Slashdot Mirror
Both Sides of Wii
Yesterday Nintendo released the official name for their next console. Formerly the Revolution, and now simply called Wii, reaction has been strong among gaming fans. A Brian Crecente article in the Rocky Mountain News looks at why Wii is bad, from a marketing perspective. Chris Kohler, over at Game|Life, looks at why Wii is good because of its iconoclastic nature. And, always happy to help with the irreverent, Games.net examines why Wii is weird. From that article: "We don't think Nintendo Wii is a truly terrible console name, but it's an uncharacteristically risky choice, even for Nintendo. We admire its simplicity and its playfulness (the two i's represent multiplayer action, you see). But on the flip side, parents will have a hard time pronouncing it ("Nintendo...why?") and hardcore gamers will slam it ..."
Also to note about Wii is that the logo looks very
All these jokes have been made about the name but on the manufacturer's site, you'll find this little blurb: So you see, even they are aware of the puns that come with a name like Wii. Personally, I'm glad they chose something other than an old name coupled with a high number (Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, Sega 32, etc.) because that makes it sound like something where bitrate and technical specs are the only things that concern a gamer. And they're not. The thing that concerns me the most is if there's going to be games that I enjoy, Tetris did that with 16 bits so I welcome anything at any bit rate that provides me with entertainment.
My work here is dung.
Anyway, the only really thoughtful paragraph in any of the articles was from the Gamelife blog - and it was a quote from the comments to an earlier article:That's as good an explanation as any I've heard (in fact all the good speculation I've read about on not just this story, but just about anything recent, has come from random members of the public rather then the pundits)
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Not only is it worse than Xbox 360, it will confuse the French and also everyone will keep making piss-poor jokes about it.
See what I did there?
Summation 2
Although they'd have to name is Nintendo Shitcock for that to be true.
They changed the name of the Playstation 3 back to that marketing term from the PS2. The "Playstation Emotion Engine", or PEE.
Obligatory penny arcade reference...
I wonder if they'll start calling the new controller a Wii-Wii.
?
Sigs are for Terrorists.
This name could either be good or bad, depending on the ads.
If the ads seem goofy and childish, it will resonate against those qualities already represented by the name itself.
However, if the ads are sleek and classy, and the logo is clean and simple (which looks to be the case), then the "Wii" thing could be spun off as "it's cool to be a kid again."
I expect the latter case, of course, and I imagine an ad campaign similar to the DS. At the end of each commericial, if a child's voice whispered "wee" in sort of a mystical way, it would do wonders in changing the perception of the name.
random underscore blankspace at ya know hoo dot comedy.
I think that the second slashdot story in two days on the name of an unreleased console is evidence enough that the marketing folks over at Nintendo have made a sensible decision.
/. nerds won't give a damn what it's called, they'll just want the specs and the reviews. Casual consumers won't remember what it's called, they'll just want to look at the pretty colours.
Why oh why do people care? Hardcore
I seem to remember another device that had a name which everyone chastised in the begnning. Give it time people.
Feel free to add your own
"parents will have a hard time pronouncing it ("Nintendo...why?") ...""
That didn't seem to stop Pokemon.
All good points, especially from Kohler's Wired article. We're kind of irrelevant to Nintendo's thinking here. I caught an interesting article called No, Seriously, It's Called wii thet deals with the 5 stages of grief and how it relates to this situation. From the article: ''Acceptance: Guess what, no amount of protesting at E3 will do the trick. It's not going to change. The people who sign online petitions are exactly the people Nintendo are avoiding with all this. Tomorrow you're going to wake up and it being called wii won't be so bad. Maybe it'll start to grow on you, like mixing medication and bourbon. It's not so bad once you get used to it..." Hmm, Bourbon. I think I'm still in stage 3, Depression.
So, because of the name everyone's talking about Nintendo's console.
Two stories in two days on Slashdot about the name alone - first one got almost 1000 replies.
Blog articles are popping up left and right about it.
Even months from now, when you hear the name you'll smile or chuckle - because you think the name is funny, because you think it's refreshing, because you think it's colossally stupid and find it amusing that a company can make a mistake this big. In the meanwhile, the names "PlayStation" or "XBox" will just elicit a shrug.
Already - in one single day - Nintendo has managed to set itself apart from its competitors, and generate a huge amount of buzz about its console - without a massive ad campaign or billions in R&D. Just by releasing three letters to the public.
So, remind me again... why is this name bad?
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
I just had a thought. Nintendo could have had this name released at E3 with all their other stuff, but they didn't. We should probably suppose that
:D
1) having Revolution plastered all over their booth and then changing the name mid-show would be a bit of a marketing idiocy/expensive gesture
2) it would completely overshadow EVERYTHING else they had to announce even though it is a fairly minor thing compared to real games, new controller quirks, playable systems
3) they know it sounds stupid, but they want you to get it out of your system before E3 so that you concentrate on the above (real games, new controller quirks)
This is smart. I like the name but I think it works as a logo, and as a product name, and a trademark, but it's just not something I am going to vocalise. I am going to pronounce it wrong.. Why Wi Way whatever. Or just say Nintendo like I always did for every other Nintendo console.
Negativity:
4) regarding 2, this could mean that besides Zelda and some spurious announcements and a playable system they have sweet FA to show at E3 besides officially confirming a lot of stuff we already read on rumor sites.
They secreted a mentioning the DVD attachment, I wonder if they will show it.. E3 should be the place where, now that we know the name, and we have gotten bored of how Zelda looks (and plays with the Wii controller maybe) we see exactly all the crap that is going to be launched this holiday season..
Oh! It just came to me. This console is gonna fucking ROLL off the shelves in Scotland. It's small, it's cute, it's Wii like a bairn
whereas the full quote from TFA reads as:
That's quote some selective ellipsing/ellipsissing/ellipsiation going on there.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
(Recycled from a blog post of mine. Cause I'm lazy. But it fit.)
;) ), and I just don't have the time to play every really cool game I want to.
There was an interesting idea brought up in a forum post somewhere else, and I don't recall where, yet the headline went like this:
"Hard core gamers: Do we matter anymore?"
And the second I saw it, I knew the answer:
No.
Gaming, to use an idea that would make Mr. Rogers cringe, is becoming more and more like the movie industry every day. Not in scale or stars, yet in history. The industry was first introduced with small players, making games out of their basement - like initial movie makers with their "moving cameras". Then came an era of competition and explosion - then the conglomerates came into being, and they started to get movie making down to a science.
People complain that movies are all "the same", yet the fact is this: movies sell. Yes, they're going into a slight downslide right now, yet I'd argue that's an issue with technology (home theaters more comfortable and convienient than movie theaters - look at how studios make more money from DVD rental sales than blockbuster sales). yet movies, as bland as they are, make money. They make a shitload of money. They make so much fracking money it's not funny, because they have the formula down.
Was "Momento" a better movie than "The Matrix"? I'd argue it was - yet it didn't follow the rules. It was harder to think through. It didn't challenge. People could watch the Matrix with it's biblical allusions and get the surface story - kick ass people in leather, yeah! Or get the subtext. In "Momento", you had to think the whole fracking movie, and work to understand it.
Nintendo gets this. Look at the games they've been releasing. Is "Pikmen" a good game? I liked it. yet it's not selling nearly as well as "Tetris" or "Brain Age" or "Nintendogs" - the latter are games that you don't have to think about (insert irony about "Brain Age" here). yet these are games that a) did not cost a lot to make, and b) could be played by anybody with more than 5 brain cells. Are they fun? Sure - Nintendo gets it: the hardcore gamers don't make them money. Armies of teenage schoolgirls and their parents do.
What does this have to do with Wii? I think Nintendo, in a way, is making a statement. To hard core gamers, they're saying "This is not your world. There will be things for you, for those who look past the name. yet we are establishing here and now - this system is not for the 'hard core'. This is for all of the girls and grown ups out there who don't get 40 button controls, who will look at the word 'Wii' and go 'Oh, that's interesting.'"
Look at their plans for porting: almost none. EA had an interview where they said they were all yet forced to rewrite games from scratch for the Revolution/Wii because of the difference of power and controller. Which is what Nintendo wants. Let Sony and Microsoft fight over almost exactly the same games and who's cock is bigger in the "HD-DVD versus Blue-Ray" fight. Nintendo will do what Sony did - offer a DVD player that also plays a ton of games that people can pick up and go "Oh, Mario. OK - I move this way and jump. I can do that", while the "hard core" will either look at the name and say "Wii is lame", or will look at the game lineup and go "Turbo Graphix? Sweet - hey, Phoenix Wright Wii version! Neat!"
I don't know if it will work. Or, it will probably work in Japan the way the DS all yet killed PSP sales. (As Tim once said, every time someone finds out how to do something fun with the PSP, Sony releases a patch to break it. Or, something like that.) It probably won't hurt the Xbox 360 sales, since for all the money it's losing it's supported by a monopoly that hopes for more, and PS3 sales probably won't matter because of the Wii.
Yet I think that Nintendo did the name on purpose, knowing it would piss off the "hard core". I'll probably get one, because I've got 3 kids and a wife who only plays "Tetris" and "Brain Age" (I leave the DS at home for her to play while I'm out working - which will be my excuse for why we need to buy a DS Lite when it comes out
(Shrug.) Guess we'll see more at E3.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
It's a little old (circa 1999), but Salon's article "The name game" -- a look inside the "identity firms" that come up with so many of the weird names that are floating around these days -- is worth bringing up because it's just so freaking funny.
Read the whole thing, it's worth it.
Read my blog.
"We don't think Nintendo Wii is a truly terrible console name, but it's an uncharacteristically risky choice, even for Nintendo. We admire its simplicity and its playfulness (the two i's represent multiplayer action, you see). But on the flip side, parents will have a hard time pronouncing it ("Nintendo...why?") and hardcore gamers will slam it ..."
I think the biggest issue is that the name is not easily read or pronounced; many will likely read it out as "why". The fact that they have to tell you that its pronoucned "We" is a bad sign, product names should be straight-forward and to the point.
I agree the two "i"s and people playing together, as in "we" is clever, but that gimmik is quickly going to fade. The concept is very akin to Intel's Viiv (which I'm still not exactly sure how its pronounced), however good solid names that are easy to remember are far better then gimmicky names that are hard to read.
Also, "we" has too many conotations in different languages that are going to be much stronger than a game console, "we" as "oui/yes" in French, "we" as in pee, "we" as in small, etc. By far one of the worst product names in recent history, but they sure have gotten quite a bit of press from it.
Nintendo Wii continues a strong tradition of incredibly moronic brand names out of Nintendo -- which is a shame because their games are incredible.
* Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Ok, I understand the need to maintain "a strong brand identity". But this is really just a copout versus coming up with a more creative name. Their ads were even worse: "Now you're playing with power... super power." Was it any wonder that the Sega Genesis (which had some great games of it own and I consider the best console name ever) had more "cool factor" going into the early 90s?
* Super Scope 6 - If you're wondering, this was the software that came with the bazooka-version of the lightgun for the SNES. Never mind the fact the gun itself was completely unwieldly -- the decision to make the name of the software roll off the tongue (Super Scope 6) made everyone forget that the Super Scope was supossed to support a bunch of games. Since everyone associated the gun with the 6 relatively crappy minigames it came with, no one thought to look for 3rd-party software that supported it. I think a total of 3 "full games" supported the thing.
* Game Boy - Immediately shot down as being "sexist", Nintendo Power held a contest to design your own and half the entries used the words "Game Girl". To this day they're still trying to get Game Boy moniker out of peoples' heads (to your non-gaming buddies, do you call your DS a "Nintendo DS" or "like a Gameboy")?
* Virtual Boy - Ditto. And add the fact it wasn't really virtual. All it was doing was drawing red lines a few inches in front of your eyes and giving headaches.
* Nintendo 64 - This began a line of consoles with relatively good codenames but terrible console names. Ultra 64, while derivative of Super Nes, at least had a "cool" element to it. Killer Insinct for the arcades even touted "Coming soon to the Ultra 64!" Nintendo instead decided to go with the incredibly bland Nintendo 64 and a gave it a suitably stupid Escher-like logo (which Rare's Conker amusing destroyed in Conker's Bad Fur Day). Again, wonderful games -- terrible name.
* Gamecube - Original codename: Dolphin. Exudes intelligence, the ability to swiftly get around competitors. Final name: a plastic block. The ads picture a bunch of gang-like teenagers walking the streets and then cut to a cartoon Advance Wars-like game. Huh? Although it could've been worse -- one of the final designs called for a star-shaped plastic fins and the name "Starcube". Picture the Disney PC for 4-year olds but in your living room. Again, incredible games -- dumb system name.
* Nintendo Wii - Original codename: Revolution. Gives off the vibes of doing completely new things (the controller) and harkens nostalgia for when Nintendo turned a hobby into a multibillion dollar industry in the 80s (NES, SNES, etc. emulation). Final name mirrors a number of terrible Japanese names. In particular, I'm reminded if Vaio and Wega from Sony. Wega, in particular, is actually supposed to be pronounced "vega". Why they didn't just stick the V in there is anyone's guess. Revolution would've been a brutally cool name but instead they decided to wreck it.
Again, I'm not saying anything against the games themselves -- they're incredible. Bottom line is Nintendo should fire their marketing department and hire the guys from Sega, Microsoft or even Sony.
You're right about "wagon", and "wisigoth". I don't know about "awalé".
:)
But the most commonly used words with W in french are pronounced roughly like in english: sandwich, wifi, clown, interview, watt, etc.
"wagon" and "wisigoth" are not employed very often (unless your work is related to trains, you're not going to talk about wagons very often)
When we see a W randomly put in a made-up word, we're intuitively going to pronounce it like in english, not v in any case
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia: I think nothing, m'lord.
Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.