Week 3: The future of gaming... or life as we know it?

We've come a long way as species.  Thousands of years ago men marveled at the thoughts and ideas of the ancients, like Socrates, Plato, and Cicero, and the world was never the same.  Only hundreds of years ago we experienced the industrial revolution, which has led rise to the great nation we live in today, America.

But it was only about 50 years ago when the first computers were being invented.  Back then, computers were simply the marvelous tools of scientists.  Today, electronic devices dominate our lifestyle.  So much so, that we are in fact seemingly helpless without them.

Gaming itself has been steadily evolving over these past years as well.  The first video-games were simple, like pong and pac-man.  With a 2d interface and a few basic buttons, these first games are dramatically different then the modern games on the Xbox 360, like Red-Dead-Redemption, which simulates the life of a old-west outlaw with unprecedented levels of freedom and realism.

The way we interact with games are changing, however.  As competitions between companies increase, the drive to create new unique ways to attract players is creating an expanding  market for new user interfaces.

The Nitendo: Wii, sparked the first big attraction to motion sensing hardware to input data in games. Many, at first, simply brushed off motion sensing games as a gimmick, and at best a way of expanding to the market of parents who hoped that there kids may get some exercise from a console that forced there kids to swing their arms if they want to play.  But it's not just Nitendo anymore.  Playstation: Move has just been introduced from Sony, and Microsoft is going to unveil its Xbox: Kinect.  Both systems are based on motion sensing games, and are expanding there market not just to kids, but to adults as well.  With the onset of these new hardware systems, many new games will be created to fill the motion sensing market, that could not have been filled with simple controller interface before.

But it doesn't just stop there, with the onset of the 3d movies, gaming is expanding into the 3d realm as well, but with more tangible benefits.  3d gaming has already existed for quite a while, but with the addition of motion sensing technology, 3d games can react in real time to the player.  Additional hardware benefits are going to include real time voice communication with NPC's (non player characters) and facial expression readers that can react to the emotions and facial expressions of the player.

As the technology expands, and becomes more powerful and in greater demand, the line between virtual and real is thinning.  Is the expansion of gaming technology the first real steps towards AI systems and Virtual reality?  Only time will tell.

Original Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/19/3d-games-xbox-playstation

Week 2: To Wire, or not to wire.

A common problem with many of the older console systems was the wiring.  While it could be somewhat of hassle figuring out that the blue red and white video/audio cables hooked up into the blue/red/white ports on the tv, this isn't what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the wires connected to your controller.  And specifically, I'm talking about the connection of the controller to the Playstation itself.  These controllers were designed to connect and not be easily removed, presumably, because it was thought that a controller that can be easily (or accidentally) removed from the system, was not a desired affordance.

While for all intents and purposes, this was a good idea,  there was one factor that the playstation designers didn't keep in mind.  A simple affordance that designers did not have in mind is where and how the Playstation would be set up, and the players would play.  In most cases, the system would be set up as close to the TV as possible, and the player would be as far away from the TV as possible.  While cord length could be limiting in and of itself, most players would stretch the length to its max, eventually ending with the controller wire pulling on the console.  And depending on where the console was set up, this could end in disaster.  During intense gameplay, or if some careless person walked into the room, any tug on the controller could pull the console and end up moving it, or, if set up with your tv on top of a desk, pulling itself and other electronics crashing to the floor.  Which is never a good thing.

Xbox, however, designed a constraint that eventually has gone to the wayside with the onset of wireless controllers.  None the less, this simple design innovation allowed for players to stretch their cords to the limits without the worry of having their xbox come crashing to the floor.  On the picture to your right, you can see that in the middle of the xbox cable their is a bulky looking section the middle of the cord.  This piece actually separates from  the xbox and the controller, so that if excessive force was pulled on the controller, the controller would unplug itself here, and would prevent the xbox from crashing to the floor.  A simple constraint like this saved many xbox's from being destroyed by gravity.

Entry 1- Xbox controller

The original xbox controller looked something like this. On the back of the controller, there are also two triggers.

This original x-box controller is a classic example of failed natural mapping.

First off, and it's hard to tell from the picture, but the controller was too big.  Unless you have hands on the larger side, many of the buttons would be inaccessible to the user, unless they shifted their hand on the controller. The most notable case of failed natural mapping were the black and white keys.  These keys in themselves were confusing, because they had no letter corresponding names, and were simply black and white keys.  The biggest problem with the black and white keys however were their placement.  On the top half of the controller, the keys could not be used unless you lifted your hands from the controller to hit it.  And in the speed of games, this could be huge inconvenience.