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Multimodal, Multitouch Gaming Gaining Traction
andylim writes "Several universities and commercial entities are developing multimodal, multitouch games, such as a card game using iPhones for individual hands and an iPad for public information, and an iPad Scrabble game that lets you use your iPhone to see your letter tiles. Of course, it's an extremely expensive setup right now, but over time it will become cheaper. It's also pretty cool, so why wouldn't you want to play board/card/strategy games like this?"
You run the risk of ruining pen and paper games by increasing the speed in which encounters get dealt with. GMs need time to BS and slow mechanics enable that. I'm sure there are other games where being efficient will detract from the social aspects of the situation. Slot machines are probably one of the best examples of such.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
The only multitouch demonstration on any of the videos was rotating the playing cards (to little effect anyway).
Why is "multitouch" specifically such a buzzword, and not just "touch" on its own? Multitouch has so far had weird implications on what sort of appendage/stylus you can use on the surface, whereas single touch does not. Plus, you can effectively do pinch/zoom on a typically single-touch panel, just not rotations.
In the interest of truth, how about the commenters in this thread start by telling us if they own or have used at length an iPhone, Ipod Touch, or an iPad. I think that if we pay more attention to the people who have something that they know to add we might discover something useful here.
I mean, sheesh - if you want to see people holding forth on things they know nothing about you can always tune in the Fox channel. We're better than that here, aren't we? This "I heard it was bad so it must be" nonsense isn't doing anyone any good. It's a product, not a philosophical statement - so get down off of those high horses and let's discuss this like men and women.
All this article seems to claim is that some people are making them. And most of the ones the article mentions aren't even out yet. It remains to be seen if they'll "get traction".
The overall trajectory of hyper-realistic computer versions of traditional games reminds me of an old SNL parody of virtual reality: you put on a headset, and engage in an immersive story world, consisting of a 3d-rendered room exactly like the one you're sitting in. You pick up a 3d-rendered book from the 3d-rendered table beside you, and can read it, turning the pages in beautiful virtual reality. Unfortunately only about 5 words fit per page, due to technical limitations.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/nexus-one-gets-a-software-update-enables-multitouch/
*BZZT*
Try spreading FUD again later.
Why not just play the real games, rather than an electronic version of the game?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Wow weird world were obvious trolls contributing nothing ar ebeing modded insightful.
"multimodal multitouch gaming"???? Sod that. How about... "Two pods, one pad".
Uhh, because I don't need to charge a board game? And so that if my board game runs out of batteries I still have a usable phone? And because a physical board game can be larger than an iPad so everyone doesn't have to crowd around it? There are countless reasons.
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Maybe it's because computers with 32-bit random number generators (pseudo or otherwise) can only generate 2^32 different permutations, which is a tiny fraction of the possible permutations of a deck of cards or a set of Scrabble tiles.
I've got $5 that says such a game would never make it past Apple's approval process.
My sig can beat up your sig.
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My sig can beat up your sig.
This IS Slashdot right, I mean here people try to get DOOM to run on ancient ATM hardware.
Why would you run Doom on an old Sonet card?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Pro-tip: ? means they're asking a question, not making a statement.
While I think the idea is good, I agree. Why would I want to pay for one providers games list, when I will just be changing hardware in 2 years, and per the usual, it will probably be locked to one device forcing me to repay the premium to play the same games I already "own".
It would seem like this form of geeky board gaming would be of great benefit to games that require a large number of identical pieces of several kinds, or games that require the player to remember math frequently. Settlers of Catan has a couple apps out for the iPhone that attempt to aid board game players.
One of the keys to these kinds of apps in the majority of board games (read: social board games; games that are determinable only to a few moves due to probabilistic influences), is that they should be helpful up to the point where the game's social aspect is affected. I've played games of Settlers of Catan with an iPhone application, and have found that the quickness of rolling dice on the device can quicken the pace without causing any social problems. But I would worry, again using Catan as the example, if we were to enable all forms of interaction to be represented in the application, that the social aspect would be gone and it would be no different than playing clever (or not so clever) AI in a video game version of the board game.
Some other considerations could be how making the game faster will affect how long people take on their turns (due to less time to think while it is not their turn), how much does the application allow players to cheat (Scrabble word completion, for instance; perhaps calculating probability may take a way what makes someone clever at a game (Catan, StoneAge, etc.), etc..
However, some games rely too much on complexity (Agricola, perhaps?), and having quicker turns (I suspect a simple digital aid won't be of much help for this game, but still) and removing complexity may reveal the good game that exists at its core, or the terrible game that was hidden by complexity.
My two cents, smothered in parenthesis.
So I've owned an iTouch and a Macbook pro for about a year now, and I've gotta say, I'm *very* impressed with the touch capability and quality that these have. The responsiveness of the iTouch is great, which I'm sure everyone knows, but the multi-touchpad on the macbook pro is phenomenal to me. I don't know how I ever lived without that thing. It makes scrolling down pages, 'right clicking', going back or forward between pages, and tabbing to other programs a lot faster and a lot smoother. I never thought the biggest redeeming quality of a macbook would be the touchpad, but I'm just too impressed by that.
Not to mention, I also saw some windows laptops were coming out with multitouch pads... I'm very excited about those.
Weren't Monopoly, Trivial, Pictionary, Scrabble and all those board games already 'multimodal, multitouch games'? Will fanning yourself with an iPod feel so good as doing it with Monopoly's fake bills, when you win? :)
Anyway, multitouch tables will for sure be used as what we know today as board games (among many other uses). I'm not sure if they will replace them, but at least they will offer new ludic experiences. And I can easily imagine my living room table being a multitouch table where I can read, play games and control my electronic devices.
Until Google does something wacky with Java allowing it to run at a reasonable clip (better support for float ops, better garbage collection), or makes using native code seamless (a long way from the horrific situation at the moment) developers like myself will be sticking to iDevices, if only to avoid pulling out our remaining hair.
why wouldn't you want to play board/card/strategy games like this?
Because then they're no longer board games. Part of the fun factor of these games comes from the physical board and pieces. The components can be quite beautiful in some games (Euro-games especially). The tactile nature of the game is part of its appeal.
There's no denying that multi-touch screens are cool, but (shock, horror) the real world can be even cooler! I happen to like holding cards in my hand, and dragging a bunch of wooden pieces around an expansive, beautifully artistic board.
This might be an odd claim to make on /., but not everything can be improved by putting it on a computer.
Advanced-pro-tip: Rhetorical questions are for making statements. He was pointing out there's no reason why this sort of game has to be limited to the iPhone.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
But games like scrabble have already made it past their approval process. They just need to make apps for other platforms that work with it.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Where is the law that says we can't have both? If I buy something like this, I won't throw away my board games, but it can be a nice complement for certain occasions when I don't have them handy or in games through the interwebs.
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Wow. This brings back memories of the old Atari 800 games that used four plug in controllers to play. I remember one of their greatest was a four player game FIRST FOUNDER. Very competitive bidding game where no one knew what the other players would do each turn that accounted for hours of fun in the old days. I could see how a porting of some of the war games onto iPAD with such controllers would also be a big hit. I would spend the money to get such a system and await one of the iPADs with AT&T internet connection later this spring. (We now own a 32GB and 64GB iPod touch between my wife and I enjoy reading Amazon & public domain books on it where ever we are as we voyage on our boat)
Yes, but your complement costs 20 times as much, for just one pad. It's a great idea, but the economics aren't flattering, even if the price drops to $200. Unless the iPad(s) or similar become ubiquitous, but I don't see that happening.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
And because a physical board game can be larger than an iPad so everyone doesn't have to crowd around it?
Coming soon ... the iBoard. Offering a massive one metre square multimodalmagictouch screen, at only twice the price of the iPad. It's bigger, so everyone will want one. It'll be even more popular than an iPad!
It may have a niche market now, but it isn't going to be The Next Big Thing, at least not for a while.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Microsoft has prior art on the big ass table computing concept.
After seeing the scrabble demo I couldnt help but think that cards games especially CCG's like Magic, Pokemon or whatever else is popular now could be a great use of this. Sort and manage your deck on the handheld then play the cards by "flicking" them towards the slate. Add in some animated "battles" and you could really have a cool new way to play without loosing the traditional gameplay elements. Booster packs could be sold online so you could customize the deck.
I really want to see an archon/battle chess refresh as well. Kinda weird to think of a slate as being a social object but now that its out there I can see the possibilities . I had always figured MS's surface would be the first out of the gate with something like that, but it looks like HP, Apple and Archos are beating them to the punch with the added bonus of portability.
The dirty secret of the computer industry and gaming in the 1990's -- by sheer person-hours Solitaire was actually the best game ever! (With Tetris a close second.) It was also the real "Killer App" for Windows.
Just like I don't have to throw away my physical boards, I don't have to keep a tablet just for gaming. This is just one more advantage.
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I tried to love iPhone gaming. Unfortunately the touchscreen display has many problems when game controls are ported to the iPhone unchanged. You will want to eat babies as you're trying to control your character using a virtual d-pad or the built-in acceleromater. I'm glad touchscreen devices might finally get more games designed specifically for them.
Hmmm... people slapping down touch screens for Magic?
I drank what? -- Socrates