Nintendo launches Everybody Votes channel.
Last night, my darkened living room pulsed with an eerie blue glow for hours as I slept, illuminating most of the house and catching my attention several times as I woke to peer at the astonishing amount of snow that’s quickly piling up around me.
I resisted the temptation to check on it in the middle of the night, knowing full well I’d be right here writing about it and not getting any sleep.
Turns out Nintendo hit us with the surprise launch of the “Everybody Votes Channel”, which lets you cast you vote in little two-answer polls on simple topics.
First I got a Wii-mail letting me know to do a system update and download the channel free from the Wii Shop Channel (it’s in Wii Ware). The system update was very small and quick, but my system got stuck accessing the Shop Channel and I had to do a hard power-off and reboot, then try again. Why does that still not time out? Let’s get that updated, Nintendo.
The channel is pretty sharp, probably the most tightly designed channel so far. It made me wish Nintendo would enforce a unified design for buttons, layout and behavior and such, but that’s just the graphic designer in me talking.
You choose from a few questions such as “cats or dogs,” “roses or chocolates,” things like that. Not that they’re worded so simply, but you get the idea.
You register Miis on your system as voters (to a maximum of six) and then drag and drop the Miis onto your answer. Then you can make predictions as to how you think everyone else will vote. For example, I voted that chocolates are more romantic than roses, but predicted that most everyone else would feel the opposite. A few hours after the polls close, it says it will notify me of the results so I can see how normal I am. My words, not theirs.
All in all, a fun and somewhat useless diversion. Actually, the fact that it’s fun makes it useful, because that is the point. I would like to see Nintendo use this to say things related to the various channels and things on the system. Like if they come up with a unified style, let us vote on which one we like best.
UPDATE: GameTrailers.com now has some video:
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Stephen
