Codename Revolution ─ The Nintendo Wii Platform

The Nintendo Wii, introduced in 2006, helped usher in a moment of retro-reinventionin video game play. This hugely popular console system, codenamed Revolution during development,signaled a turn away from fully immersive, time-consuming MMORPGs or forty-hour FPS games and backtoward family fun in the living room. Players using the wireless motion-sensitive controller (theWii Remote, or "Wiimote") play with their whole bodies, waving, swinging, swaying. Themimetic interface shifts attention from what's on the screen to what's happening in physical space.This book describes the Wii's impact in technological, social, and cultural terms, examining the Wiias a system of interrelated hardware and software that was consciously designed to promote socialplay in physical space. Each chapter of Codename Revolution focuses on a majorcomponent of the Wii as a platform: the console itself, designed to be low-powered and nimble; theiconic Wii Remote; Wii Fit Plus, and its controller, the Wii Balance Board; theWii Channels interface and Nintendo's distribution system; and the Wii as a social platform that notonly affords multiplayer options but also encourages social interaction in shared physical space.Finally, the authors connect the Wii's revolution in mimetic interface gaming--which eventually ledto the release of Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect--to some of the economic and technologicalconditions that influence the possibility of making something new in this arena of computing andculture.

Steven E. Jones is Professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. George K. Thiruvathukal is Professor of Computer Science at Loyola University Chicago. Jones and Thiruvathukal are Codirectors of Loyola's Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities.