consoles and strife

So a whole bunch of Nintendo nerds are paralyzed with outrage that Nintendo changed the name of the Revolution to Wii. Some of them, I’ve heard, are even considering having their tattoos of Link, Mario, and Kirby removed (but not Samus and Pikachu; those stay. Even pissed off nerds have their limits, you know.)[1]

Nintendo says,

"Wii sounds like ‘we,’ which emphasizes that the console is for
everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no
matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate.
Just Wii.

Wikipedia adds,

Nintendo spells "Wii" with two "i"s to create an image of players
gathering together to play. The spelling also is intended to invoke the
controllers the Wii uses. 

I actually think that logic is extremely cool, very non-linear, and surprisingly poetic for a video game company. And guess what? Nintendo now has people who are not Nintendo fanboys talking and thinking about the Wii. Brilliant.

Why are so many Nintendo fanboys taking it so personally? I wonder why the name of a gaming console is such a big deal? Isn’t it the catalogue of games and how well they play what really matters?

There wasn’t this much outrage from Trekkies when Rick Berman destroyed the Enterprise D, and that was worth some serious tattoo removal.

 

[1] Okay, I made that up, but the point stands.

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31 thoughts on “consoles and strife”

  2. Dude, I’m totally getting a Wii. I don’t care if they call it Tinkerbell. I’ll buy one the minute a version of Zelda comes out that requires it.

  3. Represent, yo. I full-on removed 3 of my 7 life-sized Klingon forehead rigde tattoos when the “D” was sent to its graveyard.

  4. I must admit, Revolution has grown on me and stuck. It’ll take a little longer to get used to the new one.

  5. I think you only like the idea because it’s easily confused with your own name.
    Of course, why you enjoy the idea of millions of fanboys playing with you is beyond me.

  6. Maybe they wanted to make new positive spin on those letters. I mean really. The last time the Japanese met up with those letters it was WWII. Maybe this will be the new age reverse Horishima and Nagasaki with the US trade deficit.

  7. I’m not sure when I’ll buy my next console, but as someone online recently suggested, the minute Nintendo teams with Lucas Arts to produce a Star Wars game that uses the Wii’s unqiue controller as a lightsaber, THAT’s when I’ll get a Wii.
    Whoever thought & posted that idea MUST get that idea to Nintendo/Lucas Arts because the Wii controller is both the right shape/size & is motion sensing. It practically shouts out, “Use me as a lightsaber in a really cool Jedi fighting game!!”

  8. I totally agree. The loss of the Enterprise D was sacrilege. I’m sure geek hubby will be thinking of fun ways to hack the Wii before I’m done typing this.

  9. Nice reference. Sing it together, now!

    “When you’re a kid and you wanna go wheeee, but you ain’t got drugs yet, hold on for your life. Hold on to your little.. gonads.. and strife”

  10. Enterprise-D, hell. Killing off Lursa and B’Etor was sacrilegous. “They are MAGNIFICIENT, aren’t they?” 🙂

  11. Yet somehow, no one was pissed off at…
    Xbox
    and then
    Xbox 360?
    Or Sega
    and then
    Sega Genesis?
    What did they want it to be called? The SUPER Nintendo?
    Oh, wait.
    Sure, “Wii” sounds a little foofy–and looks it in this serif font, but at least they’ve got a good, strong rationale as to why they’re doing it as such.
    It’s not as lame as:
    Nintendo: The Next Generation, at least.

  13. Well, one might have expected the Enterprise-D getting its lunch, because the ship ALWAYS gets the worst of it in Star Trek movies…either it doesn’t freaking work right, or it takes a royal beating. Check it out:
    ST:TMP – Ship doesn’t work right.
    ST2 – Ship gets majorly thrashed by Khan.
    ST3 – Ship gets self-destructed.
    ST4 – No Enterprise in this one, but the Klingon ship winds up crash-landing in the Pacific.
    ST5 – New Enterprise, doesn’t work right.
    ST6 – Ship gets trashed by Chang, including taking a torpedo right through the saucer section.
    ST:G – Half the ship goes boom, the other half crash-lands on Veridian III.
    ST:FC – Ship gets assimilated.
    ST:I – Ship gets hammered by Son’a, has to dump the warp core.
    ST:N – Two words: “Ramming speed!”
    See what I mean?
    (ObNintendoComment: “Wii” is kind of a stupid name. “Revolution” was perfectly fine, IMHO. Then again, they could call it “Dog Crap” and it’d probably still sell 5 million units…)

  14. In case y’all hadn’t noticed, “Wii” not only sounds like “WE” but also “WHEE!”
    Also “WEE” as in “WEE WEE,” but’s that’s neither here nor there.

  15. Erbo nailed it. I would have been dissapointed it the 1701-D hadn’t gotten thrashed. The show was moving on to a new era and they need to break some ties with the old. Besides, 1701-E is alot sexier.

  16. Gavroche: exactly.
    When I was skimming Tycho’s column over at Penny Arcade which mentioned the new name, I thought the article was going to be about Wil.

  17. Those folks who changed the name, they don’t live in Washington, do they? Because that’s oddly close to what will soon be our “new tourist slogan” for the state…
    Say WA.
    Revolution is at least an actual word. Wii has to be explained (I took it as a Roman numeral thing, or perhaps pronounced like the “wi” in “Wil”) The symbolism is nice though, I can see the two i’s playing a video game and the camera pans back to show the big W next to them.
    As to the Enterprise D – a fellow blogger mentioned this question on a road trip. Do you think crew-people assigned to the Enterprise ever freaked out about it, knowing that they would either be on the ship when it was overrun by aliens or they’d be the Crewman #6 who would be killed during an away mission?

  18. I’m starting to settle to the ‘Wii’ name, but you have to admit : Nintendo fans went from being Revolutionaries to Wii-ners overnight.
    That does come as a shock, no ?

  20. Haha. Wii-ners. (God but I am immature in the early morning.)
    And actually, I think the idea is pretty cool. Usually I hate when they change the names of things, but (1) this name-change is provocative(sp?) and pretty-much a positive thing and (2) I’m a PS2 girl; I don’t care, really, what goes on in the world of Nintendo. =P Peace out!

  21. I’m going to be blunt – and not make an arguement… just a point:
    Wii is a very, very, silly name for a console.
    I like Nintendo (my kid’s owned more than a few versions), but Wii?
    Silly.

  22. The concept of the Enterprise-D’s destruction didn’t bother me nearly as much as the implementation. The bridge is at the TOP of the saucer section, the part that’s the farthest away from the planet when it bellys in. The SS crashes in such a way that the bridge is mostly torn up, but not to the point that it kills anyone on the bridge itself. That means that everything that hit the planet before that was ground to powder by the impact; in other words, the whole rest of the saucer section. Yet if I recall correctly, the general assumption was that most everone on board survived.
    Science fiction–it doesn’t necessarily have to be linearly correct, but it should be generally consistent.
    We now return you to your regularly scheduled debate on the new Nintendo console’s name.

  23. Lots of people bitched about the MacBook name for the same reason, although I personally like it (and just bought one).
    I’m not a Nintendo fan — I’d rather buy a PS3.

  24. this is a question I’ve been asking for a while. granted, Revolution is kind of a cool name, and Wii is a bit more Mario Party/Kart, but still….You’re telling me Wii is scads worse than “Xbox 360” or “PS3?” Good grief.
    I think it’s kind of a cool name.

  25. “Science fiction–it doesn’t necessarily have to be linearly correct, but it should be generally consistent.”
    Part of the problem was that Trek hadn’t been consistent for years at that point. I even recall reading an interview with Bragga where he blatantly condemned continuity. (and this was well before the “Enterprise” days when they trashed all-that-went-before)
    So it was with no great grief that we watched assorted Enterprises being destroyed, it seemed to be standard fare when they couldn’t come up with a good story (or other plot device).
    And “Wii” just makes me think of the “Gonads and Strife” flash thing, which makes me laugh (however I have no intention of buying one anyway …).

  26. Great. Now I have the little squirrel saying “WHEEEE!” stuck in my head… I started hearing it when I saw the title in my live bookmarks, before I read anything.
    Thanks. I’m not going to be able to concentrate in Brit Lit this morning (not that I originally intended to anyway)

  28. Banzai says:
    “So it was with no great grief that we watched assorted Enterprises being destroyed”
    Yeah, I know, that was part of my problem. When the Enterprise-D was destroyed, it just seemed like it was mostly because the movie was about done, and they didn’t know what else to do.
    In Star Trek III, on the other hand, the Enterprise got destroyed in a defiant gesture that was part of heroes saving the day against infinite odds, etc. It wasn’t just because they didn’t have anything better to do with their time.
    I’m afraid that I think Star Trek as a narrative structure peaked with mid-run TNG (2-4 season), and nothing Star Trek has really been that good since.
    Argh–I REALLY need to get back to work.

  29. How I found your blog, Wil:
    I just realized that you might find this amusing — your post title reminded me how I first found your blog. I was trying to find Gonads and Strife. You’d posted a mention of it, along with finding a ST:TNG cast birthday card while cleaning your garage, and being grateful that the worst thing in your week was failing to tape the Simpsons.
    I was hooked. I just thought you might like to know.

  30. Ok. I posted this on the other thread too, but I can’t resist.
    I can hear it now:
    “But mooooommmm, I can’t take out the trash right now. I have to Wii!”
    With added hopping and shifting from one foot to the other for added effect.

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