U.S. Safety Commision 'Keeping an Eye' on the Wii 102
In the wake of this past week's offer from Nintendo to replace our Wiimote straps, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says they'll be keeping an eye on the situation in the future. For the time being they are satisfied with Nintendo's handling of the problem. Just the same, Kotaku reports that the organization wants to make sure there aren't a lot of subsequent 'flying Wiimote' incidents. From the article: "Because Nintendo self-reported the issue, the commission will not do its own investigation unless new issues crop up with the new strap. 'If the problem continues with the new strap that's where we might step in," she said. "We also would have to decide if it's a safety issue.' Vallese added that that means that if remotes were, for instance, smashing into a television hard enough to cause the tube to explode or somehow stop working in a dangerous way, it could also be deemed a safety issue."
Overboard (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Overboard (Score:4, Interesting)
On another note, Gizmodo [gizmodo.com] has a bit on how strong the strap is...pretty strong if you ask me.
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Your argument is foolish. The Wii manual specifically states that people should not "let go"; adding a safety precaution on top of that is a good step. Now, go roast in hell.
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EXACTLY. (Score:3, Insightful)
Missed the point (Score:1)
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It seems as if it is near indistructable.
Haven't you heard? Nintendo hardware is more durable than most. Have you ever had your parents chuck your GBA out the window, watch it roll sideways down the hill and land in some bushes, retrieve it, and see that it's still intact AND working withonly three small scratches on the screen?
Heck, they're even MORE durable than the televisions!!!
Not only overboard, but great press! (Score:5, Insightful)
Two problems with your arguement (Score:2)
First of all, you bet your ass they're paying for it! A full recall (although they're not calling it that) on all the straps on the Wiimotes is going to cost them. Even if only 10% or something actually do send their's back, that's hundreds of thousands in shipping, repackaging, and wages for people having to put them back on.
Secondly, I don't think this could be FURTHER from the "bad boy card". This is Nintendo, voluntarely standing up, saying, "there's a problem with our product, we don't want anyone to
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I explained the whole situation to them and that was followed with a "Gee, I bet my wife would enjoy that, she likes to excercise but can never find the time. It sounds interesting. Where can I check it out?"
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Sure, obviously any press is good for them, but there are better and easier ways of getting press than purposefully making faulty hardware so that it will get press.
My one question is: after you're discussion over thrown video-game equipment, his first thought was about his wife... do I sense some... uhhh... trouble at home?
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My straps haven't snapped yet, but they are starting to fray where they loop on the wiimote, and I'm not even swinging it in full motion like those people you see in online wiisaster videos.
I guess that eventually the string just becomes too weak from fraying.
They should buy a Wii (Score:2)
and conduct extensive tests. Its the only way to be sure.
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Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Hudson: Fuckin' A...
Burke: Ho-ho-hold on one second. This installation has a substantial dollar value attached to it.
Ripley: They can bill me.
From Aliens (1986) [imdb.com]
Uh... what? (Score:4, Insightful)
People have thrown cellphones and remotes across the room in frusturation before. Safety Commision pays no heed.
Nintendo implements tool to keep device from being thrown across room. Nintendo then upgrades tool and offers replacement of 'inferior' version to try and keep accidents down. And now the Safety Commision is a bit concerned? For. Fucks. Sake.
mod parent up, underrated (Score:2)
Re:Uh... what? (Score:5, Informative)
So the Commision is only getting involved because Nintendo asked them to.
Re:Uh... what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Going back to my OP, how is that any different than someone throwing a TV remote at the screen in frusturation? That's probably not any more uncommon than these incidents with the Wiimote. The tube explosion is unintended in either case, though the reasons for throwing the device are quite different. I don't see the Safety Council leaning on remote manufacturers about this.
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The Gamecube sold 12 Million systems in North America and I think it is pretty safe to assume the Wii will sell more than that...
If 1% of person-play-sessions result in a dropped controller and 1% of those are thrown with enough force to cause damage to a TV and if you assume 1-person-playsession/console-day you would get 1,200 Wiimotes thrown a day or about 420,000/year; if 1% of those caused an exploding TV you'd have 4,200 exploding TVs/year.
Do I th
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Since the tube contains a vacuum, if it gets cracked there's going to be an implosion, not explosion.
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Of course, I don't know if it's all that rare anymore. Microsoft did the same thing with the Xbox power cord issue, and the Xbox 360 warranty extensions, etc. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples where an infrequent issue was publicized reasonably widely and the co
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Less and less is still >0. They've still got Marketroids saying that things like that are bad for PR. The truth is, the only time anyone actually says "There's no such thing as bad press." is when they're knee-deep in it and trying to appear glib and unconcerned (or are a
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Yes, exactly. They're a "bit" concerned. That's it. That's all. How can you be that outraged over them NOT TAKING ACTION?
I haven't gotten my Wii yet... (Score:4, Informative)
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I haven't personally tried one, but according to third-party testimonial they get the job done quite well.
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Here's a tip to Nintendo (Score:4, Funny)
My experience. (Score:5, Funny)
A more serious incident was when I was playing Baseball with my girlfriend's 5 year old daughter. She was pitching, and I was batting. She was standing almost directly in front of the TV as usual, and I was standing further back, near the wall so that I was out of reach of her. What happened was she pitched the ball, and then stepped back for some reason. I was taking a swing at the ball, and I was fairly focused on the TV. I heard a very satisfying CRACK! as the remote hit her head, and the bat hit the ball. I got a home run. She got a hurt head. And learned an important lesson about Wii safety. She hasn't done that again.
(Yeah, I know that I'm a bastard. But surprisingly, she wasn't that hurt, despite me whacking her in the back of the head nearly as hard as I could. (The battery cover flew off of the remote, but it was otherwise undamaged, and the battery cover didn't break))
Re:My experience. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Kids are pretty smart in their own way, but they don't have the same wisdom and level of understanding of the world as adults do. They *will* do things no sane a
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Great line, applying "error in judgement" to a 5-year-old.
Anyway, the two of you are dumb fucks. When you hurt a little kid while rough-housing (even if it's electronic rough-housing) the appropriate response is "hey, I need to be more careful." The response is not "ha ha, she sure learned her lesson."
Look, I'm sure that the kid was all right. It's your attitudes that are crazy.
And relax. I used to work with abused children. The two of
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There's a difference (Score:2)
If you can't see the difference between a girl hitting her head, and her parent whacking her on the head as hard as he can, you shouldn't have kids.
Yup, There's a difference (Score:2)
Wait, I take that back. You're right at home.
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And no, I wouldn't take her to the hospital for whacking her on the head. I'm not a psych person, but I did take an introductory psychology class. It's a pretty basic principle of psychology that the way we are raised does have a lot of bearing on our mental development. Parent
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I'd absolutely agree - if she had fallen down her bike, or hit her head on something, or scraped her knee after stumbling over something. But not if you hit her on hear head as hard as you could. Either you're really weak or really lucky, but hitting a five-year-old on the head as hard as you can can be really dangerous.
Well (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd dare say that over 80% of the reason for the breakages right now is because people have been booting up Wii Sports and taking on, say, the Golf game thinking they have a real seven iron in their hands. Of course people are going to pretend it's the real game while playing Baseball or Boxing and with these kind of multiplayer games, when your with a friend you will both pretty easily start going at it with more violent movements. Games such as red steel in the shooting part are unlikely to have that many breakages happen, but as soon as you get into the sword fighting parts people will start thinking they are one of the fourty-seven samurai and start throwing the controller around. It's good to see Nintendo are beefing up the wrist strap with the recall but I still think it's less about product failure and more about people not using common sense while playing - on the flipside of that it is a game console (with a target market of young people), so surely Nintendo should have expected people to get a bit over excited and be at least slightly prepared for this.
Explode? (Score:3, Informative)
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It came time to dispose of "ol greener", so I did the only sensible thing: put it face-up in a dustbin and dropped bricks on it. Took quite a few, and then the tube just cracked and slowly filled with air. A wiimote? please.
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An angry customer had hit the front of a crt-monitor with a hammer.
There where not a shredd of glass outside the tube. Just an "inverted crater" visible through the glass, a hole the size of the hammer-head and a strong smell of what probably was phosphor.
No explotion... =)
Suspect someone else is pushing here... (Score:3, Insightful)
Aint no such thing as bad publicity... (Score:1)
Yeah, its really in the interest of M$ and Sony to ensure that the Wii gets daily mentions in the media during the run up to ex-mas (along with comments about how excited people are getting over them). Seen anything in the mainstream press about the PS3 last week?
As long as nothing really serious happens, the Nintendo marketing guys should be laughing all the way to the bank. They'll make more than enough to absorb a few ex-gratia payouts for broken tellys.
What about people getting hurt? (Score:1, Redundant)
Vallese added that that means that if remotes were, for instance, smashing into a television hard enough to cause the tube to explode or somehow stop working in a dangerous way, it could also be deemed a safety issue.
The tube to explode? First of all, since a cathodic tube is filled with vaccum, it might not create such a considerable deflagration, and then, what about people who'd catch Wiimotes in the head/face/eyes?
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Is it now...
Excessive Force (Score:4, Insightful)
Be was pitching in baseball and threw the fucking controller.
You do not throw the fucking controller.
Aparrantly people seem to thing you have to put the same force behind your movements as if you were actually pitching or hitting or bowling or swinging a golf club. I'm starting to thing WiiSports was a really bad title to include with the console, maybe they should have gone with WiiPlay, I'm sure far fewer dickweeds would fling thier controller with enough force to break thier TV then.
It's not the strap that's broken, the strap is only meant to stop you from accidentally dropping it, it's the retards putting way too much force behind thier movements. Maybe if they used it without the strap they'd be more careful.
Make GLOV ES and Ankle straps (Score:3, Interesting)
I see a solution is to create Wiimote gloves to keep the controller on the body. And another idea is to create Wiimote ankle controllers. This way games can be created that monitor feet movement (dance, dance revolution kinda thing). Then a new genre can start using game consoles...exercise videos! Imagine it...Jane Fonda's workout video game that could monitor your movements, tell you what you're doing right and wrong, monitor your heart rate (sensor in the glove), estimate calorie burning, save the game and keep a history, and draw charts of the history.
There are issues with the glove (how to remap all the buttons and the trigger), and it may take away from the tactile feel of holding something in your hand, but the safety issue would be solved. Well, except for people smashing into furniture.
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Also, I would recommend everyone get get a Wiimote condom. They improve your grip on it and just generally look good. [ncsxshop.com]
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the work being lunging forward to spit on a disabled vet. we could have the wiimote strapped to the neck
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Part of the reason the remote works better is because you can hold it in different ways, depending on the type of motion it's trying to simulate, and because it can be used with either hand. And as you say, there's also something very immersive about actually -holding- something. The glove won't be ambidextrous, and it'd be much more difficult to "drive", as you'd have to hold and move your hand in an absolutely specific way to make the moti
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If you actually read the URL you linked to, you'd see that it wasn't produced by Nintendo :p
But after seeing the Angry Nintendo Nerd's [youtube.com] video on the Power Glove, I can agree that it kinda sucke.
Best advertising money can buy!! (Score:5, Insightful)
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The Bridgestone/Firestone issue was a flaw in the basic functioning of the product... as I said the strap issue "doesn't affect the basic functionality of the product." The replacement costs for Nintendo will be minimal. To avoid the issue people need to restrain themselves (meaning... wow this is so much fun you need to be careful not to get too into it). If the Wii broke after a month. If the controller didn't wo
Lawn Darts (Score:1)
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the dangerous wii (Score:1)
Seriously, the only dangers involved in playing Wii games are the ones imposed by playing with people who seem to lack some motor skills or self-control. My wife hit me with a controller because she flails her arms wildly when boxing. My f
Now you know... (Score:1)
Oh, that makes sense. (Score:1)
New wrist straps will not help, and here's why: (Score:1)
"If you make something idiotproof, they will make a better idiot."