Yes, Wii would like to play

Okay, it's not as if the world needs even more stories about non-gamers enjoying the Nintendo Wii. But my blog postings have been waning lately, and this is the only blog-worthy thing that's happened to me recently, so what the fig.

Anyway...

My wife and I spent last Saturday entertaining some of her relatives visiting from overseas (Hong Kong, to be exact). The roster was two aunts, an uncle, and a cousin, all of whom easily qualified for the seniors' discount price at the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet dinner and have as much video-gaming skills as Stephen Hawking knows ballet.

We went to the local Farmer's Market and bought farm-fresh groceries, then hiked around the local botanical gardens and admired the flora. After lunch, everyone was getting tired, so we went back to my place to chitchat, look at various vacation photos (with the Wii, natch), watch some teevee, and generally chill.

At around five-thirty-ish, however, we were out of things to do: the photos had been exhausted, the conversation had evaporated, and no one was interested in the TV any more. My wife suggested going to the beach for a walk, but (a) most folks were still too tired, and (b) it was starting to get dark, so everyone resigned themselves to just sitting around until it was time to go out for dinner.

Can you guess what happens next?

In an effort to find something to entertain the guests, I turned on the Wii, popped in a copy of Kororinpa: Marble Mania, then thrust the Wii remote into the hand of the nearest aunt. Though she was rather hesitant ("I don't know how to play these things"), I encouraged her to give it a try, and ran down the instructions in fifteen seconds.

Within 30 seconds, she had mastered the controls and finished the first course.

Within five minutes, everyone was watching her play and collectively shouting out advice, laughing it up, and cheering her on.

Within fifteen minutes, they were all playing in tag-team fashion, passing the controller from one to another as they worked through the game. It was truly a Kodak Nintendo moment as they whooped it up like giddy eight-year-olds, and it took a fair amount of effort to convince them to stop playing long enough to go out for dinner.

I don't know if any of them will actually go out and buy a Wii; on the other hand, my cousin-in-law was asking me about prices and availability, which means there's some nontrivial interest there. I was also rather amused when one of the aunts commented, "Now I see why the kids like playing these video games!"

If nothing else, watching a group of visiting septagenarians take to video-gaming like something straight out of a commercial was well worth getting up at five in the morning for -- and gives me something to blog about for a few minutes.