Poetry in Motion

Motion control is undoubtedly the future of gaming, but Sony and Microsoft's latest reveals might just give us an even greater insight into what's to come.

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Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

To be honest, we cannot tell at this time what long-lasting influence the current motion control obsession will have in gaming. It's provided a remarkably profitable comeback for Nintendo, and served as a kind of gateway console introducing more people to gaming, but the real test of motion control's durability will come over the next couple of years imo. There may be a few great games to come out of it, and I'm sure the industry will have learnt a lot from the experiment, but I'm not sure it's the future.

The real important part is that developers need to decide for themselves on what control scheme or schemes to use and commit to that decision. The fall apart happens when you have companies have developers be forced to create games with a specific control scheme that just does not work for the game.

Nintendo has done well because the developers commit to a control scheme and ensure that the controls are flawless. When they take on multiple control schemes the design focus shifts to ensure that both will work and that can be seen with Punch out for the wii.

It will be really bad if Sony and Microsoft commit to motion controls and pressure the video game industry in creating games ONLY for motion control when the controller pad would be the best decision. Developers need the power and judgement to make key decisions again to make good games and not be at the whim of the big three or any demographic. Yes the developers need to ensure that the game will be a success but it is very hard to sell a game because of the controller scheme you HAVE to use anyway.

I'm optimistic about motion control being fun to play with but having motion control become the standard controller is what worries me. Even the wii doesn't have full motion control forcing the player to constantly point the wiimote at the television.

I just want to play a video game, enough with the gimmicks pleaaaaase. I mean it could be good; COULD be, but with all that I have experienced with what is already out it isn't really doing much for me except getting in the way so far.

Though I do understand that everyone is always out to revolutionize something or find a nice new way to do things, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. Try not to focus too hard on making something flashy and just make it fun.

I'm going to have to agree with Yahtzee in his recent ZP where he basically said that pleasing the gimmick lovers eventually is a poor investment: tons and TONS of cash go to R&D, and you'll get about 15 seconds of attention for finally putting it into the market.

Even the Wii is guilty of this: off the top of my head, I'd say that Mario Galaxy and Zelda the Twilight Princess, and maybe SSB Brawl are the best-selling titles ever, and nothing you do with the motion sensors in the wiimote couldn't be achieved by pressing a button, really.

EDIT/addendum: The future of gaming? I remember a time where they said the same about VR helmets.

Natal at least has the fallback that it's also a useful "controller free" alternative for people who use their X-box for things besides gaming. When people tire of the Wand-toy on the PS3 or the Wii's motion controls, they won't really have anything like that to fall-back on.

oliveira8:
Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

I agree entirely. The only motion control game anyone would buy would be a portable holodeck, which is what everyone wants Natal, the PS3 wand, and the Wiimote to be. And let's be honest: I don't want a holodeck for an FPS. It'd be no fun to feel like you're actually being shot at. No, people only want a holodeck that let's them have sex with pre-plasticized Pamela Anderson (and other "hawt ladies"). Motion control isn't the future of gaming... No sireebob.

Halo 3 does suck though, the single player campaign was abused, while the multiplayer is a gimmick trying to trump Unreal Tournament 2004, which as anyone who has played UT04 before any other gimmicky FPS online knows, is lightyears better then any other multiplayer can ever imagine to be. UT04 may have some errors, but it is spectacularly fun

oliveira8:
Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

Im inclined to agree with this. Actually these were my thoughts when i first heard the wii had the motion control thing and that you had to move about, back in the day when it was first released.

Motion controls are just gimmicks I had a whole thread on this like 5 days ago and I explained in detail that people will get bored with them because in the end everyone want to use a controller instead of having to jump up and down.

If you're "waving your arms around like a retard" or "jumping up and down", you're either not playing the game correctly or you're playing one of the unfortunate crappy games that don't use the motion controls correctly.

The best games are and will be the ones that use subtle motions instead of exaggerated gestures. Super Mario Galaxy for example requires only a quick flick of the wrist to use the spin attack.

I agree that there should always be a choice in games between motion control and traditional controllers. Even if most games wouldn't be much different with either, at least there's choice with what's more comfortable (most people I know are more comfortable holding the Wiimote and Nunchuck than a traditional controller, while with some of my friends it's the other way around).

Microsoft and Sony are definitely going to have a hell of a time getting 3rd-party developers to use their motion-control systems.

In this day and age, about 75% of all games released are for multiple platforms - with competing motion controls, though, it's unlikely that developers will want to develop a game with both motion-control setups in mind.

I think we'll see controller-based gaming for a long while to come. Until there is a standard for motion-controllers (as the DualShock was the standard for gamepads), we won't see motion-control take off.

Love it or hate it, motion control is the future of gaming.

It isn't.

At most it will be an option that many will not use, like people choose not to use now on the PS3 (and complain about to boot).

Chances are it will be used this gen, next gen some devs will use it exclusively for a bunch of games, screw it up royally, lose lots of money doing so, and people will get a bad taste in their mouths from it like they did the Wii and never use it again.

I've never understood this. Why would I want to play, say, Metal Gear Solid, Left 4 Dead, Halo, Crash Bandicoot, Mario, The Sims, or... any game at all except for the odd game that DOES play better with motion controls (Tennis, Golf, Boxing, maybe some sort of 'real' fighting game)?

Why do I want to use my normal self to do normal actions in games where I play as a normal person? Anything other than that will be gimmicky and poor.

Further, if you don't want your game to be something that people will play for a week and put down, you've got to have buttons. It's a requirement. The Natal demonstration of Burnout proved this. Yeah, the basic mechanics of racing are doable. What about the intricacies of the sport?

Are you suggesting that the future of gaming is a plethora of NES-esque titles with generic gameplay? BOXING, RACING, TENNIS, HOCKEY, SHOOTER, etc?

At the end of the day, everyone I've talked to about motion controls says the same thing:

"It'll be great for a few games, like Golf (which Tiger Woods 10 on Wii with the Motion + is amazing by the way), but it will be gimmicky and unfun in anything else. Besides, I just want to sit in my super comfy chair and race. I don't want to stand up while I've been on my feet all day."

Obviously games designed for the controller will usually work best on the controller. If they don't someone screwed up.

While I can see Natal being limiting on the possible game designs due to a lack of any buttons the Wiimote has been used pretty well in quite a few games and games like Red Steel 2 seem to be making good use of WMP too (sure, sword swings aren't entirely 1:1 but that's a game design issue, real swords have weight and resistance while a Wiimote doesn't so the player could do impossible moves with his controller that the character should not be able to follow and to prevent that the controls have to "detach" sometimes when the character is unable to stop the swing). At very least the pointer functionality is extremely useful and doesn't require extensive arm movements and many games can be played with gestures that are less demanding than just flipping the game off when your character dies while still adding some physical feeling to the game proceedings (like what rumble is supposed to do).

oliveira8:
Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

I don't find computer games any bit relaxing at all. Mentally, it is exhausting. If you come home from an occupation, which require a high level of concentration, like an accountant, I doupt it would be any relaxing jumping into a computer game.

To the contrary; Motion controll would be more mentally relaxing than a joystick/keyboard-mouse, since you constantly have to adapt between games, how you controll this and how you controll that. It's like you always have the same key-bindings when using your own body as a controller.

But this arguement is valid if you don't have a physically challenging occupation.

Nincompoop:

oliveira8:
Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

I don't find computer games any bit relaxing at all. Mentally, it is exhausting. If you come home from an occupation, which require a high level of concentration, like an accountant, I doupt it would be any relaxing jumping into a computer game.

To the contrary; Motion controll would be more mentally relaxing than a joystick/keyboard-mouse, since you constantly have to adapt between games, how you controll this and how you controll that. It's like you always have the same key-bindings when using your own body as a controller.

But this arguement is valid if you don't have a physically challenging occupation.

I don't find video games mentally exhausting...quite the other way. They stimulate more of your brain than work.

Face it. After your first week/month of work everything becomes so dull and mechanic your brain doesnt work for half a day.

Judging from the consistent presence of Wii sports and Wii fit at or near the top of the console game sales charts, motion control is the present of gaming.

oliveira8:

Nincompoop:

oliveira8:
Meh....Motion control will be the death of good video games. Just like Yatzhee said on his review today.

You play video games to unwind from a work/school day and have fun, same way you watch a movie/tv read a book. Not acting like a retard in front of a TV.

Half Life with motion control? Never going happen. Motion Controll will forever remain as a gimmick for gimmicky games.

Many games on the Wii would work as fine or better with a regular controller.

I don't find computer games any bit relaxing at all. Mentally, it is exhausting. If you come home from an occupation, which require a high level of concentration, like an accountant, I doupt it would be any relaxing jumping into a computer game.

To the contrary; Motion controll would be more mentally relaxing than a joystick/keyboard-mouse, since you constantly have to adapt between games, how you controll this and how you controll that. It's like you always have the same key-bindings when using your own body as a controller.

But this arguement is valid if you don't have a physically challenging occupation.

I don't find video games mentally exhausting...quite the other way. They stimulate more of your brain than work.

Face it. After your first week/month of work everything becomes so dull and mechanic your brain doesnt work for half a day.

When you get used to your work, it's still mentally exhausting imo.

I for one do not find games relaxing. I love playing video games, but I can't keep going for hours without getting weary. (don't say it's the eyes getting tired -.-)

As for the stimulating part, I too can find it stimulating, but that's because I like it, and I have fun whilst playing.

Anyways, for the motion thingy, picture lightsabers 8D! Wouldn't that be phuun?

Gamepads please.

I can see why motion controls might be shiny profit machines, seeing as they lower the access barrier to the 'casual market', but you know what? Most gamers have spent ages building up skill with the tactile aspects of effectively using a controller with lots of buttons. This may be selfish, but I don't want to lose that advantage.

Lots of reactionary...reactions here. The Wii retained Gamecube controller support for most games, didn't it?There's no reason for games released with Natal compatibility to eschew the old controller. You only need to look at the sales of retro controllers for the wii, or that Street Fighter IV thingy.
Motion control could also be implemented in ways that don't require strenuous movement. Plus...little exercise never hurt anybody.

I can clearly see why so many of you don't see motioncontrol to be the future of gaming.

1. Unmet expectations
Prior to Wii's launch the possibilitys for the motioncontrols looked so spectacular. Playing a Zelda game with 1:1 swordcontrol where it actuallay matters how you swing the sword sounded very cool, but what we get was far, far away from this expectation... and with more and more "waggle" games it's hard not to become skeptical. And I fully agree that it's a pain to use "waggle" as a replacement for a buttonpress. In my opionion motioncontrols should only be used for analogue motions. In that case you could do things a button can't do.

2. Lack of imagination
Most of you think about how todays games could work with motioncontrols, but I think that is the wrong approach. Instead try to imagine how you would make a game and what game that would be if you had 1:1 true motioncontrol. Yes, those games would most likely not be very "relaxing", but neither are soccer, football, basketball, baseball etc. (I mean the real thing ;) ) which are played by many people nonetheless.
Now try to think about things you can't do in real life. Like for instance swordfighting.
I could tell you many cool things you can with motioncontrols that just would be impossible without, but that would go to far.
The only problem is, are developer able to implement it correctly? Only time will tell...