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- TheG2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26I did the same thing with my family. I brought the Wii over to families house and set it up downstairs. My dad (I'm at college so this was his first experience) and I played a game of golf, and within 25 minutes, every member of the family (10 people) had played the system and loved it.
The house at which we had thanksgiving at, had never owned a video game system, before the night ended, my aunt asked me where she could pick up a Wii...I gladly gave her one I had been planning to sell on eBay (I charged her cost...its not christmas...yet).
Nintendo's plan of getting the non-gamer into the system succeeded. - slant, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20I was interested in the same thing. My grandmother beat my wife, myself and one other person (all three of us in our mid-20's) in bowling after only playing it a few games. She could not quite get it down at first, but after a few frames and watching everyone try it out, she really seemed to pick up on it. She most certainly enjoyed it!
- afx1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Quite a touching story...
- osc1882, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18... awesome. Most people only have to play it to be converted.
- croxis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I did the same thing. My grandmother loved Wii Sports, especially now that she can't play bowling anymore because of her age and arthritis.
- sdresser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I love when people talk about "good" graphics. For most people, N64's or PS1's graphics were "good" enough. My parents can't even tell the difference. They can, however, tell the difference in gameplay.
- drewfer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I did exactly this during thanksgiving. I had my grandmother jumping up and down playing golf. Everyone of my friends that has played has left smiling.
- cypher35, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Dispite the poor / lukewarm reviews, Excite Truck was definitely a crowd pleaser for my family. As was Wii Sports.
Red Steel was not. The controls were anything but intuative, and it turned everyone off before they could even bother to learn them.
Also, I don't know if this counts, but Bomberman '93 for the virtual console was great. 4 people can play, and you don't need the classic controller to play it. - Melvil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Add my family to the list. Brought my Wii to our gathering, everyone played it, everyone loved it. The "kids"(all in our 20's) had a hard time getting the controllers back after the adults tried it out. Several of my cousins now plan on buying a Wii.
- Coy0te, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"10 Bucks says thats just the guys girlfriend and is a Wii fanboy. Pick up a real system like the PS3 or Xbox360 and play some real(fun) games with real(good) graphics."
Then get real disappointed when you realize you paid 600 to play rehashes of games that you could have played before on your last console. - Sheir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The Wii was a big hit at Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, this meant that I could not play Zelda, but I digress. It was fun, and I actually lost in bowling a few times.
- johnhummel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7They said the same thing about the DS and $120 - but Nintendo zigged instead with "non-gaming" offerings like "Brain Age" and "Nintendogs". I'm still waiting to see if they announce some sort of exercise kit that tracks your aerobics workout or some such - because once they do and get it shown on Oprah, it's game over for the console wars.
- zarand, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Honestly, would it kill you to have an open mind?
- HalBSure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You think a phone call is more important than satisfying your grandmother?
- imafish2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5All i can say is ...Bastards :< Wont have my Wii till the 8th of Dec! *Goes off to cry*
- billymachine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I agree completely! I had my family playing Wii Sports in no time on Thanksgiving, because that's all I have besides Zelda. But I'd really like to know, what games did you diggers play that were a big hit? I'm thinking Monkey Ball would be a good buy, but I'd like some opinions.
- OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah, it's gonna be hard to lure people into the video gaming world. A lot of them just find it too childish. I think it's safe to say that if your family isn't willing to play a board game with both kids and adults then there's little chance they'll pick up Any video game controller...
Personally, I would have liked the controllers to be cheaper so that no one would be left out. - Bega, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6that's really not what this article is about. you're right though.
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"the most apprehensive person wasn't the adults, but 21 year-old Meredith McSorley "
Confusing statement. There are people who don't consider 21 to be adult?
What age did you first feel that you were an adult at? For me it was 17. I definitely wasn't totally mature (over 10 years later I still don't feel -totally- "mature"), but it was when I started working and taking charge of things I was responsible for, and taking the fact people relied on me seriously. - MoofTheStoof, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I didn't have quite the success with my Thanksgiving evangelism. None of the adults wanted to get up from the dinner table, but my 18 year-old nephew (who plays first-string varsity in football, baseball and basketball and is definitely *not* into computer or console games) couldn't put it down. He and my son played on it while the adults sat around watching.
- jodokast, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Heh, you're a funny 12 year old.
- Hords, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5My family was hesitant to try it when I brought it over on Thanksgiving, but they fell in love with it. They liked bowling the best, but my mom even liked the boxing. She called me today to ask if she could come over Saturday night and play some more bowling. Nintendo is a genius I have to say. Much smarter to bundle Wii Sports than Zelda. The only other game I could get some of them interested in was Excite Truck out of a few others we tried. The console got seven hours straight of use, which is amazing since there was almost always a non-gamer playing.
The last game that my mom liked was Space Invaders, and she wasn't very good at it. The last game my dad liked was the original Zelda. He hasn't liked any of them since, although he hasn't tried too many of them either. For the most part, the controllers have been what got him out of video games, too different from the atari 2600 that he loved. - Smoktiludy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4My entire family was in love with this thing during Thanksgiving. There wasn't a single person there who wasn't having a good time playing with it. These were people of ages between 11 all the way up to 85 years old. If you've been looking to get one for yourself, good luck now that families around the world have had a chance to play one for themselves. I'm really glad I camped out 13 hours for mine. :)
BTW that Wii Bowling 91 pin easter egg is so awesome. lol - wyrdness, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Define 'non gaming'. I've never owned (or even played) a console and don't own a PC. I hardly ever play games on my Mac, which isn't really a gaming machine anyway. So I guess that you could call me a 'non gaming' 39 year old. But I'm really looking forward to getting a Wii once they're released here in the UK. Wii Sports sounds like great fun and Zelda looks incredible. I haven't been this excited about new hardware since Sinclair launched the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1982.
My wife (13 years younger than me) grew up with Nintendo consoles, loves Zelda, and said last week, 'I wish we had a console'. So of course I'm going to grant her wish. - OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As a pc gamer, I have to admit that I see the difference in graphics quality. What I have noticed though is that simpler graphics also make it easier to distinguish playable elements (character, items etc) than in realistic games ( where a lot of objects are non-interactive, decorative door and all). This might have something to do with the emphasis on animations.
- UPSLynx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Awesome to hear of all the Thanksgiving success stories. I took my Wii as well, and had my brother, sister, father, step mom, uncle, and grandfather all playing bowling actively, with most the rest of the family having fun while spectating. It was amazing. I was able to connect with them in ways that I've never dreamed possible. My grandfather worked in electronics before retiring, chip manufacturing to be exact. When I arrived at his house, he asked me if I had any new electronic things. I told him he was just going to have to see this one. And sure enough, there we were playing together. It was awesome. Nintendo pulled off the most impossible hurdle since the creation of gaming. I've sold at least 3 Wii's this Thanksgiving due to the demo.
- Rockout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I took the Wii over to my brother's house on Thanksgiving, and my parents loved it. It took my father in law a few frames of bowling to get the timing down, but he was soon bowling in the 200's. The whole family had fun playing tennis too. Good times...
- n3tfury, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4wow, IE7 totally hoses that article (don't worry kids, haven't stopped using FF).
- MoeWasHere, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@WYRDNESS
You're practically 40 years old and you married a 26 year old woman?
YOU'RE THE _MAN_ !!
(much respect) - Hords, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4My family enjoyed the Nintendo Wii, they would never have enjoyed the PS3/360. They figured out how to bowl in seconds with the new control scheme. They look at controllers for other consoles and just panic, they won't even pick them up.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah I got my ass handed to me a few times in bowling over Thanksgiving. But it was a whole lot of fun.
- alienasa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2wow yes it does.
- dime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Pink after Labor Day? For shame!
- PatrickBeseda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thats awesome. I wasn't really a big fan. I thought it was "overhyped" but now I think I've seen it do what Nintendo intended it to do. Bravo.
- Dustyb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I got my whole family playing bowling and golf, a lot of them never played video games before and they where all having a blast. I think Nintendo has done there job.
- Mosatii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're the one living in a fantasy world.
I let my Aunt have a go at the console when she came over for Thanksgiving. She played for less than 10 minutes before she was set on buying one, and the only video games she has played in her life were pinball and the like when she was younger.
I camped out that night and got her one (she payed me back of course :D). - Andicow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I tried it on my family and it was the funniest thing I've ever watched.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3My grandma can bowl better than you.
- mucha7012, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Another example oh how easy it is to play the wii and how many people will be able to play with no gaming knowledge needed. Great story.
- wizpig64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it's great that the new control schemes have leveled the playing field for families. my dad schooled me at excite truck at game crazy.
- Elric1977, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually Bomberman is 5 player, and JUST ABOUT as fun as Bomberman on DS! (Thats a GREAT thing!)
- Soniti, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Nintendo's aiming below the belt in this console war: They're the bored housewives.
Like you said, one showing on Oprah, and PS3 and the 360 will be finished, sales wise at least.
~Soniti - toast1226, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2All these stories of family converts sounds like quotes you'd hear on the Nintendo website... Must... get... Wii!!!
- QurrUm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually, Wii Sports does offer an exercise plan. If you go to the home screen, it'll have an option for it. Gives you an "exercise age" or something and then asks you to try and decrease it. I'm not surprised everyone didn't notice it though. I almost didn't until my sister asked me what that was. Oprah here we come!
- becknell, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2What a cutie. It's great that folks that don't normally game are having fun with this; and more fun than frustration is important. Good job Nintendo.
- Tandaemonium, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5I definitely don't consider 21 an adult. Quite a few people are exceptions to that as well as at earlier ages. Legal, but not an adult. Some are at 25, even more at 30, but if not by 35 than that person is sad.
- revisrev, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1So, I had a similar Thanksgiving... and I want my check from Nintendo. But really, my brother, my sister, and my brother in law are all getting one (if they can now). And my mother made us all promise to get her one for Christmas (cheapest chip-in gift for her since her microwave broke).
- pauljaroszewski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1good job, nice article.
- pbjorge12, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Funny...No one in my family really enjoyed it or even wanted to try it except for my 25 year old cousin who already enjoys games...
Hopefully I'm in the minority... - driftwood07, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1hott
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