Topic: Which of the Next Gen console UI's stand out to you the most.

[TJ Spyke]

Feudalism failed after 500 years and is looked at badly (even back then, only the people on top liked it). Mercantilism wasn't a system, it was a policy that some European countries had for a very brief 200 years. Capitalism has evolved, but has essentially been around for 4,000 years. If something has died out, it hardly "worked". Again, what system that could be different has proven to be successful? Capitalism has been around since the 2nd millenium BC, do you really think it's going away anytime soon? The only other system that has had any form of success has been communism, and even that has had to add in more and more elements of capitalism to survive (so it's a mixture of capitalism and communism).

[nickmitch]

It's hard to talk about economic systems without getting in to ones that naturally incorporate a political system. So, back to the actual convo.

Over the air TV was all paid for by ads, I think. And really, I don't think we're paying Disney, NBC, or Viacom. You're paying the cable company who offers was to look at "premium" channels (in HD). But for the most part, you DO pay for TV. It's just not always to the content provider.

I think old TV and radio (aside from satellite radio) are more of outliers in the regard that you get free content without ads. But look at what free online gaming services get you: shittier service. I'd hat to beat the dead horse of the PSN outage, but it's there. Nintendo would be a damn fool to try and charge for the first time they've actually gotten it mostly right.

And from MS's perspective, they probably NEED the revenue. Their first gen was a cash sink hole, and profits had to be had the second time around. Look at Sony, giving free **** and losing money. These companies aren't charities.

However, I do feel like I want my gaming machines to do gaming first a foremost and only try and sell me gaming related things. Intrusive ads for Old Spice or some **** would make me throw a fit. So, I'm in agreement there.

[NWR_insanolord]

Feudalism failed after 500 years and is looked at badly (even back then, only the people on top liked it). Mercantilism wasn't a system, it was a policy that some European countries had for a very brief 200 years. Capitalism has evolved, but has essentially been around for 4,000 years. If something has died out, it hardly "worked". Again, what system that could be different has proven to be successful? Capitalism has been around since the 2nd millenium BC, do you really think it's going away anytime soon? The only other system that has had any form of success has been communism, and even that has had to add in more and more elements of capitalism to survive (so it's a mixture of capitalism and communism).

So something that dominated the western world for centuries can't be considered something that worked simply because it eventually went away? So if and when capitalism gets replaced by something else, as would seem to be historically inevitable, you would then come on here and argue that it never worked?

[nickmitch]

Not if he's been dead for hundreds of years.

Not that you'd care.

Because you will also have been dead for a similarly long time.

[pokepal148]

let me put it this way as much as i love revisionist history

[TJ Spyke]

Again, capitalism DOES work. It's not perfect, but it DOES work. I could throw out meaningless crap like you for any economic system (or anarchy) and how they don't work. Capitalism has proven to work better than anything else. Some people abusing that system doesn't mean the system doesn't work.

[nickmitch]

I kinda like the Wii U's UI. The Xbox thing looks too much like it wants to be on a touch screen device (good thing there's Kinect!) and I never liked what Sony had with the PS3, but the PS4 does look better.

[NWR_insanolord]

It's like the old Churchill quote, but with economics instead of political systems. Capitalism is the absolute worst way to structure an economy, except for all the other ways that have been tried.

[TJ Spyke]

Back on topic, I agree with nickmitch. The Wii U UI looks good. I hated the XMB and the PS4's UI doesn't look much better. I hate the metro design Microsoft is going with for all their systems.

[NWR_insanolord]

I thought the UI Nintendo used on the Wii was great, and the same with the one on the 3DS, and the Wii U's is an extension of both of those. Clean, simple, but effective. Part of that, though, is having the touch screen there, which opens up a lot more possibilities for user interaction than MS and Sony have with just sticks and buttons.

[nickmitch]

With the Wii, Nintendo knew what I had in my hand: a pointer. They designed the UI around me pointing at what I want. That worked. MS is trying to recreate a tablet experience (pretty much across the board) and that doesn't work as well.

[NWR_insanolord]

With the Xbone at least they've got it so everyone has Kinect, and from what I've heard the voice command stuff works pretty well, so they've got that to fall back on.

[nickmitch]

Yeah, but I hate that swipe my hand and then hold it in place then make a fist to select things type of interface. Something about not clicking just irks me so.

[ShyGuy]

As a capitalist, I plan to exercise my free market rights and not buy an Xbox One.

As a dirty liberal, I'm surprised Insanolord isn't a bigger supporter of feudalism.

MODS LOCK THIS THREAD

[MukiDA]

I've probably made it moderately clear as to why I'm not getting an Xbox.

I could probably write another wall of texts about why I don't like the way they handle ads. Seriously, a wall. Who knows, I just might. They don't spark off much discussion though, so I'll hold off for now.


The Xbox One has the best interface. By far. Unequivocal. Orders of magnitude better. Etc.

Okay, so let's explain why.

1. Integration. Very few of us own multiple consoles. Probably tons of the people who visit message boards and listen to gaming podcasts, but nationwide, the number is slim (note: old story):
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18107
The thing is, that the television is still used, monumentally, to watch TV, and consoles are encroaching on that. Nintendo and Sony are offering options to offshoot that experience to another screen, and for gamers, that's a boon, but most people won't know about it or care.
The Xbox One will basically disappear until it's needed, and I'm not sure enough people understand the impact of that seamless an interface.

2. Wow factor. No question that a bunch of Apple TV's get sold because the word "Apple" is on the box. Likewise, 25 million copies of NSMBW went out the door because "Mario" was one of those letters. This does not in any way invalidate that, much like how Nintendo knows how to make a good fucking game, Apple knows how to make a good fucking interface. The interface on that hockey puck makes pretty much all "Smart TV" sets on the market look like 90's WebTV bullshit.

The thing that most technically-adept people don't understand is the interface divide. For you and I, the interface is PART of a piece of software. It's PART of a device.

To the mass fucking market, the interface IS the device. It comprises every single interaction with the machine they experience. There is nothing to them BUT that interface. And the one on the XB1 is nearly absurd in how brilliantly designed it is.

Every time someone visits a buddy's house to watch the game and they see just how ridiculously seamlessly they go from a commercial break to burning a few minutes in CoD/Halo/Destiny/Battlefield/etc. (I guarantee you, there will be commercial-break-length modes in FPSs inside of a YEAR because of this effect), Microsoft will sell a system. They're going to sell a lot of these systems, price be damned, because of that "wow" effect.

(as a counterpoint, we'll see if the extra $100 and Kinect setup work against them on this point, let alone houses without internet that take this thing home.)

3. Again, that integration. Seriously, you have no idea how powerful it's going to be to know that you can just leave the Xbox One on the primary input, especially for one-system households (see above: this is MOST households). It will almost feel strange to people after a few months to have to ever switch out to another port. Spouses/Family Members/Roomates might not even notice that the Xbox is still one while they're watching TV, unless it's to switch to it for Netflix/Hulu/etc.

Again, I've made it clear, I have (1)zero interest in this console. That said, I think, undoubtedly, if for nothing but the first year, it's going to be WAY out ahead in sales.

1. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=41953.0

[Ceric]

For one, out of the 3 (Well I guess more like 6 since 360 kept changing) UIs from current Gen I have to say I preferred XMB the most.  It was clean and relatively fast to get everywhere.

The next Gen so far I'm leaning towards the WiiU.  Its clean and relatively fast to select where your going, though not actually get there.

The PS4 Interface I'll have to see more in action.  At the moment my opinion is it looks a lot like Facebooks interface which I honestly can't use at all.

The 360 Interface I'm going to have to see more or try it for myself.  Its cool that its fast but I'm not sold that it will be as fluid as they made it look in that presentation.  I have a Windows Phone and my PC runs Windows 8 since launch.  Metro is great on Phone which it was designed for and in Windows 8 they have done a good job of making it so you don't have to use your mouse you just type what you want.  Console I'm still not sold on it yet.