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Is Microsoft's Kinect a Gaming Failure?
MojoKid writes "E3 is well underway in Los Angeles, and Microsoft has already made a major splash with its 'SmartGlass' technology, game demos, and its announcement that a Kinect-powered version of Internet Explorer will debut on the Xbox 360. This is a marked change from last year, when Kinect was the unquestioned centerpiece of Microsoft's display and the company's demos focused on how Kinect-powered games used your full body as a controller. Kinect is in the interesting position of having sold extremely well while failing to move the bar forward in any of the ways Microsoft projected in the run up to its launch. Scroll through the ratings on Kinect-required titles, and the percentages are abysmal. Kinect's biggest problem is rooted in ergonomics. Gamepads with buttons may be crude approximations of real life, but they're simple and intuitive. They're also flexible — a great many games have conditional scenarios that allow the same button to perform different functions depending on what's going on within the game. Pure Kinect games don't have a simple mechanism to incorporate these features, and there's no easy way around them. The motion-controller's most enduring features may ultimately be its capabilities outside the gaming sphere."
The only thing that E3 has shown is is that a majority of game large game houses have no idea what they're doing, what their audience wants, or what to do in the future.
I now know why Gabe Newel always has that smile on his face.
Next question please.
Maybe Microsoft or someone else can polish it to the point where it's more of a big deal. The fact that there are lengthy warnings and slow UI response times when using the Kinect is enough for me not to want to turn it on regularly.
But it makes an awesome sensor for robotics, so I'm okay with that.
The future is but one word: dildonics. Get in on the ground floor this time, MS!
QUOTE: " Kinect's biggest problem is rooted in ergonomics. Gamepads with buttons may be crude approximations of real life, but they're simple and intuitive."
I wish Nintendo would let players *choose* if they want to use the motion sensor, or a controller. I wasted 3 hours trying to beat the *first* boss in Metroid Prime 3. If I had been able to use the standard Gamecube controller as the previous games, it would have been dead in mere minutes.
Pikmin and Zelda: TZ and Sonic Adventure 5(?) were also a pain in the butt. Fortunately I was able to go back to the Gamecube versions and play them instead with a solid functional controller. The Wii's motion control is okay for simple games like tennis or bowling, but a PITA for complex games.
BTW I'm not the only one to make this complaint. The guys over at speeddemosarchive also complained that MP3's controls were a mess and often don't register inputs.
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While I agree that the motion controller features could be considered a failure for gaming purposes, its voice control capabilities are its most enduring feature to me. Being able to control the various video streaming services by talking to the TV still feels like we are living in the future.
Don't you love titles that color the audience towards a conclusion before they read the article?
Scroll through the ratings on Kinect-required titles, and the percentages are abysmal.
Scroll through? Scroll where? Let's head over to amazon then and see how they're doing:
Do I need to keep scrolling? I don't see many games with reviews under 3 stars. Where are these supposed abysmal ratings?
Can I use Metro in the Cloud with SmartGlass, or will I need a wizard to help me?
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The games where it has supported a traditional controller are actually very engaging. I love just yelling "Tali sabotage" while aiming normally. Similar in Skyrim, dragon shouting in dragon language is pretty neat. As far as motion tracking, the Steel Battalion demo was REALLY frustrating the first time I tried it. THEN I tried playing it like i was actually there by using quick motions instead of trying to "hover over controls" and press and hold. And it just clicked. It's now one of the titles I am anticipating. It's been mostly gimmick waggle and dance so far. But the opportunity is there; heck just add head tracking to all first person shooters and you make something awesome....
I picked up a 360 with Kinect for my parents a couple of weeks ago. Controllers are becoming more difficult for them to use; and I figured controlling a game with whole body movements would work better for them.
So far they've really enjoyed it; it seems to be a good fit for the same casual gamers who have been using a Wii, but want games that are a bit more complex.
Yes.
Over 1 million units sold, setting world records, and people have the audacity to call it a failure?
Im not saying that its perfect, but the numbers do not lie...
An abject failure, to be exact.
People don't want exercise while trying to relax playing a game. Moving anything more than your fingers is too much work.
Motion Control in general is a very limited field, and for the Kinect, the dance games my wife actually likes sold poorly in north america, so she can't get any of the DLC.
The Kinect for navigation is somewhat more useful, but the only time it really comes to the forefront is searching, (despite the fact I absolutely hate Bing), saving you from a lot of typing. Far from the future of video gaming, (not that it ever was; why I would want to play a video game where I'm limited to moving around as my fat self is quite beyond me), it is pretty much an over-powered text-to-speech system, (that gets more typos then I do naturally, I might add).
Sure, text-to-speech has been ridiculously expensive in the past, so it's certainly a good thing, but the only electronics not using the Kinect are video games, so as a Video Game Peripheral, it's a complete and utter failure. It does seem to have a future in everything else, though.
Microsoft promoted the Kinect as intuitive. But being intuitive is not enough for motion controls. The motion itself must be fun to do. Thus your dance games are very popular because dancing is fun. Aerobics is fun for some people and painfull for others. Running in place is not very fun. The Kinect is succesfull if all it does is replace dance pads. That is a big enough market for gaming companies to put out games.
The Knnect sensor is quite a nice feature if you ask me but the *real* problem is with the whole game console industry and not with the various user interfaces. The game console industry is being squeezed out of the market by smartphones and tablets with touch screens. Yea, the user interface on these devices really sucks for classic game design, but they are extremely portable, have a very active application development communities and hundreds of cheap applications already available.
I expect the game console industry to continue it's decline, with some possible bumps along the way if they can come up with unique games that can only work on a console.
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The average kinect game involves making some exaggerated flailing motions that map onto some canned animations. Even then it often screws up or gets confused. There's only so far you can go with that system. Sports / fitness / dance games are the main focus but there isn't much beyond that. There have been a few genuinely innovative attempts to use kinect in a novel way that have almost succeeded such as Once Upon a Monster but most games have been dire and people have gotten bored of it.
The biggest problem with the Kinect is that you need a large open space to be able use it.
Directly from Microsoft's Kinect site:
Clear the space between you and the sensor. If you’re playing alone, we recommend standing six feet away from the sensor. For two players, you both should be at least eight feet away*.
For people in a condo or apartment that pretty much means cleaning out the room. Even in a house, many people I know don't have that kind of clear space in their entertainment rooms. It also means that spare room or den is out as well. The Kinect is a great concept but the reality is that does not fit the smaller spaces that people actually live in.
Add the fact that the concept of motion controlled games is still pretty new and you have good reasons why the Kinect is not the run away success that Microsoft wanted. Maybe once the developer and game makes learn to tweak the hardware it will get better. Just like all hardware, it takes a few iterations before it becomes well used.
The stupid thing though is that Kinect voice controls have NOTHING AT ALL to do with the Kinect hardware. All that analysis is done on the Xbox itself. Sure it is using Kinect code, but the code runs on the CONSOLE, it is not run on the Kinect hardware like the 3D processing.
Which means that all of these games that have voice control could EASILY have had this enabled using the headset, if Microsoft wanted to allow that. But they'd much rather push more stupid Kinect sales.
Chuck it in the failure pile with the Jaguar, 32X, and the Wii.
Whether Kinect is a failure depends on exactly how you define success.
-- Controlling the games we're used to playing on the xbox? FAIL.
-- Getting good reviews from people who review games on our favorite gaming websites? FAIL.
-- Selling a lot of units? WIN.
-- Has some games that some consumers really like? WIN.
-- Good as an input mechanism for some interesting non-traditional uses? WIN.
-- The future of gaming? FAIL.
-- The future of computer-human interaction? PROBABLY.
As an additional note, the first version isn't terribly awesome, but inevitably it'll get better in the future.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
I play video games specifically because I *want* to sit on my lard arse while blowing up aliens, flinging birds or jumping on turtles. Back in my day, you only got up in front of the TV and flailed around madly if you were a sore losing spazz. Yes, I just played the grumpy old gamer card.
Rot in hell Kinect, Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports and any other video game concept that dares pollute my holy pastime with elements of "gym class"!
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
The Kinekt is not a gaming failure.
Kinekt Star Wars is a gaming failure.
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Video capture systems to interact with computers have been around since the Amiga, and they are great for some games in some situations, but on the other hand you dont want to move your furniture to jump around like a dolt for every single game, it gets tiresome, tedious, and frustrating. Yea great you have had fun with them for a little while, but where does it end up? Right next to your WII, move, eye-toy, light guns, activator and rock-n-roller. Whats your next console going to have in the box? A gamepad.
kinect involves you standing up, jumping etc. which means physical exercise
in a market where your average bmi is between 27-32, it is bound to fail.
on the other hand wii involves you playing with your wrists
When will the developers at Microsoft tell their bosses "no, no we can't put Internet Explorer in that, because it fucking sucks. That's right, it sucks. Internet Explorer is FUCKING TERRIBLE." Just be sure to record it and put it up on YouTube so we can all witness such pure win.
Microsoft Kinect Spy System
Written by Alphonse
So you just got the Kinect/Xbox360 gaming system and youâ(TM)re having fun, hanging out in your underwear, plopped down in your favorite lounge chair, and playing games with your buddies. Yeah, itâ(TM)s great to have a microphone and camera in your game system so you can âoeKinectâ to your pals while you play, but did you read that Terms of Service Agreement that came with your Kinect thingy? No? Here, let me point out an important part of that service agreement.
If you accept the agreement, you âoeexpressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft, our partners, or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the Service; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public.â
Did you catch that? Here, let me print the important part in really big letters.
âoeIf you accept the agreement, you expressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications⦠on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public.â
OK, is that clear enough for ya? When you use the Kinect system, you agree to allow Microsoft (and any branch of law enforcement or government they care to share information with) to use your Kinect system to spy on you. Maybe run that facial recognition software to check you out, listen to your conversations, and keep track of who you are communicating with.
I know this is probably old news to some, but I thought I would mention it because it pertains to almost all of these home game systems that are interactive. You have to remember, the camera and microphone contained in your game system has the ability to be hacked by anyone the game company gives that ability to, and that includes government snoops and law enforcement agents.
Hey, itâ(TM)s MICROSOFT. What did you expect?
And the same concerns apply to all interactive game systems. Just something to think about if youâ(TM)re having a âoeNaked Wii partyâ or doing something illegal while youâ(TM)re gaming with your buddies. Or maybe you say something suspicious and it triggers the DHS software to start tracking your every word. Hey, this is not paranoia. Itâ(TM)s spelled out for you, right there in that Service Agreement. Read it! Hereâ(TM)s one more part of the agreement you should be aware of.
âoeYou should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features (for example, voice chat, video and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions) offered through the Service.â
Did you catch it that time? YOU SHOULD NOT EXPECT ANY LEVEL OF PRIVACY concerning your voice chat and video features on your Kinect box.
- http://www.unmarkedvan.com/?p=192
I've always felt the kinetic will make a great party game. It will also do great for things like exercise videos, and personal trainer type games.
But face it, if people wanted to play sports, they'd go outside and play sports. I play video games because I am not fast enough, dexterous enough, or in shape enough to stand there and participate in the game. I want to sit on the couch and play.
But its more than that. How long do you want to stand there with your arm held out doing something. Everyone talks about Minority Report were Cruise was waving his hands around in the air. That'll work for all of about 15 seconds. A keyboard words because my arms rest on my desk. The mouse works because my hand rests on the mouse and the arm on my desk. A controller works because my hands have feedback and my arms rest on my lap or couch or knees or somewhere.
I think kinetic and its ilk are here to stay. BUT it is not a controller for every type of game. party games, dance games, exercise... but everything else give me a good old fashioned controller
The biggest problem with kinect is the amount of space required to be able to use it, not many people have that much space in front of the TV.. It's great tech, especially if it's supplemented with a Move-controller..
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Try metacritic (rounded to the next 5%) :
Kinect Sports 75% metacritic (90% amazon)
Kinect sport 2 65% (amazon 80%) Kinect star wars 35% user score (55% professional) amazon 70%.
Kinect disneyland 75% (amazon 70%).
I did not bother looking up the rest, but from the user score in my experience is that those are average or good game, but not *special* or incredible. I think the GP exagerated with his abysmal precentage, but they cetrainly are not excellent percentage.
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In 1984-85 I helped develop a 3D mouse (I called it "the bat, a mouse that flew") for use with a real 3D display we had running to explore 3D images from our real time 3D CT image scanner. The bat could control point cursors as well as line and plane cursors. Hardware limitations made it slow, but beyond that, fatigue soon set in while using the device, making it unrealistic for use in practical applications. I'm not surprised that Kinect seems to be suffering from a fate that I perceive as similar.
By Maturity, I mean of the tech. Kinect is cool, no doubt, but it's still rather mediocre at tracking subtle movements. This means it works for games that feature gross physical gestures, but still it's nothing like as high a level as resolution as the cheapest controllers.
By Context I mean of the game. If I'm playing a boxing game on my couch, I might want to just play the game, and not actually BOX. If I want to go play golf, I'll go play golf (ie outdoors). If I'm playing Skyrim at midnight, I might not want to be SHOUTING dragon-shouts in my thin-walled apartment. There are lots of games that work great with the system, but in my view a roughly-equal level of reasons NOT to want to play with anything but a controller.
-Styopa
A problem I think Kinect is struggling with is standardized control conventions.
On gamepads, navigating menus by moving the thumbstick in the direction of the item you want to select is intuitive and a standard way of how basically all games (I should say UI's) work. It's also a standard convention to have the A button select or accept things and have the B button go back to the previous screen or cancel actions. Does Kinect have such standardized control mechanisms?
I got to try the Kinect recently as part of a "workout" game review. While I liked the game itself, the Kinect had serious drawbacks. Mostly, I found that my living room was too small for it. It wouldn't be able to see me (no matter how I situated the Kinect) until my heels were pushing against my couch. Try doing a workout while your feet bump against your couch repeatedly. It's possible, but much harder than if the Kinect let me take a step or two forward. Then, if I was doing any kind of movement that shook the floorboards, the Kinect would vibrate just enough to cause it to "lose" me. My workout would be interrupted (after a second of my avatar doing nothing) and I would need to reestablish contact. Then, I'd continue the workout and it would lose me again.
People with small rooms or floors that don't absorb movement impact should beware that the Kinect might not work as advertised.
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Just like the PS2 Move and the Wii, the Kinect is for casual gaming. If you don't like dancing, or petting furry animals, then it isn't for you. It isn't fast enough or accurate enough for fast hardcore gaming. Hardcore gamers don't want to spend 14 hours straight doing excercise: they want to zone out into the virtual world by pushing buttons. If you want to capture the Call of Duty market, do the opposite of the Kinect: make a direct brain interface.
The Kinect is a casual gaming success. It allowed Microsoft to enter the niche market that Nintendo controlled.
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YES
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