I thought maybe the Google Gods had fed me a dupe this morning in my Gmail Alerts when I ready about a Boston-based doctor and his painful case of Wii Tennis elbow, but I was wrong. Apparently, the Wii-related injuries persist today, more than half a year after the system’s successful release.
And why wouldn’t they? As the Wii continues to sell out (I personally was responsible for this at a local Target, where I bought the last one in stock for my youngest sister), entire new crops of gamers are experiencing the Wii and Wii Sports for the first time. What makes this case unique is that the good doctor diagnosed himself with a new condition, which he called Wiiitis. Yes, that’s three i’s in a row on that one.
Wiiitis — pronounced “wee-eye-tis” — is the latest ailment to develop from the video game era, beginning with Space Invaders’ wrist in 1981, which was caused by the repeated button mashing required by the popular arcade game.
Nintendo’s Wii game can captivate for hours and “unlike in the real sport, physical strength and endurance are not limiting factors,” Bonis of the Research Group in Biomedical Informatics in Barcelona, Spain, wrote. “What convinced me to send the case report was that a friend of mine, after playing ‘Wii Sports’ suffered from a similar complaint,” Bonis told Reuters in an e-mail. “I have not found other cases in my clinical practice, but it is probably an underdiagnosed condition.”
This condition is not to be confused with “Sonylackofcontentitus,” or the lesser known “Red Death” seen in malfunctioning Xbox 360 consoles.