for christmas, my parents gave us a wii vite - an invitation to come over for dinner and play an entire night of wii. this past weekend was our official wii vite, so after our delicious dinner my husband and i chose our games from a very long, extensive list - we settled on yoga (from wii fit), pole vaulting (from wii olympics), and mario kart. all of this wii playing got me thinking again about the way in which wii has changed the culture of video gaming for our children. larry shallenberger recently blogged about the 10 most influential people creating culture for our children, #4 on the list is shigeru miyamoto who was a lead designer behind the Wii motion-controlers. no one can deny that amongst the benefits of the wii is the physical fitness and creativity that inspire children as they play. but what about the ways in which the wii is re-defining social connectedness for the millenial generation? with the expansion of online gaming, children are now able to play wii games with other children from all over the world - most of whom they will never meet. similar to facebook and twitter, our children are living very public, online lives.
is wii another expression that defines this generation?