I’ll continue on the gaming front in a bit, but first a short Oscar recap.  How did I do in my pool?  Decent, but not great.  In a relatively upset-free year (except perhaps the coup of the night in Documentary Short), I made two mistakes: predicting an upset in Best Supporting Actress and underestimating the momentum of Milk.  And when you miss three biggies like Original Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, it’s hard to end up in the pool elite.

On another note, this year was probably one of the most entertaining Oscars I’ve watched in a long while.  Hugh Jackman was a terrific host and sang and danced multiple times.  The opening number was entertaining, Anne Hathaway was a sexy Nixon, and we got one of the best acceptance speeches of all time.  I also thought that the presentations of the acting awards was refreshing and nice, giving a bit of time to each of the nominees.  It finally felt like it was actually an honor to just be nominated.

OK, enough of that.  Continuing from yesterday’s post…

Second, new gamers have to go through a difficulty ramp that us veterans have all but forgotten: basic controls.  Give a 360 or PS3 controller to someone who’s never touched one before and it’s easy to see the fear in their eyes.  In addition to the dozen inputs on the front, there are four “trigger” controls that they probably wouldn’t have even found on their own!  Oh, and that central glowing thing is a button too!  And you can push down on the joysticks!

While it’s easy to scoff at local newsmen and politicians on TV when they say, “Oh, I haven’t played anything since Pac Man,” it’s hard to jump into today’s gaming.

If, that is, we define gaming as playing on a console.  A console that isn’t the Wii.  Because it ends up being not that hard when your son or boyfriend or nephew hands you a Wiimote and tells you that to play tennis, all you have to do is swing the controller like a tennis racket.  It’s not that hard when all you have to do is use that mouse and keyboard that you use all day at work to click on a few gems and move them around.

The Wii completely broke down one of the major barriers for entry into gaming today.  Suddenly, anyone could pick up a controller and start playing a game; you didn’t have to be familiar with the conventions that the game industry had been developing for the past 20 years.

Overnight, Nintendo essentially exposed the secret that everyone is a gamer.  This isn’t to say that the Wii is infallible; it has many disadvantages when compared to other consoles and the PC.  However, it is nothing short of truly revolutionary.  In a few short years, it has greatly transformed both the game industry and the game-buying population around the world.

And…scene.  Here are some more games for you to waste your time on: