Wii ennui: Is the Wii boring real gamers?

We have an editor here in CNET's New York office who's a Nintendo fanboy. Will "the Human Gaming Wiki" Greenwald doesn't like to admit it--and, in fact, he sometimes denies it--but it's hard to hide your true emotions when it comes to gaming, and Will might as well have Nintendo tattooed on his forehead. To be fair, it's not like it's his mission in life is to go around talking about how great the Nintendo Wii is and defending its honor when it's insulted. Rather, his love is a quiet one, powerful and seemingly unrequited. Which is why it was so shocking when he recently did the unthinkable: He bought an Xbox 360.

The reasons, he said, were pretty simple. First, his Wii broke down and had to be sent back for repairs (two weeks without a gaming system for a hardcore gamer can easily lead to a defection, particularly when all your game saves are lost). Furthermore, he was getting a little bored with the games he'd been playing over and over, and there wasn't much on the immediate horizon that seemed terribly enticing. Yes, as I write this, the much anticipated Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is just days away from hitting stores, but the Wii, after blasting out of the gate and assuming frontrunner status among next-gen gaming consoles, isn't exactly wowing hardcore gamers with its selection of titles. And there will be a moment--perhaps it's already here--when the Wii's revolutionary gameplay starts to get picked apart a little more, and someone points out that the new controller scheme doesn't automatically make games more fun to play. In fact, it really only makes a handful of games really fun.

Much has been made, of course, about the Wii's appeal to casual gamers and mature folks who are completely new to gaming. Having demoed the Wii for several nongamers, I can attest firsthand to its remarkable ability to bring out the proverbial kid in many adults. I haven't turned any geezers onto the thing, but I've heard plenty of accounts about how so-and-so's parents couldn't stop bowling or playing Wii Sports tennis until--excuse the pun--the wee hours of morning. The Wii is clearly an awesome, little party machine. But the problem is, as a more solitary activity, Wii gaming starts to lose a lot of its luster, especially once you get past Zelda and Paper Mario.

Now I'm not saying that all hardcore gamers are antisocial and just sit around in their rooms for hours on end, playing by themselves. No, plenty of gamers sit in their rooms for hours on end, interacting online with other gamers and sometimes joining up with friends to form squads to take on other online factions. Yes, the long-promised Wii online multiplayer games have finally started appearing--Mario Strikers Charged is out now, while the hotly anticipated Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and Mario Kart Wii will finally appear in the months ahead--but I'd argue that majority of Wii games just don't lend themselves that well to online multiplayer gaming. In other words, the Wii is best played with other people in the room with you. And real gamers don't always have a friend on hand to game with--and don't care if they do.

Part of the problem with the Wii is that it isn't a next-gen system; it simply has a next-gen controller. There's a certain retro feel to it, even when you're playing new games. I could get into a whole discussion about graphics vs. gameplay, but suffice to say, if a game isn't terribly fun and looks mediocre to boot, it's going to seem even worse than it is. And as more developers rush to get games out for a console that surprised everybody with its sustained popularity, you're going to see a lot of titles that are mediocre--and that isn't good for the console in the long run.

As is it stands, there are only a handful of non-Nintendo titles that are any good. That should change going forward, as Nintendo has gone out of its way to woo developers to make games for its system. But I still get the feeling that the Wii is falling into the same quagmire as the ill-fated GameCube--that the big hits for the console will almost exclusively come from Nintendo. The verdict is still out on the "attach rate" (the number of games bought per console), but so far, the Wii hasn't posted good numbers: the average Wii owner is buying four games, vs. a bit more than six for Xbox 360 gamers. We'll see how things shake out over the holidays, but I predict that by 2008, the Wii's tie-in ratio will slip to just a third, compared to that of the PS3's and Xbox 360's. Yes, Nintendo will continue to sell a ton of Wiis, but at the same time, many owners--especially casual gamers--will be content to just keep playing Wii Sports every few weeks--or let their Wiis sit idle altogether.

As for Mr. Will Greenwald, he's not giving up on his Wii. It's just become more of an open marriage. He's got dates planned for the latest Metroid and Smash Bros., but cad that he is, he expects to get hot and heavy with BioShock on the Xbox 360. Spread the love, Will. Spread it.

Is Wii a novelty act that's getting tired, or does it just need more good games? To get your two cents in, click the Talk Back button now.