Interaction between the player and the game has been a constantly
evolving aspect of the industry and to see this one only has to look at the
development of the controller. In recent years we've also seen a massive amount
of experimentation in the ways that games can be interacted with,
technologies such as the Microsoft Kinect and the Oculus Rift have challenged
the perceived conventional ways of how we game. Moving forward this would seem
to be a growing norm which bring with it exiting new possibilities about how we
may play games in years to come.
But before we delve into the what ifs of tomorrow lets take a step
back and have a quick overview of the evolution of the controller. Controllers themselves have been around since the 50's with one of the first used for Tennis For Two which consisted of a dial and button, a great deal simpler than a contemporary one such as the Xbox One controller. Moving on from the Tennis for Two model as games continued to grow more complex so too did their controller counterparts. As the technology and ergonomics of the joypad has increased over time there's been a lot of innovation such as the introduction of dual analogue sticks (DAS), a staple of contemporary controllers, to the touch screen introduced on the Dualshock 4. Today while each controller may have minor variations between layout and features there's a standard underpinning of triggers, bumpers, d-pad, DAS and fur or so buttons. While this is the case for the more generalised controllers there still exist a healthy does of variety with Nintendo being more experimental with their controller designs for the Wii and WiiU. There is also a large market for more specialist controllers that exist for fighting games and racing games that are designed to work better with the game mechanics of a certain genre or in some cases a single game.
Controllers aren't the only way for a player to interact with a game, enter the Oculus Rift that I mentioned before. To those not in the know the Oculus is a virtual reality (VR) headset and while this begins to bring up imagery along the lines of Star Treks holodeck or the Matrix in reality we're still a long way off. The video below will help to fill you in.
Perhaps the most famous example of virtual reality is Nintendo's Virtual Boy which was an all round commercial failure, not the best example of this emerging technology. Having said this it is perhaps fair to say it was ahead of it's time with the technology just not being quite there yet. More recently VR has been making some serious ground with it's poster child being the Oculus. While it's still in development there are some hefty names behind it, the near infamous John Carmack who joined the team as chief technology officer and was more recently bought by Facebook for $2bn. It would seem there's at least a little faith in the technology. I've been fortunate enough to try it myself and it's an interesting one, while many complain of motion sickness and dizziness I suffered no such thing however after twenty minutes or so of use my eyes were beginning to ache. There's also this wonderful disconnect between what your heads doing in the game and what the rest of your body is doing, I almost fell out the chair numerous times. The tech isn't quite there but I was extremely impressed with what I saw however I don't quite believe it to be the second coming of gaming that many people are preaching it to be. For me the jury is out.
Perhaps the most famous example of virtual reality is Nintendo's Virtual Boy which was an all round commercial failure, not the best example of this emerging technology. Having said this it is perhaps fair to say it was ahead of it's time with the technology just not being quite there yet. More recently VR has been making some serious ground with it's poster child being the Oculus. While it's still in development there are some hefty names behind it, the near infamous John Carmack who joined the team as chief technology officer and was more recently bought by Facebook for $2bn. It would seem there's at least a little faith in the technology. I've been fortunate enough to try it myself and it's an interesting one, while many complain of motion sickness and dizziness I suffered no such thing however after twenty minutes or so of use my eyes were beginning to ache. There's also this wonderful disconnect between what your heads doing in the game and what the rest of your body is doing, I almost fell out the chair numerous times. The tech isn't quite there but I was extremely impressed with what I saw however I don't quite believe it to be the second coming of gaming that many people are preaching it to be. For me the jury is out.
The Oculus is more another add on to the existing controller experience for the player to see something the truly breaks the mold we must turn our eye to our overlords at Microsoft and their Kinect. The Kinect is a hands free gaming device, a step up from Wii's motion controllers as it tracks your body rather than a joypad. Below showcases what I mean below and explains about how a lot of it works so it's a bit on the tech heavy side.
The Kinect 2.0 for the recently released Xbox One and I think it's a fantastic piece of kit, this isn't the general consensus however. Many people feel it's a gimmick and at worst borderline 1984 yet while the latter claims are a tad sensationalist I can sympathise with the former. To me the Kinect hasn't proved itself in the gaming sphere, there's no killer app to it's name. While it's good fun, there's no denying that, I don't feel the need to buy one, not for gaming. Something that has been great to watch and follow after the Kinect's release are the ways it has been used outside of gaming. The example that sticks most in my mind is the Kinect's implementation in a surgical environment with surgeons taking advantage of it's touchless abilities to manipulate images on screen freeing any risk of contamination from a keyboard and mouse during the operation process. The Kinect Has also been re-purposed for 3D imaging and motion capture to name a few and it's exciting to see what people are doing with it.
An emerging way that's gaining some traction is the second screen experience. The name says it all really as it's just a second screen be it your phone or, in the Playstation's case, the Vita on which another element of gameplay or interaction happens. The best example I can think of, well the one I've had most experience with, would be the gamepad for Wii U. Forbes highlights this in their review of Wii Party U (link). This s also an essential part of Super Mario Bros. U with the player on the gamepad having different responsibilities than the person on a traditional controller, which you can see below.
Second screen experiences can bring a really interesting asymmetrical element to co operative and competitive multiplayer yet it feels as though Nintendo are the only ones really pushing this but that's probably more down to it being a core part of the WiiU rather than a peripheral feature as t exists for both Sony and Microsoft's consoles.
This seems to be the current theme running through these three new experiences. While the technologies behind the Oculus and Kinect are incredibly impressive the controller is still very much the predominate way for the player to interact the game. Let's not forget that the controller has had decades of innovation and money poured into it and the other experiences are still very much in their youth but they're gaining traction. That's whats most exciting, the possibilities of these technologies. Imagine the Kinect combined with the Oculus allowing the player to not only be visually immersed in a world but have his movements tracked too and that's before you go into all the peripheral products that already exist on the market to enhance the game experience such as the Omni. It seems to me that the way players interact with games is on the cusp of a huge shake up thanks to what we see being developed today starting with the Kinect and Oculus, but I'm sure they also said the same about the Virtual Boy.
The Kinect 2.0 for the recently released Xbox One and I think it's a fantastic piece of kit, this isn't the general consensus however. Many people feel it's a gimmick and at worst borderline 1984 yet while the latter claims are a tad sensationalist I can sympathise with the former. To me the Kinect hasn't proved itself in the gaming sphere, there's no killer app to it's name. While it's good fun, there's no denying that, I don't feel the need to buy one, not for gaming. Something that has been great to watch and follow after the Kinect's release are the ways it has been used outside of gaming. The example that sticks most in my mind is the Kinect's implementation in a surgical environment with surgeons taking advantage of it's touchless abilities to manipulate images on screen freeing any risk of contamination from a keyboard and mouse during the operation process. The Kinect Has also been re-purposed for 3D imaging and motion capture to name a few and it's exciting to see what people are doing with it.
Second screen experiences can bring a really interesting asymmetrical element to co operative and competitive multiplayer yet it feels as though Nintendo are the only ones really pushing this but that's probably more down to it being a core part of the WiiU rather than a peripheral feature as t exists for both Sony and Microsoft's consoles.
This seems to be the current theme running through these three new experiences. While the technologies behind the Oculus and Kinect are incredibly impressive the controller is still very much the predominate way for the player to interact the game. Let's not forget that the controller has had decades of innovation and money poured into it and the other experiences are still very much in their youth but they're gaining traction. That's whats most exciting, the possibilities of these technologies. Imagine the Kinect combined with the Oculus allowing the player to not only be visually immersed in a world but have his movements tracked too and that's before you go into all the peripheral products that already exist on the market to enhance the game experience such as the Omni. It seems to me that the way players interact with games is on the cusp of a huge shake up thanks to what we see being developed today starting with the Kinect and Oculus, but I'm sure they also said the same about the Virtual Boy.
Sources:
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26742625
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18238356
Oculus Rift
http://www.oculusvr.com/
PFSK
http://www.psfk.com/2010/11/top-ten-kinect-hacks.html#!DgLtJ
Playstation
http://uk.playstation.com/
Virtuix Omni
http://www.virtuix.com/
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_stick
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26742625
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18238356
Oculus Rift
http://www.oculusvr.com/
PFSK
http://www.psfk.com/2010/11/top-ten-kinect-hacks.html#!DgLtJ
Playstation
http://uk.playstation.com/
Virtuix Omni
http://www.virtuix.com/
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_stick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_controller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
Xbox
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/smartglass
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/meet-xbox-one
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vN2T7UXCEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi5kMNfgDS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzEfRK70j50
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
Xbox
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/smartglass
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/meet-xbox-one
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vN2T7UXCEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi5kMNfgDS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzEfRK70j50
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