Improving Gaming Through Biometrics

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 1, 2006 @03:27AM from the maybe-now-they'll-stop-with-the-escort-missions dept.

PreacherTom writes "Programmers have long used the feedback of gamers to determine how to improve what they put on the market. British company Bunnyfoot aims to take things to the next level. Their assessments take pains to record the heart rate, respirations, facial tension, and eye patterns of the test audience in order to fine-tune the games. If only their motives were completely altruistic: one of the primary goals of their project is to maximize the efficiency of embedded advertising." From the article: "What Bunnyfoot specializes in has implications for gaming that reach far beyond in-game ads. Being able to analyze the way a person reacts to a visual is thoroughly useful for gameplay as well. Their technology works as sort of a 'super focus group' allowing them to collect feedback on not only what the person mentions afterwards, but also how they react during the game."

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Re:use your ears, not your instruments by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-01 05:59 · Score: 1, Informative

Sure, proper research is valuable, but it's no substitute for service nor does it guarantee quality. The type of listening I was referring to is when companies produce what their customers want, not what upper management thinks is most profitable.

If they really listened, they'd know we:

. don't want to have to put in a CD to play a game.
. don't want to pay $50 for a 50 cent CD and a cardboard box.
. don't want copy protection.
. don't want subscription fees.

. do want the ability to mod and create content and territory
. do want the ability to run free public servers.

I'm tired of seeing great games, and great game designers, sold out simply to put money in the pockets of non-gamers and non-developers.

As well, sell me something I want, at an affordable price, or I simply won't buy it.