Today, one of my friends sent me a website they came across. This website allows you to search and compare information from various search engines. It calculates how people refer to your search term as a positive, negative, or neither and displays it in a bar graph. So, I decided to search what the internet thinks about the current video game consoles. The results I got were pretty shocking, so I went around and asked my friends what they thought about certain systems.
Everything that follows are opinions mixed in with facts that they, as gamers, know.So keep in mind that your thoughts matter too, and we would like to hear your opinion as well.
Microsoft Xbox 360
The Positive:
“I like how the Xbox360 has many different features. It also has an awesome line up of games, and they generally have a great price. There is also downloadable content that you can easily buy from an in game menu, or through the Marketplace. Xbox Live also allows you to have either video chat and voice chat depending on if you have the peripherals. Not to mention the Xbox360 works with any household [Windows] PC or laptop for streaming music and games.”
– Nelson (Not a Major)
The Negative:
“While the Xbox 360 is very capable of producing top-notch graphics. I find the colors to always be washed out. Most games look beautiful on other systems, but when I look at Resident Evil 5 all I see is a blob of a single color. I’ve also had to send back my Xbox 360 to get fixed 3 different times; as two different systems red ringed on me, and once the DVD drive failed. I also hate the fact that I am paying for Xbox Live, yet it is full of people that constantly curse or drop from a game. Not to mention the Xbox360 controller has to be one of the most broken controller designs ever. I can’t even play Street Fighter 4 with the D-Pad because of the shoddy design. A pad that works on 4 inputs doesn’t work for me, and who plays a fighting game with a Analog stick anyway?”
– Jake
Sony Playstation 3
The Positive:
“The PS3 is a quality gaming console that probably has the best controller for most, if not all games, not counting the wii remote. It’s failure rate is significantly less than the 360s, and also features an upgradeable HDD which lets you use most any 2.5 inch HDD, unlike the 360. The PS3 also features a free online service which lets you keep track of friends, all of the good stuff related to having an online service. The ability to download and play PSP and PS1 games onto your PS3 and play them on your PSP and/or PS3 is a very nifty feature, and might foresee the future of gaming, downloaded media.
As for exclusive content, the PS3 might not have as long of a list against nintendo or microsoft (not bothering to look up statistics) but the console exclusives are mostly top notch. Last but not least, you can play your Blu-Ray movies. As of late, the PS3 has been showing more promise due to more quality games, the motion-wand, and the PSEye combo.”
– Chris
The Negative:
“The original price point of the system was off putting. Who wants to pay $599 for a system that can play movies and a few games? Yet, with each iteration of the system, when the price slowly dropped, they removed piece after piece of software and hardware until it was nothing more than a shell of what it formerly was. The removal of the backwards compatibility, the extra USB and Card reader slots didn’t help out the situation. Not to mention that I can’t stand the XMB, installing games and their online setup. I want to play Metal Gear Solid 4 not wait 20 minutes in-between chapters or have to sign into 3 different services to play Metal Gear Online.”
– Alexis
Nintendo Wii
The Postive:
“The Wii is the first true motion control gaming console out there on the market. It also kept gaming interesting. Out of all the consoles out there the Wii probably has the best library of games. Especially games that are fun to play in large groups; for example, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and even Wii Sports. It’s also one of the only consoles out there to give you more than one way to play a game. With many different controllers and control styles games can be played uniquely for everyone.”
– Robert
The Negative:
“Nintendo just seems to have a complete disregard for the gaming marketplace, banking on gimmicks which will only get them so far. The vast majority of Wii games lack longevity and the Wii also gets none of the popular third party games due to technical limitations and lack of online support (Madden or Call of Duty for example) whereas Sony and Microsoft have been milking these games for years. They seem to shell out random titles in unpopular genres in a desperate attempt to find the next big franchise while paying no attention to the evolving likes and dislikes of the actual gaming community.
It is also absolutely stupid that they pretty much admitted that their original design was flawed by releasing the increased sensitivity add on for the Wii Remote. Not to mention if the WiiHD is true, WiiHD+ MotionPlus should have been what nintendo released years ago when the Wii first came out. They also should have had at the very least some kind of online interface for gaming which doesn’t lag. Not this friend code garbage they are currently calling “online play.â€
One example of a game which could have been wildly popular online is Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I envision an online interface that tracks all manners of statistics from damage dealt to KO’s, full achievement support, leader boards, sponsored online tournaments, and NO LAG. The Wii also needed a hard drive, as it would have also open up the floor to balance tweaks that the game desperately needs.
If the other big players in the gaming industry can supply these things at a competitive price, then Nintendo should as well.”
– Matt (Raging Fanboy)
PC Gaming
The Positive:
“A majority of games can be found for free, and there is always the chance to demo a majority of games before purchasing them. You can also find games made by indie developers that you would never see on a console due to all the licensing problems. If anything PC gaming is the system that lets you see potential in games long before the consoles even catch up.”
– Frank
The Negative:
“Having to update expensive hardware, figuring out which drivers and settings you need to make a game run can be maddening. Sometimes games just won’t run because of the hardware you currently have. With consoles you just buy the game and place it in the tray and it works.”
– Jordan
Out of all the systems I asked my friends about, the Wii seemed to have been the system with the most stigma about it. Do you guys really hate your Wii, and what are your feelings on the other systems?
GradiusFan
Wow, 91.8% Negative? I only own a PS3 and Wii. I’ve had the Wii since day 1 and have just over 30 games for it. I’ve had the PS3 for probably just under a year and own maybe 15 games. I don’t hate my Wii, I still play it and the PS3. If I’ve got friends over we play the Wii and when I’m on my own I mostly play the PS3. While I do agree that the Wii feels a little “last gen” it serves a unique purpose that the other two consoles don’t do as well. I am a little mad at Nintendo for giving us a Wii that is so underpowered… Imagine if they did have an online strategy similar to MS or PS3 and a system that was capable of pretty HD graphics like the other guys. If they had all these franchises like Call of Duty and what not and still did the other stuff Nintendo does Sony and MS would have to call it quits. Why not the best of both worlds? The success they have had with their innovative controller tacked on to Gamecube 1.5 is incredible. If the Wii had been a true upgrade graphically just imagine what could have been. I would think that if Nintendo’s next system is on par with the competition specs wise in the next go around we may see Sony pull out of video gaming.
Mark
I’m really not too surprised by the results of this. When you think about how much hatred people on message boards bring up for the Wii, and how dedicated some people are to finding ways to justify the statement: “the Wii will fail”.
Personally though, I still love it, not just for the console itself, but for what Nintendo is trying to accomplish with it. The Wii is probably the only reason I still follow gaming (aside from Squeenix perhaps). I’m just so fed up with “Next-Gen” and developers caring more about production values than making games that are actually fun. I miss the days when gaming was a movement, and was about spreading itself as far and wide across the globe as was possible to do so. Now it seems determined to do just the opposite. I want gaming to be mainstream, and to be respected by the rest of the world. The Wii simply seems to be our best shot at that right now to me.
Mr.cranky
I really like my wii. Im just hate being made fun of by hardcore gamers for being a baby 🙁 the most fun i had with my wii is when i bring it to a buddys house and a crowd builds up around the tv with a mix of expirenced and non traditional gamers, discussing bowling techniques while playing wiisports. I have a not so thrilling job as gas station attent. But one of the coolest days working happend when a guy in a buisness suit came in and i was blabbing about grand slam tennis to a friend. He came up with a smile and easily joined the converstation because he was intrested of getting it for him and his son to play. Before wii, me being able to share my hobby with pepole that wernt hardcore gamers didnt exist. I rather have fun with gaming with all sorts of pepole than constantly go battle on who superior and other crap with the hardcore crowd. If they stop yelling at each other,just maybe, they can smile and have fun 😀
Will Thompson
I added PC gaming due to a few people messaging me why I didn’t have it in the article.
gojiguy
What’s good is not always popular.
It’s a fact. I own a PS3 and a Wii. I own about 25 Wii games and two PS3 games. Guess which one I play more.
I find it hilarious that the only system which has taken gaming forward has been met with so much resistance (on the internet). The Wii is the top of the heap. Nintendo obviously doesn’t care what internet fanboy blogs think.
Anyways. I think the Wii’s humbleness is what seperates it so much. It doesn’t try to blast you with super high-tech massively multiplayer arenas with multi-million dollar advertising campaigns with High-Definition Blu-Ray support and multimedia entertainment with downloadable arenas for only $679.99!
It just tries to supply good games.
Which it has done. In droves.
: )
Stay golden, Nintendo. Stay golden.
david
I play on Wii and PC, and at first I didn’t believe the huge differences between the two graphs. But maybe some part of it is the lack of quality graphics the Wii has. I mean, there are a few great looking games for Wii like Mario Galaxy, Metroid, the Conduit. But most of the other games are made in such a way that you stop and notice the defects and details, and even stop the game flow with dropped frames. I don’t really think they need to make a super high end graphics console like the other consoles, but maybe something that is average on a half cheap PC with a non-intel graphics card.
If I were to design the new strategy for Wii I would make again cheap system, with an easy online community like steam, with Wii motion plus controllers, and upgradeable over internet, with only Wii ware & virtual console games that you can fridge on SD cards you know they are not so expensive and no disc unit. Oh and to merge Miis in facebook, so that you can recommend games and invite others to play.
doughboy74
I play Wii & PS3. Not a ‘fanboy’ of any M$ product. (Therefore I will never be in the 360/PC type of gaming arena.) Sorry PC. It is funny that this website is/was probably known to many M$ gamers.
Google (Default, fastest)
Yahoo
Yahoo+Google (Slow)
Bing (Microsoft)
All (Very slow)
Another funny thing is the difference between search engines. Who uses Yahoo, anymore?
Jeff
The PC part makes this entire exercise in zeitgeist worthless. So NOBODY thinks PC Gaming sucks, at all? Nobody hates online activation, DRM, Weird glitches? Yeah right.
What a pointless endeavor.
HyperPhazon
@ Jeff
Indeed, glitches can be a real pain in the neck, but DRM and online activation isn’t that hard to bypass if you know where to look….
skeptical
It’s funny that the console with the worst failure rate in history has a mostly positive outlook, while the only console doing anything new and different this generation gets bombed.
Luckily, don’t need vocal fanboys to justify my purchase and care very little about their online bitching.
llaffer
I’m not sure how much faith that I have in this technology, when it can’t even do it’s percentage math correctly.
I did the numbers myself on the PC Gaming, and it ended up being 98.05%. Even if they wanted to round to the whole percentage, it should be 98%, not 100%. I was expecting to see something like 99.9% or so, but that wasn’t the case.
In most cases, I’d think that the numbers would be naturally skewed to the negative anyway. People find it entertaining to complain and gripe about anything they can publically (and often anonymously), but they don’t find the same pleasure in giving anything praise, so they simply don’t.
And for the 90+ percent hating on Wii, that makes sense too. All the Sony and M$ fanboys out there complaining about the Wii only proves how popular and succesfull it really is. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t have any reason to be complaining about it. The “target audience” of the Wii is just not that Internet-savvy as PS3 and 360’s audience is. And by my same reasoning, Wii fanboys (which I beleve are actually a lower number than the other two platforms) don’t have to be complaining about the other systems since their system is ahead in the current-gen console war.
Just like G4’s GPhoria awards, it’s all about who’s fanboys are louder than others.
Just because Wii gets a 90+ % negative doesn’t make it a bad system. It’s a good system, with a competative price point (even without any price drops as of yet, not counting the rumored one to $200 coming up, and even after the other systems has had at least 3 price drops each). It’s sold more units than both systems combined. In fact, if you look at a “gamers” entertainment center, while they likely have either a PS3 or a 360, they also likely have a Wii sitting next to it.
To put things in perspective, I own a Wii and PS3, and don’t consider myself a fanboy of either system. I play what I like, which often isn’t “mainstream” (aka first person shooters, which seems to be half the games out there today).
sanne
it only confirms my suspicions that 13 yearold pimplehead nerds spam the internetfora with their biased opinions while not even having a wii themselves. They seem to believe they’re a ‘hardcore’ gamer because they do nothing other than play online shooters.
I like Mario Party, but Mario Party 8 is for casual gamers. But not when I have the previous 7 ?
I listen to music a lot, does that make me a hardcore music player, or am I casual because I like the beatles ?
the internet is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t make ‘tools’ powerful.
Attilio
Its funny how the Wii is 91.8% negative yet it is the top selling system and even has some of the top selling games. If you ask me those results are based on people who only enjoy HD shooting/rpg games. As for everything that was written negative about the Wii… what is he stupid? Maybe releasing the motion plus was a way for Nintendo to admit the original remote was flawed… or maybe just maybe it was a strategic business move. Get a Wii into everyone’s home then release a device that makes the experience even better!
Next, I admit the only play could be a little better and is not something that is pushed for the Wii unlike the other two systems, however this was Nintendo’s first attempt at online games and who knows maybe the next attempt will be even better. The only good thing about friend codes is that you don’t have to sign up for an account with Nintendo, your Wii is basically your account.
Finally, to make the Wii HD and have a HDD would raise its price. Sony and Microsoft did not release their systems with a “competitive price”, they released them with insane prices that they lose money on. Are you trying to say that Nintendo should lose money when they sell a system? Hell no! They’ve made a huge profit. It was a good business move on their part.
I swear, some people need to do their research and actually think about what their saying before they talk.
Warren
Do you really think you’d get many Wii haters on a Nintendo specific website? In the comments, I mean.
I dunno about any of you, but the games make the system, not the other way around. If the wii didn’t have any good games on it, it would not be worth owning. I love my wii: I love that I can play gamecube games on it and download older games…legally. I think Nintendo has made some odd choices, but so have the other two console makers. And the PC has its own set of oddness…
However: I own an Xbox 360, which I love. I own a PC, which I love. ANd the aforementioned Wii. I’d love to get a PS3 as well (and probably will now that the price has been cut.)
It is my hope this generation of gaming lasts a tad longer then the ones in the past. I am…comfortable here. And as that recent survey has shown, Not everyone is in the HD era yet, heh.
Infendo
From David: “That site is obviously broken:
http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net/index.php?s=kittens&st=google
🙂
Fabio
There is that “research”, and then there is reality.
BlueRocks
The Wii does suck. Way too much of my time, actually. I really have to start playing it less. As I get older it gets harder and harder to be up at 5:30am for work when I have been gaming on the Wii until 1am.
Sanne
I just did the search again on the site, and had a different outcome
69.8 negative, 30.2 positive, 0.1 dont care.
Still not calculating properly, but a big difference altogether..
Joshdad
I’m a PC fanboy first, followed by a Wiifanboy. To say that there is 100% positive for the PC, and 0% negative is just ridiculous. As much as I love playing games on my PC (which I think has the best games), there have been times that I’ve wanted to throw it out the window due to compatibility problems (both newer and older compatibility – if you have the newest, strongest system, you probably can’t play many of the older games, and don’t even get me started on Vista) or system crashes, and now game registration issues. Often times I’ve wished that my PC was as simple as just inserting the game, and you’re good to go.
As for the Wii, it’s too bad that it seems to be such a poor quality system. Who knows, if they had put a little more time and work into it, they might have been able to sell a few units. Maybe it could have sold as well as the PS3 or the XBOX360. And as for Wii games, I mean come on, who is really going to buy an exercise game, or a game that puts game play over graphics. No wonder Nintendo can’t seem to sell any games on the Wii, or that none of their games stay popular for more than a week or two.
rdaneel72
Wow! The online gamersphere roars its outrage, and it is electronically captured and regurgitated as an easily understood and undisputable bargraph. These are great days we are living in!
This is a brilliant example of the altered reality the gamersphere has created for itself online; a reality where the hardcore dictate the direction of an idustry that caters exclusively to them. It is like a beautiful, drug-induced fantasy. No wonder they don’t want to wake up. What Does the Internet Think? Indeed. A shining example of the division between online reaity and ACTUAL reality that SF authors have been warning us about for decades.
This insanity is no reason to argue Wii’s legitimacy. This is a fantasy worthy of Fox News; a microcosm of a tiny segment of a sliver of a subsection of a population that all believe the same thing anyway. It is so out-of-whack with ACTUAL reality that it cannot be taken seriously. This is like “What the Vatican Thinks of Natural Selection.” It is interesting only because it serves to illustrate the great shift that the videogame market is going through right now. It is the last gasp of the hardcore online gamersphere trying desperately to hold on to a reality they cherish.
Will Thompson
I’ve read every single comment that has been published with this article today, and I can’t stop laughing at the responses.
That website was terrible as a source, and I just wanted to make some discussion. Good to see it worked guys. 🙂
XCWarrior
It got me to read it. I was almost believing it until the PC thing. I only have a Wii and a semi-decent gaming PC, but I only really use my Wii. I hate the 360 controller, but I understand there are quality titles. The PS3 as the one comment said, is a shell of itself, and I can’t see myself picking one up.
It was fun to read the debate though Wii, even if it had the potential of starting a flame war.
Psychedelic Sex Machine
People fear what they don’t understand.
InvisibleMan
I don’t know, the Wii was a great console when it came out, but it was already at the tail end of the technology it was using. But I also find that last-generation consoles like the PS2, and handhelds like Nintendo’s own DS, keep getting fantastic games with deep gameplay that should play well on a Wii port, but they are simply not there (Disgaea, Advance Wars, etc.)
And many downloadable games on Xbox Marketplace simply look and play much better than most of the biggest Wii games, at a fourth of the price. Why isn’t there, for example, a “Portal” or a “Trials HD” on Wii? Not with the same quality of graphics, of course, but can’t the physics engine be supported by the Wii hardware?
InvisibleMan
Oh, wait… I just saw some footage of Muramasa: the Demon Blade!
Scratch everything I said on the previous comment… (Although there should be more games like Muramasa on the Wii!)