This is the first year that I've actually followed E3 as it was happening, and, compared to what I've read in magazines after the fact from other years (Wii Music... Yay.), this may have been the coolest year ever.
Why? Project Natal.
Incredible. I hope it works as promised.
And this is my first video embed, and I'm not an HTML tag expert yet... so sorry it covers up the other stuff on the side. But this must be seen by everyone. It's the future. You know, if M$ can make it work.
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I'm still not sold on motion-controlled gaming systems.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that the novelty can't be beat. Waving your hand to choose what Netflix movie to stream is pretty fucking sweet. But when I want to using my gaming system to, you know, actually play a game, I want to chill out on the couch and press buttons on a hand held controller. I can't see myself coming home from work or relaxing on the weekend and loading up a game where I have to jump around my living room. (Though I will say that party games will benefit from the Natal, and we can finally see Air Guitar Hero.)
The (theoretical) technology behind the Natal is stunning. But I don't actually want it.
It does seem gimmicky at first, but Peter Molyneux's Milo demo looks like the first step towards creating real-life replicants. Who needs friends when you can talk to your Xbox?
ReplyDeleteI still don't see real life controllers being taken from our hands in the near future... but eventually I think all the new games will be in holodeck/Danger Room types of places. In the near future, however, the "gaming" aspect of Natal seems more geared towards the Wii crowd, where you can have a group of friends over and all play TV games. But the actual technology of it reminds me of the movie Minority Report... and using your hands to control ten monitors at once while trying to find the bad guy would be intense.
Still, it'll take quite awhile before developers do anything useful with the tech. The Wii's "revolutionary" controls have so far just made it a dumping ground for mini-games when there are so many new gameplay ideas that could be done there and not duplicated on any other system. Like Wii Music, only, you know, functional and fun.
I'll check out Milo (or Milton or whatever it's called) when I get home from work. Molyneux is a mixed bag for me, because I typically end up both disliking AND appreciating his products. At least his projects are interesting while they're in their development phases. Man, he's batshit crazy.
ReplyDeleteAlso: I think it's much more probable that we'll start to understand our brain chemistry well enough to have hallucinatory games. (Remember that PS9 commercial? That kind of technology.) A holodeck is just really impractical. So I think we'll still be on the couch in the future, but we'll simply be tripping out in the Mushroom Kingdom.
I wouldn't hold my breath on games being "innovative" enough to take advantage of motion sensitive controls. The whole concept just isn't that great, and I think the gamers should think about it realistically. The break-through game that utilizes the motion controls just isn't going to happen.
That said, I'm actually for the Natal. More casual games and gamers is positive, and keeps the gaming industry healthy. And I would LOVE to see more motion sensitive interfaces, I just don't want to have to hold my hands over my head to pick up a pot in Zelda. :(
Molyneux is French. What else would you expect?
ReplyDeleteI hope the brain chemistry altering games don't become a reality... there have been too many cyberpunk novels where that kind of thing got way out of hand. It would become an opiate for the masses, like soma in Huxley's Brave New World. We'd just go home and plug a jack into the base of our head and drift away into WoW 2.0, never realizing that the dog is peeing on our foot in the real world.
The word "innovative" has been thrown around so much that it's hard to even take that claim seriously anymore. But if Natal and Milo can do even half the things they claim, that's quite a step forward technology-wise. And Molyneux is the pro when it comes to overhyping something before releasing something still cool but not nearly as revolutionary as he initially promised. Still, the thing with the picture of the fish on the paper in the Milo video is pretty much jaw-dropping.
Also, how much would these cameras cost, and would it be an entirely new game system, or could we use our existing Xboxes? People complained about a $400 PS3 despite it's power... but it'd be a blast to have a lightsaber game on this. It'd be like the old Star Wars Arcade cabinet only 100x more fun.
I don't think we have to worry too much about the temptation to lose ourselves in virtual realities MORE as technology gets better. I mean, people already quit their jobs to raid in WoW. (I would be worried about malicious software that could, say, alter your memories or personality.) Worrying that the next new product would be the next "opiate" is wasted time, since modern society will find/make their own escapes no matter what the next new thing may be. Those in the zoo self medicate.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Milo video. The technology is stunning, and the demonstration was so slick that I hesitate to accept it without a healthy dose of skepticism. I really would love to see a fully realized digital personality and highly sophisticated communication with it, but I'm going to remain excitedly unconvinced that Milo is going to be what Crazy McCroissant is going to make it out to be. (He was refreshingly moderate in the presentation, though.)
I take that back. If Milo can sniff out treasure chests for me, I'm on board. God bless you, Molyneux.
After the initial presentation, Molyneux came back and said, "Milo is a game!" I'm assuming he was indicating that it wasn't just a tech demo, that there was actually a goal to having a digital friend. Maybe it'll be a game like Seaman or Animal Crossing, where the goal is to merely live and coexist. Molyneux did create Populous, Theme Park, and Black and White... the originals, not the 1,000 knock-offs.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Miyamoto had a flawless record before Wii Music. Maybe this is Molyneux's turn to drop the ball creatively?
My favorite part about Milo was that so many different technologies came together into one beautiful package. Motion sensing, emotional reactions after recognizing your emotions, picture/color recognition, all sorts of very complicated processes at the same time. That's the best part of all the new technology, combining differing aspects that used to be entire games by themselves into a seamless experience.
And yeah, since the first Ultima Online, people have put their digital lives in front of their real lifes (probably because fake lives have no filler and are much more fun in general). But is making games more addictive really what we want to do to the world? We're already the most obese county in the world.
Also... if I drew boobies and passed them to Milo, would he assume they're eyes, or would he know exactly what he was "seeing?" Seaman recognized F-bombs. Even the French have to realize that new technology will automatically bring out the lowest common denominator in the masses. Remember PictoChat on DS? It took approximately 5.3 seconds into any conversation before someone drew a wiener. How will a digital boy react to a Call of Duty 4 trash-talker when left alone in a room with him? No matter how real he looks, Milo isn't real, and he is completely at our mercy. It's kind of empowering... and scary... to see how people would handle him when they realize that there are no consequences. That's why it's so easy to be rude online - there are no consequences. The other guy can't punch you in the face when you say something off-color. Milo can't either.
One last note: I've been referring to Milo as a "he" and not an "it," even though he's technically just a program. That fact alone makes me feel like this will be special, no matter the final product. Yay for potential for the future!