19.11.06

Good-bye, wordcount. I'll miss you.

Saturday, I was obviously in a bad mood. Sunday was better though... sure, I waited in line for three hours for a store to open, but it's kind of like Star Wars... the communal experience is what makes it special. And unlike Star Wars, I actually bought a ticket this time! To absolutely no one's surprise, I bought a brand-new Wii yesterday. Here's the quick review: 100% Happy Happy Joy Joy. But I want to talk about something else right now.


It's-a Mii!Check out that handsome devil! Right from the start, you can fiddle around with the "Mii Channel" and create your own likeness (and many others). Then, he appears in Nintendo's games as your default character. When I load up Wii Boxing, there he is, bare-chested and wearing purple shorts. When I start Wii Baseball, he's wearing a jersey and pinstriped pants. On top of that, I can send copies of him to other people's accounts, so that when they start boxing, they have the option to pummel my face into its consituent pixels.

It's funny how technology continually takes us around in a circle. In the pre-WWW days, you could play games on a BBS, where you'd compete against other players. Of course, since you could rarely find a BBS with more than two phone lines, you'd actually just compete against the other player's statistics. The next time he logged in, he'd find out who he fought, and what happened.

Now, 13 years after Doom, we're back to the same idea -- sure, there's still head-to-head competition, but now you can also play against people who aren't online. And it's great! I bought an XBox Live account so that I could play with my friend in Regina while we chatted over the headset. Go ahead, take a wild guess how many times that happened. Here's a hint: one of us has home renovations, parents-in-law, and a life. The other one gave up and bought a Wii.

Another nifty feature is that you can't communicate with anyone unless you contact them outside of the Wii and exchange System Codes. At first, it sounds like a useless layer of paperwork that cripples gaming efficiency. But that's kind of the point. After all, would you invite the Internet over for tea and cookies?

So, if you have a Wii, and you want to try this out, my System Code is 5919 7004 2166 0472. E-mail me with yours, and we'll be able to send cartoon people back and forth like carrier pigeons.

Whee!

5 comments:

TilJ said...

You are doomed! Doomed, I say!

12,000 words. So short, and yet so so wiide a chasm. Heh.

Anonymous said...

But why the goodbye to the wordcount? Why???

Unknown said...

Why? Because I gave all my Wii games to a co-worker for safekeeping until December, and I'm still spending 45 minutes or writing time each night just playing around with the system menu, that's why.

All right, the system menu and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Anonymous said...

Hullo, Denton!

I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm a friend of Cara's, formerly with big hair. I picked up a Wii last weekend, as well, and I've taken down your System Code to link to soon.

I didn't know there was a Comic Readers in Medicine Hat. Do you frequent it? Are you active on the forums at http://www.comicreaders.com/ ?

My pull list is posted at my blog, if you ever want to talk books! :)

be happy and well,
chad

Anonymous said...

I bring the peeps together. All hail the peeps.