Sean

"Core gamers" is just a nice way to refer to the majority of the market.

Judging by the success of the Wii and casual gaming in general, I don't think "core gamers" and "hardcore gamers" are one in the same nowadays. At least not on the Nintendo platforms.

Wow. $50 for a cart?

I bought mine off of eBay in 2002 for like $20 bucks. Earthbound hype only really kicked into overdrive when Mother 3 dropped in Japan.

As late as 2004, I saw carts going for $20 bucks on eBay.

First let me say - David Hinkle is a dick. Smack in the face? Is that really how you treat friends?

Wii Play certainly isn't the greatest thing on the Wii but it has it's merits. Air hockey and the shooting range are fun diversions and are a blast to play with other people. But yes, they do wear thin.

But to say that Wii Play is a piss poor tech demo and that Wii Sports is fleshed out? Sorry but Wii Sports is just as bad as Wii Play. There's hardly anything to make Wii Sports anymore worthwhile than Wii Play.

Zertoss

If it's anything like trademarking a product name, then it goes something like this.

A trademark is submitted to the trademark office. They decide if the proposed trademark is unique enough to uh..trademark. For example, you can't trademark a product called "Dog Food" - too generic. They also check to make sure it doesn't infringe on any existing trademarks..

If it passes that phase, then it is entered in the system. Then, for a certain amount of time, (I think three months), other people can challenge the trademark. Basically, if they've been using the name, phrase, whatever and they can prove prior use, then they have a case.

Once that time is up, the trademark goes through the final stages and becomes a trademark.

That's probably not 100% correct but it's the best I can recall from when it was explained to me. I imagine patents probably follow a similar process. And you don't have to search every patent making sure your idea isn't already taken - there's firms that specialize in doing just that for you.

In short, I'm sure Nintendo was more than aware of every patent that the Wii techonlogy's patent may potentially have trod upon.

Why in the world would it matter if it came with a monitor? It's a freakin' guitar hero controller, not an actual guitar.

"Unfortunately, we found the guitar to be a bit heavy for Guitar Hero use, particularly when activating star power, and since the buttons are spaced the distance of regular guitar frets it was pretty hard to play."

Welcome to reality.

I'm kind of sick of this "OMG PC World is linkbaiting!!1!!" crap that engadget keeps spewing.

I'm a die-hard Mac user but honestly could care less about arguing the merits of Macs vs. PCs. But even my friends who are huge PC fans say that Vista is just a huge mess. And besides, it's all opinion anyways. PC World could have said the iPhone is the hugest tech disappointment of 2007 if they wanted - and that would have certainly garnered a lot more attention then Vista.

I saw this at Best Buy on Sunday.

I didn't bother with the guitar since I can't stand them much anymore in stringed or buttoned form.

The drums were eh. I played "Suffragette City" on Medium. The drums are loud as hell when you beat on them but that just might be the mounting to the metal stands at Best Buy.

It was marginally fun but I could write a novel about what it's missing on the drums. Needless to say, I'll just keep playing on my electric kit and drop that $170 on something more useful.

"including high processor utilization, excruciatingly long connect / disconnect times"

check.

Mine also randomly skips the first song when selecting an album from coverflow.

Bah. I downloaded the new Kanye West album because of the two bonus tracks and one of the tracks didn't download.

I got 2 free tracks and am still waiting for them to decide if they're going to give me the song or a refund. Both would be nice.