Aaron Sylvester said:
I once read someone on this very forum write "if we stick to brick-with-buttons controllers then gaming will never move forward", and I felt like slapping them silly.
Brick-with-buttons controllers are to gaming what round wheels are to ground transport. You don't try to make the wheel SQUARE for the sake of innovation, you keep it round through thousands of years and eventually polish wheel technology to a mirror shine.
But did wheel technology stop the invention of flying vehicles? Of course not.
You're right, but there is still a lot to be said for trying out new things. The problem with new input methods is when they are used as a replacement for existing tech in a situation where they do nothing to enhance the experience.
For instance, Rise of Nightmares for Kinect had moments where you had to keep perfectly still in order to evade a hulking great blind monstrosity or where you had to cover your ears with your hands in order to avoid taking damage from a banshee-like enemy. Both of these things really helped to deepen the immersion of the game for me, as did using gestures to power up a device that then lets you essentially throw fireballs at enemies. That last one was just an awesome feeling. However, although I loved that game, there is no denying that the point where it let itself down was in the movement controls and the 'hold your hand over this icon to pick stuff up, open doors, etc' mechanic. If Kinect had a controller like the Wii Nunchuck then that problem would have been solved - traditional buttons could have been used in contexts where motion control was less efficient or just didn't make sense - for instance a simple trigger press to open doors or pick up items would have gone a long way to allowing people to actually enjoy what motion control brought to the table.
After all, to expand your wheel analogy, while of course we stuck to round wheels because they work, we used to attach them to bits of wood and pull them around with horses, and refusal to explore alternative control schemes in conjunction with the existing 'brick with buttons' controller would be the same as refusing to experiment with putting those wheels onto different things. I personally think that the Wii had a good idea but the base tech wasn't quite good enough (by the time Motion Plus was released it was too late really), PS Move had a lot of potential but is of course hampered by the fact that devs can't count on every user owning all the necessary peripherals that make it up (why on earth they didn't just come as a package is beyond me), and Kinect has a lot of potential that will never be realised due to a lack of synergy between a 2-handed controller and full body gesture control - they threw the baby out with the bath water by designing it to replace the controller rather than augment it.
I think the hardware manufacturers are gradually realising that 'cars must have wheels' and are integrating their alternate control methods into existing controller design. I personally think the Wii U looks promising, what with its 'this is a normal controller with all the buttons you've come to expect, but we've crammed everything (including the kitchen sink) into it too'.
