GWF Movement Will Be Killed Fast
August 28th, 2006 -
Posted by: Jeff Rivera in Editorials and Rants, Nintendo Wii
With each new screenshot released of Nintendo Wii software, you’ll find a fair amount of forum posters in a variety of forums throwing around the acronym GWF. The term is being used by a (growing) group of gamers that aren’t fully convinced that Nintendo is actually bringing a true revolution to gaming with the Wii’s remote. GWF stands for “gimmicky wrist flicks,” meaning that the core gameplay of the game is built upon simply replacing button presses with the flick of a wrist and not upon actual innovation.
Sure, there are plenty of titles that aren’t making the best use of the Wii-mote features, but I think that soon after launch the whole GWF movement will be smashed. I can actually understand the sentiment of the GWF finger-pointers, but after playing several Wii titles at E3 2006, I believe that Nintendo truly is bringing a revolution to gaming. The DS had many of the same type of critics that claimed that the DS was going to be basically a GameBoy Advance with PDA type gaming added to it.
Is it a lack of faith in Nintendo’s innovations that cause these movements to arise? Is it Nintendo still paying for their mistakes with the N64 and GameCube? I think those questions definitely factor into why the Nintendo skeptics easily gain momentum, but I think it has more to do with the fact that you simply can’t understand the Wii’s charm and magic until you try it for yourself. The DS taught us that “Touching is Believing,” the Wii will teach us that wagging is wonderful. Once the Wii launches, and everybody gets to spend some time with the software, the GWF movement will most likely die alongside those claims the DS was merely a dual-screened PDA.
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August 28th, 2006 at 9:34 am
GWF = Adding Wiimote functionality for the sole purpose of having Wiimote functionality, possibly negatively affecting gameplay. There are plenty of examples of this on the DS where developers threw support in there for the touchscreen where it was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the game, in fact it can be pretty distracting and break up the fluidity/pace of a game.
If you guys are happy with half-assed mediocre controls for a few games, instead of actually innovating and using the Wiimote to its potential, thats your issue, GWFer, but a few of us want quality new genres/games that make full use of this kick ass tool Nintendo is giving developers.
I think using the Nunchuk unit for flicking is fine, because thats really all its capable of, but not the Wiimote.
August 28th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Hey, I actually agree with you guys for the most part. I just feel that the quality software is going to overwhelm the shovelware pretty quickly. I\\\’m a pretty big supporter of fan movements (1080up.org, Wii60.org, petitions, etc.), and I like that you guys are calling out devs for being lame, but I think it\’s going to become a non-issue in the long run; much like nobody cares about touch screen gimmicks anymore.Keep up the good fight, however.
If this whole GWF issue makes enough noise, and people regularly call devs out that make use of it, it just might cause some shovelware producers to re-evaluate their product. Well, maybe not, but we can hope for it, right?
Just out of curiosity, what titles are you currently labeling as GWF offenders?
October 9th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Thank you, I could not have sead it better my self.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Your post is on target. Keep it up.
October 11th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
My time at Activision actually made me more of a believer…but I’ll get into that a bit more later.