First, there was the name. The initial announcement by Nintendo that their state of the art handhold consol was going to be christened the Wii (pronounced “wee”) had even the most stern faced technology hacks reduced to tittering ten-year-olds. But such loo-based marketing gaffs are no rare thing. Beyonce survived the decision to call her album B-Day and despite the odd moniker, the consol went on sell out in advance of release, leaving would be gamers sweating in mile-long queues.

When first introduced, demand outstripped the supplies of the game available in stores, causing shopping frenzies. Yet scarcity of the product is not the only problem with the game. The concept of the Wii was to combine physical activity with gaming – sensors in the controls respond to a user’s swinging and jabbing so that the actions translate into the game. Recent concerns have been raised by the British Chiropractic Association that some Wii enthusiasts are exerting themselves tad too much, developing symptoms such as the “Wii elbow” and threatening to do long term damage to their health. An entire website entitled wiihaveaproblem.com has arisen to chronicle injuries players sustain while using the game.

Many students spend a vast amount of time playing video games and have predictably been among those most affected. Gerald Burns, a Philosophy student at Glasgow, began to feel the strain after a particularly vigorous session of Zelda. “On normal consoles you just get the finger strains,” he says, “but on the Wii it’s like having a whole body work out. Once I played for about six hours straight and at the end of it felt like I had been in a bar brawl.” Asked if playing for six-hour sessions was a good idea, he shrugs his shoulders. “I know it’s basically my own fault but it’s that bloody Zelda, it’s what I imagine crack to be like.”

Wii has been claiming other victims on campuses across the country. James Van Berg, a Politics student at Manchester, didn’t suffer shoulder dislocations; rather he felt the wrath of his flatmates. At first, he put their anger down to jealousy, having been one of the lucky few to have secured a console before Christmas, but then Wii-related disaster struck: “I was playing it one day and I knocked a can of Tizer onto my mate’s laptop. His dissertation was on it and, as you can probably imagine, he looked like he wanted to deck me when I told him.” Luckily, for his James, apart from a few sticky keys, the work was recovered and the barely believable excuse of, “my flatmate was spasmodically playing videogames”, never had the chance to be road tested.

But how many other Wii related mishaps are happening across British universities?

Gerald is adamant that no amount of risk will tear him away from his most treasured possession. “Seriously, I know people who have given up their girlfriends for computer games,” he says. It seems that in the end, no amount of danger or derision will part some people from their Wii. Despite its off-colour name and potential to for unscrupulous players to give themselves injury while playing, until Nintendo’s introduces something equally addictive students are set to continue risking life and limb for their addiction.

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