Everytime I receive WiiMail messages I get this feeling like Nintendo missed out on a great opportunity. The messages I'm talking about are the ones you see after you visit a Wii Channel or game and play a few minutes. You receive a Wii message with the total amount of time played that day for each channel or game. The problem is this appears to be where the data collection ends, at least on our side. I'm sure Nintendo is sitting in their cleanly polished, white offices just laughing at the fact that they know all of our gaming habits. The least they could do is share some of this data with us.
I started thinking, after reading a blog entry about personal annual reports, how cool it would be to know the amount of time I have spent on each game throughout the year. I know I could just as well go back through and chart my gaming habits on my own using the WiiMail messages but that's just not something I am willing to do. So it hit me, why don't they give us some details displaying our hours played for each game similar to the graphs Brain Age and Wii Sports have?
Perhaps a bar graph for the hours spent on each game this month.
It would also be a neat idea to allow (not force) users to sign in using their Mii character so the system could analyze and collect data based on each user's experience rather than the system as a whole. This way a mother or father could easily tell when each child is playing a game and help monitor play time without having to ask the older siblings who's hours were played for each game. I may be getting a little off the subject here but the possibilities are limitless. Perhaps a star would appear on your chart when a particular game you were playing was completed. Who can get the most stars?
Maybe a line graph for the hours spent on all games for my profile.
I wouldn't mind a bar graph informing me the hours played for all profiles.
I would love to have this released in a new Wii Channel with a few online features. How neat would it be to compare your graph for the month (or year) with a friend of yours that you have exchanged Wii Codes with? This would help those exchanged Wii Codes seem worth something; not to mention the rivalry that would come with collecting stars. And can you imagine the marketing possibilties for Nintendo? If 10 of your friends all purchased Mario Galaxy and have been playing it five hours a day it would give you more incentive to buy the game yourself. Would any of you guys enjoy a feature like this or am I sitting out here on this pedestal alone?
4 comments:
Great idea. I think that would be really cool to see and compare with my friends. Plus I would know who is playing games too much and when wii fit comes out, who is on a work out plan.
That's a good point. I didn't even think about WiiFit. You could totally tell which one of your friends were being consistent with their workout.
Not to mention this could be great advertising for Nintendo. When you see that all of your friends have Mario Galaxy it may persuade you to pick it up as well. I may have to add that to the posting.
Great idea. I love the graph mock ups. I think that companies giving customers back their information is the wave of the future. One look at Google History persuaded me.
Does Miyamoto read your blog yet?
Not sure if Miyamoto has started reading my blog or not. I bet he would manage to find a way to actaully make it fun. Then again, anything with Mii characters is fun. Up to this point I have only missed 2 questions on the Everybody Votes Channel and that came out in March or April.
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