My friend's gone 'round the bend ... I think he's drinking the Wii.

My friend Chris Kohler has posted as treatise entitled "In Defense of Wii". I think he's fucking nuts.

Never mind the fact that as a name, it doesn't scream video games. That's all well and good. The problem is that it doesn't scream ANYTHING.

Nintendo needed a data sheet to explain the name to the fans and the press, the people who care about this stuff. Do you honestly think that Joe Mainstream is going to get past the quizzical look on his face and try to figure out what the name means?

I took a very unscientific poll today. I basically said that Nintendo has picked a new name for their next game system, and I told them that it was "Whee", spelled "W-i-i." To a man, I got the aforementioned quizzical look, and the occasional "that's dumb." These were all non-gamers.

I know what Chris was getting at. I'm frequently asked by people if they can play Halo and then they proceed to pick up the GameCube controller. But if the FANS are having such a hard time figuring out what the hell "Wii" is supposed to mean, or can't get past the urine jokes, how on earth is a mainstream gamer going to do it. Think about it ... gamers don't care about their image. We're over it. To a mainstream game player, however, image is everything, and I can't imagine a scenario where they'll be caught dead playing something called "Wii." It might fly in other countries, but NOT in the US.

Nintendo's done a great job of approaching the mainstream market thus far, but I think this is their first major misstep in their "Blue Ocean" strategy. Hell, Blue Ocean would have been a better name. Yes, hardcore fans will get used to the name, but the mainstream won't even give it a chance.

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