Nintendo's hugely popular and influential video game console system
considered as technological device and social phenomenon.
The Nintendo Wii, introduced in 2006, helped usher in a moment of
retro-reinvention in video game play. This hugely popular console
system, codenamed Revolution during development, signaled a turn away
from fully immersive, time-consuming MMORPGs or forty-hour FPS games and
back toward family fun in the living room. Players using the wireless
motion-sensitive controller (the Wii Remote, or "Wiimote") play with
their whole bodies, waving, swinging, swaying. The mimetic interface
shifts attention from what's on the screen to what's happening in
physical space.
This book describes the Wii's impact in technological, social, and
cultural terms, examining the Wii as a system of interrelated hardware
and software that was consciously designed to promote social play in
physical space. Each chapter of Codename Revolution focuses on a major
component of the Wii as a platform: the console itself, designed to be
low-powered and nimble; the iconic Wii Remote; Wii Fit Plus, and its
controller, the Wii Balance Board; the Wii Channels interface and
Nintendo's distribution system; and the Wii as a social platform that
not only affords multiplayer options but also encourages social
interaction in shared physical space. Finally, the authors connect the
Wii's revolution in mimetic interface gaming--which eventually led to
the release of Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect--to some of the
economic and technological conditions that influence the possibility of
making something new in this arena of computing and culture.
