Ah shit, it's Oprah.

[Erana]

"Hey, the generic core gamer demographic hates both Oprah AND Motion-controls! Let's make a thread about both of them and then proceed to insult them!"

Seriously, if yall were talking about, say, Gabe Newell in the same way you were talking about Oprah here, yall'd be banned and socially ostracized on the 'Scapist quicker than you can put your own foot in your mouth.

Can we just give the, "No one likes the Kinect" mantra a rest for a moment? This is obviously just an advertising scheme, just like every other time a celebrity blatantly promotes a product on their show. Its not a new concept, and it doesn't make her any more evil or sellout-ish than any other household name.
Really, if you watched Extra Credits, you should be thanking her, because this means more sales for the Kinect (that you don't have to be involved with at all), and if the new wave of motion controls doesn't return any revenue, its bad news for the entire industry.

 

[LongAndShort]

Well done Microsoft, you've just pulled off one of the biggest marketing coups possible. I clap my hands at this.

*claps hands*

This is how they'll break into the Wii market.

 

[GiantSpiderGoat]

Am I the only one who fucking hates Oprah. There has always been something that rubs be wrong about her.

 

[Cpu46]

Oprah is still alive?

The assassins have failed, we must reevaluate the skills of the target.


OT: Oprah's target audience don't exactly seem like the same people that would enjoy playing the Xbox. Microsoft, you confuse me.

 

[orangecharger]

F*** Oprah and her sect? Who cares at all about what she does or thinks?

Every straight mom and every gay dad.
:3

I believe (I might be wrong I am getting older) that not too long ago Oprah featured a new piece of technology on her show and gave it her thumbs up, showed how easy it could be used, etc. That little product was called TiVo. How's it working out for them? Not saying Oprah is the only reason TiVo took off, but she certainly helped.

We have obsessions with keeping up with the Jones's and a being like our fave celebrities - that's why endorsements often work. RayBan sunglasses owe a debt of gratitude to Tom Cruise/Risky Business and they didn't even have to pay for that little placement. Some prop guy just thought they looked good. All those Oprah guests go home their neighbors come over and ooh and ahh... and go out and buy one for themselves. Feeling confident in their purchase because Oprah likes it so it can't be bad. If they buy it and they don't like it, there is something wrong with them because Oprah is a celebrity and she just knows stuff. Plus people need to defend their purchases -- fanboy syndrome -- if they convince someone else to buy one it makes them feel better they aren't alone in their stupidity.

It may go the way of the Game Glove or Virtual Boy concepts in time, but it also may go the way of the TiVo.

 

[Jodah]

The problem isn't so much that we care here. I can guarantee most of the people who frequent this page couldn't give a flying f*** about Oprah. The issue is that this furthers the casual gamer and motion capture agenda that many of us are against. Love her or hate her, the sheep listen to Oprah. If she says buy it, they will.

 

[Ledan]

Motion control will fail as soon as they release FPS on it, realising that absolutely no one buys these games and they are losing their market to the PC, the consoles will spin their heads around and focus more on controllers again.

FPS sells mainly for the PC, these new consoles wont be trying to emulate old games. They will create new genres and most importantly:
they sell to a crowd that does not want fps.

 

[number2301]

In all seriousness, the Kinect is a pathetic Wii rip-off and will never amount to anything more than a gimmick. We should all just ignore it and wait for this entire motion sensor craze to pass.

That comment should be preserved, I mean, if you're going to be eating those words you'd rather they were kept fresh wouldn't you?

Don't get me wrong, I'm yet to see an implementation of motion controls which actually add anything to my gaming experience. But given the level of investment, the level of interest and hell the sales, they are not going to fade into irrelevance quickly.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Arrgh! I would have wanted that. I could have sold the kinect and kept the 360 for parts when mine inevitably breaks.

 

[Wolfram23]

Well, there's one good thing. I bet a good portion of that audience are "fumpy moms" who might finally be convinced gaming isn't the devil's plan to lure humanity into pure evilness...

But yeah, that was pretty stupid.

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

In all seriousness, the Kinect is a pathetic Wii rip-off and will never amount to anything more than a gimmick. We should all just ignore it and wait for this entire motion sensor craze to pass.

That comment should be preserved, I mean, if you're going to be eating those words you'd rather they were kept fresh wouldn't you?

Don't get me wrong, I'm yet to see an implementation of motion controls which actually add anything to my gaming experience. But given the level of investment, the level of interest and hell the sales, they are not going to fade into irrelevance quickly.

The problem I have with the motion control craze is that while motion sensing virtual reality may be the future of games, the current devices on the market are not designed to increase immersion or improve the gaming experience. Instead of finding ways to integrate the player into the game, most of the current devices seem geared toward the gimmick appeal. The idea that you can control a game by pointing at the screen is meant to be more interesting than the game experience. By focusing on the interface gimmick, they are ripping any possible immersion out of a game.

It's not that I dislike motion controls, I dislike any controller that increases the time between thought and action. As Yahtzee put it in his Kinect and Move XP, controllers allow you to control complex actions with very simple physical movements. As motion controls stand, they require far too input from the player that serves to only break immersion.

 

[Pingieking]

It's not that I dislike motion controls, I dislike any controller that increases the time between thought and action. As Yahtzee put it in his Kinect and Move XP, controllers allow you to control complex actions with very simple physical movements. As motion controls stand, they require far too input from the player that serves to only break immersion.

This.
The entire point of playing games is to escape reality for bit. Bringing too much reality into games through motion controls makes the games have too much reality. And we all know reality sucks.

 

[archvile93]

Oprah is still alive?

The assassins have failed, we must reevaluate the skills of the target.


OT: Oprah's target audience don't exactly seem like the same people that would enjoy playing the Xbox. Microsoft, you confuse me.

Why would Microft care? They still sold the consoles and kinects. Remember, Oprah fans are as close as you can get to sheep without actual sheep and she's their shepherd. They'll do whatever she tells them and she said this thing is good. Therefore, they'll buy lots of games for it too.

 

[DustyDrB]

I don't see the reason for the hostility towards Oprah, or any strong feelings about her at all. Unless it's just more of the tendency for some folks around here to hate someone on some twisted principle just because they are popular.

Anyway, I saw a clip of it. She had a look on her face like "what the hell does this audience want with an Xbox?"

Whatever, really. Microsoft has poured a lot of money into this thing, so you can't blame them for targeting that demographic. You might can even look at this as good news for current Xbox owners: If they're marketing Kinect more towards young children and their parents, they might realize there isn't much point pushing it on us.

 

[Homplok]

I have nothing constructive to add, but I'll take any opportunity I can to let people know that I FUCKING HATE OPRAH. That is all.

 

[Imp Poster]

Well, I think it is very smart move from Microsoft. Have you seen most of the game titles that are coming out for Kinect? Singing, dancing, exercising, etc. That's probably the target market for now. Middle aged moms/women who having nothing better to do other then to watch Oprah or be on her show.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Oprah is still alive?

Woman will never die. She just inflats and deflats from time to time in order to preserve her youth through some weird magic she must have.

I could care less about oprah, but I don't understand why every screams about something once she screams abotu it. My friend's mom LITERALLY didn't give a shit about a certain shampoo, and then the other day she was watching oprah and she SCREAMS "Oprah is endorsing this shampoo! Quick Joey, Run the the store and buy some! NOW!"

 

[Delusibeta]

Worst case scenario? Party games will replace FPSes as the "default genre" of video games.

Of course, this will have a benefit, namely FPSes returning to focus on the PC, and a general renaissance in PC gaming due to people become disaffected by aforementioned party games.

 

[Casual Shinji]

"Hey, the generic core gamer demographic hates both Oprah AND Motion-controls! Let's make a thread about both of them and then proceed to insult them!"

Seriously, if yall were talking about, say, Gabe Newell in the same way you were talking about Oprah here, yall'd be banned and socially ostracized on the 'Scapist quicker than you can put your own foot in your mouth.

Can we just give the, "No one likes the Kinect" mantra a rest for a moment? This is obviously just an advertising scheme, just like every other time a celebrity blatantly promotes a product on their show. Its not a new concept, and it doesn't make her any more evil or sellout-ish than any other household name.
Really, if you watched Extra Credits, you should be thanking her, because this means more sales for the Kinect (that you don't have to be involved with at all), and if the new wave of motion controls doesn't return any revenue, its bad news for the entire industry.

Actually, I'm not a huge fan of Gabe Newell either, but that's another story all together.

No, I don't like motion controls, but I'm fine with the Wii using it because that's it's "thing" and it has been since it's launch. The Wii is very much a family oriented console and that's totally fine; having some variety between consoles keeps things fresh.

What does piss me off is Microsoft and Sony jumping on the bandwagon like a bunch of lemmings. I know that copying a succes formula is pretty standard in the games industry, but this is just freaking ridiculous. Sony and Microsoft are wasting their time and money on this 3 year old novelty. Time and money they could have invested in creating actual new and exciting games.

And I wasn't hating on Oprah, I was just hoping that the Move and Kinect would quietly slip under the door and fade into obscurity within a year. But with the Move sales and Oprah's muscle behind Kinect that is unfortunately not going to happen.

 

[Reeves88]

but hey look on the bright side this is apparently oprahs last year on tv granted we will be plauged wit reruns for life but no new stuff, but shes coming to australia first and its apparently costing us lucky aussies 3.5 or something million in tax for her to come ya she gets a free holiday that we pay for