Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A key to Nintendo's campaign to broaden the base of 'gamers' was their
ef ort to redefi ne how games could be played. In a trend that was intro-
duced by Nintendo and later appropriated by Microsoft with Kinect and
Sony with the PlayStation Move, Nintendo resocialized players into how
to play video games. Rooted in the larger context of mimetic gaming, Wii
Sports sought to match the actions the player took with what happened in
the game. Suddenly, instead of pressing a button to swing a tennis racket
(and needing to memorize a variety of dif erent buttons to press to perform
a number of dif erent shots) one used bodily performance to dictate what
would happen on the screen. Jettisoning a focus on graphics, Wii Sports
is an ef ort to express a dif erent mode of socialization into games, “one
focused on simple gameplay controls and uncomplicated, primitive graph-
ics.” 20 The games work because of “their ease of use. Each of the games
shaves its respective sport down to a few essential elements and then has
you pantomiming these basic activities with the Wii Remote.” 21 By shifting
the mode of play Nintendo appealed to a larger population of players, but
it also introduced a dif erent context in which to play games, broadening
the focus to physical interaction with the game, rather than a fi nger based
interaction with button pressing.
These larger core elements of Wii Sports are key to how the game social-
izes players into playing video games and stand in opposition to a game
like Uncharted 2 , with its singular gamer behind the controls of a button
pressing game. The ef orts to redesign gaming also stretch in more subtle
ways into the play of the title itself. One of the fi rst things the game encour-
ages players to do is to secure the wrist strap, a command almost as vital as
learning how to jump in Uncharted 2 , as the Wii's release was accompanied
by players documenting the damage done as controllers fl ew out of their
hands. Although this subtle, oft-ignored warning may seem like an innocu-
ous part of Wii Sports , it is a notable, as it shapes the context for play. Just
as tutorials are frequently built into contemporary games, this warning
needed to be built into Wii Sports to anticipate the eventuality that many
players would simply jump into the game, rather than read the instructions.
The game also features a number of other alerts throughout, including the
encouragement to “make sure there are no people or objects around you
that you might bump into while playing” that appears before each game
begins. This warning extends the logic of the initial notice to fasten the
wrist strap, as when the context for play changes, the consequences of play
also change. Just like a television can be broken by a fl ying Wii Remote,
people can be damaged by that beautiful crosscourt topspin forehand win-
ner. The fi nal notable screen that pops up in Wii Sports is the encourage-
ment to take a break. After playing Wii Sports for about fi fteen minutes
and when deciding to change sports, the game encourages players to take a
break and informs them about how to pause the game. Wii Sports shatters
the traditional image of a gaming session, one where long stretches of time
are spent playing a game, and seeks to establish the notion of a shorter,
 
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