We're not really sure that there's much more to say about the Wiimote that we (har) haven't said before, other than it can cause damage to anything valuable in your gaming arena, such as your
television,
window,
beer glass, or
PDA -- did we miss anything? Well, let's record little Jacob here as the very first Wii-related injury into the record books. According to the account provided on
Wii Damage, a new site devoted to all things getting busted due to the faulty Wiimote strap, Jacob was among a trio of kids in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina settling down to a nice, pleasant game of Wii Baseball over Thanksgiving weekend. Jacob's cousin Abby was settling into the batter's box, and as the pitch came down she gave it a Bondsian swing, sending the Wiimote flying straight at her cousin, who was standing nearby -- sustaining a pretty good-lookin' welt to the face. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to go find our high school football helmet so we can get our Wii on safely.
posted December 9th 2006 12:35PM
i feel bad for this kid.
look at how sad he looks.
This is totally dumb!
Even First-Aids kit can kill people. It's just how to use it in proper way.
You cant blame the wii for this, just blame the people using it. You could cut yourselves with a knife so we shouldnt use knives now??
I cut myself with a matchbox car when i was 8, should we never use matchbox cars?
If you arent wearing the wrist strap, which im pretty sure they weren't because it didnt say that the strap broke.
Without wearing a wrist strap, thats considered reckless playing. In that case you deserve to have your electronics near it broken (or child for that matter)
Tubby little bastard deserves to get decked in the face with the remote if he can't wait his turn. This isn't a matter of a faulty strap, it's a matter of a spoiled little bastard with no manners. I hope he gets his other eye "wii-ed", too. Serves him right... in the face.
I love that all the comments ragging on this kid are highly ranked. This is great.
The wii should be illegal- not. Don't buy a real tennis racket or baseball bat either, someone could get hurt. Ban motor vehicles, there are car crashes everyday. If someone accidently cuts theirself with a knife, is the knife manufacturer at fault? People, the wii remote is not intendeded to be swung with incredible force, nor should it be thrown.
If someone opens a bottle of beer and hurts their hand, do we blame the beer, the bottle opener or the idiot trying to open the bottle?
Thank you. I knew you'd agree.
Have you ever held a Wiimote? I own 2, and I can't imagine how hard you'd have to swing it to BREAK THE STRAP! The the string connecting the lanyard to the controller, while thin, is very, very strong. the ammount of centrifigul force required to pull that light little controller out of one's grip AND break the strap would have to be inhuman! No, these kids weren't using the strap. If the kids don't use the strap, then they deserve what they get.
I've read on many other sites that you can adjust how hard you need to swing the Wiimote to get a response. If this kid's cousin swung hard enough to leave an imprint on his face, a) why does she have the setting so high and b) if she swings this hard, why isn't she using a REAL bat playing against other kids outdoors?
Hey Bobby, you've been a bad boy, so as punishment I'm going to 'accidentally' hit you with this Wiimote.
come on i played zelda all day and my hand were not that sweaty-besides it was 41.7 degrees celcius outside!
this is just some spastic kids chucking the wiimote like it was a real bat-thats the reason u dont play cricket indoors or tennis or baseball
quit making fun of the kids weight you fuckin' retards. just because most of you guys were picked on when you were little because of your lack of social skills and obsencely pail skin caused by the fact you had no friends and therefore never saw daylight, doesnt mean you have to make fun of some obese kid with ADD. now get back to your porn and your right or left hand, whichever one you prefer, cause im sure you arent getting anything else.
lol, you can count on engadget to bring you great news on all things tech!
well, we all knew an injury was inevitable, and i do feel sorry for the kid. watch out nintendo, here comes the lawsuits.
pardon me, but.... real baseball bats don't have straps - and I'm sure a kid or two has been hit by one of these - and it's usually the swinger to blame, not the bat manufacturer.
Dumb things happen to dumb people. (aka natural selection)
"she gave it a Bondsian swing"
What? The girls taking steroids?
What a stupid design for a controller. They will be sued out of business , just watch. My SIDEWINDER FREESTYLE PRO which came with Motocross Madness 6 years ago is a much better design (Thank You Microsoft !!! ) And it is still supported by the King of gaming...Microsoft :)
What the heck was the injured kid doing between the player and the TV anyhow? Sounds like he earned it.
Darwinism FTW!!!
the wii is a hazard!!!
I think he's related to Chunk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJwcxUVz6zc
"T" is for Truffle Shuffle (and Tubby)
Wii-tard is right
Wii is not for kids!!!!! Go outside.
http://www.frobba.com/main.asp?article=327
Don't let go, dumbass.
Don't worry kid, chicks dig scars!
This whole wii remote thing rates right up there with the scratching nano thing.
You want a Nintendo Wii for xmas??? You will put your eye out kid!!!!!
too late, read matt's comment on the 1st page...
ZOMG OWNED!
..haha
they should have read the manual
Idiot gamers.
OK, show of hands who here looks at this kid and feels like smacking him really really hard with the remote!!!!! I'll start! (hand up)
Accidents happen and will consider to happen. I don't view the article as an attack on Nintendo as more of a reporting of an incident. Obviously people need to be educated in how to use the Wii-mote properly (maybe an instructional video should have been bundled with the system as well. What troubles me is how much focus is placed on the injured kid rather than on his cousin.
Anywho, like many other devices that are out there that could cause damage, Nintendo will probably have to place a warning label on the box before hand. (Maybe they can place this warning on the games as well, almost like a threat level. Wii sports could be red while zelda could be a yellow. hehehe)
This is funny! That would have been hilarious to watch this little fat kid get knocked upside the head with that remote! And that photo is hilarious - it looks as though his parents said, "OK, Jacob, now look weal sad for da cam-cam, okaaaayyy?" Sad for the cam AND the attorneys, that is.
But if they even think of suing Nintendo, they'll need to be slapped - the whole family. Either that, or line 'em all up and throw Wii remotes at their heads.
All I can say about this is that a) people over exaggerate their movements when playing with the wii (snicker, snicker!) and b) people (especially kids) are generally stupid (mind you, there is a difference between stupidity and ignorance; ignorance is not knowing any better; stupidity is chucking a wiimote at your cousins head and not expecting him to get hurt!)
Then you were standing to close as the Wii warns of each time the game is strted up. You must NOT stand too close. Would you stand close to her if she had a real bat inher hand? Mom, you should be monitoring your children and any one else's children tha tmay be playing. If the kids don't do it safely YOU should step in and make them stop. YOU are the responsible party!
Remember when kids used to get hurt from there first time riding a bike, or playing baseball, or going outside. Now they can be happy and just live in there plastic bubbles and get overweight in peace while playing games that are "safe".
Honestly people get over it. Your introducing a highly physical aspect to gaming things like this are going to happen no matter how many warnings you put up.
Anyone who complains about this is just ridiculous.
shouldn't this chubby kid have been playing dance revolution with the calorie counter on, instead of baseball. Like the Nintendo rep said...Americans are fat and they need to lose weight!.
Yea, let the american ban the Wii due to parents that get afraid their chinadolls might get hurt, and let us europeians that doesn't mind letting our kids learn proper motoring skills by trial and error have fun.
This game is great fun and fine for those who use it correctly. Children should be taught how to use it and supervised. Also,you can play this game with small motions. It isn't necessary to move it so violently or with wide range motions.
I was thinking how great this game is for the wheel-chair bound or the infirmed. When my child had cancer it would've been awesome for this game to have been available to him during his many hospital stays.
So just follow the rules and use good judgement and all will be well.
Maybe we should see the writing on the wall- the kid's fat BECAUSE of these stupid video games- and why the hell would you want a video game that makes you go through the actual motions of the sport? Why not just take your fat ass outside and PLAY THE DAMN SPORT. Jeez, you'd think kids these days would melt if they saw sunlight. Parents: Stop being lazy, take your kids to a freakin park once in a while, and stop letting the kids super size their cheesy chili fries w/the side of gravy.
There's a calorie counter on DDR?? Sweet! I gotta get me one!
Had to go off-topic, everything I'd say about this one was said before many times over. I feel bad for the kid, accidents happen, I took my fair share of bumps and bruises as a kid, if I'd owned a Wii I'll bet at some point I or one of my brothers would've taken a controller to the face too. You can comment on what a retard these kids are, but you're obviously not thinking back to some of the stupid things you did at 8yrs old, or are choosing to mentally block them, heh. Hell, I'm still doing idiot things at 31, only now it usually involves power tools and/or motor vehicles, hehehe.
It's true, none of the Wii sports games require exaggerated motion. You don't need to swing the controller like a real bat, certainly not hard and fast enough that it could flick out of your hand(s) and into someone's face. But you know it's going to happen. The whole point of the system is to get you more physically involved. This stuff is going to happen. I do hope this is a lesson learn for both kids.
I'm not even going to bother trying to explain how reality works to Bobenzyte and his "Go outside and play" buddies. Go paint your white picket fence in your perfect suburban neighborhood, have fun with that.
Well said Isaac, it isn't that simple just to walk outside and go to the park, you don't know what there situation is! Maybe the parents are too busy?? Why is everyone commenting on the childs weight it has nothing to do with the wiimote strap and its accidents, i encourage these types of games than button bashing one as at least you move more than you hands!!
I just want to say that I called that the Wiimote will cause injury and damage (although i didn't think it would be because of a bad part design) as soon as I saw it in action. When a bunch of kids swing things around something is going to get broken or someone is going to get hurt.
Although a little of topic but I see the Wiimote (and the whole system) as a novelty that will wear off quickly. I for one have not grown up with nintendo (not too many of those in Commi Russia) so I don't get the allure of stupid cartoon looking characters so the Wii will be just like the Game Cube: too few good games to make the system worth buying. So the main customers will be people who are new to video games. They will buy the system and maybe a handfull of games and will never play it again after a few months. Last time I checked most consoles made money from game licenses NOT the system itself.
I dunno, i find the Wiinjury stories pretty funny..
Lesson for the parents! Just get your kids to wear the strap and this wouldnt have happened...
Though my friend did break the lampshade when we were Wiibowling the other day, but shes just over-zealous with her hand movements... xD
This has to be the funniest thing I've ever read in my life. And what a great way to drill someone in the face and get away with it. "Sorry man, the wiimote slipped out of my hand", "Dude, the game was paused".