Haptic Battle Pong... Future of Game Interface?

An anonymous reader writes "The Sensable Phantom is a premier force-feedback haptic device and sells for a few thousand dollars now, but when that number comes down, the game industry will be jumping all over the idea of six-degree-of-freedom, precision-force-feedback video games. It looks like Haptic Battle Pong may be the first attempt at a true 6-dof, force-feedback game. It's not Quake, but maybe this is the next big thing in video games?"

Comments

sex toy?

[Anonymous Coward]

This thing has interactive chat room sex toy written all over it.

Now I can use both hands!! :-D

Battle Pong?

[RumGunner]

I thought that was when my brother and I turned to fisticuffs after particularly gruelling sessions on the Atari...

Remember...

[wbav]

To wear a cup, for those ogc'ers who have their aimbot set on crotch.

Spurious assumption

[Rogerborg]

• the game industry will be jumping all over the idea of six-degree-of-freedom, precision-force-feedback video games

Limited market, limited appeal. And it's not just little no-name games that skimp on supporting clever devices. For example, Jedi Knight 2 only added force feedback mice in the 1.3 patch, and still doesn't (officially) support force feedback joysticks. GTA3 on the PC doesn't (at the moment) even support steering wheel pedals! I can't begin to tell you how surprised and disappointed I was about that.

I'm not saying I don't like the idea, just that it will take a long, long time (5+ years) before these things take off, if they take off.

Re:Nice!

[agallagh42]

"It's a dark, fast moving plaque on the land from which their is no escape."

I hate those dark, fast moving plaques. I once had an "Employee of the Month" plaque chase me for five blocks before I ducked into a chinese restaurant and lost it...

:)

Re:Exactly.

[exploder]

You know, there are altogether too many posts like this: "Why bother making the game more realistic, I'll just go play the real thing."

I'll tell you why. When you're playing pingpong at the rec center, can you cause the ball to catch on fire, split into three, grow to the size of a beachball, speed up, slow down, teleport, wiggle, or otherwise behave in novel ways?

No.

The point of making games more and more realistic is not to somehow asymptotically approach an exact copy of the real world. It's to give more and more reality and substance to a world where you, as the programmer, are essentially god. Tell me that isn't cool.