Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed a whole new generation of video game consoles is on the market. Microsoft’s new XBOX360 landed earlier last year, followed by Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. Joystiq asks Hard questions: Wii novelty and drought in effect? I’ll admit it, I’ve been tempted by the Wii novelty myself. A new style of playing with truly fun, family sharing games like Wii Sports and Wii Play, along with the Virtual Console almost make the relatively inexpensive console seem like a no-brainer. Or have I been fooled by the hype?

My wife and I were sold on the novelty of NintendoDS Lite, which still proves to be a nice distraction from time to time. I still have a stack of games waiting to be played on PC and PlayStation 2- So there’s no wanting for things to do when I decide to just play. Aside from the fact motion control on the Wii seems like a whole lot of fun, and the ability to have whole bunch of games from yesteryear back on my screen is ridiculously tempting… is it something else that attracts aging gamers to Wii?

Another article from the Wall Street Journal coincidentally sited by JoyStiq, Growing old and bored with video games, made me think- I still haven’t purchased the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade expansion, as I’ve stopped playing due to time constraints. The reason I’m still in the middle of Knights of the Old Republic and Bully (for weeks-months now) is their complexity. I want to play them, I enjoy the experience- but it’s a lot easier to throw down some mindless games on the DS Wi-Fi than to start up a detailed mission.

Obviously, the reason for this is that stupid thing called life getting in the way. It’s not that gamers want to stop, it’s just that jobs, school, relationships and babies get in the way. 48 percent say they leave because they get too busy and 40 percent say they simply got bored. There is also talk about how controllers have gotten too complicated, which Nintendo is currently attempting to tackle through the Wii. We’ll have to wait and see how the Wii control concept plays out in the long run.

That being said, the Wii approach makes sense to my demographic, at times. Will it ultimately fall short? I believe so- Bowling is a nice distraction, but when I want to really play, I want some insane visuals and sound like on the upcoming Force Unleashed later this year. A good old controller/keyboard with some kick-ass on the screen. This is my age group, if you asked me. I think the Wii is cool, and the potential market will not disappear; however, the novelty and hype will. My wife and I even agreed that in a year so, it might be a ‘replacement distraction’ for the DS when the price of Wii goes down. And that my friends, makes it a novelty to my household.

For now, the price point of aging games I’ve yet to experience on PS2 and PC keeps me from going anywhere near the $600 PlayStation 3. Which brings this rambling to an end- XBOX has been out, and PS3 isn’t doing well. Wii has this market and it’s novelty at it’s advantage- obviously, since the difficulty of obtaining a Wii hasn’t changed from the pre-holiday shopping. I’m open to the best gaming experience out there and will be the first on line when a system stands the test of time and has a catalog of games I’m waiting for. With age comes patience, and selectiveness in entertainment. Things will change this year and someone will emerge a leader. It will be interesting to see what happens.

My playing habits through the last 25 years:

• Intellevision
• Nintendo Entertainment System
• Sega Genesis
• Sony PlayStation
• Sony PlayStation 2
• PC Gaming
• NintendoDS Lite

Related topics on the boards:

• [ Poll ] New Video Game System?
• Women’s Health Says Grab Your Man’s Joystick
• The Force Unleashed
• Burning Crusade
• Playstation 3
• playstation 3 vs wii
• Playstation 3 Release

Filed under: Games, Geek