While the Xbox 360 and PS3 are, by most standards, the beefier of the three consoles, one thing the Wii may have going for it is an immunity to lightning. At least, that’s what a story that BioWare Mythic Executive Producer Jeff Hickman told Kotaku seems to indicate.
Hickman related how he, his wife and their three children were going about their various activities one night about two months ago, when lightning struck their house. This isn’t necessarily an uncommon occurrence in Fairfax, Virginia, which is why their house was supposed to be lightning proof. Unfortunately, they found out the hard way that that wasn’t the case.
“The storm’s coming through,” he said. “It’s crazy. And all of a sudden we get, just like the loudest bang with the biggest brightest light that you’ve ever seen. And everything in the house goes dead. Everything turns black. And then one second later lights come back on. All the fire alarms are going off. And you literally smell … it’s like smoke in the air. It’s an odd smoke. I don’t know what it was, because there’s nothing on fire. But there’s this smell in the air, ozone or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know what it was.
“Everything is just chaos. Our dogs are going crazy. The computers are dead. The only thing that’s come back on are the lights and the fire alarms. I turn to my wife and say, ‘I think we just got struck by lightning.'”
No kidding. Luckily, the kids, dogs and everyone else were fine; Not as lucky, though, were their electronics. After checking on the living members of the house and scouring the inside and outside for fire or structural damage, Hickman began to assess the real destruction.
Most of the electronics in the house, including speakers, televisions, modems, routers, Rock Band drum sets, DVD players, and an abundance of other devices that were plugged into the wall, were dead, either unresponsive or making strange noises.
“Almost every electronic device that was plugged in in our house — our PS3, my Xbox 360, though the big screen TV they were plugged into was fine. Luckily it didn’t kill my big screen. My Wii was ok. My Wii was the one that made it through okay. Why? I don’t know. The Wii isn’t plugged into the big-screen; it’s in the kid’s area. The 32-inch TV it was plugged into: dead.”
“You have these questions like, ‘Why did it kill my Xbox and my PS3 but didn’t kill my Wii?’ The [electricians] are like, ‘Who knows, nobody really understands. There’s no way after the fact to tell you how powerful it was.’ They kind of shrug their shoulders.”
Who knows, indeed? I’m no electrician, and even if I was, I apparently would still have no idea why certain electronics can make friends with lightning while others get obliterated. Maybe a scientist would know. That’s why Kombo is hereby issuing a call to all scientists, big or small, mad, or just melancholy, to determine, using the scientific method, whether the Wii is actually more lightning friendly than other consoles. This will probably involve a kite, a metal key and about a dozen of each console. You’ll probably need some sort of university grant, but maybe Nintendo will step in so they can use the lightning-proof angle in their next ad campaign. Either way, good luck, and we’re not responsible if (read: when) you electrocute yourselves or your loved ones!
