To hear her tell it, Diana Neary is "a terrible, terrible bowler."
But on a recent trip to a bowling alley, Neary, a production manager at the South Philly Review, knocked down pins like a trophy winner even though it had been ages since she had rented bowling shoes. She credits her newfound skill to an unlikely source: three months of playing Wii bowling, a Nintendo video game.
"For the Wii bowling, I would stand a little bit to the right, get down really low and twist my hand," said Neary, who rolled a 102 that day after a lifetime of scores in the 60s. "I did exactly that at the real bowling alley and it worked."
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Gone are the days when gamers mashed certain buttons to move their onscreen avatars. (A button jabs! Z button ducks!) To make gaming more intuitive, Nintendo created the Wii console, which relies on a 14cm-long motion-sensing controller that players clutch as they mime the moves they want to make onscreen. (Another sensor sits atop the TV).
Released in November, the Wii console — which comes with golf, boxing, tennis and baseball games as well as bowling — wasn't designed to give gamers a leg up in the real world. Nevertheless, dedicated users say having skill at the sport in question not only helps them win onscreen, but that practicing their golf swing or left hook in the Wii universe also improves real-life technique.
"I hate video games," Neary said. "I hate just sitting there and playing around with a remote. But this is like you're really playing tennis, you're really bowling."
A skeptic might ask how maneuvering a featherweight remote can compare to a 4.5kg ball.
It can't, say some users and video game experts. But other users of the 1.5 million consoles sold to date say practicing technique in the living room helps to fine-tune their athletic skills as they battle friends in a split-screen tennis match.
William Kraemer, a professor at the Human Performance Lab at the University of Connecticut, said that the transfer of video-game skills to the real world is "not a completely ridiculous idea."
"Obviously, if I've never swung a golf club before, maybe it'll help me just learning how to swing," he said. "Whether or not it's going to help Tiger Woods, that's another thing."
Taking their cues from professional bowlers seen on TV, Neary, 27, and her fiance, Mickey DeLorenzo, 26, have worked on approach, timing and footwork while playing with Wii (pronounced WEE). Because DeLorenzo is an enthusiastic gamer and the couple compare scores ("I hear about it when I lose, let me tell you," DeLorenzo said), they each take bowling form seriously.
To play, Neary brings the Wii remote to her chest, holds down a button, takes a few steps, twists her wrist as she releases the button and then watches the onscreen ball curve toward the pins.
And as those pins fall — or don't fall — Neary and players like her are convinced that perfecting a smooth and even delivery in the comfort of home will result in a real-world bowling frame filled with strikes and spares.
"If you practice on the Wii, it's not as physically tiring as real life," said Soren Solari, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. "There's not a 15-pound [6.8kg] ball in Wii bowling, so you can get the idea of what spin should feel like on the video game, whereas at the bowling alley you can't do that because you'd get physically exhausted."
Having actual experience in a sport is an advantage because Wii success does require some technique — a turn of the wrist for backspin in Wii tennis or a fluid follow-through for a straight shot in Wii golf.
Solari, 29, also plays the Wii boxing game. "Having a little bit of boxing training helps," said Solari, 29, who learned the fundamentals from his father. "The game is set up so that jabbing and then swinging with your right is more beneficial than just swinging with your right, which is fairly accurate with regard to real boxing."
When first told that people were using Wii boxing to train for the ring, Joe Brender, a coach at Inwood Boxing Academy in Manhattan, guffawed. But after a little more discussion about the Wii game, Brender was less dismissive. "Two jabs and a right, that's basic 101 boxing," he said, adding that he supports any game that gets novices interested in the sport.
But the Wii wasn't designed for jocks or even would-be jocks. It was made for nongamers with no interest in mastering the intricacies of traditional thumb jockeying, and for die-hard Nintendo fans awed by the new technology.
For sports gamers with something to prove, doing the bare minimum isn't an option. Luis Blanco, a designer in Manhattan, said that engaging himself physically in the game is more enjoyable: "I like it because there's more drama, you're jumping around, it's more fun, and it just makes it feel more authentic."
DeLorenzo even issues an ultimatum: "Whenever I play with anyone, we set ground rules like 'you have to use full range of motion.'" Otherwise, he said, it's a bore.
He has another reason to keep the level of play high. The world is watching. His fan site, wiinintendo.net, where he documented six weeks of play and the loss of 4kg, helped him win a book deal, to write The Wii Workout. Some users think of him as their own "Jared from Subway," though DeLorenzo has no official relationship with Nintendo.
Losing oneself in the game can have unintended consequences. Reports of flying controllers and unfortunate accidents abound on Web sites like wiihaveaproblem.com. Devon Clark, an animator in Manhattan, said he accidentally punched his wife while playing Wii boxing.
"She was in the way," said Clark, who admittedly has a tiny living room.
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