How The Nintendo Wii Breaks Gaming Stereotypes
With its truly revolutionary controller, Nintendo tried to put everyone on the same playing level with the Wii. And they did, the intuitive controller is fun for hard-core gamers as well as kids and moms who never had an interest in video games before. Nintendo's goal with the Wii was to appeal to the largest demographic as they could. They wanted to not only attract hard-core gamers of both genders with traditional blood and gore shoot-em-up titles, but also appeal to non gamers who had never played any video game system before. They way the Wii is controlled is a cinch to master, and that is the reason that so many people who had never though about playing video games went out and bought a Wii after they experienced how much fun it could be.
Along with completely revolutionizing the way you play, Nintendo is also on the forefront of developing games that appeal to a more diverse group of people. The main reason many people have never tried video games is because the games themselves didn't appeal to them. The Wii has changed this too with many games that break with tradition and appeal to people of all ages and gender.
Women have long been though of as non gamers, and although there are many women gamers that enjoy traditional video games, men still greatly out number them. Nintendo decided that they wanted to branch out and begin to appeal to everyone, not just gamers that had been playing for years. The Nintendo Wii has more titles that appeal to women than any other video game system and allows women that have never played to begin on the same foot as men. Appealing to women was a bold move for Nintendo, but it was one that paid off as the Wii is very popular among women who might have not purchased a video game system otherwise.
Even though many people think kids are the target audience for video games, the majority of gamers who play on console systems are men of about 30 years old. This is not to say that kids don't play, but many games are too graphic for them and the controls, until the Wii came along, were too complicated for young children to master. The Wii changed this as well, and offers more family friendly game titles and a much easier way for children to play. Before the Wii, kids under 6 or 7 were forced to watch as the buttons and joysticks on the controllers were usually too much for them too master. Nintendo's vision of making video games fun and assessable to people of all ages applied to kids as well and now even the youngest tykes can play along with their parents in family friendly games.
Perhaps one of the toughest demographics to get interested in video games is the elderly. Older people who didn't have video games as children probably never picked them up and as result had no interest in them until the Wii. Nintendo wanted everyone to be able to play and for adults who may have had a problem mastering complex controls of other video game systems later in life can easily join in and play the Wii with their families. The Nintendo Wii has added a new dimension to gaming and opened up a whole new world to people who would never have played video games until the Wii.
