What is Digg?89 Comments
- sakuraz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+38When people play tennis, accidentally let go of their racket, and hit a person, the racket manufacturer shouldn't be sued.
Why can't people apply the same logic... - revwolfwood, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Amen! Though I gotta admit, it is really easy to get way into it. Playing tennis, i'll catch myself starting to swing a bit too hard and be like woah now.
- Leo21k, on 10/12/2007, -1/+33They should just not have a strap at all then if adding a form of protection is going to make them liable if its not perfect...
- eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -2/+30And cars shouldn't have seatbelts if there's the off chance they'll be liable when one breaks and someone dies in a car crash because of it.
- johnhummel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28What the hell are you doing pointing a loaded gun at your friend, or waving it around at him in general?
You argument is illogical. There is not a "design flaw" that makes you suddenly let go as you swing, any more than there's a design flaw in a baseball or tennis racket.
Then you have to factor in that Force = Mass * Acceleration. The Wiimote weighs what - 8 ounces? Do you know how much force you have to be hurling it to cause the kind of damage people are doing?
I'm sorry, I don't buy the "design flaw" issue - I'm more likely to blame "Joe Exciteable" who gets so into tennis he hurls it into the TV rather than just playing like a halfway normal person. - fanboydcs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27I dugg your post because that is exactly what I wanted to argue. Just because Nintendo added the strap it invites idiots to swing that controller like mad and let go of it. I know I have tested that strap multiple times just seeing if it would hold if I did let go.
It is not Nintendos fault, next you should sue the HDTV makers for making the LCD screens so soft and easy to break. "What do you mean it doesnt support me throwing my tv remote at the screen!?!?" - Snof, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22This seems pretty similar to arguing that car manufacturers are inviting their customers to crash their cars by having a seat belt. An extra safety measure doesn't mean they're promising complete safety. You're still responsible if you use the product in a dangerous way (e.g. flailing wildly and not keeping a good grip on your controller).
- imtigger2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21or say, "Wii told you so..."
- Inferny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15They have enough warnings to avoid all liability, and can just go "we told you so" if it does damage something.
- sakuraz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18What's the flaw?
Tell me.
Is it extremely slippery so that when you exert a reasonable force, it slips out of the user's hand?
NO.
It's just losing grip.
They shouldn't even have the wrist strap as default. only as an accessory. - JimmyB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Or maybe its because we can make our own cool looking characters called Mii's and use them in the game, which you really don't understand how cool it is until you do it yourself. The Wii may have graphical shortcomings, but it can still produce beautiful graphics, like in Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14That was actually an issue of the employees heating the coffee to far above the dictated safe temperature.
- marcan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12The straps DO break. They are not as weak as they are said to be, but in certain accident cases they can and will break (at least the old ones). Here's what happened to me (observations and theory).
A friend of mine was playing WiiSports Tennis. He accidentally hit my other friend while swinging the Wiimote, and the wiimote flew away, the string broke, and the Wiimote slammed into two walls. No damage done thankfully, but it could just as easily have hit a TV. As you can see, in this case there was a very obvious cause for the wiimote to fly out of his hand. Letting go by yourself is not too excusable (come on, it's not oiled or anything), but if for whatever reason you lose grip on it, it can fly away.
Theory: when the wiimote hit my other friend's arm, friction and wobbling from the collision sent it out of his hand. The string has a thin nylon core, which is not bonded to the outside, so if one side breaks it can slip. As it flew out, friction between it and bumping made the nylon break away from one side of the joint, and the sheath quickly followed on both sides. Now, only friction between the nylon and sheath holds it. Due to inertia from the swing, the nylon slipped away while still accelerating the Wiimote, and nicely accelerating it as if you were swinging it and started letting go off the string. Once it broke free off the other end, it slammed into the wall. All of this occurred in a fraction of a second, of course.
No, it's not Nintendo's fault that these accidents happen, but the fact of the matter is that no one had tried this gaming concept before. Now that we have seen that there is a real possibility of these accidents happening, I expect better safety measures (such as using a better string, which Nintendo already has done, and I applaud them for that). Just because under correct conditions cars don't crash doesn't mean we should get rid of airbags.
As for the Wiimote embedded in the edge of the screen, yes, that certainly looks like a fake. Unless the edge of the screen is made of paper or something like that, there is no way in hell the Wiimote had enough energy to punch a neat hole through it (it would probably shatter before that happened, and likely destroy the screen too). - theredbicycle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"...baseball manufacturer would not be liable if you threw a baseball at your TV"
That's a terrible analogy and argument. Here's a better one:
Basketball manufacturers aren't held liable when you throw your basketball through the garage window. - b3mus3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Nintendo are treated like the patron saints of gaming around here."
The thing that all you naysayers are missing is that they are being treated so well because they are doing all (or a lot of) the right things!
Before the wii, I don't believe there was a particular bias towards Nintendo here. Nobody particularly hated Sony. But the PS3 is turning out to be an immense cockup it would seem and the Wii is a breath of fresh air that everyone is enjoying.
Nintendo *earned* the bias towards them. It's not like everyone suddenly just decided to be fanatic. If they were to suddenly do something terrible, or, say, if they had released the wii at too high a price, there would be far less fanaticism towards them. - wisedude, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16Yeah, but baseballs dont' advertise that they're padded with cotton so that they wouldn't hurt on impact, that is essentially what nintendo is doing by including a strap
- Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Are you saying, they aren't?
- gerryk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Take responsibility for your actions ffs!
- CyrusG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Fair enough, but I'm more concerned about my idiot friends getting carried away with their follow through.
- mobbydick, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11So, he says everyone who broke their ***** TV is a con artist.
- JimmyB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Clearly these things can happen, but it is the responsibility of the persons playing to make sure that they are standing far enough away from other people. Every single time you start a game of any Wii Sport it warns you about this, so its not like Nintendo didn't warn clearly enough.
- alternative724, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6That would have been a good point if you knew what actually happened in that case.
The media covered that suit up because sensationalism is what fuels the media (and keeps our minds of the war!)
That womans cup was filled with coffee heated way above saftey standards because that keeps it hot longer which cuts down on wasted coffee. So they served her up some liquid hot magma, and it spilled through the cup all over her lap, giving her 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her inner thighs and vagina.
You insensitive prick. - OnoTadaki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5How is a blog entry consisting of three small paragraphs of someone's opinion, with no facts to be seen, considered Digg worthy?
- mobbydick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5No, I'm just summing up the article.
- twotimesthru, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I agree too that it shouldn't be Nintendo's fault.. and aside from some probably unavoidable accidents, I think a lot of people who find themselves destructing their living rooms with the wii remote are playing way more intense than you have to be. Take the Wii Tennis throw video.. that much intensity isn't necessary.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RkdihGX7iWM - tdhurst, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@imikedaman
How about showing someone an UNLOADED gun? Anyone stupid enough to mess around with a loaded weapon deserves what they get, ESPECIALLY if it's under the pretense of just showing it off.
Terrible analogy. - zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7"This seems pretty similar to arguing that car manufacturers are inviting their customers to crash their cars by having a seat belt."
However, if the seatbelt breaks when it is needed to perform it's purpose, and particularly when a string of such failures are noticed, the company who makes the belt indeed becomes liable. - shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I've played the most strenuous games for hours on end and my grip on the Wiimote has always stayed steady and strong. I have no idea how these people manage to put so much force into their Wiimotes.
Chill out on the caffeine people! - Dominatus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Ok, fine, drive safely, I can buy that.
However, accidents happen. So let's say someone gets in an accident and the seatbelts break and that is the reason they go flying through the windshield and die. Had the strap not broken they would have been fine.
Now propose that on a certain model of car the seatbelts are breaking more than just once. We don't have stats yet, but in several car accident the seatbelts have given out and the people thrown through the windshield.
Even though a car accident is not caused by Ford/GM/Nissan/whatever do you still feel that they are not even a little bit liable for a faulty safety mechanism. - andydumi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4A faulty safety mechanism is indeed the fault of the manufacturer.
If the wiimote slips then the strap holds it. Thats why its there, and clearly nintendo anticipated the problem, by adding a strap. If they included or designed a crappy strap, then they are to blame. - quisp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3In the Product Safety world, when you have a handle or strap attached to a product, they have to be rated (and tested) for 4 X the weight or force it is expected to hold or withstand. Now, given that the failure of the Wiimote strap is probably not a safety issue, unless you get hit by one, you would think that Nintendo would design the strap with a similar margin of safety.
- Quix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"However, if the seatbelt breaks when it is needed to perform it's purpose, and particularly when a string of such failures are noticed, the company who makes the belt indeed becomes liable."
Thank you for your rational thought, zetsurin, amid a flurry of "users are idiots" accusations. The bottom line is the straps suck and they don't do what they're designed to do - prevent accidental flying Wiimotes. For 25 cents Nintendo could make a strap that not even Roger Clemens could break in a full windup, but instead they decided to tether a perfectly good strap to the Wiimote with a perfectly worthless piece of string.
Fix the straps, Nintendo, and this debate disappears. Simple. - OnoTadaki, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4They probably did. The videos I have seen of the straps breaking have had people OBVIOUSLY using more than four times the power needed to play the game, and letting go of the wiimote itself (and letting it swing freely on the strap) while swinging.
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/clips/clips-wii-remote-strap-breaking-217120.php - matveimug, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4like, um, DUH!!!
(sry couldn't control myself)
but seriously, if this isn't a pseudoproblem then i don't know what is - davepascoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3at the start of the game it says to make sure you have enough room to swing all around you and not hit anyone. if you ignore the safety advice and as a direct consequence an accident happens then live with it.
it also advises to make gentle motions.
are there any cases of people gripping the remote firmly, wearing the strap correctly, making gentle motions and having free space all around their arm reach and the wiimote still destroys their TV?
no? case closed. - woogley, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3the gun analogy is nonsensical. for the Wiimote to equal "a gun going off" .. the wiimote would have to jump out of your hand and fly into the wall at 20 km/h ..
- inkubux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You have to admit that the strapsare really cheap though
- furiousmonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They sell baseballs with safety straps on them? Laughable analogy.
- marcan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Some people like me just don't have a nice large gaming room with plenty of space. Crowded college dorm room :(
- Crass22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Its not a blogging website........ So yes, your the only one who noticed. Heres your Gold Star.
- raabco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Although I agree, I was really hoping for something more from this link. I've seen better, more amusing arguments against the Wiimote chuckers here on digg.
- davepascoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>Nowhere in the "bat instruction manual" or "bat commercials" does it say stand in from of your tv and swing it wildly about.
stop misleading people you disgusting piece of trash. do you own a wii? have you even ever played on one?
there are constant reminders at the start of each game, throughout the game, and throughout the manuals to make gentle motions. - j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thank you. Someone with some sense.
- EatingPie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3And if the seatbelt breaks, you can bet the car manufacturer is liable!
From what I understand, the strap IS breaking... there's even a mod on Gizmodo or Engadget on re-enforcing your strap.
The strap is, indeed, a safety device. While I don't know about liability, I DO think Nintendo should do a "recall" -- simply mailing users a new, better strap. Emphasize "WEAR THE DAMN STRAP" in the manual (I'm betting they do already), and they're covered.
I knew this would be a potential problem early on (Revolution days). That was a major deciding factor for me in choosing NOT to purchase a Wii, especially with a 73'' screen -- easy target! I have two children and they would tend to forget the strap. May change my mind later on because the Wii looks very fun!
-Pie - googzman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nintendo are treated like the patron saints of gaming around here. How blinkered can people get.
- theheadguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2WOW!!! Do you ever hear of a frivolous lawsuit (i.e. man attacks dog, gets bit back, man sues owner and says dog should not have fought back) and then you wonder to yourself, who *are* these people?!!? What bloody american is such a fool and has no shame in making such claims public?
Well- here they are folks-- **see above** "imikedaman" and others play a game, blame a small strap that they think needs to be made out of a solid metal chain, and at NO point do they feel the real problem was the actual person who threw the controller into the TV.
You gotta love America. Where else can you find imikedaman and others. - Lobut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You see ... the only reason I don't see Nintendo is liable is because of two things:
1) the number of warnings
2) the obviousness of throwing an object directed at the tv
I hate drawing metaphors because of all the silly airbaggy and batty conclusions people have made. I like it when people draw parallels for explaining difficult concepts but proving a point becomes flawed when you decide to play with extremities in that new world.
I can see that Nintendo has advertised that you really get into it. But I think that means taking a batter's stance and doing a tennis swing.
I'm willing to agree that if accidents happen to people who are into it (and not for scamming). But I'm wondering if this is negligence on Nintendo. I'd happily back the people who have suffered damages if someone tells me Nintendo made thinner wrist straps to save costs full-well knowing the consequences. If someone can actually dig up any information on Nintendo putting these straps with full knowledge that I'd agree this were negligence. Otherwise, as a Wii owner. I'm under the opinion that these were used as a novelty. - bokchoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think when people criticize Nintendo, they're not accusing them of anything except maybe make the wrist strap stronger. Everyone knows that people will let the thing slip out of their hand, despite intentional or not, and that stronger strap is just security.
Here's the thing, yes it's not Nintendo's fault that people let go of the controller, but if it's happening everywhere they'll want to fix it to assure complete costumer security and satisfaction. Nintendo is nice that way. - ShadowMarth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2HAH! I used that exact analogy. I feel smart now. I have never had to rely on the strap at all, and I frankly can't see how so many people are slinging it across the room to begin with...
- zippy757, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"Warning...using this product is dangerous to your health. Do not swing, move or otherwise move the Wiimote in a dangerous manner. Following the actions of the video game may cause injury to you or your game mates. Be sure to duck tape the Wiimote to your hand, and provide secondary aircraft cable type security cables to your belt."
....welcome to America...land of lawyers.....and their clients.... -
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