Of course it's fun. The Wii was also fun. The problem is can this translate into the sort of A title that will sell a lot or will people who purchase Kinect just fiddle with the pack-in game at parties, like many did with the Wii?
On the one hand, the hardcore gaming audience is dead set against motion controls, which is why they whole reactionary bunch can go fuck themselves. There was a time when hardcore gaming had one button and a joystick. Change happens whether you like it or not. Especially when it's not.
Innovation is a gimmick that becomes the norm. As it stands, I'm not sure if motion controls will become an innovation or not. It could be, but I think the Wii has soured many people's taste for them with all the shovelware.
Aside: interesting that Nintendo allowed such shovelware to go out since many cite the glut of inferior product as a cause of the video game crash of 1983. Nintendo combated this with their "Seal of Quality" when they launched the NES, although that seal was a sham and they gave it to whoever would pay the licensing fee. But they understood this is a potential problem enough to deal with it on a marketing level in the late 80's. To actively engage it now seems like a fucking stupid move.
One of the biggest complains I've seen of motion controls is that they don't work all the time. As in the controls don't always register your movements or register them properly. That gets a big yawn and a condescending pat on the head from me. Complaining that the controller doesn't work is as old as video games themselves. I'm sure that someone playing Spacewar on a DEC PDP-1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology bitched the panel switches didn't register properly when they got blown to bits or sucked into the sun. So this is nothing new. It's just history repeating itself. Players always blame the controllers when they fuck up. That is the first commandment of video game playing. Never admit fault. Find someone or something else to blame.
That said, there may be more to it with the Wii. For my money, though, I'll be the problem is less the motion controls themselves so much as that they're wireless. Maybe I'm just old but I can't believe that wireless controllers will have the same precision timing as those hard wired into the console. Wireless transmissions can be iffy with various things causing interference which can be annoying on a phone call and detrimental in a game. I may be wrong about this as I'm no tech wizard and maybe Bluetooth runs on liquid jesus or something. But maybe one of those hackers out there can rig a Wiimote to attach to the console with wires and see if performance is any different.
But all of this is pointless without looking at what you can do with motion controls. That is, what does this technology bring to the table that regular controls do not. There's a reason why the Dvorak keyboard layout did not replace QWERTY.
The first thing it brings is it gives players a reason to get up off the couch and work off some of those Cheetos they've been eating all day. Far be it from me from giving two shit and a bag of rusty screws about the general heath and well being of the world's youth, but with news reports about the growing trend of obesity in ragamuffins, wouldn't incorporating more physical activity in their typical pastimes be a positive step towards stemming the tide?
I'm overweight and I don't exercise much because I don't have an excuse to exercise all that much. Maybe with a motion control video game, I would move around more and possibly prolong my life.
Oh wait. That's a horrible idea.
I do find it interesting that one of the games mentioned in the article was bowling. Bowling? Really? Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah! Wii Sports. Now, I've played the Wii version and it was fun, so it's hard to imagine the Kinect version not being fun as well. But this really don't show us anything new. Bowling games are almost as old as video games. It was a launch title for many systems in the early 80's/late 70's. Sure the motion controls are different. But in the end, you're still just bowling. You could also go to a bowling alley so you could wear uncomfortable shoes, eat greasy fried food from the lunch counter as well. Is the best thing for motion control video games to recreate pastimes that the nation's youth have lost interest in? Maybe they could also make a drive-in movie simulator that's like watching a movie from the cramped confines of your car while listening through a staticy speaker.
So far, I'm unimpressed with what developers have been using the motion controls to do. It's possible that motion controls will remain just a gimmick. It's also possible that this is the last real innovation in video games:
Look at it! Marvel at it. The action comes off the screen and into your living room!
On the one hand, the hardcore gaming audience is dead set against motion controls, which is why they whole reactionary bunch can go fuck themselves. There was a time when hardcore gaming had one button and a joystick. Change happens whether you like it or not. Especially when it's not.
Innovation is a gimmick that becomes the norm. As it stands, I'm not sure if motion controls will become an innovation or not. It could be, but I think the Wii has soured many people's taste for them with all the shovelware.
Aside: interesting that Nintendo allowed such shovelware to go out since many cite the glut of inferior product as a cause of the video game crash of 1983. Nintendo combated this with their "Seal of Quality" when they launched the NES, although that seal was a sham and they gave it to whoever would pay the licensing fee. But they understood this is a potential problem enough to deal with it on a marketing level in the late 80's. To actively engage it now seems like a fucking stupid move.
One of the biggest complains I've seen of motion controls is that they don't work all the time. As in the controls don't always register your movements or register them properly. That gets a big yawn and a condescending pat on the head from me. Complaining that the controller doesn't work is as old as video games themselves. I'm sure that someone playing Spacewar on a DEC PDP-1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology bitched the panel switches didn't register properly when they got blown to bits or sucked into the sun. So this is nothing new. It's just history repeating itself. Players always blame the controllers when they fuck up. That is the first commandment of video game playing. Never admit fault. Find someone or something else to blame.
That said, there may be more to it with the Wii. For my money, though, I'll be the problem is less the motion controls themselves so much as that they're wireless. Maybe I'm just old but I can't believe that wireless controllers will have the same precision timing as those hard wired into the console. Wireless transmissions can be iffy with various things causing interference which can be annoying on a phone call and detrimental in a game. I may be wrong about this as I'm no tech wizard and maybe Bluetooth runs on liquid jesus or something. But maybe one of those hackers out there can rig a Wiimote to attach to the console with wires and see if performance is any different.
But all of this is pointless without looking at what you can do with motion controls. That is, what does this technology bring to the table that regular controls do not. There's a reason why the Dvorak keyboard layout did not replace QWERTY.
The first thing it brings is it gives players a reason to get up off the couch and work off some of those Cheetos they've been eating all day. Far be it from me from giving two shit and a bag of rusty screws about the general heath and well being of the world's youth, but with news reports about the growing trend of obesity in ragamuffins, wouldn't incorporating more physical activity in their typical pastimes be a positive step towards stemming the tide?
I'm overweight and I don't exercise much because I don't have an excuse to exercise all that much. Maybe with a motion control video game, I would move around more and possibly prolong my life.
Oh wait. That's a horrible idea.
I do find it interesting that one of the games mentioned in the article was bowling. Bowling? Really? Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah! Wii Sports. Now, I've played the Wii version and it was fun, so it's hard to imagine the Kinect version not being fun as well. But this really don't show us anything new. Bowling games are almost as old as video games. It was a launch title for many systems in the early 80's/late 70's. Sure the motion controls are different. But in the end, you're still just bowling. You could also go to a bowling alley so you could wear uncomfortable shoes, eat greasy fried food from the lunch counter as well. Is the best thing for motion control video games to recreate pastimes that the nation's youth have lost interest in? Maybe they could also make a drive-in movie simulator that's like watching a movie from the cramped confines of your car while listening through a staticy speaker.
So far, I'm unimpressed with what developers have been using the motion controls to do. It's possible that motion controls will remain just a gimmick. It's also possible that this is the last real innovation in video games:
Look at it! Marvel at it. The action comes off the screen and into your living room!
