Suttree.com: Casual Games, Social Software by Duncan Gough

I have a Wii.

I have played Wii sports.

It’s clearly the best thing since canned ham. However, all the best Wii games are about imparting speed, direction and spin to a ball at a single moment of impact. Delaying or interrupting the perceived ‘perfect’ moment of impact also plays a large role in each sports game. Tennis, for example, is not about getting into position, rather about choosing when and how to play your shot. Once you’ve hit the ball, that’s it, all the information needed to continue the game is transferred in a split second.

As a game play tool, it’s intruiging. Such a violent and exaggerated way of controlling the game is wasteful, to the point of true fatigue over prolonged play. Yet it is expressive, rewarding and deeply fun. It is also highly intuitive. Humans are massively expressive. We talk, for example, with our hands, face and shoulders as well as our mouths. Wii Sports undoubtedly benefits from this over exuberance, and suffers somewhat, too. The spell of the game is its’ ease of use, the initial ‘like this?’ reaction is addictive, but the gentle learning curve breaks the spell a little, once you realise how little of your movement is being translated into game data. A cheap, white, plastic box is ignoring quite a large amount of your effort, after all.

The one thing I want from my Wii, though, is the ability to caress a ball. All this violent, split second impact gaming makes me wonder how it would cope with a game that was centered around ball possession. The Wiimote clearly works as a tool for tennis, baseball and snooker, but what about football? How would it feel to dribble, to tap the ball across the turf, to drag it, trap it, cushion it? Football is more complex, the shooting side of the game is clearly attainable but an expressive dribbling game would be, in my opinion, harder and more satisfying. A game about a longer relationship with a rolling ball - I can’t wait for Wii Soccer.