I've got... like, the best idea ever.

If you don't have a Nintendo Wii, and you really want one, but just can't find one anywhere? Just take a stroll around the Gaming section of Digg.com, find someone who's whining about the lack of games and how they haven't touched their Wii since the first week they had it, and ask them if they'd like you to take it off their hands! It'll be a win-win scenario! They'll get their $250 back, and you'll have an impossible to find Wii!

Why ARE they keeping the thing if they're so upset about how worthless it is? Hmm... Here's my take! They know, too, that the games are coming, and that when they do, there's a good chance the Wii is STILL going to be too hard to find. So they're not willing to actually get rid of it, only to fight to find one later, but humanity enjoys complaining, so they're going to try to hide the fact that they don't dare sell the thing because they know it's only a matter of time before they love it again.

The bottom line: Everyone loves the Wii, even the people who say they haven't played it in months. I know I haven't played mine for a while, but I still wouldn't trade it for anything.

Nintendo's favorite crowd, the dreaded analyists, are at it once again. They questioned Nintendo's ability to make the Wii a success... And they were wong. They praised the efforts of Sony and declared them the winner before the battle even started... And they were wrong.

Last time they took pot shots at Nintendo, they kept bringing up the Gamecube and how it failed to conquer the majority market share and how much of a failure it was in the console industry. Perhaps it was a failure to conquer the majority market share (PS2 was clearly the leader in market share), but Nintendo never lost money on any console sale. The Gamecube was NOT a failure, and the nay-sayers who wanted to think that Nintendo was down and out forever kept conveniently forgetting the whole profit thing. When the Wii Remote was introduced to the world... Everyone in the world collectively went WHAT THE HECK?!! But let's check the numbers shall we?

The Wii was first released in the United States on November 19, 2006. A day to remember! Now, six months later, you still cannot find any Wii on any shelf anywhere. Once a shipment arrives, they're gone once people not already in the story get wind of it. At least, that's what I keep hearing from people who are still looking for one. (And, consequently, blaming Nintendo for holding back production in an effort to drive up demand.) In 6 months, the Wii has SOLD, not shipped, 7.66 million consoles. This in spite of everyone ranting their faces off about how the Wii has no games and is just a gimmicky console. (Remember when Sony said the Wii Remote was gimmicky? And then they tacked on a crappy interpretation of motion sensitivity on their controller? And then said that the reason there was no rumble feature was because it would interfere with the motion sensing? Only then to find out that Sony just flat out lied? Yeah, that's the gimmick we're talking about here. That one gimmick that the company who ruled the console industry with the Playstation 2 is trying to copy.)

The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005. Since then, 18 months after release, there have been 9.82 million consoles sold. (And let's not forget the Playstation 3, released on November 11, 2006, and has only sold 3.31 million units in the same time the Wii has sold 7.66 million. And I've personally seen PS3s in Walmart, and a stack of 16 in Best Buy.)

You're going to tell me that even though the Wii has sold 75% of the units in about 1/6th the time that it took the Xbox 360 to sell 9.82 million consoles, that the Wii "isn't here to stay".

Okay, so even though there's a mad rush for Wii's the likes of which were seen on release day, that doesn't mean that the Wii is going to sell this heavy forever? Well, of course not. But people are carrying on like the Wii is going to sell like hot cakes and then, all of a sudden, drop to zero sales and fail? Yes... Yes, of course. Just like how after the mad rush for Xbox and Playstation 2, the sales just... Stopped! After everyone who wanted one already had one. No, the industry doesn't work like that. There's a mad record-setting rush, and then the sales drop off, yes, but they always remain steady. There's always a moderate amount of sales. The Wii, the PS3, the Xbox 360... They're not just going STOP selling units one day. They might taper off, but they'll probably never stop until the NEXT consoles come out.

Now there's the arguement of the lack of games is killing the Wii. Pfft. I've talked about this already, too. You've got the small amount of third-party developers who sit back and wait to see how the consoles are going to do, and then pick after there's an established user base. That's probably not the wisest course of action, because lack of games means no purchasing, but if nobody buys the console, then nobody makes games for it. A vicious cycle, but that's how it works. Remember when the Wii was touted as the largest console release in history with over 30 games to pick from at release? Where did all that buzz go? Maybe the games were half-baked. I can accept that, I mean, there's a lot of games I really don't want, too.

But what people have to accept is that there is ALWAYS a lull of games after the release of a console! You've got the people who are just always on board with the Nintendo or Microsoft who will just naturally make games for that console no matter how bad it does. Those are the games you'll most likely get at release. After a console sells well (like, oh, say the Wii?), THAT'S when everyone else goes, "Hmm, maybe that console IS where we'd get the most money."

Any publisher who isn't locked to a single console by contract would be out of their minds to NOT develop for the Wii. It's the single fastest selling console out there right now, if not the fastest selling console in history. Games aren't developed overnight! You'll be seeing a LOT more games designed specifically for the Wii come Christmas, you can bet your bottom dollar. And in the years to come? When people get the hang of just exactly what the Wii can do? You'll see better and more well-designed games that take full advantage of the Wii Remote, the WiiConnect24 service... Everything! That's just how the industry works!

But humans are an impatient race, and they can't wait for anything. They have to have everything right this very second, and if they can't get what they want WHEN they want it, then they're going to get angry and blame someone, and there's a good chance that the lesser humans will start to attack what they wanted and start spreading a lot of baseless crap about it. Just watch. Once the Wii gets a steady trickle of awesome games, everyone will suddenly flip sides once again, because they're happy NOW and not later.

In closing, let me point out to you that this is EXACTLY what the Nintendo DS went through when it was first released, and we all know that failed, right? I mean, look at these numbers! 43 million DSes sold versus 22 million Sony PSPs sold. Yeah! The DS was a complete failure. Nintendo was responsible for the DS, just imagine how they're going to screw up the Wii!

Analyists are useless.

So Nintendo Europe goes "hey, you know what, guys? Modification chips are bad."

The people who applied the mods laugh and go "yah sure u cant stop me lol I wanna play Super Paper Mario now and not w8 until Novmember fro it". So they import the game and they play it and... "Hey! My Wii broke! NINTENDO YOU STUPID COMPANY!"

Turns out that there's a firmware update in Super Paper Mario NTSC, and when the people in Europe (who, as you might now, use PAL consoles/TVs, not NTSC consoles/TVs) mod their Wii to get rid of region coding so they can play NTSC games, and then put in Super Paper Mario NTSC into their PAL Wii which was modified (you know, it was modified!) and the game goes "well, okay, this seems to be an NTSC console... let's apply the update!"

But see, the thing is, the guts of a PAL Wii are a little bit different than an NTSC Wii. When the game applied a firmware patch for an NTSC Wii to a PAL Wii, it broke the Wii. It's called "bricking" in the mod community. It's irreversably dead.

Of course, there are a few morons out there who are upset that Nintendo didn't include some sort of checking system to make sure it doesn't update a PAL Wii... Well, uhm... They did. It was the region coding system you disabled so you could play NTSC games. You disabled the very mechanism for checking what version of Wii you had.

Nothing quite makes my day like little kiddies who think they're so awesome to hack their consoles, but totally destroy them in the end... teehee.

Waaah! There's no Wii games! I'm sick and tired of Nintendo releasing stupid games on the Virtual Console! I can't even find a Wii in the stores! Nintendo's stupid! If Sony did this, they'd be getting ripped up one side and down the other! Stupid fanboys!

Ahh, the sound of spoiled gamers. Wasn't it only two years ago that everyone was laughing at Nintendo's new controller? "The heck?! A TV controller? Nintendo's insane... Again... It's going to be another GameCube. Nintendo's failed." (Which, I might add, that since Nintendo always makes money on consoles, the GameCube was still a very successful console, if not the most successful as far as profits go. Who cares if you've sold 80 bazillion PS2s if you're losing money on half of them?)

Wasn't it only last year that Nintendo finally rolled back the curtains on everything you ever wanted to know about the Wii and it was the single most popular E3 booth in history? Everyone wanted one, and everyone (mostly) had nothing but praise for it. While Sony was doing everything wrong, Nintendo was doing everything right and everyone was noticing!... Except the game developers and publishers. Remember this!

Wii release day! Lines everywhere... No Wii left anywhere. If you found one, you'd get swarmed by people wanting to buy it for 5 times the retail price. PS3 was the hottest gift for Christmas? Haha, my furry tail it was... After Christmas, PS3s became quite the sight at stores after all the eBay'ers returned their PS3s since they couldn't sell them for extortionate prices. Wii? Still rare... Beyond rare, even. It was impossible to find.

Now, after the initial release, Wiis are STILL impossible to find, but the spoiled gamers are starting to get upset again. "Where's all the cool games we were promised?! We can only play Wii Bowling so many times!! You promised us online gameplay, too!! Where are all the online games?! You lied to us!! There's nothing to do!! I wasted my money!!"

Yes... Maybe you did. If you feel that way, try selling your console on eBay! I'm sure there'll be someone out there who's a bit smarter and less of a brat who'll adore owning one. You see, humanity is impatient. They want everything NOW NOW NOW. Are you still looking for a Wii? Can't find one? Uh-oh, Nintendo MUST be holding back production and making the thing scarce, because that's EXACTLY the thing Nintendo's known for! Because it couldn't be that there's a genuine insatiable desire for something NEW in the gaming industry, and it couldn't be that you're just having a bit of bad luck. No, it's gotta be Nintendo. I keep reading about people who say they're done hunting for Wiis, and they don't want to be waiting in any lines like release day.

Well, ya' must not be wanting one badly enough, I guess. It's your perogative to wait, but right now, you're not going to be able to walk in to Walmart after work and hork one off the shelf... You're going to have to do some research! Learn when a shipment's coming in, how much is coming in, and when they're going on sale! It's EXACTLY like release day out there, and if you're not going to act like it, then you're not going to get one!

Second, lack of games. Every console has a post-launch lull in releases! EVERY... CONSOLE... It's like this is something totally new and unheard of and Nintendo cheated everyone! Well, to have games, you need developers... After the GameCube, developers were leaving Nintendo left and right! When the Wii was announced, they were a little cautious about signing up for a console that might be another unfriendly console for them. You'd've thought that after E3, they would have been begging Nintendo to make games, but some didn't.

Okay, any games that were started early enough to be released for launch were started early enough or rushed so they'd be a launch title! Who in their right mind is going to start making a game before launch and then MISS launch? Maybe some, but I'm betting that not many companies do that. So you have two groups of people: Launch developers, and developers who are waiting to see what happens. Nintendo still launched with the biggest library of launch titles in history, but then everyone else saw how incredibly perfect the Wii was in every aspect and then THEY jumped on to develop! The sad thing is, it takes more than 3 months to make a game! Everyone who finished their launch titles are starting new projects, and everyone who just jumped on the train are starting their projects, too... Result? Lull. For about a year. For every console! It's nothing new... Stop being stupid and blaming Nintendo for it. It's just a natural thing that happens when a new console comes out. After the launch lull, games will start pouring in again, but you have to be patient! That's what you get for being an early adopter! Isn't it fun?!

Third, no online gameplay! Whining about how everyone except the Wii has online gameplay and that Nintendo lied AGAIN to all us poor spoiled gamers about how there'd be plenty of online games. Well, we're getting there! Super Smash Brothers is going to be online, first of all. I'm not sure about any other titles, but that's all I'm ever going to need! I admit that it's kind of disappointing not to see any online games, but the online network was simply not ready at release, and now we're in the post-launch lull and there's no games AT ALL. Patience! Would you rather them have rushed the internet capability and it turn out like Sony's online network? Yeah. I don't think people would've been any more understanding than they are now. Remember! This is Nintendo! They're notorious for getting things done the RIGHT way, and they're willing to postpone releases to get it.

Fourth, no good Virtual Console games. On the contrary, I believe there's some pretty decent games on the VC! Some games I haven't even played before... Why wouldn't I buy them? Maybe you've already played them all, but nobody cares, okay? Now, I'm on the boat that they're maybe a tad bit expensive, but I'm not boycotting Nintendo over it! If I don't have the money, I won't buy anything... But if it's something like Super Mario World, or Ocarina of Time, I'm going to buy it! Nobody's forcing you to buy Virtual Console games, you know... You can go back to your precious emulators with loads of illegal ROMs, but now that there's a way to play these games legally, and on the best emulator of them all, I choose not to be illegal!

Okay! End result: Gamers are spoiled, they want everything now, and they'll blame Nintendo or Microsoft or Sony or anyone they think is responsible for making them wait so long... Boohoo!

So after 3 months, Nintendo has sold over 5 million Wiis [vgcharts.com] and they still can't keep the thing in stock... It literally flies off the shelves and sometimes it flies off before it even GETS on the shelves. So much for the gimmicky console, eh, Sony?

Unfortunately, people are starting to get upset that they can't find a Wii and are starting to blame Nintendo for not keeping them in stock... Because we all know Nintendo has a habit of holding back shipments to drive up demand... Right? Oh wait. That's Sony. Sorry, my bad.

People whine about how they don't have the time to camp out or glue themselves to the internet to see where some appear. Well, let's put it this way... If you do have the time to do that, you'll get one. If you don't have the time to do that, then you'll have to wait. The Wiis are there, they just sell incredibly fast. Nintendo has to make and ship these all over the planet, remember. They didn't decide to abandon entire regions of the world just to let a certain target get all they want. Blaming Nintendo for the shortages is really stupid and short-sighted of you. I don't think even Nintendo realized how popular they were going to become with this thing, and after pushing for the PS3 all these months, everyone's wanting a Wii and they're angry at Nintendo because they jumped on the bandwagon later than the Nintendo fans who were waiting in line on release day.

It's almost funny. Almost.

First, a self-pat on the back. I just reached 50,000 words about 5 minutes ago. Submitted my story in scrambled form to the official NaNoWriMo word counting page and passed! Bwahaha. At the last possible moment, I decided to do something crazy and sign up to write a novel in 30 days. Now, 27 days later, I have 50,000 words in my word processor and I'm... Not even halfway through with my storyline idea. I don't know if that's good or bad. Probably good. I have a huge world I've concocted over the last several months. Now that I'm finished, I can rest and actually play a game on my brand new TV.

Second, a pat on the back to my heroes at Nintendo. Forbes is reporting that Nintendo says they have SOLD 600,000 Wii units and they can't keep them stocked. Six hundred thousand units and they're still sold out. Let's compare this to the PlayStation 3, which was promised to be released at 400,000 units in North America, but afterwards, independent studies show that there was, in fact, only around 250,000 units sold.

To all you Sony fanboys who wanted to tout the PS3 as the fastest selling system: Eat it! Sony can't make any PS3s because of all the crap they're shoving on you, and here's Nintendo giving us everything we wanted in a gaming system. Nintendo's making them as fast as they can, and they still can't meet demand.

Sony, meet Nintendo... Your new competition you enjoyed laughing at.

So here I was, all this time, thinking that I needed to buy a special adapter for the Wii to get online. I knew it had wireless out of the box. If you have a wireless access point, you just turn the Wii on and it gets online! (Encryption not withstanding.) I don't have a wireless access point. Frankly, I don't exactly want it and I definitely don't need it. Why? I use my network a lot. I have nearly 1000 gigabytes of hard drive space spread across three computers. I need my high speed wired network! Wireless just can't offer the same speed at a reasonable cost.

But then there's the Wii. Should I get a wireless access point for it? I think not. I'm not spending an extra 200 bucks on it. (Before someone goes shooting off some cheapo wireless router, nope, I'm not interested. If I'm buying a wireless router, it's going to be a professional grade access point. My network isn't built for a router. It needs to be an access point.) All this time, I thought there was some sort of device you can plug into the back of the Wii so you can plug in a network wire and put it on your wired network. I mean, they kept calling it a USB adapter, and the Wii has USB ports. Makes sense right?

So here I was, watching my Wii move slowly across the state of Texas, when, suddenly, I thought "oh no! I didn't buy an adapter! I won't be able to get online!" Bad news. Bad, bad news. So I scramble to the Nintendo online shop and scroll through the Wii accessory page and... No special adapter. What? There has to be one! I keep reading about it!

Then, suddenly, everything clicked. You see, Nintendo sells a little attachment for your computer that broadcasts a super-secure wireless connection for the DS. I wanted my DS to get online, and I didn't want to buy that $200 access point for it, so I got the little $30 white square to plug into my computer. THAT is the adapter for the Wii that I've been reading about... The Wii will use the wireless device I bought from them to get my DS online.

This is a major "duh" moment for me, but I'm so impressed by Nintendo, so I decided to tell you all about it! My Wii will be able to get online out of the box after all, because I bought something I thought would only work for my DS. I love Nintendo.

This is the device in question, if you're interested: Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector