Wii want a user community and stuff to do

As a proud owner of all three current consoles I'm finding my playing time between them split 47.5%, 47.5% and 5%. Guess which one is the Wii percentage? And I'm serious about the my 360 and PS3 getting equal playing time. Right now I'm mainly playing Mass Effect 2 and God of War 3, two very high quality exclusives and I'm making a conscious effort to give both playing time. So gold stars for Microsoft (and I guess EA) and Sony.

But for Nintendo, you get a sad panda sticker. As a traditionally defined "core" gamer at heart - despite being a husband and father who does not live in his parents' basement - it is no surprise that I spend the vast majority of my console gaming on the big boys. Even so, I really wish I had more to do on the Wii though that doesn't mean more core games. By core I mean graphically sophisticated shooter, action and role playing games that generally appeal to gamers with a solid history of playing such content. Rather, I want cutesy, mesmerizing games with pretty colors. I really liked Super Mario Galaxy despite being unable to deal with its later, tougher levels. I really liked the Wii bowling - until it wore off. Last summer I loved Tiger Woods 10 with the Wii MotionPlus despite the blocky Wii graphics when displayed on an HD television. This past holiday my wife and I played four player New Super Mario Bros. with my cousin and his girlfriend. Of course my cousin and I were always the worst of the four since both ladies played the original Mario extensively in their respective childhoods where neither my cousin nor I had the original NES. (zomg!) I even bought Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii but realized I hated it because it didn't have Sweet Child 'O Mine from Guitar Hero 2 (for my 360) which was the main reason I bought it in the first place. I rented Boom Blox and, for serious, it was FUN! I even read news headlines and checked the weather on the Wii for the entire first week of owning it. And let's not forget the original Sonic the Hedgehog game I purchased online using Wii points or a credit card or whatever and then proceeded to play it once because some shit just doesn't hold up over time.

Despite really, reeaalllyyy wanting to keep dusting off my Wii, I'm caring less and less about it. The lack of real HD-ness doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that regardless of the lack of quality 3rd party games, there is no real online community for the Wii. Sure, the Modern Warfare 2 player base on both 360 and PS3 gets a bad name (esp. on 360) for all the foul language, racial and homophobic slurs, but you can always find a multiplayer or even coop match in most games. In other words, there is always something to do or something to see. I don't play as much online MP on my consoles, but I'm always cruising for the latest demos and even arcade games. On the Wii, I just don't care anymore about whatever mediocre content is there through the Wii channels.

So what does this mean about my desires for an online community on the Wii? I want some kind of fun, low intensity multiplayer experience, whether competitive or cooperative, that is a bright, cartoony, excellentlyer art designyer-ed, thingy-thing...to thing around with. I'm not even sure what I'm getting at. Give me a cartoony wooden crate to smash with a paddle in a bleach white Matrix loading program type environment whether I see other Miis playing around smashing their own crates. And let puppies and kittens emerge from those broken crates and leave adorable poops on the sterile white floor. Pets who emerge from my smashed crates are red and poop pink poops while pets who emerge from other Mii's crates are green and their pets are lime and they poop teal poops. I have to move around and dodge teal poops while other Miis must dodge my pets' pink poops all while we try to put black leashes on each others' pets to get them to stop pooping. Award sad panda points for touching teal poops and gold stars when your opponents touch your pets' pink poops. Add a round timer and you're done. This is a Wii multiplayer game that you could probably release as an operating system patch.

I don't know, give me something Nintendo. And more importantly, recall my cousin mentioned above. He lives a quarter mile away, has a Wii and somehow we have never connected to each others' Wii in any type of multiplayer or multiuser online environment.

To me, this is the biggest missing element in the Wii.