If you step back and take Zelda the premise and examine it, you'll end up with some basic things. A story, the idea of puzzle solving dungeons, the idea of live action combat with multiple weapons, etc. So say you've got LttP and 3D has just been invented. But the invention came with the remote, not the analog stick. How do you design the game? Simple, you control everything. You don't change anything about the idea of Zelda, you just take it from top-down to 3D. But the major change is that everything is tactile. It's not the difference between realistic sword combat and Zelda, it's simply a difference in immersion. Your sword has free form, you aren't stuck with button combos. Things become simpler. Instead of a difficult combination needed to performa a downstrike or an upstrike, etc., you simply perform it. You could include a lock on system if need be, to centralize people. Instead of trying to remember that left left A is how you jab left when the enemy has a shield you, you just move your character right and make a left jab. It's simpler, not more complicated.
The difference in the revolution isn't the new genres, it's how much more tactile the old ones will be. This attempt has been around since 2D, we simply don't realize it. In making the SNES version of Zelda, a new game, several things were added. Things like switches which you pull on. In making the N64 things were added, like a rumble pack. One of the main changes in controls from the NES to the current generation, besides 3D space, is tactile. The reason there's a lock-on in the 3D Zelda games is that it makes it easier to fight. If you didn't even need to bother and just had to flick your wrist, it's twice as easy. We already pull back to pull the lever, push forward to move the box, so why not actually move our arms? For any intent and purpose we should just have to press A to move a box. Pulling on the control stick is rather pointless, it doesn't make the game much different. Yet if those things are removed we'd miss them, as we'd feel less involved. We'd just be pressing A over and over again. We've gone from button press to directional movement, and now we're going to real motion. It's the next step, it makes sense. It will make the games far more immersive.
Immersive in so many way. When people move they feel stronger emotions and reactions. The less of you that is moving, the less you respond. You can see this anywhere. The less interaction a game has, the less immersive. People can pickup Tetris and spend an hour without realizing it. Why? They're always doing something, always interacting. If you're walking down a hallway with your flashlight out, it can be tense. If you use your thumbs you'll be immersed. But if your arms are being used, that's more of you invested. When something jumps out in a movie, people shake or shudder or flich. When it happens in a game their hands fly up, their hands holding the control. he game isn't any scarier, yet they move more than with the movie. Why? They are physically involved. Even if it's just their hands, their hands reaction. Now image it's your whole arm, suddenly even more of you is invested, even more of you will react. Scares are just an obvious form.
Pressing buttons is not tactile or intuitive. We learn it. I've been playing PS2 and XBOX this weekend and I have trouble remembering which button is which (the four face buttons). I always get O and square mixed up. I've been gaming my whole life, I've played PSX and PS2 many times. Yet I am still learning where everything is. There was a brief learning curve on the GCN controller, which face button is which (X/Y). It isn't intuitive to push a button when you want to swing a sword. We learn it, and we understand it, but it isn't intuitive. Moving your arm to point a flashlight is intuitive, that's how flashlights work. The huge step this gives games is to have controls match reality. Currently games control nothing like reality. They can look real, sound real, their stories can be real, but they don't control real.
Maybe the Revolution will be a big disaster. But in 100 years I'd bet anything that games are controlled through tactile. More advanced than the remote I'm sure, but after 20 years of emulating the tactile, it's simply a matter of time before that innovation hits. We should just be glad it's our team who's doing it.
Topic: Reggie's A Rockstar (Read 13150 times)
