Wii is watching you

[wraggster]

Nintendo's Wii console will feature a system called Play History, a permanent record that keeps tabs on what you're playing, when you're playing it and for how long. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata hopes Play History will "stop games being regarded with hostility in the family".

The Play History record cannot be deleted and is designed to "allow parents to discuss with their children how much they are using the console," says Shinichiro Tamaki, of Nintendo's research and development department, during an interview on Nintendo's official website. But the original idea, from Iwata, was far more controversial.

"I came up with a suggestion," Iwata explains, "perhaps a rather outlandish one! What I thought was that if a parent said that their child was only allowed to play games for one hour a day, how about making it so the console actually turns itself off after an hour? Of course, the console would save the game data before it switched off!"

Nintendo's research suggested Iwata's idea was unworkable, despite some people thinking that "without such an extreme solution, mothers would always hate computer games". Eventually, the idea lead to the alternative of a Play History feature.

Whatever your thoughts about the feature - it's effectively just a more sophisticated version of the play time stats you get with many saved game files - Play History shows just how focused Nintendo is in making Wii a console that is bought for the whole family, not just a single gamer. Whether Ninty's ambition will be realised is another question - we'll just have to wait and see.

[fg-54]

i am fg-54 and i have the first post! i own the first post.....wait!....NOOOOOO! there is no such thing as a first post! becaouse wraggster is actuly the first one to get ALL of the first posts in this thing....hmmmm.....then i own the first post AFTER wraggster! mwuahahahahaha!

[chemical]

Who cares if you post first... I never understood why people are like "woo first post!"....

[AvengedSevenfold Fan]

big deal, someone will hack it, or there will be a way to physically take it out of the system. and o yeah, its really gay. and y did they change the name from the nintendo revolution to "wii"? how is it pronounced? me and my friends make fun of the new name and call it the "weee"

[Kramer]

I think it's a cool idea see to see how much time of wasted on games. I wonder if the info is sent to nintendo when you connect to the internet on the Wii.

[pibs]

Sounds like big brother is watching you >< i personally don't like this, sounds alot like the satalites.......they do this so they can see if your using the system the way they intended you to use it

[J sims]

Cell pones, windows xp,internet explorer,servers bookstores,cameras on the OUTSIDE of buildings, Tivo Why is every thing made so hell bent on logging every single f*****g that you do. And whats worst they often bull**** us by desribing these annoying logging tendancies as so callled features.Serriously what good is telling me (and any one who has access to my computer)what mp3 i played 2 months ago going to do.Not just the government but Any hick with a computer can literraly pinpoint an IP address to a 6 block radius using free tools available on the web. All a stalker needs is google earth and a phone number to find you(my cousin recently got followed this way) The way they describe it appears that the wii is going to log not only the kids activities but the parrent's as well.And what if i decided to sell my Wii system back to gamestop now the next person has a complete record of all the games that I played. Plus games stop might decide to deduct the value of my system do to the so called mileage it has on it. I am currious to see how nintendo is going to $#@! the opera browser.

[ACID]

Who cares if you post first... I never understood why people are like "woo first post!"....

Because it makes them feel important. I think is childich but thats my opinion. Or he might just be exaited by this great site.

[dejkirkby]

That may be it, this is truly a great site!

[Is'lan]

This sounds awful. Even if you are able to turn it off, Nintendo will probably have a system built-in that will lock it up. After all, the Wii is supposed to be connected to Nintendo's servers 24/7. This makes me come to the conclusion that you will not be able to even modify your Wii without Nintendo finding out. This is actually making me question if I should get a Wii now. Just don't ever try to look up pr0n on the Wii browser.