Philosophy of Wii (ihobo)

Over on ihobo today, I pick apart some of the assumptions behind Jon Cogburn and Mark Silcox's philosophical investigation concerning the success of the Wii. (There's very little philosophy in my approach, however, as my issues relate to simple games industry errors; their philosophy is not so flawed). Here's an extract:

The authors are seriously in error when they claim that what is relevant about the kinaesthetic aspect of the Wii is greater realism; there is a fundamental mistake behind this assertion, which has already been thoroughly exposed by Edward Castronova, namely the assumption that the realism of depiction is the key factor in the appeal of videogames rather than (say) immersion (or, equivalently, to assume that greater realism necessarily implies greater immersion).

You can read the entire piece over on the ihobo site.