Everybody Votes Channel

Everybody Votes Channel
The Everybody Votes Channel start screen
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Distributor(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Toshiyuki Sudo
Series	Wii Menu
Platforms	Wii
Release date(s)

The Everybody Votes Channel was a Wii Menu channel that allowed users to vote in simple opinion polls and compare and contrast opinions with those of friends, family and voters across the globe.

The Everybody Votes Channel was available on February 13, 2007. Its release came as a surprise, as Nintendo made no announcement regarding it until after it was available for download.

Like the four other Wii channels, Nintendo ended support for the Everybody Votes Channel on June 28, 2013.

Features

Results for the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first: the majority of England, Scotland and Wales believe the egg came first; while the majority in Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man believes it was the chicken.

The Everybody Votes Channel features general two-choice poll questions for users to answer. Three regional questions are offered, as well as one or more global polls; after a set time period, a question closes and is replaced by another one. New regional questions are posted every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Global questions are due to be posted twice a month, although to launch the channel two worldwide questions were released in quick succession.

When accessing the main page of the Everybody Votes Channel, users are initially greeted with the current open polls and have the opportunity to vote with a registered Mii. Users are able to register a total of six different players on each Wii console using Miis to represent individuals in the household. The Channel records all of the votes cast by a player and allows one to compare one's own opinions with those of one's family.

Alternately, Canadian results concerning if one would prefer to live by the Pacific Ocean or Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Canada would prefer the Atlantic, while the rest of the country would prefer the Pacific.

Within hours of a poll's closing, the results of the poll are made available. Vote ratios for each question are displayed on the Channel using Miis to represent different votes. A pie chart is used with 200 Miis to show how the vote panned out. Furthermore, for regional polls, a geographic breakdown is shown of which options were most popular in different areas; for example, a UK user will be shown results for Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, and in the US, the results of all 50 states and Puerto Rico are shown. These results are displayed on a map, with hues indicating which option received the majority vote in each region. The hue is a deeper shade if the majority is more pronounced.

The previous twelve polls that a user has voted on are archived so that one can check back on them after the polls have closed.

Statistics

In addition to casting a vote, users can also predict the outcome of the poll. Every correct prediction will be added to the player’s profile and used to calculate how "tuned in" he or she is with general public opinion, which is shown in the "How Tuned In Are You?" section. This number can range from 0 to 500, and is expressed as a "distance" from public opinion.

The channel uses Mii gender data to determine whether the player is male or female. Additionally, the user may see the percentages of votes in the two gender groups, which regions had the most popular vote, and prediction accuracy.

Worldwide polls

As well as the regional questions outlined above, the Everybody Votes Channel also features worldwide poll questions. Worldwide polls are posted twice a month and run for approximately two weeks, with live result updates appearing within hours after the vote closes.

The results for worldwide polls are shown in a different format to regional polls. While Miis are used to illustrate the global vote ratio, a bar graph shows the results for each different country globally. Players can sort these results by vote percentage, country or in order of prediction accuracy.

Suggest a Question

The Suggest a Question section allows players to suggest a poll question along with two possible answers to the question that they would like to see on the service. Each player is allowed one suggestion per day. Nintendo may consider the question for future polls. These questions cannot contain any personal, political, or religious information.

Wii Menu icon

The Everybody Votes Channel icon on the main Wii Menu has the most recent question and possible answers scrolling over the top. However, it only shows the National Polls; new Worldwide Polls do not show up on the icon. This lets users identify whether there has been a new question (and results) posted without entering the channel. The Everybody Votes Channel was the first channel to feature such an icon, which has since become a standard. The Forecast Channel, News Channel and Wii Shop Channel have since been updated to display a weather icon, news ticker, and new downloads, respectively.

Reception

IGN's Mark Bozon said "As a quick time-waster, Everybody Votes is a decent addition to the Wii console." According to the developers of the Channel, the first worldwide poll received 500,000 votes in two days. Japan's first national poll received about 100,000 votes.

See also

• Opinion poll

External links

• Official Everybody Votes Channel website
• Official Wii Menu website
• Results from the Everybody Votes Channel polls
• Another website with results from the Everybody Votes Channel
• Everybody Votes at GameFAQs, with archive of many polls