Nintendo Wii Fanboy

A lot of people have been disappointed with Nintendo this year. Whether or not you're one of them doesn't really matter for this part of the exercise; the fact is that some folks have just been a little pissed off, after E3, after a lack of certain announcements, after stubbing a toe on all their Wii accessories, whatever.

But a lot of things have happened in the past week, and while the biggest announcement was pretty DS(i)-centric, that doesn't mean we didn't get some great news on the Wii side of the equation. So our question today is: are you satisfied?

What? Nintendo hosting their own conference around E for All and TGS time? Say it ain't so! No, we're not really surprised at this rumor: Nintendo will be hosting their own mini-event October 2 for the Japanese media. Last year, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was delayed, but Sonic was announced for the title. What'll happen this year? We're gonna wager a guess that Wii Music might factor into things somehow.

This rumor, though pretty believable, originated at 2chan, so take it as you will.

Did yesterday's Nintendo keynote leave you wanting more? Well, pipe down already -- you're getting more. The company is holding a private conference, and our very own JC Fletcher is invited to the party. Since you can't be there, we'll be posting JC's highlights right here, live. We hope your F5 buttons and refresh fingers are ready, because the word on the street is that something big is going to be revealed. Of course, that could just be disgruntled fans' hopes evolving into a rumor, but we'd like to believe that's not the case. We'd hate to be disappointed by the big N two days in a row, after all.

If we hear something big (or not so big), don't worry, you'll be the first to know (well, uh, after us).

Update: So far it looks like the same stuff from the keynote. Katsuya Eguchi takes the floor.

All you really need to know about this morning's Nintendo press briefing is that Joystiq is liveblogging it, and we're live-chatting it, but if you're dying for the kind of information you can put into a list about the big show, we've got everything you need.

Event location
Kodak Theatre
Hollywood, California

Starting time
9:00 AM PT (Tuesday, July 15)

Live streams (free)

• G4
• GameSpot
• IGN
• Nintendo (also features a countdown)

Songs to get you pumped up

• "You're the Best Around" -- Joe Esposito (Phil & Candace)
• "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" -- PJ & Duncan AKA (Chris)
• "Come Baby Come" -- K7 (Eric)
• "The Question Is, What is the Question" -- Scooter (Eric)
• "Black Math" -- The White Stripes (Alisha)
• "Eye of the Tiger" -- Survivor (Should be everyone!)

Don't forget your bingo card!

Along with announcing the slew of new titles for Nintendo's Wii Ware download service, Satoru Iwata revealed that the company has received lots of proposals for Wii Ware titles. In commenting to the press, Iwata stated "We've already received proposals for over 100 titles from software development companies. We've made a platform for developing software at low cost, and would like to offer a new business chance based around a battle of ideas."

That means this flood of new titles for the download service is only going to be followed by even more titles, causing us great joy here at the Wii Fanboy HQ. Because, you know, we like games.

At the annual American Library Association Annual Conference, a session was held about connecting with "digital natives," people who are used to doing things on computers, and who have in fact learned some information-gathering strategies from playing video games.

One suggestion for reworking library services for gamers is to design tools and software to be explorable. Libraries currently have an obsession with thesauri and manuals and all kinds of stuff you have to read before you can do anything right. The best searches are the most complicated ones. But games teach us to learn new tools by messing around with them, and, according to James Paul Gee, a University of Wisconsin at Madison linguist.

The session offered a list of suggestions for making the library more digital-native-friendly. The most obvious one, and the one that gets this on a game blog: play more games. It's totally the best way to understand the gamer mindset!

As the picture above illustrates, some librarians were already on board, offering Guitar Hero and unspecified Wii games (no doubt Wii Sports) for free play at the conference.

One final, vital suggestion, from us. libraries should hire more gamer librarians. And pay them extra.

[Via Game|Life; picture from The Shifted Librarian's Flickr pool]

We hath mourned the death of the one and true E3, but like a mentally handicapped phoenix, the new Min-E3 has risen from the ashes. And while the glitz, glamour, and majority of games will have vanished into thinnest air, the wondrous tradition of the press conference remains. All three players will attempt to outdo the other, yet again.

This year, Nintendo is second on the list: 9:30 AM PST on Wednesday, July 11th. Prior to their engagement is Microsoft the day before, and Sony is naught but two hours later at 11:30. We expect solid release dates for at least one of Super Mario Galaxy or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as more than a few surprises. C'mon, Iwata ... drop the bomb.