Remember how hard it used to be to get your girlfriend to pick up that controller? “Just one round of Halo and if you don’t like it, we’ll stop!” Such a convenient gaming partner, but how to crack that shell? And what about one’s parents? Sure, the whole idea of asking them is partly for the novelty, but imagine if they put their minds to it? New challengers in the house, new players to grind through co-op with, it’s the gaming paradise. So how do we convert these folks? That’s always been the question.

Nintendo’s magic little box has certainly gone a long way in making a gaming middle ground between genders and age groups. The sales numbers and the general public attitude toward the Wii generate only positive feedback, and more of the traditional “non-gaming” audiences have been converted every day since its launch.

The good folks at 1up have some hard evidence in an article posted regarding a “Wii for Women” event hosted by a Florida Best-Buy. The results are definitely pleasing to the gaming audience, and can be found here. Yes, Nintendo: keep the indoctrination coming! Bring more to the fold! The only downside is that with all these new Wii gamers taking up valuable TV-time, we’ll have less time for the truly important things (see: teh Haloz).

The new group of gamers captivated by Nintendo’s latest platforms (you too, DS) has been tagged as the “casual gaming audience,” and they get zero cred in the gaming community. This is an unfair generalization, to be sure, but it seems true that the majority of this new splash of gamers is just in it for the Wii-Sports fun. This means great sales figures for Nintendo, but does it mean that they aren’t adding to their install-base in the usual way? Will these customers really be buying a game every month or two? We might have a lot of dust-choked Wiis sitting in closets a year from now.