Wii Goes to the White House: Obama Kids Got Console for Christmas

Barack Obama's daughters are now officially the nation's First Gamers. According to the New York Times, Malia and Sasha found a Nintendo Wii under the Christmas tree this year and spent some of their holiday in Hawaii bowling on the new console with their President (and now gamer) dad.

On that front, it turns out Obama is human after all. Just like everyone else, our next Commander-in-Chief says he's much better at knocking down Wii pins than wooden ones. That's not hard to believe. While courting the middle class during the primaries, Obama showed up at an alley in Pennsylvania and proceeded to roll seven gutter balls, scoring a pathetic 37 for the line. (I'm not sure it's even possible to score that low in Wii Sports.)

Meanwhile, with a Wii in the White House, gaming has finally infiltrated the world's most powerful living room. Say what you will about Nintendo abandoning the "hardcore" gamer, but remember that (for many of you) your chief executive, and the leader of the Free World, now wears a wrist strap.

Although Obama won't be able to restore financial markets and world stability with the wave of Wiimote, having a console in his home and raising two gamers in public will obviously have an effect on his attitudes toward videogames. With luck (and an Executive Wi-Fi connection), Obama will see first hand how games can surprise, inspire and engage both children and adults. Maybe between bailouts he'll discover the bloom of independent gaming with World of Goo, or, while reforming No Child Left Behind, realize how games can teach kids about complex systems.

He'll also get an authentic feel for the challenges and responsibilities that parents (and publishers) face. Hopefully, when issues of game policy emerge, it will be that experience, and not perception or press, which will inform the positions he takes.

That's about all gamers can hope for. Well, that and the chance "pwn the President" online, perhaps.