Nov 06 2010
Kinect and Move are released, does anyone care and is motion control DONE?
Anyone who has tried to sink a close putt on Wii sports resort golf knows that motion control, well, sucks. Anyone who also has tried to swing the controller like a sword in jousting or Lego Star Wars, also knows it’s clunky at best. I have tried these on multiple machines and multiple set ups of the Wii and all I can conclude is, the gimmick is just that, a gimmick. It’s there for kids to have fun dancing and swinging and having fun while doing it. Don’t get me wrong, my kids do simply love it, but I just don’t like it. I don’t want to be frustrated while I play a game b/c of controllers not picking up motions. This is completely different from the frustrations of learning a game and not being able to do something. The difference is you will eventually know how to play the game and perform correctly, where-as with the motion control it won’t get any better. This is precisely why I prefer my gaming with a real controller with my XBox 360 or my PC. Sure Wii has some games like Super Mario Wii which are just controller based vs motion control which is much better to me, but still not enough of these good games exist.
The Wii already has made a crap-ton of money in the market being the little kid and family money maker, and the other big 2 (Sony, and Microsoft) want their extra slice of the pie. So here we have XBox Kinect, and PS3 Move coming out now. Both console 
accessories seem obviously rushed out to benefit off of the holiday madness. They want to make some money, which I cannot really complain about but, they should have more titles available at launch then the handful they currently both have.
Kinect is the most recent to launch and Microsoft seems to have a bevy of excuses to why some people have had problems getting it to respond at times. The first thing they say is not enough free room in the area and not enough lighting in the area. Apparently they want us to have our consoles in a gymnasium with the lighting of a baseball field. They say for one person you need 3-4 feet of open space around you , and for 2 people you need to double that. So to fully have some fun you need in the neighborhood of 8 feet! of space to play. Who really wants to be moving around furniture to play a game? And if you happen to have an ottoman or a coffee table, have fun moving those things every time you play a game. If people can get it calibrated to work and the lighting is right well then they will likely enjoy not having to have anything in their hands at all to play. I am skeptical as well about the voice recognition in games and such but would love to see this all succeed. I have no doubt the software to set it all up is good but I think this perifferal is not going to be ideal in the majority of households to be very effective.
As for PS-Move…. It is likely to have a bit more responsiveness in some areas then kinect and also Wii but this is mainly due to the controller. I am sure the bulbs on the end of the controllers are much easier for the eye to see and pick up and you are mainly being seen by this in the game, even if it’s not completely lit up to the naked eye. LEt’s remember something when I bash Wii, it is afterall nearly 5 years old. Taking the initial product and improving on it isn’t too novel of a concept, but this coupled with an advanced graffical capability could give PS move a leg up on both the Kinect and Wii. (And this is coming from a stubborn Microsoft 
appologist). Don’t go running out just yet and getting one however, as you will likely have to have 2 of those main controllers for the most complex of the games, and that can rack up the price as well.
All in all, to both of these peripherals, all I can say is 1) I won’t be getting em anytime soon 2) I would either wait to try it at a friends house to make your final decision 3) wait for whichever one to come down in price.
My main point tho, which won’t be received well by most, is the idea of motion control at this time is a formula for disaster. True gamers just don’t care anymore. We don’t want to play the same old sports games or play with cutesy little animals on the screen. We like action games, shooters, rpg’s etc. Sure these companies are looking to cash in with the 300lb soccer mom crowd who already has a Wii Fit gathering dust in the corner in hopes that THIS will finally be the way they can lose weight in 2 mins a day! But like most things give it a week and this will be gathering dust in the corner. What about those of us who already get our exercise the old fashioned way, by actively moving. We don’t want to mix exercise gimmicks with our games. We just want to play the damn games. We want responsive controls, so that when we click a button the zombie blows into a million pieces. We play games to be relaxed on a couch, eyes glued to our target, with eye popping graphics. Please Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, use the incredible technology available to us now in the world to give us lighter more responsive killer graffical machines with games at a decent price, and stop trying to create a fad. We want thrilling gameplay and intuitive design. Honestly we just don’t need another ping-pong and dance player.
Well, these products are simply a means for the big game system companies to make some extra money during the holiday season. I also consider this current technology as a transition platform for more advanced motion sensor technology that is inevitably in the pipeline. Also, keep in mind the target audience for these products: the more casual gamer/younger users. Remember when the Wii first came out? It was bashed let and right for being inferior to current game systems like the PS and XBox. But people making fun of the Wii based on specs comparisons alone were missing the point. The Wii was directed squarely at a couple of what I considered underserved marketsat the time of it’s release: kids and casual/non-gamers. And what the Wii did was succeed beyond belief. That system got people who don’t play video games to play video games. That system got parents to buy a game system for their kids who otherwise would have said their kids were “not old enough yet for a Playstation or XBox.” Family members of people who owned Wii systems suddenly found themselves in the middle of a bowling match or tennis game where before they wouldn’t have played anything consule related. That is quite an accomplishment!
The people at Sony and Microsoft aren’t stupid. They see the trend in video game entertainment is more interaction with the user. People want to move and get involved with a game instead of simply sitting on a couch or in a chair at a computer and hitting a controller. This current wave of technology is Sony and Microsoft’s way of attempting to take the Wii concept and improve on it. Or at least an attempt to hit the market Wii busted wide open with their technology. I also would venture a guess this is those respective company’s attempts at testing the waters for the market size for a more sophisticated motion detection system they have in the pipeline. These companies will all try to one up each other with this technology but only if consumers are willing to buy the hardware.
So for a different review of these products Geek Jock you need to step back from your more hardcard advanced gamer perspective and evaluate these products from a causal gamer’s perspective. Because those are the people that will be willing to buy this hardware this holiday season. Take your kids to a demo set up at an electronics store and see what they think about them. Ask them the critical questions: “did you have fun playing that?” or better yet “do you like that better than your Wii?” That is the market for these products anyway.
Personally I’m impressed that Sony and Microsoft are at least trying to come up with an answer to the wildly popular Wii. But the real question is not how well these new hardware systems will work for their respective manufacturers but what’s next. The next generation Wii, XBox, and PS will have to raise the bar with regards to the interactive gamer experience. So the question becomes this: which company will be able to pull it off? And what will those new systems cost for consumers and gamers? I don’t know the answers but I can’t wait to see what these companies have up their sleeves!
The Redheaded Pharmacist
While I agree with most all of what you said, in a way you made my point. Yes, they are out to make money. They might not have had to put much money into R&D. This is an obvious money grab by them to see what the market has. And while I agree even further with you about wanting to see what is next I cannot ignore where we are now. The motion control is simply not there yet in terms of good use.
Having children I can tell you that you are right you can take them to a store and they will love just about anything you put in front of them. It ALL looks great there. Everything from FIFAA to Rock Band to Kinect will all look great and work awesome. Why? Well they give you a store which is a warehouse in size and has the lighting of a small ballpark. My livingroom? Well it does not. Just tonight my son wanted to play golf on the Wii, and it was frustrating the living crap out of me b/c it would not acept the swing anywhere near the strength I was swinging it. This is simply unacceptable. I also agree with trying it in the store or in a friends house (as I mentioned above in the post) b/c I want to be convinced it works. I want to see it in action in a place more closely resembling what I will be using. Right now, I won’t be giving them my money. There is far too many simpler things using the controllers as real controllers even on the Wii that will keep my kids happy for a while.
While you are right about the Wii 5 years ago, it got people playing who normally do not. It got families involved again. The ones who succeeded the most were those who used both controlling and motion control. The ones which were not liked were ones who wholely used motion control vs a mix of both.
I have no doubt my kids would love it initially. It’s shiny new, and the animals in the kinectamals are cute and cudly. But when it simply fails to work as well as it should and gets all too repetative then I am stuck with an expensive paper weight that gets used once a month at best.
Sure I look at things in a hard core manner, however my main point is the world now is past having to get worked up every time they want to play a console. Does everyone really need to take a shower after every time they play a game? Do we always feel like we need to stand every time we want to play? Niche market, sure, fun? Sometimes. I still think the majority of the world likes their games sitting down with a controller in hand. Again tho, I will buy alot of things if the price is right
GeekJock