Nintendo's Wii has been
maiming careless gamers since the day it was launched, but an inexplicable uptick in Britain has professionals scratching their heads. According to Dr. Dev Mukerjee of Broomfield Hospital: "There has been a 100 percent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis." Turns out, Wii-itis is their word for playing so much Wii that you
injure yourself. Astonishingly, up to ten people per week are being "hospitalized with injuries caused by playing Nintendo Wii games," which has forced medical personnel to "issue warnings of the dangers associated with the video game system." Some of the most common injuries are Wii-knee (seriously) and tendon stretching / tearing, both of which could likely be avoided if gamers would bother to stretch before breaking a sweat. Sheesh -- what do folks even learn in Physical Education these days?
posted Dec 23rd 2008 11:35AM
Sounds like the Wii is the new "I fell down the stairs."
Abusive husbands and wives rejoice ;-)
Except stairs are never suffering a shortage and can be found in nearly every home.
lol! wtf is that?!?! Well if THAT is a roundabout then I retract my statement, because I have NEVER seen anything like that. Now combine that with the ease of using a sword with your right hand and we've got a new era of entertainment!
Oh...the black eye?
My husband and I were playing Wii Sports and he "accidentaly" hit me
*sob*
These people need to be put down.
My wife beats me and she always tells my friends I fell down the stairs. Now she will start saying she beat me with the Wiimote, just to be trendy...
I hate her...
"Pink eyyyyyyye... Pink eyyyyeeee!!!"
its not nintendo's fault they were using these:
http://www.shop4tech.com/photos/item-7115-1-500.jpg
I blame Darwin.
Or perhaps the Brits are just idiots. Silly Brits driving on the wrong side of the road. We had a revolution for a reason.
I say! When you enter our Kingdom you will be fined 20 shillings!
It's probably a Doctor just trying to be hip and happening with the young folks. 10 a week is hardly anything when you think of the number of Wiis in the country and overactive children.
Actually the 'keep left' rule has been around since the middle-ages, the left-hand side of the road would be the best position to use your sword (with your right-hand) to defend yourself should the occasion arise.
maybe, but with 90% of drivers being right handed you'd think it'd be easier to shift with that hand... and the lack of frequent sword use in the last few centuries...
are you seriously saying you find it hard to change gear with your left hand?
that would make sense seeing as american's also find roundabouts so hard they they just don't implement them.
@patriotsn1
Or maybe leave the less dexterous hand to perform the simple forward-backward movements of gearchanging, allowing the right hand to steer more accurately...
Anywho, it doesn't matter so long as the driver is closer to the centre of the road
Hey tough guy, maybe you should do some research before you open your mouth, we have "roundabouts" except we call them rotaries. I bet you're also one of those awesome people that goes around calling Americans arrogant when you yourself don't know what you're talking about.
thanks no need for names.
no fine correct me, i have no problem with that..
im actually one of those people who believe what i see on the simpsons :D
Ah, well then no explanation needed, I also learn much of my worldly knowledge from The Simpsons. (Toilets flush the opposite way in Australia) To your credit, I don't believe the rotary (roundabout) is implemented everywhere in the states. I'm from New England and I know they are pretty prominent here. (Then again, it is NEW England, so maybe a lot was borrowed from the original) Here's the rotary I use whenever I go to the airport.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=logan+airport&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.90509,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=42.421069,-71.003898&spn=0.002043,0.004828&t=h&z=18
Didn't you hear, the politicians want to change that.
They're proposing moving the trucks over this year and the cars over next
its all about the magic roundabout(s) in swindon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/image_galleries/wiltshire_live_search_gallery.shtml?15
Its insane!!!
@Moj:
"Or maybe leave the less dexterous hand to perform the simple forward-backward movements... allowing the right hand to steer more accurately..."
You ARE talking about DRIVING, right?
Wait... so the general consensus here is that I should start carrying a sword in my car, or am I missing the point entirely?
Everyone used to drive/walk/ride on the left fore the afore mentioned sword fighting reason. It was only those who got conquered by Napolean and his French army that then got changed to the right.
Driving on the left is a sign of miltary strength and general lack of hippies.
patriotsn1: Toilets don't flush the opposite way in the southern hemisphere, nor do sinks drain the opposite way. It's a common misconception.
See www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html
Maybe you should try to learn how to drive properly you idiot, left or right is the same.
Having driving in Ireland for a few years, where they also drive on the left, (and learning to drive in Canada, on the right) I found it pretty easy to get used to shifting with the left hand. A few days of accidentally shifting from 1st->4th, and 3rd->2nd (instead of 4th), and then I was all good.
What I cannot get used to, however, is that horrifying Wii-knee. WTF, Nintendo??
Re: swords.
History seems to suggest that the practice of keeping left has more to do with using the right hand to whip animals pulling carts than impromptu swashbuckling.
Re: roundabouts
These are fairly common in any densely-inhabited part of the US, we just call them "traffic circles" -- the main reason for their exclusion here is more consistent use of right-angle intersections. Some cities look like cartesian graph paper, and have addresses to match:
Re: left-handedness
Close. The figure is more like 93% right-handed.
Trivia:
The largest left-hand-drive nation in the world by territory size is Australia. The largest by population is India.
LHD-RHD nation borders often involve little more than a sign instructing you to switch over to the other side of the road, but sometimes elaborate side-switching bridges are used.
Turning right on a red light in a LHD country is a good way to get your ass killed.
I'm from near swindon, and regularly drive on the magic roundabout, it's not that bad if you know what you're doing (5 mini roundabouts around a central island, not a central roundabout. The confusion comes in that you can effectively go around the central island the "wrong way" if you think of it as another roundabout).
Navigating it at rush hour with lots of others who don't understand how it works can be an issue however....
@Moj
I actually can't drive well with my right hand. I also can't ride a bike one handed with my right. So if I lived in a country with RHD I'd be pretty out of luck.
If you are travelling the most likely attack is from the bushes/wood on the side of the road (and other horseman that are attacking you won't abide by any law on which side they ride to attack you), so to drive left to have your sword handy is stupid, and since people are in general thinking up stupid things for many ages it must be true.
@Kat
But isn't turning left in a RHD country just the same?
Also, traffic circles aren't the same as roundabouts.
Woah, woah, Engadget...Mind moving the picture to behind the page jump?
Think of the children!!!
I'm sure most children have seen much worse in advetisements/movies
Agreed. Not what I want to see over breakfast.
What? All I see are lots of happy people.
http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm
blah blah blah
man, you pom's and americans know how to whinge dont you :P
anyone would think America was colonised by the British at some point!
I would like to know their IQ level please...
50 points above yours but still a 2 digit number
da da dum
erm, owned.
Thats what a nerd says when calling a sex line
@Oli D
No, I think if a nerd was calling a sex line they would be asking what they have to roll on a D20 to remove their bra.
@kal326
a 21 most likely, many nerds would never be able to take it off.
Actually there's a reason the Brits drive on the left side of the road Speney, but I imagine you're too xenophobic to know what that reason is.
I would imagine Americans are getting just as many Wii related injuries per capita.
Silly Brits not picking up on obvious sarcasm (no matter how stupid the joke may be). We had a revolution for a reason.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble Jon, but we have this place in our country called "the south" and I know for a fact that the Wii related fatalities are 70x higher in this region. The primary cause of said fatalities is specifically linked to intoxicated drivers slipping into a subconscious state where they believe they are playing Ford Racing: Off Road while operating their vehicle.
Haha Mitchell, that was great.
@ Eggo, We invented sarcasm thank you very much.
And you had your revolution over some tea taxes, naturally provoking a war when a load of tea was dumped into the sea in protest.
If there's one thing that gets brits riled up, its the abuse of tea.
This is why we are not bringing the Wii to the Christmas party.
This is why we are..
EXACTLY!
I'll take any opportunity to maim my relatives.
Wiidiots.
Indeed. The top left one hasn't even realised she's been hit yet...
LOL.
Sorry I don't know what else to say but try playing a game on a real system such as xbox. You can't hurt yourself playing GRAW.
my wii is dangerous at collecting dust.
I'm sorry, isn't this just 2007 all over again?
I hate stories like this, because knowing Nintendo, they will probably add a 10 minute stretch at the beginning of every game that you have to do in order to play.
Whaaaat.
This sounds so ridiculous, for a second I thought I was reading an Onion article...
Wii would like to...see proof of insurance.
dumb@$$es!!
blame the wii for the injury, and not the idiot waving it!!
it is unfortunate how we live in a society were people dont want to take responsability for their actions, and are always looking to place the blame on someone/something else
indeed before long people will be suiting the wii for there injury's
"i was just playing wiifit in the dark on the balcony like your meant to when i jumped up and feel off the balcony falling storeys and breaking both my legs."
I agree 100% People have to accept responsibility. I know better then to stick a fork in my eye. These people should have an ounce of common sense.
"I know better then to stick a fork in my eye."
Oh crap, you're not supposed to do that?!
What the!?..... what is this "Wii" hullaboo all about... it requires "standing!?" and "motion!?"... I say now... off with the lot of you
Darren thinks people learn something in P.E. That's funny.
Well, something that isn't about shame/fear anyway.
I all most fell out of my chair l Laughing
P.S
I don't enjoy watching people in pain but you have to admit the was funnny
My God, that woman lost her leg?
That knee is seriously gross... And how do you bleed from playing Wii? That's a hella lot of bowling! As for left vs. right... I was under the impression that the reason the Brits drive on the left is some old decree by the mayor of London about horse-carts on the London Bridge. And, as a LEFT handed American driver, I can shift with my right hand just fine, so that arguement is fairly asinine. Although, the one time I drove a standard transmission in the UK, it took some getting used to, I will admit.
Wouldn't this be a Wii-diculous incwease?
Only if the doctor reporting on it was Elmer Fudd.
They're just finding out now how wiidiculously awesome it is to play wii while intoxicated, that's all.
This means that those people had fun!
C'mon.. go out and have fun! probably you will hurt a little, but your hart will be fine on the end ;)
There should also be a warning issued for soccer and cricket because I hear quite a few people are getting up off their lazy butts to play those and are also being hurt.
Maybe we shouldn't try to scare peoople out of physical activity.
These are the kind of people that will find a way to hurt themselves no matter what the activity is.
I recommend they all get jobs in a cutlery store.
What kind of pay do you get?
According to Dr. Dev Mukerjee of Broomfield Hospital: "There has been a 100 percent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis."
Well, according to me, whenever you move your body , doing physical exercise, it increase your chances to get an injury , it's obvious.
In my younger days when i was playing on the road with my friends it wasn't a a rare chance to come back home with scratches , bruises (and more i broke my left leg twice).
Playing Wii may not be the same but you can get some fun and moving our fat ass ,it's noting extreme but like every physical exercise does have a percentage of injury risk it as small as it can be.
so more people buy wii = more chances to get an injury =more injuries
We don't need a Doctor to state a obvious fact.
www.wiihaveaproblem.com
Winjuries
Are you saying that if I play with my "Wii-knee" too much I can injure myself?? Whew.... thanks for the warning!
The woman's teeth are way too straight to be British.
honestly, dont use Austin Powers as a cultural reference
Maybe the Wii is the next step in natural selection...
Ever since my injury I haven't been able to bend my wii-knee.
The reason you don't see this problem in the US, is that us fatass Americans sit on the couch when playing Wii. Brits must be standing up and actually exercising when they play. Makes sense.
If you trip on the ground should you sue the government?
Carpet supplier surely,
failing that the housing company,
failing that, just sue bloody everyone
I've got a class action against gravity...
NATURAL SELECTION!!!
I've missed you old gal!
Someone go tell Darwin!
Actually... Stretching before physical activity can cause injuries of the ligaments and muscles. What you need to do is warm up a little before strenuous physical activity and stretch afterward.
OUCH!!!! It hurts when when I put my hand on those flames and I keep doing it..
Can I sue someone for it?
Thank god for lawyers everywhere wanting a cut..
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiii
Makes you wonder how many people get hospitalized fighting to get a Wii over there...
I completely agree with Jack. These days society blames everything on everybody else. You have to be careful when you wave objects around you with high speed. Also, I remember that my coach in high school always told us to warm up before any sport activity. I think that a Wii tennis match comes pretty close to such an activity and therefor you should not start playing with cold muscles.
Anyone heard about that iPhone application that shows you how far you would have thrown you iPhone by using the accelerometers build in? Useless to say how fast your phone can actually slip out of your hand and in that case you'll need a tape measurer instead. Who is then to blame?
I remember when I was a teenager riding my bike through the woods with no helmet, eating dirt as a baby, play with dogs, cats and birds and I am still alive. If something happened I learned a valuable lesson by taking responsibility and not blame it on someone else.
playing tennis in high heels? she should sue the shoe manufacturer too, for not putting warning on the shoe "not for sport activity"
My brother in-law got smacked in the face with a Wii Remote by a 5 year old while they were playing Wii Sports. It broke his glasses and the frames then cut his face requiring a trip to the ER and stitches. FYI He also happens to be British, but this happened in the States and the 5 year old is an American.
Guess eating intestines and tea doesn't give you enough vitamins to handle physically-taxing video games...
It's does give their women nice giant boobs, so I guess it's a tradeoff...
I love this. This is like blaming beer makers for drunk drivers.
Well at least as an american I feel alittle less like a moron. I thought this was an american only issue because we're fat lazy slobs......... At least I know there are idiots in other countries.....
Please please please keep posting photo's of these people, so we know who needs to be removed from the Gene pool.