Videogames Expand A Popular New Phase Of Full-Body Playing

The Wii, Guitar Hero and Rock Band reject the conventional wisdom about how people want to play games.

~A

Portals – WSJ.com
If you gave or got videogames as gifts yesterday, you may have noticed something very different about how some of the hottest ones are played these days.

The top-selling game console at the moment — and one of this holiday season’s toughest finds on store shelves — is Nintendo’s Wii, which comes with a motion-sensing controller that gamers swing around to play tennis or to dice up opponents with virtual swords. Guitar Hero III, the music game sensation, comes with a guitar-shaped controller for jamming along to the Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses and other groups. Another music hit, Rock Band, goes even further with guitar, microphone and drum-kit controllers.