I’ve never been a very social gamer. Sure, I’ve always made sure to pick up a couple of extra controllers at launch for every console, just to have that multiplayer capability… but I’ve never been one to buy a “party” games or games focused on multiplayer. I really don’t have that many “gamer” friends… so I’ve never really found myself lacking controllers in a given situation. This puts me in an interesting predicament, as the Wii attracts attention like no other game system.

I live in a dorm environment, and usually leave the door to my room open during the day. It seems like whenever it is open, people are coming in and asking about the Wii.

It started on launch day. A couple of the more gamer-minded guys on my floor came by and, realizing what I had, asked to play with it. They started to swing forehands around in Wii Sports, cut people open in Trauma Center, and wonder why the hell Link looked like a cowboy in Zelda. People saw them doing something interesting and came into my room… wondering what the fuss was about. It was really all downhill from there. Nowadays, there isn’t a day that goes by where someone is asking to play the Wii… and the diversity of those asking is astounding.

There is a seriously viral aspect to the Wii, moreso than I would initially think. Word of mouth seems to be something that is inherent to the experience, and a natural part of the Wii experience. People play Wii, enjoy Wii, and then talk about Wii. There have been countless times when someone who has played Wii Sports has their friend over the dorm and asks if they can show them the game. And while there is a viral aspect to almost all high profile launches, the Wii seems to be a different beast from something like the PS3. Where the PS3 is the unattainable new “Playstation,” that the boys are playing with… the Wii is something altogether different.

In my newfound venture into social gaming, I’ve noticed a couple of trends with Wii neophytes. For one, there always seems to be a little surprise when people realize that the little hand on the screen is something they are directly controlling. There’s always a little gasp of excitement over the rotating little hand and the haptic experience of the controller rumbling when it goes over a button.

Apart from the controller, the Wii hardware by itself is fairly attention grabbing. People tend to ask where the heck the thing is, and are surprised at how small it is when I point it out. A surprising amount of people also want to spend a ton of time in the Mii channel. In fact, one girl I showed the channel to wanted to by a Wii for Mii’s alone. In her words, “I can sit here and do this all day!” The fact that these little people will be incorporated into games is icing on the cake. The virtual console aspect of the system has actually gotten less buzz than I thought it would. There are tons of casual retro-gamers out there… and before launch I felt like this would really speak to them. Although I suppose that when presented with motion-sensing abilities, the ability to play classic games pales a little.

Once we are past the menu and Wii Sports boots up there is, at first, the typical “I don’t know how to play video games” mentality. The question is always, how do I control this? For a lot of people, the whole “video game” mentality is a bit hard to get over… and I’ve found that the people who have struggled the most with Wii Sports are the ones who are trying to compensate their actions because they’re playing a video game. Even for these people though, all it takes is a couple of reminders to “just do it like you do in real life,” and they are off and having a blast.

Obviously, there are some negative reactions as well. For some, the fundamental action of moving to control a video game is a bit offensive. One of the guys on my floor looked at some people having fun with baseball and exclaimed, “I play video games to get AWAY from reality…” Other comments in a similar vein have been, “Why can I just go outside and play baseball?” Finally, and this is perhaps the most surprising to me, people genuinely wonder how the Wii will work for games OTHER than sports games. I’ve had many people, gamers and non-gamers, ask me what else could be played on the system besides sporting-type stuff. All three of these criticisms can be answered by simply putting another game into the system, but by packing Wii Sports with the Wii… Nintendo took this risk.

Obviously, Wii Sports is a showcase for the system… and a great, fun one. But these questions and qualms are the consequence of Wii Sports. It’s a blessing and a curse. Nintendo has (and inevitably will) get a lot of buzz generated over Wii Sports, but I think it’s going to have the challenge on it hands of convincing people that the Wii is (and can be) deeper than Wii Sports. It obviously has the tools for this now, in the form of games like Zelda and Trauma Center, but these are admittedly more difficult to get into than bowling or tennis. I think an early, definitive answer is Wario Ware: Smooth Moves… and looking back I think Nintendo may have been a little unwise in their decision to wait until January to release the game.

I understand that Rayman and Monkey Ball offer a similar experience with mini games, but WarioWare would have given a concrete and quick opportunity to say to “the Wii can do more fun stuff than play sports.” Since the word of mouth aspect of the Wii seems to be so important, longer, single player games like Zelda or Trauma Center aren’t really ideal for a short demo of the system. While I’ll probably be doing the same thing in about a month, it would have been nice to be able to pop in Wario Ware right after Wii Sports and been able to showcase a larger variety of uses for the controller.

Over all, the Wii has been a real conversation piece in my room, for all types of people. Although I expected a bit of excitement over the system, I never really anticipated the response that I’ve been getting. If this experience is any indication… I think Nintendo’s future with the Wii is very bright indeed. It’s certainly going to be one interesting and fun generation of video gaming.