San Francisco, 9:04 AM
Mon Dec 7
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I think your jumping the gun there on Natal. I'm not trying to be a hater, but nobody has any idea if Natal will work well when it's released and even if it does, what it will mean for VR. All Natal is is another way to experience a 2D or 3D game on a flat surface. My Wii doesn't give me an incredible sense of depth, and if I wasn't holding the controller it would do even less. The whole point of VR is to immerse yourself in something that isn't real but is tangible. Playing a game without a controller is just that, nothing more. Additionally I think a lot of people won't be drawn to the idea of NOT using a controller because your playing a game. A controller is something that helps connect you to that that world, and taking it away will just create another form of dissonance between gamers, much like the Wii has. I think the Wii is great, but I don't play it as much as my PS3 or 360. As a core gamer I think the idea of motion controls are ludicrous, and no controller at all is even worse. It's one thing to play a fighting sim without a controller in your hands and your body is that method, but driving games, FPS', TPS', sports games would be fine. But your still playing a game inside your living room, and that's where the actual problem lies. If Microsoft(or any console manufacturer) can take away the living room, then there truly is no need for a controller and Natal will be much more effective. Otherwise it's just going to water down the experience of gaming for 99.99% of core gamers and that's pretty much everyone who owns a 360 or PS3. And that's assuming that Natal works incredibly well on ALL it's games. Until it's relased and there are more than simulated, pre-recorded(sometimes) tech showings, that's all it is. I hope for the sake of future gaming its the most extraordinary thing ever to help get that push but it probably won't be, and it will way too expensive.
I didn't get a chance to try out the more advanced E3 builds but I've had access to a devkit for the past few months. Like Wii remotes, the Balance Board, light guns, analog sticks, triggers, and having more than two face buttons, the success of Natal is inextricably linked to whether game developers embrace it as a gimmick or a legitimate control scheme.
Since almost nothing has been written ground-up for Natal, it's important to remember that most of the demonstrated usages have been shoe-horning Natal's control scheme into games that were designed to be played with controllers.
This is analogous to the early days of the Wii, where many games simply replaced a button push with a waggle. And, like with the Wii, I predict that the first batch of games to come out will exploit the novelty of non-traditional control without focusing on designing programs that fit. Established companies are terrified of being upstaged by anything perceived as "disruptive." Professionally speaking, some of the people designing Wii games simply don't have the creativity or ability to adapt to full leverage the platform. They just can't ignore such a huge installed base.
"As a core gamer I think the idea of motion controls are ludicrous, and no controller at all is even worse."
As a core gamer, I think this attitude hinders progress. Some games, though admittedly not many yet, are better controlled by motion, the difficulty is both capturing the input precisely as well as managing expectations of "core" gamers. Analog stick skills do not translate perfectly to motion control, just like mouse & keyboard FPS skills didn't translate 1:1 to consoles back when Halo first came out.
I had the opportunity to spend 2 days working in a fairly decent 3d "cave" environment, (fakespace VR, head-tracked goggles, wand & 4 display screens) taking museum visitors on tour of reconstructed ancient places, and through a 3d display of a large dataset. At first it was more fun than I thought possible.
I expected some motion sickness, but it really was not much of a problem. But at the end of two days, I felt like I had been hit by a truck.
Taking a group of 10 - 12 people on a normal site tour is pretty exhausting. Taking 10 - 12 people on a tour where you could not just walk around, but "fly" through representations of data sapped every last bit of energy I had. After two days, I woke up and could not get out of bed. The VR lab called me at 8 am and asked if I could give one more tour, and just the idea of going back into space made me hurl.
PS, that Nintendo Virtual Boy display caused vision damage, a total disaster.
@Dug: That's interesting. Not many people have had that long of an experience with it, and I wonder if the exhaustion would keep it from catching on even if it was small and cheap.
"Work and fun: now with more barf and exhaustion than the real world!"
I loved the "Giant Headset" devices. I never tried the arcade version (Dactyl Nightmare?) but on the PC games I tried (System Shock, Flight Unlimited), they produced a vivid illusion of being in a space, even on pretty low resolution display. It's too bad they never found a commercial niche - too expensive, not enough software support. Someday they'll come back!
@Austin Grossman: I got to play Dactyl when they had the VR arcade come through my college. What a confusing waste. By the time you figured out how to sort of control your person and where the hell you were you were done and it was someone else's turn.
The sad truth is that the whole VR movement was 10 years before its time. If they tried it now with the motion tracking they can do, the graphics capabilities and the fact that they can cheaply put HD video into a screen the size of your eyeglasses it could probably be formidable. But, sadly, I fear it will stay a nostalgia.
06/13/09
In SL, perhaps it's more apt to say that you choose your own goals - there are roleplaying game experiences within the virtual world, tho.
I gotta let Pathfinder know one of his pics made it to io9! :D
06/12/09
06/12/09
06/12/09
06/15/09
I didn't get a chance to try out the more advanced E3 builds but I've had access to a devkit for the past few months. Like Wii remotes, the Balance Board, light guns, analog sticks, triggers, and having more than two face buttons, the success of Natal is inextricably linked to whether game developers embrace it as a gimmick or a legitimate control scheme.
Since almost nothing has been written ground-up for Natal, it's important to remember that most of the demonstrated usages have been shoe-horning Natal's control scheme into games that were designed to be played with controllers.
This is analogous to the early days of the Wii, where many games simply replaced a button push with a waggle. And, like with the Wii, I predict that the first batch of games to come out will exploit the novelty of non-traditional control without focusing on designing programs that fit. Established companies are terrified of being upstaged by anything perceived as "disruptive." Professionally speaking, some of the people designing Wii games simply don't have the creativity or ability to adapt to full leverage the platform. They just can't ignore such a huge installed base.
"As a core gamer I think the idea of motion controls are ludicrous, and no controller at all is even worse."
As a core gamer, I think this attitude hinders progress. Some games, though admittedly not many yet, are better controlled by motion, the difficulty is both capturing the input precisely as well as managing expectations of "core" gamers. Analog stick skills do not translate perfectly to motion control, just like mouse & keyboard FPS skills didn't translate 1:1 to consoles back when Halo first came out.
06/05/09
I expected some motion sickness, but it really was not much of a problem. But at the end of two days, I felt like I had been hit by a truck.
Taking a group of 10 - 12 people on a normal site tour is pretty exhausting. Taking 10 - 12 people on a tour where you could not just walk around, but "fly" through representations of data sapped every last bit of energy I had. After two days, I woke up and could not get out of bed. The VR lab called me at 8 am and asked if I could give one more tour, and just the idea of going back into space made me hurl.
PS, that Nintendo Virtual Boy display caused vision damage, a total disaster.
06/05/09
"Work and fun: now with more barf and exhaustion than the real world!"
06/05/09
06/05/09
The sad truth is that the whole VR movement was 10 years before its time. If they tried it now with the motion tracking they can do, the graphics capabilities and the fact that they can cheaply put HD video into a screen the size of your eyeglasses it could probably be formidable. But, sadly, I fear it will stay a nostalgia.
06/05/09
06/05/09
06/05/09
06/05/09