I work at a video game company with lots of video game geeks. I can say honestly that my coworkers have had more problems with Wii's failing in the last year than Xboxes.

Yeah, but at the same time, you don't hear about that. Memes didn't form around that. So the Xbox's reputation is worse than the Wii's - very possibly unfairly so, but that's how reputation works.

It's not unfair, the Xbox was a hell of a lot worse for a while there. The vast majority of the initial batch ended up bricked. They might be better now, but I expect if Wii has the large scale problems Xbox did you'll hear about it.

But you bought one. Why is that? Everyone I know who knows about the RRoD issue buys one anyway. People who don't know don't seem to care about consoles. It's curious to me.

I bought one too, and I knew about the issue. PS3 was too expensive for my blood and I prefer XBox games over Wii games. I also knew that MS wasn't being an ass with returns. Mine has held up so far though, so I don't know firsthand.

They buy them because they're really an awesome console. Microsoft has been the leader in online connectivity since the original.

This is exactly the answer. I wanted a gaming console, and the 360 is the one with all the games. I have a Wii as well, but it only gets turned on when my parents are over and want to bowl.

Xbox live is pretty nice as well; I'm not a huge fan of the "New Xbox Experience", but I can appreciate that they've put a lot of effort into it.

I have a Wii too, and I buy a few games like Mario Kart or Zelda that are exclusively for it. But any game that's on both systems, such as Rock Band, I purchase on the Xbox. The high def graphics alone are enough to ensure that.

I'm not a fan of the new experience either in one respect: if you're going to force me to choose an avatar (which is annoying) at least make a creator as good as Nintendo's. I find myself unable to make reasonable approximations of anyone I actually know. Also I don't care for where it starts you out now, on that little shopping area. Other than that I find it generally a more efficient navigation system.

Also, Worms on XBL Arcade cost $5 and is my favorite game ever.

I'd like to add into the mix of console debate, as a Nintendo fanboy, that their "purchase games online" strategy fell really sadly flat. Back when it launched, the promise of an unlimited back library was really incredible. People thought it was a new era for gaming. Then the Wii Library (or whatever it's called) turned out to be pay-per-game, and they released games slowly (despite the games being basic emulator roms), and they were angling it as a counter to the XBox Live Arcade. Original content versus oldies which are free online.

The Wii has a lot of potential. I think that the control scheme is second-to-none, and that after Mario Galaxy (which showed just how effective it was) we ought to have seen a proliferation of good third-party add-ons. As it is, Nintendo is carrying the console itself, but it's proven itself fallible. It's still the single best game developer in the world, and its design team is head-and-shoulders above the competition. But the rest of the company isn't quite as top-notch, and it shows, and it unfortunately means Nintendo's ridiculous advantage over Sony and Microsoft is being entirely wasted.

I have wondered why that back catalog isn't much larger. You would think it would be trivial for them to slap every game they made on there, plus license entire catalogs from other companies, given that they're just roms.

Their online gameplay was half-baked from the start. The day I got my Wii (2 days after it launched) I also bought Madden, only to end up pissed when I realized there was no online connectivity. It took forever for that stuff to actually work, though I will say that now that it's there, and unlike Xbox it's free, it's pretty nice.