Many video gamers relish violence on the screen, but now players are becoming victims themselves--of the latest gaming technology in which a wireless, wand-like device is used to direct on-screen action.
Using Nintendo's Wii, the most talked-about of three new game consoles out this holiday, players of seemingly harmless games such as bowling and tennis are being left battered and bruised by the controller--or "Wiimote," as it is affectionately known--not to mention damaging television screens and nearby ceiling fans and computers.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has announced that it will voluntarily exchange 3.2 million straps attached to the controllers with stronger ones after some reports of broken straps. (The company will also recall 200,000 AC adapters for its DS and DS Lite handheld game machines in Japan because they may overheat and cause burns on rare occasions.)
Nintendo has cautioned players about using a wrist strap with the controller and keeping their palms dry, but Jim Walsh's blog is dedicated to sharing some of the amusing-- and embarrassing--stories of what he calls "the latest trend in gaming violence."
Walsh, a Cleveland-based operating systems operator, launched the site last month after hearing his first Wii damage story--his friend's remote crashed into his big-screen television--to see what would happen.
He has been flooded with similar stories.
The site has received 3 million page views since it launched, and he receives 20 to 30 e-mails a day detailing woeful tales of over-enthusiastic players and Wii damage.
"Nintendo built a system that's fun," Walsh told Reuters. "You get really into it. Your hands get sweaty, next thing you know your remote goes flying into the dog."
Or your head, which happened to one site contributor, Nicole, while she was bowling.
"I swung really hard to knock down the 50-plus pins and all of a sudden I realized my head hurt," Nicole wrote in a post accompanied by close-up pictures of her bruise.
"I was wearing the tether instead of it flying wildly into the air it stopped and swung back around and hit me in the head." She notes that she was sober at the time.
Alcohol and the Wii
The site has its fair share of "we were playing Wii and drinking" stories which end up with a broken object or an injured person.
Then there are incidents when the wrist strap attached to the remote breaks, causing pain of the financial sort.
"A friend of mine that never plays video games actually got into playing the Wii," posts Dopefish. "About an hour into the festivities, he was bowling with too much enthusiasm and too little strap-around-the-wrist. BAM. Wii-mote, meet my $3,500 TV."
Since the bowling, throwing, swinging movements of the motion-sensitive remote corresponds directly with the action in the video game, the fate of an innocent television screen, for instance, rests in the hands of the user and the wrist-strap.
Nintendo has since addressed the wrist-strap issue. The company recently released a thicker strap and has posted a safety warning on its Web site, highlighting, in bold, all-caps: "Do not let go of the Wii remote itself."
Walsh admitted that some of the Wii injuries and damage shared on his blog might have been prevented by following the safety information, but he also said toning it down may help.
"You have to remember that you're not really serving a ball at 90 miles an hour," he said. "So you don't end up on the front of my Web site."
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