[Jon L.] I think for vacation I want to go to Hawa-wii

[Brendan] N-Wii.... sounds very French.

[Jeff] Ennui is intense boredom.

[Karl] Yeah, I was just thinking that.

[Zosha] anyways, it's late so I have to head out now

[Jeff] Which is probably why they don't have the N in front of it.

[Karl] N-Wii fixes Ennui. GENIUS!

[Stan] Perrin Kaplan You know, I thought it was a neat name, too, but it's not as fitting for what we're trying to do. You think about Google being an unusual name. You think about Virgin Airlines. Amazon. Napster. All those. I think it's as unique as those. They aren't just unique, but loved names for places that we all know. And I think this is more fitting and the two Is work on a bunch of different levels. It looks like two peop

[Bloodworth] I fully expect Wii Will Rock You Campaigns

[Aaron] why didn't they use this name for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.... it would have made a lot more sense

[Bloodworth] Nintendo is just that corny

[Stan] Napster had a point

[Vincent]
[Bloodworth] I fully expect Wii Will Rock You Campaigns -- and Wii Are the Champions

[Jonny] One good thing about the words TiVo and Google is that you can turn them into verbs. "I TiVoed Desperate Housewives. I Googled rice cakes." But what if you turn Wii into a verb? It becomes an even worse word.

[Stan] I don't know Amazon's history, but at least the Amazon is a jungle

[Brendan] nWii

[Stan] where you die if you're not strong

[Jeff] LOL Napster. What the hell did that even mean?

[Mike S.] will you turn Wii into a verb? I don't think you will

[Mike S.] you don't say "Hey man I just Xboxed"

[Bloodworth] Amazon is how many trees that had to be chopped down to fill their warehouse lol

[Vincent] "I just got Wii'd"

[Jonny] Well I don't see how "I was playing Wii" sounds any better.

[Mike S.] I wouldn't mind an Xbox style Core/Family pack option as long as they only difference were # of controllers included. I think that's a good idea. It won't happen though. The margins on accessories are too lucrative to just give away. The only way it would happen is if there is no discount on the extra controllers and the family pack equals the price of a core + 3 controllers

[Karl] I know I used to say "Revolutionized" for franchises showing up on the console.

[Bloodworth] "playing my Wii" is worse

[Karl] Now I can't say Wii'd.

[Jeff] I usually say "I'm playing videogames."

[Stan] Perrin Kaplan I think it's really fun to look at, the logo. I think people are going to see that on the box and our package art. I think people will get it straight after a while - it's just something they're going to have to get used to.

[Karl] But that's a minor complaint on my part. Not a big deal.

[Stan] great, something we're going to have to get used to

[Stan] comforting words to hear from PR

[Vincent] There was some logo going around SA that actually looks pretty cool but I'm not sure if it's fake or what

[Aaron] I thought the logo was far too bland, there's nothing fun about it

[Jeff] Or you can frump around about it and it still won't change.

[Bloodworth] I think the French accent is the best way to get around it

[Brendan] "what's playing on your Wii". Sounds ok.

[Mike S.] she doesn't mean that in a negative connotation though. She just means that you'll have to learn what Wii is. You had to learn what Google was, you had to learn what iPod was.

[Jon L.] bland = safe

[Bloodworth] in ads and such

[Karl] As for Google, I still laugh when someone says they're going to "google themselves."

[Jonny] What I don't get is all this implication that the name will be more sensible once we play the system at E3.

[Karl] I'm such an immature child.

[Jeff] Wii3

[Vincent] COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUSNESS

[Vincent] I called it

[Bloodworth] http//img.villagephotos.com/p/-2/99/Therealwii.jpg

[Jon L.] the difference is, terms like Google, Amazon, and Napster all came from the Internet where nonsense names are basically accepted

[Jonny] Even if they announce some amazing multiplayer features or a crazy online service or whatever, that still doesn't make "Wii" a real word, or even a word with obvious meaning, and it's still awkward to say.

[Brendan] Just weeing the logo again and again and again... in ads, on game-paks, on the console itself... will help the name sink in.

[Mike S.] Most people know that "Oui" means "Yes." Yes is positive, it makes people like the system RIGHT away

[Karl] The way I figure it, Wii is like "we" as in, it's about a community, but there's two i's in there to represent revmotes. So it's an artisitc spin on an understandable premise.

[Karl] It just sounds garbled when you put it all together.

[Mike S.] there certainly is a LOT of marketing concept slammed into this little three letter word, that's for sure. It's almost too much to take all at once

[Brendan] I really hope they end up packing in two WiiMotes now... May even be a better move than packing in a game.

[Mike S.] it means too much almost

[Bloodworth] yeah, I agree

[Karl] For the Wiin. Heh.

[Bloodworth] Revolution was simple

[Bloodworth] change the game

[Bloodworth] this is Wii

[Jonny] Yeah, the reasoning behind this name is actually rather complicated even if you bother to figure it out.

[Mike S.] Wii is pretty marketable too. "Wii play together, wii fight together, wii laugh together" etc

[Jon L.] Wireless Interactive Internet

[Jeff] So it's too complicated?

[Bloodworth] it basically is

[Stan] We Wii together

[Bloodworth] or at least the idea is detached

[Karl] Wireless Interactive Innovation, more like it!

[Aaron] We Wii, Oui?

[Mike S.] I don't think it's TOO complicated, but it's damn close, but it all boils down pretty easily once you think about it for about a minute

[Mike S.] it's short, that's good, easily absorbed

[Aaron] I don't think it's easily absorbed

[Jonny] Hey guys, we should wrap this up soon.

[Mike S.] Recall ought to be pretty high. It's totally different. Nobody's goign to confuse it by calling it a "Playbox" or "Xstation"

[Jonny] I'm glad we had more than one side represented here.

[Mike S.] it's completley removed from the names of other systems

[Jonny] There are probably more than two sides, even.

[Mike S.] It's just SO out there that you can't forget it. That's great for marketing

[Jeff] Well, everybody has basically two options. A bitch about it. B Accept it. Neither will change the name.

[Jon L.] I'm throwin' up a W

[Jeff] In fact I have seen more positive responses than negative ones.

[Stan] at least it's cheaper than the other two

[Aaron] well if consumers can get over their initial impressions, you may be right.... but I think that's a huge if

[Stan] GAF must've exploded

[Mike S.] GAF was DEAD this morning

[Aaron] GAF did explode

[Jeff] GF is a cesspool

[Stan] i'm not even going to bother checking GAF

[Aaron] NOA, NOE, and GAF all stopped responding

[Ty] the internet is a cesspool

[Jonny] I have never liked the DS name, it just doesn't mean anything on its own, but at least it has no accidental meaning.

[Karl] My final comment tonight is that I'm really on the fence with the name. I understand what's behind it, but it's very hard to get behind something so freakishly weird and off-beat and *different* than what I was expecting. It'll take time. But for Nintendo, I'm willing to invest that time and hear what they've got to say. You say you want a Revolution? Me, too, but in times like these, Wii need to stick together.

[Mike S.] I like it, but I think I accepted it easier because I study marketing. I get it, it's easy for me to get

[Jon L.] I think the name fits what Nintendo is trying to do, which is something totally different and unexpected.

[Mike S.] ps I graduate on saturday

[Jon L.] How'd that last final go?

[Jonny] Rick studies marketing too, and he's going to be writing a fun editorial this weekend about the name. ;-

[Brendan] Honestly, I like it. And think I will end up loving it when the advertising campaign kicks off. In the long-run, the product will define the name "Wii" more than the "Wii" defines the product.

[Stan] well, for the record, I hate the name, but I'm curious as hell to see how Nintendo will market it.

[Jeff] DS is the euphemism for Down Syndrome in the Psychological field.

[Jonny] By the way, Rick has an inside tip that the company responsible for coming up with this name is the same company that created the name "Lexus" for Toyota.

[Aaron] so it wasn't really NCL + NOA like they claimed?

[Brendan] What company is that?

[Bloodworth] hah hah

[Jeff] But But Toyota doesn't mean anything! How can they possibly sell cars anywhere?

[Brendan] Not LEO BURNETT??

[Jonny] The difference being that Lexus is a completely made up word and Wii is a fancy spelling of a pronoun.

[Jon L.] I think it'll be easy as hell to market...playing on the "We" concept, the little "i" people? It's brillian

[Brendan] Lexus == Nexus??

[Mike S.] " the product will define the name "Wii" more than the "Wii" defines the product." TRUE

[Brendan]
[L]uxury + N
[exus] == Lexus??

[Brendan] The nexus of luxury.

[Stan] that's what I always thought Lexus meant

[Jonny] Well it sounds like this company presented some name suggestions and the NOA + NCL committee chose which one to go with.

[Mike S.] that makes sense, I never thought of htat though

[Bloodworth] I just can't stand that it is so easy to find ways to make fun of it

[Stan] exactly

[Brendan] I mean, Nintendo's already said that there gonna have ACTUAL PEOPLE playing the game in ads... so you know right off that this is going to be marketed very differant than what we've seen the pas years.

[Aaron] personally I think it's awful, it's not going to stop fans from getting the system, but hopefully Nintendo knows more about what they're going to do with it than they're letting on if they really want to expand their market

[Bloodworth] and awkward things, like children telling their parents, their going to play with their friend's Wii

[Jonny] Well that's probably limited to English-speaking countries...but those are the regions where Nintendo needs the most help.

[Ty] what if it actually prounounced "WHY", like wi-fi or "oh god, why???"

[Jonny] But Ty, it's not

[Ty] snap

[Stan] hahahaha

[Stan] HAHAHAHA

[Brendan] It will work out, have faith.

[Stan] We can have swordfights

[Stan] with our Wiis

[Jon L.] don't cross the streams

[Jeff] Well, I'll be interested in discussion once everybody stops regressing back to grade school.

[Mike S.] agreed

[Jonny] the good part is that we'll finally get a game adaptation of Spaceballs

[Stan] hahahaha

[Jonny] We are having fun with it, but there were plenty of serious comments for and against the name tonight

[Aaron] well that's just it, how are they going to stop the general public from "regressing back to grade school" ?

[Jonny] But Wii is so bad, you can make serious and silly cracks on it.

[Jonny] yeah, it's like naming it Puu

[Mike S.] because people don't "regress back to gradschool" outside of the internet

[Mike S.] gradeshcool

[Stan] don't give them any ideas

[Jonny] please

[Stan] that could be the next handheld

[Jonny] The Man Show

[Mike S.] at least, the don't as EASILY

[Jon L.] Maybe that's part of the brilliance...it's not trying to be the "Nintendo Silverstreak" or some "cool-sounding" name

[Mike S.] It's the Wii, it's nothing, it just IS

[Jonny] that's deep, man

[Jonny] don't fuck up the rotation

[Vincent] My mind is blown