I played the Wii, and I liked it ...

Thanks to my friends Maya and Dominic I had my first Wii experience yesterday and, despite low expectations, I liked it a lot. In fact it was fun, communicative and quite athletic.

I have to admit that so far I considered computer games something for pale nerds with face2face communication problems living out their unrealized fantasies in front of a PC screen. I know this is (probably) unjust.

Of course I know that things have moved on, especially since my son Max, now 11, plays computer games with total ease and he is certainly not a shy boy in the real world. Still I thought this is not for me, I am a real world person.

But with the Wii the lines between the real and the virtual world are becoming more blurred. Now both can involve real sweat and Muskelkater (muscle strain). Add a solarium lamp to the Wii and you will even get a tan while playing Wii tennis.

This is now and this is fun. But I was already thinking ahead. Will we be moving towards a hybrid world of real and virtual, where the virtual kicks in when the real runs out or when it does not deliver anymore? For example, you can start of your skiing holiday in Switzerland in real life and switch to the virtual when the snow melts. And in the latter case, we may have to go virtual anyway as the climate changes.

But why travel at all? Everything can be done from home, not just ordering food and books but also playing tennis, flying, driving, swimming and fighting the baddies with James Bond.

Could this even be a way of dealing with inequalities? If you can’t afford skiing, golfing, sailing, flying in real life, you can get it in virtual life.

As technology develops the difference between real and virtual world may even become difficult to distinguish and one will need a disclaimer on what is real and what is not, along the lines ‘Please be aware that you now enter the real world and your service provider will not be liable for any damages encountered.’

But before I get carried away let me put in a few more Wii sessions and then report back.