Yes, scoff the day away, tubby girl. A videogame told you that you're fat. Kidding. You're normal, according to this Child/Teen BMI calculator.
After the news got out that Wii Fit told a 10-year-old girl that she was "fat," experts jumped on Nintendo's back, claiming that these readings could be damaging to children. Nintendo was quick to apologize for their game. A spokesman said:
"Nintendo would like to apologize to any customers offended by the in-game terminology used to classify a player's current BMI status, as part of the BMI measurement system integrated into Wii Fit."
"Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between two and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development."
Nintendo, don't apologize! Stick to your guns. I haven't seen this girl, but even her father says that she's "solidly built." Right. I'm just being mean now.
Dad goes on to say: "I know it is just a game but we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like magazine models and now we have a game that tells them they're fat. This to me is very worrying."
Destructoid community blogger njsykora points out that gamers and others are already starting to take notice of this story and share their feelings in the comments section. My favorite?
I do not see there being any problem with children being told they are fat. If more children are told this maybe they'll spend less of their time stuffing turkey twizzlers down their faces and more time playing sports and enjoying lettuce.
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I love that we have a "fat kids" tag
Man, poor little girl.........now I'm never going to get wii Fit!!!!!!!
I agree with you favorite comment there. For every anorexic 10 year old, there are 10 chubby mcfattys who's parents could use some help.
i think the reason people are upset is because Nintendo is supposed to be synonymous w/ child friendly & parents were upset that the game didn't consider how inaccurate BMIs could be for pre-pubescent children.
They do have a point, it's hard to see form a male perspective; but weight is an obsession for girls & they are very impressionable at that age. So one could draw an argument for it contributing to a body dysmorphic disorder & the unhealthy actions it might trigger.
her father says that she's "solidly built."
she's fat that's it ...!!!!
Way to post something Jim Sterling posted weeks ago.
Who the fuck is Jim Sterling?
"She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone," said the father,"
Try to read the article you post I guess your gonna say 84 pounds is fat?
Oh, "tubby girl." I thought you said something else there, which triggered horrible, horrible memories.
Lime, way to not notice Nintendo's response.
Nevermind the fact that BMI isn't even accurate. BMI was devised by Adolphe Quetelet while trying to better understand social physics, and hasn't been updated or significantly overhauled since the 19th century. So, really, the fact that Wii Fit uses BMI to begin with is a fault in the game.
...but nothing beats a video game calling a kid fat.
Now she's going to have a Double Whopper with Cheese, a King-size Coke, the Snickers Pie and a Chocolate Milkshake to wash the fries down.
Way to go Nintendo.
I think more games should call kids fat. Children in general are too fat these days and I don't like it. Ugly, ugly children.
On the other hand, my best friend bought Wii Fit on launch, and she happens to suffer from anorexia/bulemia. Of course the Wii told her she was massively underweight, but it still hasn't stopped her from trying to lose even more. And the day she actually put on 1 lb? I don't think she ate a thing for 3 days or so.
Of course I'm not blaming Wii Fit for that... just.. I really hate fat kids.
Why would anyone be surprised when they buy a fitness game that measures your weight and approximate BMI, give it to their fat kid, and it calls them fat? It's WII FUCKING FIT, moron. It's not like the kid put in Mario Galaxy and it was all "ITS A MEEEEE, YOU FUCKING FAT PORKER... BETTER OFF KILLING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU EAT-A TOO MUCH PIZZA AND I FALL INTO YOUR GRAVITATIONAL PULL-AAAAAAA"
Some people.
haha I like wii fit now.
Nintendo should get a medal for Wii Fit. All this tough love motivation is going to do more to reduce the average weight of this country than any popular diet.
i hope it was ricky geravis in his oh so charming accent, calling out the fatties.
Poor little British fat kid...
I still think that's a shitty thing to do to a kid. I realize this is the internet and we're not supposed to give a fuck about anything ever, but kids are sensitive. I don't think they need anymore help getting fucked up.
"young girls starving themselves to look like magazine models" if only this world was that perfect hahaha
I think as mentioned in Jim's previous article on this, the height and weight of the child (if accurately reported) would have not triggered that message from an accurately calibrated Wii Fit. It's well within normal BMI standards, which is what Wii Fit uses.
This is probably more a problem of trying to use a scale on a carpeted floor.
Nintendo says not to use it on thick carpet.
Man, MaxVest, that's a great find. I'm willing to bet that's exactly what happened.
This story has actually made me want a Wii Fit, I know a couple (thousand) chubby children that could use this.
I fucking hate fat people
I fucking hate the majority of this country
fatasses.
Oh man, that comment is priceless. But I agree with Sharpless — being teased as a kid can be quite traumatizing. Not that I would know from personal experience or anything...
the chilean launching was yesterday and had mixed reviews.
mostly they show the usual fat guy trying to play and the tag line was "Gamers that get up from the couch". OH; OH; OH; !!!
the only good thing is that nintendo chile gave 3 wiis, with wii fit and some other games to a rehabilitation hospital. that was nice.
OHMYGOD ITS HUGE!
HA just wait she's gonna go on a weight scanner and instead of giving her weight its gonna tell her"D*mn FATA$$ GET OFF ME!!!"
@cjpkiller
It's all right, we hate you too. And think you'd be lovely in a nice alfredo sauce.
Turkey twizzlers FTW
This alone wouldn't be so bad, but Face Training told her she was also ugly.
pffffffff... BMI is bullshit OK, but what's wrong with telling someone that he/she is fat.
I myself am obese. There I said it. It's simply true.
And I can stand it to be told... do you actually think because the parents believe differently that this 10 year old kid doesn't get a lot of feedback from others like school children etc...that she is actually fat... I wonder?
HAHAHA @ Sweetchuck
Who cares? Wii Sport said I'm 72 years old, but I can't convince my boss that I need my retirement...
She had to find out sooner or later =P.
Maybe she should change the difficulty level.
@ dale
articles still have tags?
i dont see em...
where dey at?
While this may seem overblown, this could actually be a real problem for young girls playing the game.
Let me put it this way: Middle-schoolers are stupid and RIDICULOUSLY impressionable and concerned with what other people think of them. Girls especially so. ANYONE telling them their fat, let alone a glorified electronic scale that is SUPPOSED to be made by people who know what they're talking about, will effect the child's self-image.
As a parallel, imagine a young girl going to the doctor for a stadard checkup. She is of average weight and size and not at all fat. The doctor weighs her and promptly says "Whelp, you're fat!" That's pretty crazy if you ask me.
My young cousin (who plays basketball and soccer and is very fit) calculated her BMI online and it said she was slightly overweight which sent her into a spiral of calling her friends and calculating THEIR BMIs and finding out that most of them were on the border of what was considered "overweight" accoring to the BMI. I had to step in and talk these girls down and tell them point blank "It's because you play sports and are muscular. Muscle weighs more than fat."
Tween girls have it bad enough as it is (what with the media assaulting them from every angle) without a videogame telling them they should lose weight, too.
God forbid someone tells that fat bitch the truth
(you cant hate me for this comment, Wiifit would just laugh at me if I stood on it)
Can a game telling some poor kid they're fat scar them for life? Possibly. But really being fat can also be a detriment. There's countless games that on some level or another tell kids, especially girls (hello Ms. Croft), what society expects them to look like. At least this game is trying to help.
Oh and also, It's a VIDEO GAME! Not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or Richard Simmons. If we expect kids to be smart enough to not go stomping on turtles or hookers after gaming, surely we can expect them to understand that BMI is not an exact science, and that the talking balance board on the screen does not have a medical degree.
Lemme get thi straight....
Her dad bought her this video game that was supposed to make her lose weight and get fit, wiiFIT, so her dad must have known she wasnt exactly a model, and when the game tells her that, he gets pissy?
Or maybe his daughter broke the board and this is all an elaborate plan to get his money back.
sweetchuck wins.
I was teased all my school years and just look at me now. People who claim they get traumatized from being teased completely baffle me.
Man, MaxVest, that's a great find. I'm willing to bet that's exactly what happened.
This story has actually made me want a Wii Fit, I know a couple (thousand) chubby children that could use this.
Fat kids need to be told they are fat, we are all too luvy dovey about people being fat and unhealthy and not wanting to hurt their feelings. If we can tell people to stop smoking then we can tell people to stop being fat.
All of this abuse that children are missing out on will cause even the slightest of criticisms to cause them to go suicidal 20 years from now.
Don't believe me? Have you ever known someone in high school that never felt the sting of rejection? Had you known someone that still hung out with them when they finally got their first soul-crushing taste of it ten years too late? Was it as funny to watch for you as it was for me?
Urgh, god forbid people get a reality check with this.
Hey fat is fat, if her BMI was too much, that's not the Wii Fit's fault. Traumatic things are normal for kids, when your young its either one extreme or another, either shit scared, or shit happy. That's why when your growing up its called "maturing" you let that shit go and realise it was just part of being a kid, you don't hold onto it like some retards out there who have no mental capacity or control. Little fatty should get her lard arse out and go skip or something. I hate parents and kids these days, everything is "traumatic" or "damaging", if you don't like it go move to cotton wool land where everyone is happy and life never happens. F**kers.
For fuck's sake, people. Reality checks are one thing, but we're talking about a fucking 10-year-old girl. You really want to pull a 10-year-old girl aside, look her in the face, and say, "You're a fatty"? If so, you're a fucking asshole. I'm not saying that people should coddle her and sugarcoat things, but there is such a thing as acting like a decent human being and treating people with a modicum of tact and respect. The Goddamn internet continues to make us forget that. (Is there an "eyeroll" emoticon? One of them goes here.)
Also, as has been stated numerous times, her height/weight do not match the BMI's "fat" rating. It was a mistake. If you're not going to read the full story, don't comment... Heh, yeah, I couldn't say that with a straight face either.
I rage.
I'm sure the Wii didnt pull her aside and look her squaresville while intoning Youre a Fatty! Its just a video game. Gawd tubbies are so sensitive! (Guess I am an asshole, heh heh...) Also, if she wasnt really overweight, then she shouldnt have batted an eye over the mistake of a machine. If the DS says I cant pronounce the word blue I know its the software, not my pronunciation of blue. If the machine said Youre too skinny, have a sandwich, what would she do then? Disclaimer: Wii Fit only intended for those with the body of Adonis, others may be offended.
"It's just a video game."
Words are just words. Doesn't make them any less hurtful. And are games artistic and meaningful, or are they "just games"? Make up your minds, because you can't have it both ways.
And yes, I am overweight. Thus, I know what it's like to be treated insensitively about it, especially at a young age. No kid deserves that. And "if she wasn't fat, she shouldn't have batted an eye" at the mistake? Excuse me? Do you have no fucking clue how a 10-year-old kid's mind works? And a girl, no less.
The internet makes me support mass genocide.
i honestly didn't even know how much six stone was.
Maybe Wii fit told her she was fat because... ahem, she was fat.
This is ridiculous. Someone getting offended by being called 'fat'? I mean, I'd understand if it said 'lardass' or something, but 'fat'? Give me a break.
If someone tells me I'm short I won't whine and sue them.
I agree with you raquel, if you cant take the heat get off the Wii FATTIES.
Let us hope they send the little girl out to pasture. HAHA, you see what I did there?? Huh!? HUH!?
Turkey Twizzlers? Where?