Kotaku
At a certain point, we're just going to have to accept it and get on with our lives, but we're still aghast at Wii. The Revolution changing its name to Wii is like George Gordon Byron denouncing Lord Byron as his slave name, changing his name to "Tinkerbell"... then misspelling it.
Making us feel slightly better in our seething contempt, we're not the only ones who hate it. Gamasutra interviewed six devs, asking them what they thought of Revolution. Surprise, surprise... across the board, they hate it too.
Here's a winning quote from Meelad Sadat, director of business relations, High Moon Studios: "It's telling when a product name needs a 150-word explanation."
Quoth Ernest Adams, game design lecturer and columnist: "It doesn't change my personal opinions of the console in the slightest. It changes my opinion of the Nintendo marketing department considerably. Did they even bother to research this? Why do they do these things? What was wrong with "Revolution"? It's bad enough that the Japanese have a drink called "Sweat," but at least they don't try to export it to the English-speaking world with that name."
And David Sirlin, designer, Backbone Entertainment, dismisses it thusly: "Even though Wii meets many of the criteria Nintendo should be going for, it fails at the criteria "don't pick a silly, awful-sounding name."
Just change the name back already, Nintendo!
Wii Reactions: Developers Comment [Gamasutra]
Comments
I'm still hoping Ashton Kutcher will pop out at some point during the Nintendo press conference at E3 and let us all know that we just got "Punked!". A boy can dream.
I dream about Ashton Kutcher too.
oh well, it's all about the games for me. The new Ray man game looks like fun: http://games.blog.nl/wii/2006/05/03/rayman_raving_rabbids_...
To answer Adams' question - one of the reason Ninty didn't want to stick with the name "Revolution" is because (as per their press release) they didn't want people to shorten the name of their console in online posts (aka Rev). And hey, Japan has "Sweat" and America has "Pimp Juice". The question regarding which is worse is quite open to debate.
Wii won't go away. Wii is here to stay. Stop fighting. The same revolutionary gameplay and polished Nintendo gameplay will be available with Wi.
One would think that these guys would be more thoughtful about their comments, but they just end up sounding like the rest of the internet gaggle. At least they didn't mention piss.
I wonder if kotaku is doing this on purpose...it's the second time that they put my wallpapers on ther site without even mentioning me or giving a link back... First they give credit to 4CR instead of me, then they rename my wallpaper to "Wiisucks.jpg" mamamia~!
*hands mcheddadi a tissue*
Hey, I like you wallpapers mcheddadi. I was checking out the site. Pretty sweet. Sucks about the no credit thing though.
Why the hate on Pocari Sweat? It's pretty tasty !
mcheddadi get Kotaku some much needed exposure by suing them (and Gawker Media) for copyright infringment! :D
lol i'm too poor to sue them lol. XD
Man, I had respect for you guys, now all you do for Wii posts is bash the name! What happened, did it murder your parents, siblings, dog, and burn your house down when you were a small child? You're so biased against it! It's a great name, get over it now!
Joystiq wouldn't stop using the "lol let's put an html-strike over the word Revolution and then say Wii directly afterword like we have to correct ourselves" joke until I actually commented that it was getting annoying and old. Do I have to do the same to you Kotaku? Do I? *shakes fist* Well probably not since you stopped doing it too... But seriously, get over it. :-\
That's the beautiful thing about having a news blog for whatever medium. You can write about the news like a regular news source but also get away with catering to the lowest denominator (e.g. people who still can't get over the name Wii) and trying to be funny/cute/sarcastic in the uploaded posts. If it takes rehashed Wii jokes that weren't funny in the first place for Kotaku (or at least its editors) to feel hip and cool and for Gawker Media to feel that they have a "connection" with the gaming demographic... well so be it. I forgive you Kotaku.
Nintendo fanboys are a rabid bunch. Best not to startle them like that.
As much as I want to understand the "just live with it" mentality... The console is called Wii!? I'm sure it will be cool but at some point did someone in Nintendo step back and say, "maybe this isn't a good name"?
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