My OperaA Shakedown in Gaming
By .edDotEd. Monday, June 20, 2011 10:06:55 PM
Cross posted from Opera News where the poll results you see were from an Opera News poll that ran during the week around E3. Be sure to check out some great comments in the original post.
It's no surprise that a healthy portion of Opera News readers play PC games, often sitting at a desk, right? So how do you feel about motion-controlled gaming being a part of everything these days but lacking on the PC?
At Opera, we like innovation. From voice input to mouse gestures, usability design to face gestures. The options for controlling Opera have always been industry leading.
Nintendo Wii received a lot of attention at launch and through the years for making motion control standard. The subsequent revolution of motion-controlled gaming that followed with Microsoft Kinect, Playstation Move, Nintendo 3DS, Playstation Vita, and devices running iOS to Android, motion control has become a core feature of all hardware.
Why then, besides the difficulty in forming a standard across computers, has there been no major motion capture implementation in pc gaming? Could a standard exist?
It sounds silly to even ask, right? Console and PC gamers rarely see eye to eye. I wanted some real answers so I asked attendees at E3 why they thought PC gamers didn't care for motion control. Here's how they responded:
- 14 people said they'd rather sit.
- 8 people said they'd knock their water/coffee/beer
over. - 6 people said that [number of] hours of [some long action, like zoning out in The Sims or raiding in World of Warcraft] should be fun, not excruciating or tiring.
- 5 people said WASD keys and mouse work fine.
- 1 person said they can't dance in front of a laptop. (Why not? I do all the time...)
- 1 person said "motion control is a casual gimmick, I'm hardcore."
A Revolution Comes Full Circle
Something is strange here: isn't a mouse capturing your hand motion and turning it into input? Doesn't that count as motion control? Hand motion, selection of objects, direct control, grab, body movement, momentum, etc. - all of this has to count. Right? Isn't a mouse standard?
So what are your thoughts? Is Nintendo going to appeal to the hardcore with the premium Wii U controller? Is Minecraft really possible with Kinect? Does mouse input constitute 'motion control' and is it the reason 'joysticks' are extinct? Or, is Augmented Reality the future? I like AR so I'm sharing a gratuitous photo of iJustine (who really seems to like Opera ) and I with an oversized Nintendo 3DS AR card. Now sound off in the comments, let's hear what you have to say!
Hey! I also want to know who's still gaming on some good older systems and rolling dice - I'm with you on that!
(42%)
Charles SchlossChas4 # Monday, June 20, 2011 10:43:43 PM
AntonCaptainSeagull # Monday, June 20, 2011 11:55:50 PM
Also, eh computer gaming is good for: Sim City - REALLY GOOD! but bad for posture, not that handheld gaming is any better, its just I can take my bad posture with me to, I dunno, camping.
Also, board-video games are great when you have a full board in... MARIO FREAKING PARTY!
Dustin WilsonKhadgar # Tuesday, June 21, 2011 12:29:00 PM
I used to play PC games all the time, but I've pretty much abandoned it. It's not worth the money and wasted time for me to purchase hardware that won't be ideal for the next game that comes out. Right now with my computer I can digitally paint super high resolution (10000x10000+) illustrations in real time without my computer ever showing any remote signs of fatigue, but my computer is incapable of playing these high resolution graphics games like we see on the PS3 or 360 despite my computer having hardware that's infinitely better than either of those consoles have. There's too much overhead on PCs today to make gaming financially viable. PC gaming today for me is playing old school PC games and emulated console games, and I'm perfectly content with that.
The biggest thing PC gaming has had for it is that the keyboard and mouse are more precise methods of control for a game. The only thing I wish is that some of these people making FPS-like games (or any games that require precise control; FPS games are just an example) would allow keyboard and mouse control because all 3 consoles today can accept keyboard and mouse input. There's a few games that do work with a keyboard and mouse, but playing a FPS game with a controller is like trying to fish with a spoon. The Wii did the best out of any console by using the precise pointing of the Wii remote to replace the mouse and the nunchuk to replace the keyboard, but there's only so long a human being is capable of lifting his arm pointing at a screen before fatigue sits in. It works for a game like Metroid Prime 3, but for a fast paced FPS game you'd get tired quick. I've seen some third party controllers that are essentially mice and nunchuk combinations, and gamers in competitions swear by them.
Masonwaffletower # Sunday, June 26, 2011 9:53:59 PM
Originally posted by DotEd:
Because playing Halo makes a "hardcore" gamer amirite guize
</sarcasm>
Good, thorough article
Charles SchlossChas4 # Monday, June 27, 2011 12:14:46 AM
li~one blackstondatboy84 # Tuesday, July 5, 2011 8:12:47 AM