With Nintendo marketing the Wii to cross demographics outside the realm of the hardcore gamer, it seemed only fair to test out the system at a family friends house after Thanksgiving dinner. Bringing the system over and saying I wanted them to test it out, the most apprehensive person wasn't the adults, but 21 year-old Meredith McSorley saying, "I'm not good at that stuff. I can't do the button things." I informed her this would be different.

After dinner ended we proceeded to their modest television room, I handed over a controller to Meredith and asked her to figure it out from there. She got through the menu controls good and fine, took her a second to get used to the buttons until she said, "It's like a TV remote." When we started our first game of Wii Sports tennis, that's when she got excited.
"NO WAY!" She yelled excitedly while swinging her arm to serve, "Can I do a backhand?"
"Try it."
"I could really get into this," she said instantly understanding the game, her learning curve was nil. After that we tried Wii Sports bowling and Rayman, every title she instantly understood what she had to do, and playing well, with only the basic instructions given to her by the games. After an hour she started asking where she could get a Wii, how much it cost, why hadn't she heard about this?
Wii Sports Boxing has another title she really got into, KOing her first opponent and slowly picking up the subtleties of the game by the second opponent, and then asking, "Are mothers buying this for their kids to get them to be more active?"
The adults that ended up coming to the room were a little more difficult to gauge reaction. Their learning curve was pretty steep in comparison. They kept trying to hit buttons, even though we explained they didn't have to, and generally didn't put enough force into their movements for the Wii-mote to register what they were doing. Meredith wanted to get back to playing so the adults didn't have too much time to continue testing.
So, there you go, 21 year-old sporty female who isn't into video games likes the system enough to want one for herself. The adults we'll have to re-test another time, when girl-who-likes-the-system-too-much-to-put-it-down isn't around.













(Page 1) Reader Comments
Also, you misspelled "it" in "girl-who-likes-the-system-too-much-to-put-iy-down isn't around". :P
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It's like any activity that a friend introduces you to, you give it a go and you enjoy it, but you've got your own hobbies and pastimes to fill your free time.
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That said, the Wii definitely scores right now as the drinking-adults and family-party system of choice. I can't even imagine all the drunk hilarity possibilities.
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In the end they both had a blast playing the five games and spent around 2-3 hours playing until the turkey kicked in and made us all tired. Very fun times
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Also she's cute.
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My Dad has an Oblivion Character like at level 2 which has been there for around forever since he created it. Gears is just "Way to complicated for him" as he say's, and so is Dead Rising, and Project Gotham Racing 3.
He also play's my DS which he absolutely loves, he can spend most of his free time playing Brain Age or Trauma Center. That is the reason why I want a Wii, since it delivers awesome and simple gameplay, and I can keep my 360 for Hardcore games.
Saying that the 360 or PS3 is family friendly is just a big lie. Keep the 360/ps3 for yourself and the Wii for your Family and Girlfriend... if you do in fact have one
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24 hour response time my ass.
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The picture is blocking the article for me too. WTF?
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she prefers the PS3, because she likes the games and the Blu Ray player, but i honestly have no idea why she wants a 360. she's never given me a reason. she just wants one. she doesn't like Halo (neither do i), and Gears of War does nothing for her (me neither, actually). she likes Rumble Roses (she thinks the chicks are hot), but hates DOA (thinks the chicks are scary unrealistic. she also loves Fable on our X Box, and Knights of the Old Republic (which is why she refuses to let me trade in the X Box). all in all, she's pretty fricking nuts, but whatever, i'll get a 360 out of it.
she's also addicted to Oblivion, which she hogs my computer for, so once it comes out on the PS3, i'll probably pick it up for her, or just let her monopolize the computer some more, as i'll probably be monopolizing the PS3 (though we enjoy playing Untold Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance together).
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Me too.
@ 18
Get a sense of humor. :(
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Other than that its nice to see that ppl who arent into games are into the Wii.. This prob explains why its been harder than hell for me, gamer that I am, to get one.. Man Im wishin I pre-orderd now..
And whatz up with GameStop/EB not letting ppl do a post-pre-order if ya wanna call it that.. Dont they want my money.. I mean I offered one of the GameStops in my area full payment in advance on the Next shipment of Wii's, and I woulda got my extras then also.. But Nooooo, they wont do it.. 1/2 tempted to just order a Bundle from TRU the next time the cart buttons there..
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My brother's wife had the best reactions. "This is the most future shit ever! It's like Minority Report! Oh my god, how much does this cost? Really? I think we need one."
I don't see Gears of War or Resistance doing this to non-gamers.
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LOL yeah right, in your dreams!!!
Wii was a huge hit @ my grandmas for thanksgiving, everyone loved the boxing and seeing my dad and grandpas boxing was priceless!
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yay for copy/paste
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Quote: "It's like a TV remote."
Yes, we know, that is why it is even called wiimote. Otherwise there are enough game on other platforms that can get casual gamers or non gamers excited enough to buy a console.
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My five year old daughter gets frustrated with the 360 controller and gives up after a few seconds of trying to use it.
However, she got the concept of the Wii mote and loves to play it.
There is no contest...the Wii is easier to use than any other console system out there.
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The "test" has already been done. Wii wins.
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...the only demographics PS3 wins over Wii, btw, are scalping scum, young boys, who still have the "more expensive -> better" mentality and hardcore FPS gamers.
Every other demographic group will enjoy the Wii more.
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Everyone else that was there was in watching the game and really into it. We played thru the first game and it was just the feeling that brought us into the second game. It was great, everyone was taken and the fun.
6th frame, my niece is up, she aims, she swings, hits the coffee table, the controller is out of her hands and threw my brother new 57" widescreen rear-projection tv.
We had fun but my tip to everyone is remember to use the wrist-strap so your fun will not end.
The Wii is awesome, that's what everyone said.
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If Nintendo really wanted to get female gamers. They could have added the option to make it rumble for a while :D.
p.s. just for you matt.
I'll make her McSorley
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My mum barely knows how to use a TV remote, she does not even know how to turn on or off a computer or an Xbox 360.
Whilst my parents watch the same 10 TV channels (N.Ireland terrestial TV), I on the other hand am able to watch Freeview (Digital TV with 30+ channels), go on the Internet (equivalent to millions of TV channels), I can record, pause and rewind live TV, play games consoles etc etc. These things are in the home, they bought them but they don't know how to use them.
The bottom line is that older people are used to easy stuff like using the TV and aren't bothered to do or try anything else.
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we did, however, have a flying wiimote incident. The 11-year old was getting a little too into Bowling and launched the thing. Thankfully she's short and the wiimote landed about 8 inches below the screen of the Sony plasma. Anyways, I am now a believer in the flying wiimotes...but, there was no breakage or anything like that.
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""After dinner ended we proceeded to their modest television room, I handed over a controller to Meredith and asked her to figure it out from there.""
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I thought the same thing.
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Is she playing on a 13 inch color television?
WITH RABBIT EARS?
I didn't know that they still even made those.
When I get my PS3, I'm gonna hook it up to my brand spanking new 13 inch, black and white television, complete with dial turning. :-)
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