Slashdot Mirror
Developers React To 'Wii'
Gamasutra has reactions from game developers to the announcement of the Revolution's new commercial name, 'Wii'. From the article: "It doesn't change my personal opinions of the console in the slightest. It changes my opinion of the Nintendo marketing department considerably. Did they even bother to research this? Why do they do these things? What was wrong with 'Revolution'? It's bad enough that the Japanese have a drink called "Sweat," but at least they don't try to export it to the English-speaking world with that name. Am I supposed to be happy about having to go down to the game store to purchase the 'Nintendo Wee'? For God's sake, where was Miyamoto? I can't believe he would have let this get by. - Ernest Adams"
It should be "Developers React to Uus".
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Let us post some more articles about how stupid the name 'Wii' is.
Let us ignore the fact that we all like gaming consoles and instead resort to childish puns to evaluate something before it's even released.
Let the developers (and leaders of developers) proclaim to the world just how stupid this name is so that not only does the public think it's stupid, so do the developers. Think about that, the one group of people that are truly going to determine how this console does is jointly standing up and bashing it before the API is even in their hands. It is within their power to take this console--regardless of its name--and create some truly genuine games with a new controller interface. Before they even start that, they are all communally agreeing that the name is 'stupid.'
Kind of sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me.
The only two responses I read that defended the name were weak. Did no one stand up and say, "No comment until I've got this thing in my hands and I can really see what it's made of."
Let us all make fun of Dick Butkus now for his name. Hahahaha, dick. Hahahahah, butt. Get it all out of your system.
This is sheer madness. I use a piece of software called "The Gimp 2.0" but I have never once heard anyone make fun of it. "Gimp" means disabled where I grew up, why would you call a piece of software 'disabled?' Who cares? No one because it kicks ass and it's a free alternative solution to photoshop.
It's not like they called it "Engelbert Humperdinck's Genitals" so that when you want to use it you would have to say, "I want to play with Engelbert Humperdinck's genitals now." For crying out loud, "wii," "wee," or "we" all sound the same and the latter is good pun. You hear it how you want to hear it so grow up and stop wanting to hear it as "wee wee."
My work here is dung.
"Wii don't care about the console's name."
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
Did we expand the definition of developers to include "columnist and game design lecturer" and "director of business relations?" Someone at Gamasutra didn't exactly get a scoop. And what's with two quotes from the same company, Blackbone Entertainment?
Anyways, they all say the same thing. The name sucks, the console is good. However, the best point to get out of the article is from David Sirlin:
"Your mother or girlfriend doesn't want something called an Xbox 360, but that's okay because they won't find any games they like on an Xbox 360 anyway (beside xarcade, that is). They might be less intimidated by the "Wii" and will definitely find Nintendo games and non-games that sound more interesting than "Madden 2007" and "GTA 2008". "
Totally true. The iPod wouldn't have succeeded with a name like "SongGiant 3950" (no product would). I say the name is horrible and acceptable all at the same time. Horrible because it lends itself to multiple negative connotations, and acceptable because it draws in customers that names like Xbox and Playstation won't.
Developers "over" React To 'Wii'... Seriously, this stoped being funny or shocking about an hour after I heard it... and I doubt 12 year olds giggling at the name will be the end for big N. Now to more important matters... will Nintendo make the same 10 games again (this time with Wii on the end) or will they continue to inovate internaly and encurage 3rd party support? The Wii has great potential, so did the Gamecube.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
Nintendo has had front-page headlines in the game world for a week with almost zero marketing cost to them. *Everyone* in the game community knows the name and identity of their product.
From a marketing point of view, this name is a colossal success. It worked. You know what their product is, you know what it's for, you remember its name. That's all that matters.
Wii are tired of hearing about how many bad puns we can do with the name. Wii don't care. Wii want to try the console. Wii want to try the controler.
I wouldn't mind you in my head, if you weren't so clearly mad -Lews Therin Telamon
Those dumb Nintendo marketers, they only got FOUR slashdot frontpages from a name change. C'mon, they can do better than that.
Seriously, Wii is a good name. It's a playful name and I think that's what Nintendo was aiming for, the more you think about it the more the name makes sense. Yes, there is some sexual innuendo involved but that makes it even more fun. And also just because some of you might be shy about talking about your Wii doesn't mean you still won't play with it all the time. I mean come on.. this is Slashdot.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
Michael Jackson had front-page articles for a long time. I don't think it helped him sell records.
I realize you're either kidding, or you're an idiot.
If he was in the headlines simply because of his outlandish name change (had he done so), it would indicate that he was already so huge that changing his name to something considerably stupid was headline news; if the music was good, he would then subsequently sell a substantial amount of records just because of all the publicity.
If Nintendo was in the headlines because they allegedly molested children, they would undoubtedly never sell another console or game again.
For that matter, Nintendo should have called it "The Entertainment System Formerly Known as Revolution".
Well, I don't know.
That's about the only part of your post that I agreed with.
If you really believe that Nintendo, the multi-billion-dollar multinational corporation with 117 years of operation under its belt, simply didn't bother to check if people liked the name, you should send them your resume and apply for the position of "Marketing Department" right away.
You're assuming that everyone is a hardcore gamer like you. They're not. I'm not. You're a negligible minority. You're going to buy an XBOX 360 or a PS3 anyway. Quake, Doom and Warcraft are all gamers' games, and not at all the type of casual game Nintendo players play. The rest of us don't care about Ultra-Sooper-Realistic Tactical Combat Simulations, we just want to play Fun Games. The whimsical name of the Wii tells me I'm going to get Fun Games. So if I buy a console this generation, it'll be a Wii.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
I wonder when the haters are finally going to fess up to why they find the name 'Wii' stupid for a gaming console. It has nothing to do with the French "yes" or kiddie-talk for urination.
It's cute, and gamers (especially the kind that spend their evenings arguing on the internet) hate cute.
Come on, admit it. You don't want the coolest new console on the block to be adorable. Why is this so hard to say?
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Oh, bullshit. It sounds even stupider to non-gamers or very casual gamers(which I consider myself to be).
Unlike Playstation, Dreamcast, Famicom, Genesis, or Xbox, which I've heard people say are also "bad names", "Wii" is a horrible name on a purely viceral level as well as having bad puns. At least every other console has more than one syllable, sounds like an acutal product name instead of a squeal, and has some 'character' to it. "Wii" doesn't even sound like a name, it sounds like part of a name that got chopped off.
How would you even say it in normal sentences? "Have you gotten a wii yet?", "Is this game coming out for the wii?", "Hey check out the graphics on the wii", "Wanna play some wii games?", "Wii rocks!", "Do you have any wiis in stock?", "I think my kid wants a wii for christmas", "Wii is way cooler than the PS3". It just feels wrong, somehow - maybe because it sounds like "we", and "The we", "we's", "wes", and "a we" are ungrammatical in English. I suspect most people will just end up calling it "the Nintendo".
I was looking around for the Japanese reaction to it, and at least on Slashdot Japan, there seems to be about as much bewilderment at the name as there is over here. The name doesn't have any bad meaning in Japan, but it still sounds wierd.
ohmigawd I was going down the street and I saw this Nintendo console and I said Wiiiiiiiiii
(Shameless threebrain reference, but I know a bunch of you get it...)
On a more serious note, what I really see this as is a big gamble on the part of Nintendo. They are hoping to create a catchy enough name that the name gets a life of it's own on some level. It's a big gamble, and one I would not have put the remaining reputation of the company on myself.
From a development standpoint, the thing to note here is that I would be willing to bet they're going to target marketing on this more at the child audience and much less at the young adult/adult audience (which is basically how the gamecube worked out for them.) At that level then you can target what kind of game development you are going to do on this platform. Don't expect a bunch of high concept fantasy rpg's and gory blood drenched FPS's on this one. Expect a lot of -Kart , generic sports game, generic mario franchise extension, and stuff your 6 year old niece/nephew won't be able to get enough of. All packaged in a name easy enough for a 3 year old to chant.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
Would you make the same argument if they called it Nintendo Poo?
Only Disney would release a video game product called Pooh.
I differ with you on this point. "PlayStation" and "Xbox", to my mind, are utterly devoid of personality. One sounds like a purely utilitarian description of the device; it's about as personality-laden as "RoadCar" or "FoodCutter". The other just takes "box"--a dreadfully exciting word--and tags the ubiqitous "'X' for extreme" bit to the front. At least "Wii" is evocative; whether you think "fun", "small", or "ha ha pee pee!", it engages your imagination more than either of its competitors.
And what makes a longer, multi-syllabic name better than a shorter, monosyllabic name? In marketing, short is sweet. It's why the "Macintosh" is now simply the "Mac", why the "High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle" is called a "Humvee", and why "fluoxetine hydrochloride" is known as "Prozac".
In any case, we have yet to feel the brunt of Nintendo's marketing. Once you plaster the airwaves with "Wii", it's likely going to be about as silly sounding as "iPod"; you won't even remember when you first shook your head and said, "what the hell kind of name is that?" Familiarity comes from repeated exposure, and in another few months, the name "Wii" will probably seem no more stupid than the name "Nintendo" to most people out there.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Headlines from The Mysterious Future:
2006: After over a hundred years in business and only one unprofitable quarter, Nintendo is finally forced to shutter its doors for good. In spite of its lower price, innovative technology, built-in back catalog emulation, strong first-party licenses and third-party support from industry giants such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, the Wii's chances are destroyed by an endless barrage of trenchant insults from brilliant internet punsmiths who refuse to 'play with Nintendo's Wii.' Microsoft and Sony duel over the gradually diminishing population of hardcore gamers.
2007: Videogame industry continues to shrink. Internet punsmiths realize that 'PS3' sounds kind of like 'piss three,' sort of. Sony is subjected to ridicule from hardcore gamers and Microsoft leaps ahead in market share.
2010: Microsoft releases new console, the Microsoft Penetrator. Ads featuring a man whipping women in the face with his erect penis (tag line: The Penetrator. Is it in you?) are met with enthusiastic approval by the hardcore crowd.
2011: The release of Sony's new console, the Sony Overcompensator, is too little and too late. The consumer electronics giant shutters its doors for the last time.
2012: The Phantom is released. A console so masculine that it actually impregnates women who've never even laid eyes on one, the Phantom quickly dominates the now-anemic videogames industry.
2013-2099: The Phantom precipitates a population boom. Resource wars trigger a new global dark age.
2100: The end of videogaming, forever. A new era of social, civic and intellectual engagement dawns.
My girlfriend's only exposure to console gaming was watching her brother play nintendo when she was younger. I showed her to promotional video of the new controller, and she thought it looked like a lot of fun. I told her about the new name for the system, and even she thought it was a really really bad name.
Seriously, how on earth could they have picked something that is a homonym for a word that means either diminutive, penis, or urine and thought it was a good idea?
Aal Yoour Deveelopers Aare Beelong Too Uus?
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