Motion gaming, the new craziness of the gaming community. Is that an accurate statement?
Few years ago, Nintendo started the so called “motion gaming” revolution with it’s wii. So, what was it that nintendo did exactly to start something so big that starting to shake both Microsoft and Sony. Does Wii have the mighty Cell processor of PS3 or the majestic graphics card of xbox 360? Does Wii have blu-ray or HD DVD capabilities? None of it mattered at the end because nintendo did 3 most important things -
1) Audience that never targeted before by MS or Sony.
2) Hardware only what was needed. No more, no less.
3) Simple and elegant controls. No big fuss.
Now let’s analyze these. First point is a no brainer. Nintendo knew that people who would like to play casual games are more in number than the serious ones. Flash games all over the Internet and the questionable ads around them is the best proof of that.
Second point is a win-win for Nintendo. Keeping the hardware simple, thus the interface makes the product easy and intuitive to use even for a grandma. And nintendo production costs will be low.
Simple and elegant controls. There is more to this point than it meets the eye. And this is the crucial part of what MS and Sony are trying to do now. Before jumping to the motion controls, we need to go back to the origin of controls for a quick history lesson. To create a song, do you write the lyrics first or the music tones? There is no wrong answer for this question. why? Because the lyrics can complement the music or vice versa. Both entwine with each other giving the user an amazing experience. Gaming should also be like that. Like any music device, the potential of the controller has to be imagined by how many “fun” ways you can use the controller. Any controller has a limited set of controls, whether they are gestures or buttons. What makes gaming fun? – using these limited set of “controls” to allow creation of different variety of games appealing to your target audience. This is no magic formula. You create the controller based on the capabilities it should have such that your target audience can play games they can love in a fun way. It’s been happening since the early game controllers.
In early years, technological barriers forced companies to make only simple games. Microsoft and Sony evolved with technology and went down the path of complex and serious games. Still the magic formula applies, but a different target audience than in the early years.
Now both MS and Sony want to grab the audience that were ignored for years and compete with nintendo.
Sony Move:
Some call it glorified Wii. Some call it is much more and has potential. Both are true to some extent. Sony’s goal is to make new buyers to think twice before buying Wii.
From a casual gamer point of view: 3d tracking or 1:1 precision may not be enough. Some of the nintendo exclusive titles still can sway them. For them, it’s just a enhanced Wii because they don’t care much about bells and whistles as long as the fun is good enough.
From a serious gamer point of view: precision means everything. Also, Any person, serious gamer or not would like to try motion gaming even if they deny it outright.
Considering these factors, Sony created a controller taking the best from both worlds. One quick look at the controller tells you that Sony left nothing from the dual shock’s right half. Couple these existing buttons with high precision motion control, Sony got the serious gamers in it’s basket. Next step is to create some mainstream games with Move support and that’s it done. Serious gamers even get to check out the casual games when they are not so serious.
3d tracking and 1:1 precision may enhance the experience for Wii users. But it’s definitely not going to make them change their religion just yet.
PS3 has already got superior graphics for HDTVs. If Sony can show some better exclusives, it may be just enough to tip the balance. This will also make new buyers think.
Of course Sony knows this and trying to stack up some titles like Sorcery which are only possible because of Move’s precision. There is another way of looking at this. It can introduce semi mainstream games to casual gamers thus increasing the user base of PS3. This is a long term strategy obviously.
Some could say Sony took the safe road. But the million dollar question is “Is it the only road left for Sony and MS?”
To answer this, we need to look at the Kinect.
Kinect:
While Sony tried not to change the equations too much, Microsoft was trying something completely different in it’s own bat cave. It said forget controllers, all you need to do is “move” *pun intended* your body hands, legs, head etc. Every gesture is a different type of control in itself. Learning sign language, moving menus with hands like Tom cruise etc. All this decorative stuff, if possible, is fun for the first 2-3 hours may be. Real fun should be measured by the potential of the controller in game.
Fighting sim games like mortal combat, street fighter :
Obviously this makes sense with kinect. Move your hands like a boxer and you fight easily. No learning curve, simple, no need to ask questions. If you want to fight with a friend, it will be a perfect game.
Compare it to Move, it can do the same with maybe better precision, but you need 2×2 motion controllers for 2 players.
Driving/Racing:
Move your hand as if you are moving the steering. But, how do you do other stuff like don’t increase speed or apply brakes, gestures obviously. But the important question is will it be fun? This is a personal question. But the while point of motion gaming is bring realism in terms of real world movements. Is it not? If you don’t have steering wheel in your hand, driving your car may not be fun. You need something in your hand to “feel” the control, shifting gears, applying power. By removing the controller, you are removing that feeling. What about the suggested alternatives like using our house hold objects so that kinect detect them and you can get the feeling of something in our hand. This may sound like a win-win. But sometimes If you need to gain something, you need to loose something. For the kinect to be able to identify things, persons, gestures with reasonable precision and reasonable lag, it has to be uber efficient and fully optimized. So, does the kinect have the balls for this? As a programmer, I am little bit skeptical. There is a practical limit to the xbox’s computing capabilities and it’s efficiency.
Reasonable lag and Reasonable precision- if only one thing is achievable, then MS no doubt goes the no lag way thus sacrificing precision. Because the target audience of kinect are primarily casual gamers.
Shooters, RPGs (mainstream):
On rail shooters will work without doubt with kinect. What about normal shooters like Halo or gears of war.
Some suggested a combination of controller and kinect gestures. What do you use controller for? Just movement? Then how do we use hands for gestures if we are holding the controller, definitely not legs. The point of motion gaming is to use real world gestures to create the games. Creating new gestures does not make it motion gaming.
Let’s go back to old school: you close you fist, your squad should stop moving. You do a round gesture, it means recon the area. Point the finger in a direction, squad moves. Let’s try to use these gestures, for “shooting a zombie in the face while moving backward and reloading your shotgun and you should be able to change your weapon in an instant”. Is this possible? Yes it is. In fact anything is possible. But the correct question is “will it be fun”? May not be because we need to invent gestures that are not intuitive, not universal, and most importantly not elegant and simple as clicking a button.
So, the question we should ask MS at this point is Can they create a new genre of games with kinect?
What is the real unit of control in kinect? Is it a hand/leg/head gesture? If it is, to how much extent is one unit. MS never said kinect has 1:1 precision which means some X degrees of my hand movement should be taken as a single unit of control in kinect. Now compare that with the analog stick of the xbox controller. If I want the feeling of control, I would rather pick up my controller rather than waving hand trying to anticipate how much is far enough and how much is short enough. That’s why steering wheels are there in cars. Because steering wheels let’s you understand the sensitivity of the machine and so, you can use the machine properly without guess work in the air.
Some games are meant to be played by pressing buttons with controller or some device in your hand. There is no doubt about that.
This is why it is very important for MS to show a different genre if exists where kinect is meant to shine in.
I would like to close with one interesting point. Motion gaming existed even before Wii. Yes, of course the good old trusty Mouse. What difference is there between motion gaming and mouse gaming? You use the former in the air, the latter on a pad. Mouse can emulate the motion in only 2 dimensions unlike Move. However playing resident evil 5 with Move made me think it was nothing but a glorified “Mouse”. In any shooter, the use of motion controller is nothing but aim which is 2 dimensional in nature.
This clearly shows that motion gaming with move or wii is for a completely different genre of games like sorcery, fighting sims etc. This is why it’s essential for Microsoft to show a different genre for it’s own motion controller.
