Slashdot Mirror
Adding an Olfactory Dimension To Games
cylonlover writes "California-based company Scent Sciences is looking to bring an olfactory dimension to computer games with its ScentScape personal digital scent delivery system. The ScentScape Gaming Suite system consists of a unit that plugs into a PC or gaming console via USB and generates smells using scent cartridges. As well as aiming for the development of ScentScape-capable games from games developers, the system also allows gamers to add scents to existing games and share these with other ScentScape system users."
But seriously folks, this is an awful, awful idea. If given a choice between sinking my money into this or into the Phantom console, I'd have to think a bit before making up my mind.
Want to make a game with an olfactory element? Go for it. Make the character someone/something with an enhanced sense of smell and display whatever their nose picks up as a visual overlay, or with an in game radar map. This has been done at least twice that I'm aware of, and works just fine, conceptually. Make it a core gameplay element and you could do something original even.
It also doesn't require either the player to use their very real nose to experience anything unpleasant, and doesn't require an expensive, useless, gimmicky peripheral.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Ok, some posting problems here. I meant to say: Great now we'll get: Grand Theft Auto: Detroit. Now with real hooker smell!
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
Plenty of games stink already.
Really i can only think of a few real uses for this... And honestly i don't want to smell any of those things either.
This is, like, a totally radical blast from the past. It was a blast from the past when the BBC brought back smellovision in '95, dudes and dudettes, and has been tried in one form or another since, like, a hundred years ago, man.
Also, using scent for video games would be totally bogus, since there's olfactory latency and stuff involved.
Now we now why Jobs didn't want anymore fart apps. It's one thing to hear farts, it's another to have to actually smell them.
On the other hand, Plants vs Zombies would be a great game to try this on. Mmmmn, lavender. Ewwwww, putrescence.
I have zero interest in this product. I don't want it. If it was on the market right now, and it worked perfectly, and it cost £1, I wouldn't buy it. If it was free, I wouldn't take it. It does not appeal to me in any way whatsoever.
Companies have been banging on about "smell-o-vision" for TV for years. I don't think anyone is interested in that either.
Scent cartridges? Jeez give me a break. As if anyone is going to waste money on smelly video games.
It's about time for another scratch and sniff manual!
This could take Leisure Suit Larry to a whole new level.
Got Code?
I will give you an E for effort but seriously this is a bad idea. Think about the fact that once the smell is released it doesn't go away! It will keep spewing out different smells depending on scene but you have to remember the smells will overlap and it will just end up well stinking. If you were physically in farm country you would smell the area then if you made your way to a city it would smell like a city, with this it would just make your room reek like both at the same time.
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
This has been tried several times, starting decades ago.
Even though the smell systems 'can' be very effective, they have always had the same flaw. They may have others, but there is always the same big one plaguing them. They don't have a way to clear out the air without annoying the subjects. In other words, in a very short time, they just stink!
Imagine if music players didn't end the previous musical note, the cacophony would quickly become unbearable. It's the same thing with these smell-o-vision gadgets. Sure there's a way around it, but who wants to wear a mask the whole time, or be in a freaking wind tunnel? Nobody, that's why they fail.
Come on designers! Freaking google the stupid ideas and realize why they failed so you can either fix the problems or not be stupid enough to repeat the same basic design F-Ups of the past!
And it was simply no fun.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/digiscent.html
We had this at a "cyber cafe" that I worked in toward the end of the '90s. There was a VR headset that allowed you to fly through different landscapes (i remember a musty smelling cave). This machine sat in the corner and collected dust.
Maybe when we get to the point where virtual worlds make us feel like we are actually standing somewhere different (and not just staring at the screen or wearing a headset), then we will need to tackle things like smell and touch. This will help our virtual world transcend that "uncanny valley".
For now, it's just not needed. It's a gimmick, and probably an expensive one. I'm not insisted it will never be needed, but just not now.
When we do finally need to need to tackle the "smelling" aspect of VR, my guess is that our immersion into the world will be so advanced compared to what we have now that it's being done by fooling our neurons, and not our eyes / ears / nose themselves. At that point, these devices will be moot, because we'll just be sending signals to the brain.
"Honey, are you playing Second life again?"
"No sweetheart"
"So why does it smell like semen and cat hair in here?"
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
I guess that makes it a USB pongle ?!
Not to mention all the War and Zombie games out there. Mmmm...scorched and rotting flesh. I love getting the urge to barf when I play my games.
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel