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Wii Aches — Couch Potatoes Working It Up
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Nov 25, 2006 01:48 PM
from the those-rabbids-won't-kill-themselves dept.
from the those-rabbids-won't-kill-themselves dept.
Genocaust writes "While the new controller on the Wii is proving to be a success, it's turning out to be more effort than some die-hard couch potatoes bargained for. The Wall Street Journal reports on the newest workout regime for nerds." From the article: "In Rochester, Minn., Jeremy Scherer and his wife spent three hours playing tennis and bowling, two of the games included with the Wii. Mr. Scherer says he managed to improve his scores — at the cost of shoulders and back that were still aching the next day. 'I was using muscles I hadn't used in a while,' says Mr. Scherer, a computer programmer who describes himself as 'not very active.' Mr. Scherer is vowing nightly 'Wii workouts' to get in better shape." "Bunnies Don't Know What To Do With Cows," in Rayman, is another guaranteed way to get your arm aching. Cows are heavy, and it takes a lot of energy to throw them.
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Its a choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Its just boring
Re:Its a choice (Score:5, Insightful)
I just wish I could get my hands on one. I'm not willing to stand in long lines or camp out my local eb this week, hoping to get a chance at one... I'm hoping they'll be fairly easy to get within the next few weeks. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Parent
Re:Its a choice (Score:5, Funny)
The Wii literally made me lose 5-10 pounds in a week, and I didn't even BUY one yet.
Parent
Re:Its a choice (Score:4, Informative)
You must have missed this on the page you linked to: Orders entered prior to Wednesday, November 22, 2006 will be shipped on or after November 28. Orders entered on or after Wednesday November 22, 2006 will ship when our new quantities arrive (week of December 18, 2006).
Parent
Re:Hummm... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Interesting)
You could make a dance game with extra detail, maybe. Two wiimotes, one in each hand, and a dance mat connected as a standard controller.
Come to think of it, that wouldn't only work for dance games. How about a fighting game? Wii Boxing with fancy footwork...
Parent
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Insightful)
you got to remember that all controllers will wear out if you put enough game time in. Sure the $30 pads won't last forever, but I doubt any of the geeks on here would put enough time in to wear one out. We have one of those cheap DDR pads and it's lasted great for the few hours they've bothered to play with it.
If you really put in the hundreds of hours it'd take for the pad to wear out I'd think it's worth another $30 to buy another one.
300 hours of fun / $30 bucks = 10 cents for a hour of fun. Not a bad price.
Parent
Re:Wiimote + Dancemat? (Score:5, Interesting)
One gathering, after a bunch of DDR matches between friends, someone popped in one of the Gundam Fighting games. Imagine 170lb guys dancing on a pad trying to get combos off, as giant robots battle it out on screen.
Scarily enough, one of the group started getting good at it
Parent
Re:Hummm... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:5, Insightful)
The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults. I don't know one man who wants to come home from work and play adolescent games where you shoot other people. Those games are still pushing the same formula that they did a decade ago when most of us adults got tired of them. I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.
Make no mistake, the 360 and PS3 are game systems for adolescent boys, not adults. The Wii is the only system that offers gameplay that might be entertaining for an adult or his family. The fact that my six year old son will also find entertaining games on the Wii is a bonus so I won't have to buy a dedicated kids system like PS3.
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Fact is, what constitutes a "kids game" is quite subjective, and people in different age groups tend to feel differently about it. For example, most people who think of Mario as a "little kids game" are probably under 25 (I'm 24 myself, and disagree with Mario, etc being for kids... Ecco Jr. for the Genesis was a little kids game. Its a total other ball park).
Ironicaly, the previous poster mentionned coming back home wanting to get high and drink, which (if we're going by stereotypes, in the same way one can associate the Wii with kid games), tends to be associated with hormonal frat college teens, a group which are seen as "kids" by about anyone above 30 and a little less.
So honestly, away with the stupid stereotypes. Fun knows no age.
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:5, Insightful)
You made a good point and sounded intelligent up until that comment.
I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.
What? You don't like hanging out with friends? Have you lost your social life outside of your family? So single men under thirty aren't adults, and you'd rather play golf than hang out with friends. You sound like an unhappy married man (since you think single men don't qualify as adults) who probably didn't go to college (I say that because you seemed to allude to college students being the "adolescents" who play first person shooters) and is unhappy with his job that he started right out of high school, but that would just be my guess.
That doesn't really matter though. You do realize that you just stereotyped "single men under thirty" while bitching about the stereotype that Nintendo is for kids. Its a lot more convincing when you practice what you preach.
I'm a 23 year old college student, which is probably why I was so irritated with your comment, who loves the GameCube, not to mention the other systems. My roommates and I play Mario Tennis all the time when friends come over before we go out on the weekends. We play Mario Party with our girlfriends. The Mario games are our favorites on the system, and we have probably gotten more use out of the GameCube than the other systems we own.
I'm a little confused on why you say that the Wii is the only new system for your definition of adults while your only reason for that is that adults like sports games more than FPSs. Historically, the PS and XBox have more sports games than Nintendo, unless you are counting all of the Mario sports games. I admit I haven't reviewed the latest list of games for the systems, but even if there are more sports games out for the Wii at the moment, I doubt that that will be the case in another year since, as far as I know, it hasn't been the case in the past.
Finally, my 63 year old father loves the PS2 and plans to buy the PS3. This is because he doesn't like games that require manual dexterity, and the PS2 has the largest concentration of RPGs (which usually don't require hand-eye coordination). He doesn't like sports games and is not interested in the Wii or the thought of using its controllers. The PS3 is the system to most likely have a large number of "standard" RPGs (by that I mean games like Breath of Fire, Dragon Warrior, and FF instead of Zelda or Secret of Mana), so that is what my father wants and the PS3 is the only system for him, a married man over 30.
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:4, Insightful)
I think Nintendo heavily targets kids, age ranging from around 6-15. What really makes me agree with the statement is that most of the core games Nintendo releases (most especially Mario) is more-or-less an interactive cartoon. I don't mean this just visually, but the story lines are similar to those that you might encounter in a Nickelodeon cartoon (at least the classic ones, I'm not up to speed with current cartoon trends). Often characters in these games do not die, or if they do it is only implied; Mario just falls off the screen or falls on his back, you don't see blood all over the ground as you would with, say, Quake on the Xbox. A lot of the games are simple, and the story lines are not so complex that a kid wouldn't be able to follow it -- although there are of course exceptions. This really sways me to think Nintendo is the family company of the bunch, they really target kids in a safe and friendly environment.
My dad (45) never plays video games. Once upon a time he had an Atari 2600 and quite a collection of classics (Galaga among his favorites). He wouldn't touch a SNES, N64, or GameCube, and I can understand that -- with the Atari you have a joystick and a button, but with each generation the technology took leaps ahead, and now the GameCube has what.. 8 buttons, a directional pad, and two joysticks? For an adult who might have been a casual game player, this might seem intimidating if he was trying to get back into it after 20 so years. I think this is really how you are seeing the Wii appeal to adult users. The Wii has the latest technology, but in a form that any adult can pick up and immediately begin experimenting with without a lot of hesitation or intimidation. If the developers play their cards right, I can really see people like my dad picking up a Wii and playing it from time to time. However, the key here is probably with minigames, and I see this happening already (Sports and Rayman). If games have been out of your life for 20 some odd years, you likely will not be interested in picking up a game that will take several weeks of casual play to complete (ex, Zelda), rather some game you can play for 10 or 15 minutes then put down.
With this, I think Nintendo targets both kids and adults, maintaining a family appearance, but still appealing to adults.
Am I wrong?
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to take a not-bad point and stretch it all to hell.
We know Nintendo games go beyond sheer kiddie value for elegant gameplay reasons, but don't kid yourself, its a game with characters that have names like Princess Peach, Luigi, and Toad, and its coloured like an angry fruit salad. The fact that one can look past the PlaySkool elements to see the interesting game design beneath does not somehow elevate the entire enterprise into the realm of what most adults would call ... adult.
A console is not made for any range group ("make no mistake" - i love that phrase. end of debate!) Get a grip. There is no 'adult game'. There are only games we sometimes don't like small kids to play. That's it.
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not saying it will work for you, but it's done wonders for me. Oh, and MSG "hides" as all kinds of things like textured proteins and autolyzed yeasts.
Anyway, I'm less tired all the time and I'm losing weight. I'm now trying to start exercising regularly... at least now I have the energy for it.
Parent
I'll see your GTA and raise you a SMB2 (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Not my choice (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
A solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:A solution (Score:5, Insightful)
In New York City, the situation was somewhat different. There are traffic lights, but I'm not convinced anyone actually observed them. The strategy for crossing a road in NYC seems to be for all of the pedestrians to huddle on the curb. Gradually, the ones at the back push the ones at the front out into the middle of the road. When there are too many people in the road for the average car to drive over, it becomes the pedestrians turn to use the road, until their density thins enough to allow cars across again.
Parent
Re:A solution (Score:4, Informative)
What I HAVE seen, is that pedestrians often do stupid things (like not waiting for the light, or crossing without even looking up when going across a one lane side street).
The biggest contributor to this careless action is probably because NYC is a pedestrian city, and the majority of the people in it do not own a car, or drive regularly (if at all). This makes them less likely to understand why they shouldn't jump in front of a car (a car can't jump to the side like a person can). The good side of this though, is that I think obesity was lower in NYC than the national average. I assume most everyone walking helped with that
Parent
Word to the wise: Wyoming isn't far from Salt Lake (Score:4, Funny)
So if you're walking in Salt Lake, keep a wary eye out for those Wyoming license plates. They have the little cowboy on them.
Parent
Re:A solution (Score:4, Interesting)
The frightening thing is that I'm not joking.
Parent
How long (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How long (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:How long (Score:5, Interesting)
I think maybe something like this may make a venture into the trendy excercise market. If they can sell a big ball for a hundred bucks, they can sell a Wii controller too.
This begs the now cliche question: Why not just go outside and play the actual sport? Alas, there is not a chance in hell.
Parent
Re:How long (Score:5, Informative)
Mainly because it's not the most convenient thing in the world to arrange a sport. More than one person is needed to play. Where I work, for example, half my coworkers have a minimum of an hour long drive home AND they have family to go home to. It's not easy to arrange an hour or two to go somewhere and play a sport. On top of this, this time of year, the only way they could do this when there's daylight is to arrange it on the weekend. For our type of work, weekends often mean catching up on chores.
Thanks to the Wii everybody can just go home and play. Two of my coworkers have arranged to play via the net (which, btw, I didn't know was possible...) *and* they've gotten their wives involved. Where I work, the Wii has proven to be both a workout advice and a social event. I don't know if that'll last, but man, it's sure looking encouraging so far.
Parent
Re:How long (Score:5, Funny)
It's minus 22 out right now. The only sport playable in this weather is "Run between buildings while trying not to freeze to death".
Parent
Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms (Score:5, Funny)
This article assumes that nerds are somehow NOT used to making quick/small jerking motions with their wrists.. I mean.. common.
Parent
Re:Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope...dead serious.
I've written about this before on here....one of the BIG reasons I see today, is that kids just aren't outside playing like we used to when was a young kid. Most everyday after school, we and the neighborhood kids I was friends with (we actually got out and met our neighbors) were always out doing something...football in the street...kill the man with the ball in someone's yard..skateboarding on our homemade ramp (semi-half pipe)....riding bicycles.
Nowdays...it seems that schools are giving too much homework to kids (even 1st and 2nd graders) that take all evening to do...combine this with parents that just don't seem to let their kids out...hell, my folks would pretty much 'toss' my ass outside to go play. The kids today are couch potatoes...playing video games or something stationary.
Yes, I believe parents are overly paranoid and this is a large contributing problem to childhood obesity...along with families not cooking home made meals that are healthy...and eat junk food or the like.
I'm quite sure that there were pedophiles and other bad people out when I was a kid. I was taught to be smart enough to not get in a car with one...etc. I think rather than being a greater danger out there....that there is just more hype and broadcasting of a problem that is nothing new. We didn't have 24/7 news channels back then competing for each other...todays 'news' more often is for ratings rather than dispersal of real news. Parents have all bought into this paranoia....many others just don't take the time to care about their kids.
So, yes...I do see paranoid parents, and ones that are pretty much negligent in overseeing the proper diet of kids as being largely the problem with the overabundance of fat kids out there.
Parent
More than unworked muscle aches? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More than unworked muscle aches? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Penny arcade said it best... (Score:5, Funny)
Wii are out of shape (Score:5, Interesting)
The bowling is really easy on the arms. Baseball can be hard on the pitching arm. Boxing is a real work out. And golf is kind of relaxing and is more of a precision game. Several of the Raving Rabbids games have tested our metal. I seem to be really good at the running and rhythm games, and my SO is great at the shooting and fine manipulation games.
All in all, it was fun to notice that little bit of pain in the back of the shoulder that lets you know you got some exercise. Something I rarely feel I can do much of anymore, which is really just a mental block and lazyness on my part. Still, if they could figure out some way to get your legs to workout in this games, it would be something better for youth to do besides the regular sit and stare video games that I grew up with.
Hasn't been a problem so far... (Score:5, Informative)
Nintendo has done a very good job so far making a comfortable and light controller. Players concerned about wrist or arm stress should compare against mouse usage, and be willing to take breaks if they have to do the same when using a mouse. Don't be afraid to rest your arm on something while playing, or to be creative with 'lazy' ways of performing the same action if it must be repeated. And, if it's really an issue, consider getting some cheap light weights (1-5lbs) and do some light exercise while watching TV at night or something - this works for even the oldest or the youngest people out there, from my experience.
Ryan Fenton
Re:Hasn't been a problem so far... (Score:4, Informative)
Once it's connected and running, it's a very simple yet effective user interface. The only configuration choice at the outset involving the remote is if the sensor bar is above/below the TV. The controller doesn't have to be aiming at the TV, it just has to be 'seen' by the sensor bar to register movement - orientation and other aspects seem to work wonderfully relative to having the remote in front of the TV. Intuitively, any user of the remote can quickly learn the 'sweet spot' of having the remote in the right place to get the cursor where they want. You can go into the console's options menu to get to sensitivity options, and even see a sensor-bar's eyes-view of where the remote is, which helps to set a single 'sensitivity' value from 1 to 5. Once you've set that, the remote settles into the role of an extra-special mouse, with attachments. Like a mouse, there are certain movements that are natural, certain pixel-perfect aimings that are hard to get just right at times, but in general it works to get fairly accurate relative movement and aiming working for software. It is inherently more three-dimensional than a mouse movement (in games, you will 'thrust' it forward, rotate it, etc.), but the mouse analogy is the most common metaphor in common usage.
The games, subjectively, are extremely well-crafted for launch games. They offer a quantum leap beyond the advanced tech-demo feel of the Dreamcast release set. The interactivity of the Wii-remote demands a certain ability to explore the world you are presented, and in the games I've tried so far (only Zelda in a really full exploration so far), the meat is there, unlike the rather dry and selectively-interactive environments of the Dreamcast games. As an example, one of the most expansive games on the Dreamcast was Skies of Arcadia - and while it was a good game, it had a lot of non-interactive environments, which for me, really hurt the exploration aspect of the game between plot points and isolated side-quests. Wii games in general, so far, seem to offer that kind of interactivity - but we'll have to see how many games are released, and how third party and ported games fit into the overall picture of what ends up being the Wii games landscape.
Ryan Fenton
Parent
Penny-Arcade plays the Wii (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, I find this absolutely ridiculous. This article is horribly worded and this quote seems completely out of context. What is harder than playing basketball? The writer seems to make it sound like the kid is talking about actually moving the wiimote around, but I suspect he is actually referring to some specific game being exceedingly difficult to complete. Maybe it gives you a little exercise, but as the spokeswoman from Nintendo says,
I should also point out I do not yet been able to get a Wii.
DDR? (Score:4, Interesting)
Both arms? (Score:5, Funny)
This is great (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want a real work out get Kinetic on PS2 (Score:4, Informative)
It's a program that also scales with use. The eyetoy is a better controller than the Wii to me as well, since you can use your whole body. Like the Wii controller you might have to adjust your lighting for perfect useage and keep an area clear for movement. I also suggest getting a mat as well. I was a judoka for a long time, and I still get a good workout from this system.
Coming soon from Nintendo... (Score:4, Funny)
Wiimote 2.0 [barbell.us]
Aches after 3 hours: duh! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:FIRST WII FISH POST! (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Rimmer, this is the 11th time you've failed the astro-navigation exam. Don't you think you're just not cut out to be an officer?
Parent
Re:Excellent! (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:slightly OT (Score:4, Interesting)
Zelda is a solid buy. I have some problems with it, but nothing earth shattering.
Rampage: TD was worth the money, but just barely. Comes with the original Rampage, and (I believe) the SNES version. The new version is enjoyable as multiplayer, though I was shocked to find out it maxed out at 2 players. The Wii controls are tacked on, and I'm sure the game would be just as enjoyable on another system.
Marvel: UA was a waste of money. Popped it in for 30 minutes, and my girlfriend and I (both comic book fans) decided we'd rather go back to Wii Sports.
Rayman Ravening Rabbids was a game I actually rank above Zelda in value. Solo, it is mildly amusing, but it's a fun party game. The controls are simple to master, but the minigames are difficult enough to have high replay value. Try out "Bunnies Love Hip Hop Part 2" for an example of this. The fact that the turn-based multiplayer version of the plunger FPSes require you to pass the controller around rather than everyone using the controller they've been using for EVERY OTHER DAMN GAME is an annoying UI problem, but not a game-breaking one.
The biggest shock was how much my in-Laws loved playing over Thanksgiving. The two non-gaming ~60 y.o.'s picked up every minigame they were exposed to immediately. In fact, my mother-in-law's bowling tips added 60 points to my game. My father-in-law loved the crunching noises people made as Lizzie ate a group of tourists... (hrm, okay, that was mildly disturbing). They went from considering video games things kids do to asking to play the instant they finished their pumpkin pie. The biggest sign that Nintendo had succeeded in doing what it was supposed to was when "Okay, we'll try it for a while" turned into "well, if you don't mind, could we".
Final warnings: if you are purchasing the system for the Wii Store or Internet features, wait. The functionality is slow, unreliable, and as I found out on Friday, can end up temporarily bricking* your Wii. I'm sure they'll get things fixed eventually, but as someone hoping for a quick, painless online experience, it's been quite disappointing.
[*] After attempting to access the store, all Wiimotes refused to acknowledge they were synced. Wii refused to resync them because it was convinced it had four synced Wiimotes already registered. No input to the Wii was possible. 10 minute phone call to Nintendo acknowledged it was a known issue, and they were able to give me a fix that got me up and running again. Still, I have yet to have a good experience with the Wii online.
Parent