Stealth update brings random polls to your Wii

by Alisha Karabinus { Feb 13th 2007 at 10:00PM }

Imagine our surprise when we checked the fanboy e-mail only to find a flood of new mails referencing a new Wii channel. Huh? There we were, fresh from DS Fanboy's Game Night, and suddenly our Wii had new goodies. Now that's random. But we're not complaining.

The new channel, available via download through the Shop Channel, is the Everybody Votes Channel. It's just as simple as the title -- you register Miis and they (or rather, their owners) vote in various polls. The questions are simple, everyday things (like: which is more romantic for Valentine's Day: Roses or Chocolate?) and you can then compare your answers with other Wii users. Definitely neat, but maybe not what a lot of us had in mind for new channels.

What's odd about the release is that we hadn't seen a press release or an update view the official Wii site, and yet here it is, happily downloading to our Wii. So how long do you think it'll be before someone makes a joke about "poll smoking" and the Wii? Or did we just fulfill it by asking?

[Images from GoNintendo -- ours is still downloading! Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Wickedneoq @ Feb 13th 2007 10:18PM

For that Valentines question, I said Roses to answer the poll question... but chose Chocolates to win between the two of them! I can't wait to see if I was right, or got joined by more sensitive saps on the Roses side.

Kyle Dougherty (Zsy) @ Feb 14th 2007 5:39PM

I'm glad you were able to get this up so fast! Good work!

Joel @ Feb 13th 2007 10:35PM

It was really a great supprise! I just wanted to buy a new VC game and there it was!

Asauce @ Feb 13th 2007 10:46PM

A bit pointless, but neat nonetheless.

20XX @ Feb 13th 2007 11:28PM

Neat, a "Nintendo Collects Marketing Data" channel!

Skyler @ Feb 13th 2007 11:33PM

@5:

Seriously, just wait until we see the poll:

"If Super Smash Bros. Brawl DOESN'T have online support, will you still luv us?"

Options:

"Yes"
"Mebe"

zenprism @ Feb 13th 2007 11:54PM

I love this! (I also like taking random polls, so I'm a bit biased)

I voted roses, but chocolates FTW too. I also suggested a poll...

Good thinking Nintendo. Totally unexpected but really cool.

Nushio @ Feb 13th 2007 11:57PM

Hey everyone, my suggested question was
"Friendcodes, yes or no?"
Answers: "No!", and "No! (Seriously)"

Perhaps if we flood their inboxes, they'll get the point :P

the real mii @ Feb 14th 2007 12:00AM

probably not what most people were hoping for, but just downloaded this and played around with it. have to say i already know i will use it more than the news and weather channels. bonus points for mii integration.

Cole @ Feb 14th 2007 12:31AM

This everybody votes thing is pretty easy way for testing servers over the country and world.

can anyone say peer to peer server test for online play

have fun and rock on

Spekkio @ Feb 14th 2007 1:14AM

Yeah, the ability to suggest questions means we have a new way of harassing Nintendo to get what we want (or be ignored as per usual).
Ex:
Poll: Should games for the Virtual Console be updated to include online multiplayer?

Poll: Should Nintendo pack Wiimotes and Nunchuks together?

mblind @ Feb 14th 2007 12:10PM

NOT a good channel.. Lame

shadow @ Feb 14th 2007 3:09AM

Nintendo actually just sent in a message to my Wii about 20 minutes ago announcing the new channel(Of course I already had it downloaded like everyone else). I can see this being a discontinued service, however, when everyone decides to use it as a way to annoy Nintendo about online VC, friend codes, etc.

Brian @ Feb 14th 2007 4:29AM

Nah, I doubt they will discontinue it because of annoying requests. All they have to do is flag the particular user as being annoying a few times, and they're requests won't even be looked at again. And they have to expect lots of "questions" that aren't really worth their time - probably why it's limit one question per day.

I think the interface is pretty cool. The only thing I wish they would have done is added a way to see periodic standings for each question WITHIN the channel, as well as final results. As it stands now, it seems like they are just going to throw them on the message board - sort of lame to me.

I would expect, since Nintendo said nothing about this Channel, to see a new channel launch from them about once a month or so for the next several months, and each time without announcement ahead of time. Perhaps they'll get around to opening it to third parties, and we'll see all kinds of content - free and paid. I expect stuff like that late this year.

boot @ Feb 14th 2007 5:12AM

No i doubt that any thrid parties are going to make any new channels but u never know.

andyr @ Feb 14th 2007 8:20AM

I really like the way Nintendo are working away at evolving their online space. I saw a post this morning about an update to Mario Kart on the virtual console, fixing some issues.

This is the sort of service that makes me feel good about jumping on the good ship Wii-Nintendo from the off. Good work!

I wonder what else is next? http://gamepeople.wordpress.com/2007/02/12/what-nintendo-did-next/

Please forgive the gratuitous ad, but I wanted to get us all dreaming of what else might pop-up.

jchalos @ Feb 14th 2007 2:50PM

I just did the update, went to download the new channel and noticed that my wii points were missing. Thinking this was strange, I went back to the Wii menu and ALL OF MY VC GAMES WERE GONE! I tried to load them from the sd card, but they refused to copy. Has anyone else run into this?

Loban @ Feb 14th 2007 9:37AM

I have a feeling they're going to use this voting service for more useful purposes in the future. They're just using the cute Valentines Day questions and such for now to get us interested. Then they'll hit us with "Which new Wii Channel would you like to see?" type questions.

Mr Khan @ Feb 14th 2007 10:21AM

If enough people request the same or similar poll (Something Online play oriented), Nintendo would simply be stupid to not answer their wishes

But this is awesome, second Wii Surprise (first being Ice Climber) in 3 days...

Rocketboy @ Feb 14th 2007 10:24AM

This would be much cooler if it were a real-time game, like "What's the Big Idea", the internet game from way back when.

Neal Eaton @ Feb 14th 2007 10:32AM

I can't beleive they didn't call this channel "Wii Vote".

While I was downloading this, I thought to myself...now this is a really cool and totally unexpected thing to get today. This is the kind of update that I hope happens all of the time...totally unexpected, and fun little diversions.

Soiden @ Feb 14th 2007 12:53PM

I'm sure this is going to be a really good channel in the future, with really good and important questions about Nintendo.

navstar @ Feb 14th 2007 3:39PM

I applied the update, but no new channel appeared. :(

Alex @ Feb 15th 2007 3:55PM

You have to go to the shop channel and wii ware to download the new channel, plus its for free, and OMG they need to stop porting games from PS2 engines to the Wii. The wii's and gamecube's hardware is (and always was meaning the GC) way more advanced and better than the PS2, thats why the graphics dont look to great. So i posted a question, should 3rd party companies make new "Wii game engines" then port the games to the ps2. And of course we all know the answer to that ;).

Rutch @ Feb 15th 2007 2:35AM

"I applied the update, but no new channel appeared. :("

You need to go to the Wii Shop Channel and in the Wii Ware section there is the Everybody Votes Channel for download for free.

Talon @ Feb 15th 2007 7:35AM

Hey, even if Nintendo does use this channel to get marketing data, is that necessarily a bad thing? Heck, I submitted a question that directly relates to that. ("Would you want to see more realistic games (like racing simulations) on the Wii?") This way, they'll know exactly what kind of games we want because they asked us. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.