Off With Their HUDS!

Gamasutra has a piece looking at the move to unite player and gameworld by removing the HUD from the gameplay space. From the article: "Many elements found on a typical HUD are there not out of necessity, but out of convention; they represent a sort of 'info overkill' that, for the vast majority of players, has no impact on gameplay at all. For every piece of information you offer the player, ask, 'Is this information essential to the game experience?' In doing so, you might find that you don't need to bombard the player with quite as much data as you once thought you did."

Comments

HL Series

[rwven]

I think the Half-Life series very well understands this...
-You get a weapons menu when you try to scroll through weapons but otherwise it's not there
-You get the flashlight in the top right
-You get health, armor and ammo

Then you have games like Deus Ex: Invisible War.
-Half the stinkin screen is HUD. To make matters worse, the HUD is elyptical so it creates this circle in the center of your screen that is the only useful part of your video display...

Nuff said.

Too much to ask?

[Azreal]

Would it be too much to ask to make HUDS in games customizeable. Make it scriptable and also include a graphical means to create the HUD setup you like akin to the idea of customizeable home pages where you can add and remove "boxes", drag them around, and even choose what information is shown in each box.

This one isn't hard

[TubeSteak]

Allow users to select what & how much information (if any) the HUD shows.

This one is a no-brainer.

The article isn't just talking about removing HUDs, they want alternative methods of conveying the same information.

Anywho, reading the conclusion gives you a good idea of what the rest of TFA is about

The games mentioned above offer numerous examples to show how player status information can be presented in ways that are immersive and innovative. There are countless other solutions; in fact, the more specific a solution is to a particular game, the greater the odds that the developer is offering the player a one-of-a-kind gaming experience. As developers continue to challenge themselves to achieve more sophisticated levels of immersion and intuitive gameplay in their creations, they will no doubt devise equally sophisticated and unique ways to communicate critical information to the player.

Information clutter

[the_demiurge]

I agree. Now we just have to explain it to CNN Headline News and MTV.

Re:Red Orchestra!

[corbettw]

How about a damage system that actually impairs your avatar? Got shot in the leg? Ok, now you limp everywhere. Boot to the head? Ok, everything is fuzzy and you have tunnel vision. Stabbed in the back? Now you can't raise your weapon up to eye level and have to shoot from the hip.

Now that would be an interesting game experience!