Here is a really good video explanation of Wii Channels

[Julius Seeker]

http://www.wii.com/en_US/

Some very nice extras included with the system. These are six of the channels that come with the system, there is room for dozens more.

[Zeus]

I doubt I'll ever use these channels

[Julius Seeker]

So? You're boring, I get it =P

The photoshop one looks quite cool, I think, I will definately have to play around with the video editing center, it is a lot more advanced looking than anything I have on my own PC or Mac.

Of course, the Mii channel is probably the most useful out of all of them, it reminds me a lot of an old game called RBI 2000 back on NES where you could create your own teams and such. Only this channel takes ita lot further, you can create different characters which have their own stats and attributes, and use them throughout multiple games. I do also like the idea of being able to transfer them to the Wii Remote internal memory for purposes such as challenging friends.

The News channel I will also use, especially if it is customizable for the types of news which interest me such as gaming news, local news, war news, Swedish, British, and Canadian national news.

Weather channel, no need, the weather can't be predicted here anyways.

The Wii Shop channel and the Virtual Console channel, I will certainly use, there are a lot of things I would buy off of it.

Also, with the Wii Play history channel, it will help me determine which games I play the most every year so I can post about here =P I do also wonder if this has an online portion to it which keeps track of gaming scores, times, and such; as I was discussing earlier, it would be interesting to see if anyone can finish certain games like Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, or Zelda, faster than me =)

[Zeus]

The Photoshop one? Bah, I'm sure if you look around you can find something far superior on the PC to what's coming on the Wii.

It's the same thing as Kutaragi saying the PS3 is going to replace the PC: it ain't gonna happen. They've been talking about set-top boxes for 2 generations and it ain't gonna happen. Mostly because the vast majority of people, including a large number of hardcore gamers, don't really want or need it to happen; they have PCs that can do all these things better than the console will and add a lot more functions. These systems are for gaming first and foremost and MAYBE as a secondary DVD player, but even that has died off with the plummet in DVD player prices (PS2 hit it huge 'cause it was a cheap DVD player AND a great gaming system in one; that's no longer the case with Blue-Ray which no one aside from a fraction of 1% of the population cares about). Everything else is a little bonus, maybe, if useful, but definetely not a selling point. It's faster for me to go to the comp, which is always on, to get the weather or news; plus I can have the variety that the Wii channels won't provide.

Games, as always, are the only things that matter with the consoles. Everything else is hype/propoganda and wishful thinking by the console makers.

[Julius Seeker]

Well, I guess you didn't watch the videos then, because several of those channels do tie into gaming.

[Blotus]

Meh. Not that I'm not excited to see what the Wii can do with Mario and Zelda, but none of this is very impressive. The videos show me that I can check the weather, turn my digital photos into a tornado, and create a cartoon character that may look somewhat like myself?

Tell me if I'm missing something, Seek. I'm sure I am.

[Julius Seeker]

Meh. Not that I'm not excited to see what the Wii can do with Mario and Zelda, but none of this is very impressive. The videos show me that I can check the weather, turn my digital photos into a tornado, and create a cartoon character that may look somewhat like myself?

Tell me if I'm missing something, Seek. I'm sure I am.

Yeah, you missed the video editing obviously if all you saw was turning your photos into a tornado. The avatar that you can create is to be used within various games starting with Wii Sports at launch, not just something you create for the hell of it. These are just six of the channels available for demo at this point in time. They are fairly interesting for those who would use them, like myself; I used the Dreamcast browser a quite a bit, and it was no where near as advanced, or clear, as this one.

It is for reasons such as those oversights that I would not ask you about the Wii; you are not interested in anything except Microsoft, so therefore you probably will not put much thought into anything else. Though, if I wanted an opinion about software on Xbox 360, you're one of the two people here I would ask. In other words, if you are not interested, it doesn't really matter at all.

[kali o.]

Yeah, you missed the video editing obviously if all you saw was turning your photos into a tornado. The avatar that you can create is to be used within various games starting with Wii Sports at launch, not just something you create for the hell of it. These are just six of the channels available for demo at this point in time. They are fairly interesting for those who would use them, like myself; I used the Dreamcast browser a quite a bit, and it was no where near as advanced, or clear, as this one.

It is for reasons such as those oversights that I would not ask you about the Wii; you are not interested in anything except Microsoft, so therefore you probably will not put much thought into anything else. Though, if I wanted an opinion about software on Xbox 360, you're one of the two people here I would ask. In other words, if you are not interested, it doesn't really matter at all.

Riiight. Because someone doesn't see the appeal or interest in one particular thing, it's because they "haven't put any thought into it" or are simply tunnel focused on some other product.

I watched the videos, simply out of curiousity...and while I'm not sure I fully get the "Channel" concept, here's my thoughts.

Mii's: Looks fun and interesting, in concept. However, looks pretty budget and slimmed down too. DoA has a similar avatar system, but looks to offer more customizing options (just in that one game). Be a lot better if Nintendo put a lot more effort into it.

News: Looks completely useless. Unless it's game news, I suppose and even then...meh.

Weather: amazingly useless...my small hope is they find some way to tie in real weather events with ingame weather cycles (Animal Crossing, etc), to at least give this feature some worth.

Photo: I guess it looks neat, if entirely niche and useless for videogames. You can already do all this on a PC, so why Nintendo is wasting time on such functions is beyond me (unless again, they are trying to somehow merge real images into games...?)

All and all, looks completely stupid and uninteresting. What I'd love to see on the link to Wii channels is the following: Demo Channel, Trailer Channel, Game/ROM channel, Gaming News Channel and Mii Channel. Then I'm sure me (and others) would actually find the news somewhat exciting...

Otherwise, the only real cool info gathered from those video's is that the menu/gui for the Wii is pretty effect-heavy and "japanified", which I think alot of users will like.

/shrug

[Zeus]

Kali:

Their mentality is that they want to make the Wii more useful to the entire family. So, adding stuff like these Wii channels that provide slimmed down versions of what you've already got on the PCs (if you have an internet connection, you'll have a PC, so I don't see how these are going to be useful to anyone) and provide more "value" for their little system. Kinda like the whole downloading songs and putting them on your Zune through 360, it's going to be the same thing you have on your PC, but not quite as good.

I think it's a waste of time. Sure I might fiddle with it a bit, but these announced channels are useless IMO. Give me something that I can't get on my PC then we can start talking

[Oracle]

Bells and whistles that will make people at first go "neat", and then eventually never use (that is of course new content and channels are always added).

[Blotus]

you are not interested in anything except Microsoft, so therefore you probably will not put much thought into anything else.

You got me, Seeker. My one post about my 360 is clear proof that I'm not interested in anything else. Or was it that I was unhappy hearing about paying $60US for the Wiimote and Nunchaku (sold seperately for no good reason)?

Don't presume to know what I'm interested in. Just because I found these videos lame doesn't mean I won't be playing Galaxies and Twilight Princess my the end of the year (if they both come out by then).

[Julius Seeker]

you are not interested in anything except Microsoft, so therefore you probably will not put much thought into anything else.

You got me, Seeker. My one post about my 360 is clear proof that I'm not interested in anything else. Or was it that I was unhappy hearing about paying $60US for the Wiimote and Nunchaku (sold seperately for no good reason)?

Don't presume to know what I'm interested in. Just because I found these videos lame doesn't mean I won't be playing Galaxies and Twilight Princess my the end of the year (if they both come out by then).

OK, cool, I can accept that. Though I will still usually only take your advice into consideration for Xbox things =P

[Zeus]

you are not interested in anything except Microsoft, so therefore you probably will not put much thought into anything else.

You got me, Seeker. My one post about my 360 is clear proof that I'm not interested in anything else. Or was it that I was unhappy hearing about paying $60US for the Wiimote and Nunchaku (sold seperately for no good reason)?

Don't presume to know what I'm interested in. Just because I found these videos lame doesn't mean I won't be playing Galaxies and Twilight Princess my the end of the year (if they both come out by then).

Like I guarantee Xenosaga 3 will be $20 US by the end of the year (it's already dropped to $40 US from $50 US release price), I guarantee by next September at the absolute earliest (more likely by June) you will no longer be able to purchase the Wiimote and the nunchuck controller separately; they'll be sold together for $40-50 US. It's a fucking moronic move and nothing more than pure money grab and screwing of the early adopters in the ass. If the system comes with them together, it's the standard, period, regardless of what Nintendo might think. Too many games will require both (hello, Zelda) and too many people will get confused. It's going to be a PR nightmare for them if the system takes off. As stubborn as Nintendo is, they'll very soon realize that's one of the dumbest moves they've ever made.

Galaxies is for sure not coming out this year, it's tentatively delayed to March 2007, which means it won't be out 'til about August 2007. Why Nintendo wouldn't want that as an Xmas title for next year is incomprehensible. It would be the biggest game for the system next Xmas and would be the ONLY thing they can use to combat Halo 3 and MGS4, both of which are Xmas 2007 titles.

[Julius Seeker]

Like I guarantee Xenosaga 3 will be $20 US by the end of the year (it's already dropped to $40 US from $50 US release price),

Huh? Xenosaga Episode III was $49.99 Canadian at launch. I still have the receipt to prove it. As far as I know, it hasn't dropped any.

[Julius Seeker]

Oh, and Zeus, I checked it out. Xenosaga Episode III launched for $39.99 US, I have no idea where you got that $50 dollar figure from. I think you should repair your argument.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/729/729140p1.html

August 29, 2006 - Namco Bandai announced earlier today that Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra, the final chapter in the expansive RPG series, has shipped for the PlayStation 2. The game is expected to hit retailers across North America today.

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathrustra for the PS2 will retail for a suggested price of $39.99

Anyways, the Mii channel does certainly have gaming applications, the core of it is gaming applications:

In its most basic form, the characters are created for usage within various games. Wii Sports is a perfect example, you can create a character to use within that game. Though that is not quite where it ends. From there, the character can be taken to be used throughout many different games, what sort of development occurs over time has yet to be revealed; until today. Today Nintendo released some new information on the Mii channel (they will be releasing information frequently for the next 7 weeks to help build hype for the console's release).

Mii characters also have a sort of AI, they can transfer themselves via the Wii Connect24 through to other Wii systems, and from there they can visit other Mii characters within the Plaza setting for the Mii characters. The channel behaves very similar to what can happen in Animal Crossing, but not exactly the same; it seems as though the whole cultural exchanges thing which exists in Animal Crossing will exist in the Mii channel as well: For example, over time, the characters spread their habits onto other characters without the direct intervention from the players. In animal crossing, when characters travel to different towns, they can spread the culture/habits which they received from the previous town into the new one; and, of course, the player can play a large part in the habits of their villagers, and so therefore can spread their culture and habits accross the globe via the Nintendo WiFi network.

Anyways, from there, the Mii characters can appear within the games themselves as characters other than the main characters in the game, for example: Animal Crossing, the character could appear within the town as a visitor. In Wii Sports, they can appear as spectators. Similarly, they can do this in your game as well. It seems to be that this occurs with those characters who have not been used in a while. An old Tennis Champion might frequent the tennis games played in the future on your console, or that of your friends; perhaps they will give newer Wii created Tennis players advice? Who knows, that is just wild speculation =P

Just for clarification, there is space for 48 different Wii channels. I do think that is more than enough space for most people, I would imagine that it would be expandable in the future by having sub-channels if anyone required it: since through the memory expansions the amount of storage space is essentially limited only by how much the player is willing to spend on the storage devices. Speaking of which, I am very interested to see how much those SD memory cards will cost for the Wii; not that I will need one for a little while, I don't plan on loading the internal drive up right away; my Xbox hardrive is still only like 5% full =P

[Lox]

SD cards are butt cheap nowadays. I assume the Wii will use a basic SD card like the ones used in cameras and PDAs. You can get a gig easy for $10-$20 USD.

[Zeus]

I saw the game opening day for $60, that's where I got it from. I could be mistaken, but my manager friend at EB confirmed it dropped

[Julius Seeker]

I saw the game opening day for $60, that's where I got it from. I could be mistaken, but my manager friend at EB confirmed it dropped

It launched in Canada for $49.99, I got my copy at EB games on launch day, and that is the price I paid. I can even scan the receipt and prove it to you if you need me to.