say though that the IGN specs,although they may not have been 100% on the money, are a rough guide to what we can expect.
They are a reputable news source afterall and would have no real reason to lie.If they did intentionally mis-lead people wouldn't Nintendo take them to the cleaners?

Nintendo even said themselves that they are aiming for a small but reasonably priced console, and i think we can look forward to just that...there are too many comparisons with the XBox 360 as though anything less than that would be a failure.

As for them being pissed, sure they may have been but sooner or later the specs would be released.
And who said it wasn't all part of the bigger plan? ;)

Anonymous said...

no-one will not buy ipot because once it been call " i pood "

picture :

http://the-kiter.de/bild/ipood.jpg
http://www.bigshape.co.uk/b3ta/ipood.jpg

And since we still don't see last part of Wii.

That it. This name "work". It make Wii "being focus in E3". Where we will see the last part -The best part- of Wii. Just after ps3 news.

Anonymous said...

Get back to reality. You wont be seeing "Augmented Reality" this generation.

Falafelkid said...

No. Augmented Reality is a real possibility. For more information, please read these posts from last June:

Not virtual, but augmented reality?
Augmented reality is reality already.
The price of the future.

Anonymous said...

Augmented Reality stinks and it won't be part of the wii.

RGB said...

I personally dont think it will be part of gaming. It is good technology and all but I dont think it is part of the Wii.

Anonymous said...

Yes falafel, maybe it's technically possible. But i doubt that this is the goal of Nintendo.
You would have to wear glasses or something similar to mix reality and synthetic pictures like it's done in AR. For Nintendos Family-approach that's simply counter-productive. They want people who are not familiar with videogames to pick up the remote. Glasses, helmets or anything crazy like projectors and so on would be highly scaring to those.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they found a way to do it without glasses. remember the three girls that were playing kill the flies in the first Revmote video from TGS? They weren't looking in the idrection of the TV they were looking as if they saw the flies flying around them. Highly unlikely though.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but i just don't see a chance they secretly invented the holodeck from startrek ;)

Anonymous said...

Wii does not mean good in Japanese.
ii pronounced like the letter e means good.
The simple fact is by naming it wii they can pronounce it as apposed to the pronounciation they had of revolution re bo ru shion
. Trust me I live here.

Anonymous said...

''Highly unlikely though'' reading is hard ;)

Falafelkid said...

When playing Zelda, AR would allow your hand holding the Wiimote to turn into the Master Sword. When playing Metroid, your whole arm could turn into Samus´ gun. Without a doubt, AR would be as much of a gaming revolution as full-blown VR.

Falafelkid said...

And yes, I admit that any kinf of goggles or visor would be an element that would make non-gamers more hesitant at first. But I am sure that a company like Nintendo would be able to package something like this in the most non-threatening way. Also, consider that there are ways of generating holographic 3D images that can be seen with the naked eye.

Of course, I maintain that such a scenario (graphical output in Wii-D, if you will) is not likely. But, as ever, it is a possibility in every respect.

Anonymous said...

Oh, i read that. Maybe i should add to the comment: I consider it impossible, not highly unlikely. Just my opinion, doesn't have to be anyone elses. We'll see in a few days anyway. :D

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure you can't talk about it yet Falafelkid, but most of us have assumed that you either played or saw Red Steel in action for that Game Informer article. If you've seen the Wii in action, why do you still maintain that AR is a possibility? Do you know something?

I know you can't comment but I had to ask, it's bugging me...

Falafelkid said...

Just clarifying a few things.

Do you know something?

Hi Toni. I can say this: With regard to any kind of 3D visualization, I know no more than any of you. Developers could either be hiding that aspect (no ig problem since it would certainly be optional rather than the only way of seeing the games) or they themselves don´t know (they needn´t know for their games to work with AR or VR). But I have not been told anything of the sort (if I had, I obviously wouldn´t be talking about it).

I consider it impossible

Hi Anonym. Well, you are plain wrong there. It´s definitely not impossible. I have proven that much. Read my old posts. It´s unlikely, but still a possibility in every respect (price, size, feasibility, etc.)

Anonymous said...

Even if AR would not be necessary to play games, it would be f*#king awesome to see yourself holding a gun, a sword or whatever. Imagine to wear some sun-glasses like gadget while playing Red Steel so you can see the blood squirting out the TV onto your clothes while your are chopping through your opponents...
Or imagine you look over to a friend with which you're playing co-op and he's holding a blood-dropping katana...

THIS WOULD BE A F*#CKING REVOLUTION!!!


PS: I think this would cause a massive debate about how far games are allowed to go.
Hi Mr. Jack Thompson!

Anonymous said...

Don't get me wrong, i don't think it's technically impossible or by price. I think it's impossible because i don't see this fits well with Nintendo's philosophy of a small, sleek, unscary machine.
Maybe my definition of "impossible" is slightly different from yours here :) ...

Btw, i read tose articles some time ago with big interest. Those articles are truly something that sets your blog ahead of many others.

PS: Guess i should register a username here... ^^

Falafelkid said...

Hi Anonym. Thanks for your comments. All I am saying is: Consider that AR headgear can also be "small, sleek and unscary". Because, undoubtedly, it can.

Anonymous said...

^
@anonym above

The AR-glasses could attract a lot of hardcore gamers from the Sony/XBox-world...

Anonymous said...

superuser wrote:
"The AR-glasses could attract a lot of hardcore gamers from the Sony/XBox-world..."

Yes, maybe. But i think it would scare away many non-gamers. Even if this AR-equipment was slim and light, i don't see my mother or even some friends of mine wearing these things.

Well i'm confident Nintendo's marketing department did the necessary research before doing anything crazy and if that means i'll get proven wrong, i'm ok with it :)

Anonymous said...

''Well i'm confident Nintendo's marketing department did the necessary research before doing anything crazy''

They named the console Wii ;) Lovin' the name right now actually

Anonymous said...

@ anonym 2 posts above

"Yes, maybe. But i think it would scare away many non-gamers. Even if this AR-equipment was slim and light, i don't see my mother or even some friends of mine wearing these things"

If something like AR-glasses would be sold be Nintendo, they would not target on customers like your (or my) mum. But I'm sure that this would rock me, my friends and lot other gamers in the world especially after a test-play. Nintendo mentiones all the time that you have to use the console to understand the superior kind of gameplay. This could also be said abot AR-glasses, I think (if there is something like that).

PS: You can use a name for your posts without registering. Just click the button in the middle under the comments-field and then type in a name. :-)

Anonymous said...

Falafelkid,

I too have pondered that Nintendo could very well be "Holding Back" sterioscopic 3D. I also read how much work EA has put into writing algorithms for recognizing gestures for the pointer. I would think if users were given multiple displays, their gestures would change to accomodate the different display. For example, if one were to swat flies that are displayed on a television screen, and then swat at flies that appear half way between the tv and the person, I would think the gestures would be different. So how does the system know what fly you are swatting. Wouldn't algorithms have to be modified to support this scenario. So then I thought, why would Nintendo allow 3rd party developers to design and code games and then change the playing field halfway in.

So, I would rule out them holding it back from developers, unless first generation games are meant to be television display only.

With that said, the developers could very well know of it and be holding it back, and there is no reason technologically wise why sterioscopic can't be a future add-on. I could imagine a game were ballons are displayed in sterioscopic and you have to keep them off of the ground by literal popping them up with the pointer. If this does eventually get pulled off, I could really understand why, those in the know, are saying control on xbox 360 and ps3 will feel archaic. These are exciting times, and I can't wait to see at E3 if they are adding accelerometers to the ps3 controller. It seems like the logical thing to do, considering what happened with the analog stick on the N64 and original PS.

D-Bone

Anonymous said...

But isn't augmented reality limited to onscreen illustration?
I mean in that video they have a helicopter flying through the audience, but it seems like that it is of course only visible on a screen and not in the real world. So it wouldn't be the case that your arm turns into samus arm etc when holding the revmote.

For that you'd need a fucking projector or something like that, so I don't think that this will be part of the cheap wii concept.

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