This chapter got me thinking about motion controls and my own personal experiences with them. I remember plugging my Wii in for the first time. I thought it was a blast. My parents and friends all thought it was a blast. Cue massive sleepovers with all of my friends, where we popped in Just Dance and didn’t stop until my mom had to bribe us with late-night pizza to settle down and talk about boys like they did at normal sleepovers. I remember boxing against my mother, racing against my father, and showing my grandfather how to move to get the perfect strike in Wii Bowling. These were awesome moments in my life. They were fun, and engaging.
I also remember getting the new Legend of Zelda for the Wii and putting it down even before the first temple because of the motion controls. I had a similar experience with Okami. I remember having to point my Wii Remote at the screen when I wanted to write a letter to a neighbor in my Animal Crossing village; I never sent another letter again. I remember always, always opting for the GameCube controller when I could.
And because I was kind of an introverted gamer, my time with the Wii was dominated by those latter experiences. Gaming was something I mostly did alone. I began to believe the mainstream gaming news outlets when they told me that motion controls were a gimmick. I began to resent motion because of it.
Two things. One: everything’s a gimmick. Just as it is unfair of us to assess a video game with the same criteria as a movie, I think it’s unfair of us to assess a motion-controlled game the same way we would a joystick-driven game. Maybe the Wii didn’t bring me the single-player experience I wanted, but it did bring me other types of experiences.
Two: Moving and interacting with the space around you naturally makes you want to interact with the other people in that space. This is why I think motion controls work so well as multiplayer games. While there are exceptions (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was actually pretty fun), most of the games I enjoyed with motion controls had social components. The human connections made those experiences. But those connective moments would not have happened without the Wii. They were the result of good design.
Social gaming is more fun for me now, especially since it’s more accessible (thank you, adulthood). At parties I’m the first one to suggest a round of WarioWare or whatever. Motion controls have let me witness my friends doing some pretty stupid stuff, and for that I’m grateful.