Errant Wiimote claims second TV's life
By Ryan Block 
posted November 21st 2006 3:32AM
posted November 21st 2006 3:32AM
posted November 21st 2006 3:32AM
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I think it's just a fact of life that retarded children break things. That's what cages are for.
Good thing my Mitsubishi TV has a Lexan cover over the screen. The remote would break before the screen does.
Morons, all of them. Hang on the freaking remote! ALso, the TV isn't ruined, get the thing fixed - stupid throw away society.
How pathetic can these people be? If you're going to complain to Nintendo how the wiimote has ruined your TV, you have only yourself to blame for not being able to hold a remote firmly with your hands.
sounds like people are just putting the strap on and flinging the remote forward without holding it. no shit, it'll snap the wristband off like that. idiots. i'd stay away from these people if they were at the golf courses or baseball field...
Nintento shouldnt have included wrist straps! They opened themselves up for suits. IF they hadn't had straps they could have just said these guys were idiots for throwing their wimote at the tv.
I can understand this happening with tennis, baseball, and golf, but not bowling (based on the kind of arm movements used in the games). Maybe the kid was just too stupid to realize you're supposed to hold onto the controller, not actually throw it as if it's the ball!
my roommate almost broke our window playing baseball. He was wearing the strap, and it broke when he lost his grip. But thankfully nothing broke, and I think I am oging to go buy one of those grips.
Or have parents tell their children to hold on to the controller. That wire wasn't suppose to break under normal condictions. They're letting it go and depending on that wire to hold it.
I wonder if they were allowing thier daughter to play with no strap and she accidently threw the remote into the TV. To over it up they cut the strap on the Wii-Mote?
so there are 2 cases of extreme carelessness amongst 500,000 or so Wii owners.. I don't consider this an issue.
you'd think this would've come out in testing; didn't Nintendo test the controller on hundreds (thousands?) of people before release?
I guess now it's in the hands of tens of thousands, but still...
this is a case of "I'm retarded and can't control my flailing arms and broke my TV!"
Seriously people, the wiimote does NOT need crazy amounts of speed to work, gentle motions work just as well...plus i have this thing called "MOTOR SKILLS" and i dont let go of something i'm holding on to by accident. Only an @$$hat would break their own TV.
why the hell do you need a wrist strap?
Was she not holding on to the controller while swinging?
we all just love money so much today, don't we...
Either this is fake, or people need to grow a brain. Swinging hard object towards expensive tv? Hold on to it!
Nintendo shouldn't have to pay up for this.
I see a market for third-party retaining mechanisms. Maybe like a glove that has metal lockdowns for the wiimote. Mark my words.
This is total bullsnot, I got a Wii yesterday, and your hand does tend to get a little perspirated, however, I have yet to hurl my Wiimote at my LCD, these people are just trying to find a way to sue Nintendo so they can have some extra money for the Christmas shopping season. Not to mention before you play every game there is a warning to securely fasten the remote to your wrist. And finally, I have literally gotten a work out from playing the various sports games and have yet to create enough force to to break my wrist cable, I wouldn't doubt that they had the nunchuck hooked up to the remote when they did perform these "alleged acts" which the software specifically tells you not to unless you are using the boxing game.
HA! Seriosuly - what kind of idiot waves their controller around with such force?
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13
Wii'll see. Personally, I predict this is going to be a disaster for Nintendo. We know of three incidents so far ( don't forget IGN's strap failure - http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/745/745202/vids_1.html ) plus the claims of like 5 people on this forum saying their straps failed.
You can bet there have been a far greater number that have gone unreported so far. You know what I might do just to stick it to you fanboys? Start a website to get a class action lawsuit going against Nintendo over this. If I don't someone else will, and it's going to be sorely needed over the coming weeks and months...
Anyone who doesn't think this is entirely the consumers fault is clearly an idiot.
When My wiimote gets repaired i will make one wristband out of STEEL wire Whan i have it reasy i will post it in instructables
I think that the damage caused to TVs may in fact be legitimate, but I have two theories as to how this is happening:
a) perhaps the most likely explanation is that the player has actually swung the wiimote by the cord to get extra speed, which may cause the strap to break from the strain or;
b) the user wasn't wearing the strap at all, or it simply slipped off, and it was cut (or forcefully pulled) after the fact.
Considering that both the wiimote and strap are moving at the same velocity, and there isn't a huge amount of slack on the strap, there is basically no way that it could snap under normal use.
I think Nintendo screwed up by not allowing the strap to be tightened around the wrist, but I really doubt that the claims being made are genuine.
Okay, now THIS one is bullshit. No way could a fucking seven-year-old swing something hard enough to break the strap AND crack a TV. Shit, I don't know any seven-year-olds who could throw a ROCK hard enough to crack a TV.
What would have been a better design for the wrist lanyard would have been to use a tight Velcro strap around the wrist that is attached with a springy cord to connect to the Wiimote -- similar to the static shielding wrist straps used in electronics and PC building.
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=BROWSE&N=200824&product_code=336208&Pn=Anti_Static_Wrist_Strap
What I don't get is how people can't get a grip on these things? I mean, I've never played one, but I plan on getting one, but still. For as long as I have been alive I have used my fingers for many things and they worked and are still working the way God intended them to do, and once I get my Wii, I don't plan on losing my grip or stop using my fingers.
I just don't get.
Sorry, this is definitely a case of "Oh, I can hold onto it just fine. I don't need the strap... oops"
Then they realized that they were all going to look like a bunch of dumbasses if they complain about their TV being broken because of their own negligence, so they cut the strap to make it look like it had broken.
I'm not coming to these conclusions because of lack of faith in the people, but in terms of pure physics.
BOWLING.
In order to bowl, you use an underhand swing. Unless you are a professional softball pitcher you are not going to generate enough force to not only snap the controller, but ALSO send it flying into the tv screen at that type of force. Just doesn't happen. Even if you're a professional bowler used to a 20 lbs ball, as a professional bowler, you should darn well have a better grip and control than that.
Even if you did somehow manage to snap the cord that way after letting it fly, there is still the tendency to snap BACK at you, or slow to a near stop instead of continuing its trajectory. In order to do that you would practically have to hold the strip around your wrist, set both feet on the Wiimote and push with everything you've got. Even then, you're unlikely to get it to go far enough to actually put a crack in your tv like that. Chip, maybe, but not that type of fracture.
Nintendo MIGHT want to send out reinforced straps, but I think their first priority should be bringing those straps in to be investigated. They can tell if they've been cut or not, or track down what did cause the cord to snap (If this isn't totally bogus, the only thing I can guess is that it's dry rot) See if this falls under the definition of slander or libel.
After 3 days and about 20 hours of playing with my Wii I can say I believe both are hoaxes. Anyone notice the screen burnin on this TV? I'd say they are trying to get a new TV. As for the first instance, how does a strap which has no tension on it during play break miduse and conveniently the remote goes flying? Man maybe I should throw my PS 2 remote at my TV maybe Sony will pay for it.
The wrist strap should be connected to the Wiimote with some form of metal...I'm thinking adamantium. Or, you know, you could hold onto the darn thing.
anyone who says a 7 year old couldn't throw hard enough to break a Tv doesn't live around or have kids then.
children are very destructive when they want to be.
I believe these are all a hoax, we have played our Wii so much we have killed the batteries in the Wiimote, and have had numerous people play it and no one has broken the string. For one if you cannot hold on to the Wiimote don't swing it so hard there is no need for it, when I play Zelda my sword swings the same if I flick my wrist as when I swing my arm.
I know that if i was a kid playing Wii on my parents TV and i did this, they wouldn't blame Nintendo, they would kick my ass for being stupid. I've been playing the Wii for the past few days, quite aggressively and i have yet to kill or damage my 60" TV. If you don't think your kid can handle holding the remote, then email me cuz i'll buy that Wii off you :)
w00t ROFL_LAWL_n00Bz
My son, (11) was playing tennis with his brother (14) when he went to hit a backhand and the strap broke off of his wiimote and hit his brother right in the crotch...if I would have only had a video camera...it was priceless.
If these people sued Nintendo for the TV, it would be like some idiot suing Ford for a new car because he wrapped it around a tree. How is Nintendo responsible for someone's stupid misuse of their products?
Here's what they should have said in their safety email:
"Dear Wii owner,
In order to minimize injuries and damage to property, please use the wrist strap attached to the wiimote when playing. If you are so much of a spaz that you can't play our games without flinging the wiimote at your TV, please return your Wii console immediately and check into an assisted living facility, as you are probably too incompetent to feed yourself, let alone play our games"
Sincerely,
Nintendo
Haha, awesome. Your 65 year old mother has the power of a weightlifting 20 year old and the hand-eye coordination of a 2 year old then.
I have used my brothers Wii for days straight and even throwing as hard as I can, I've never felt the controller even slip a little. Even if it did.....the force on it is no way near the amount need to snap the string because your wrist, that is supposed to be traveling with it, is going the same speed.....so, that means IF you were wearing the strap like they say, the Wiimote would have approximately an inch or two of travel before the strap stops it. Now unless you are a bionic person, you can't swing your arm in an opposite direction fast enough to cause any immense force against the string.
Think of it this way...
If you were in your car and started pushing a shopping cart with your front bumper, you could drive up to 10mph and you and the car would be going the same speed. Now if you let of the gas or very lightly hit the brakes, that cart is going to travel maybe a couple mph faster than you could possibly be going at that time. When your car(or wrist in the Wii's case) starts to slow down, the foot of slack(or inch for Wii) will slowly get tight again before you've had any time to slow down significantly....and by that time, the shopping cart(Wiimote) has already lost any difference in forward momentum.
So the only likely way for all this to be going on is because it only comes with 1 Wiimote. If your trying to play with friends or family, the strap doesn't get used very much after the first 5 frames or so because you put it on, tighten it, and then bowl your 2 turns in 30 seconds or so....yeah, some people get used to that and when they do go overboard, they happen not to be wearing it. It is pretty funny how this only happens on Bowling, huh? The other games you use the controller for at least 3-4 minutes so your probably going to wear it most the time.
Oh yeah, and don't say, "Well there's pictures of broken TVs!" ...because those of us that have been on the internet for a while know better than to take anything coming out of SomethingAwful as a valid news story, apparently Engadget is a n00b to the internet scene and likes to start controversy.
HI
Try using a TV Screen Protector. This will protect your Plasma Screen from the ravages of children and flying Wiimotes:
www.thescreenprotector.co.uk