@JL & Others:
The personal computer market is failing its users. There are millions of people who quite frankly don't know what the hell they are doing and for them their computing experience is like dealing with an insolent and aggressive guard dog, always one part scary and confusing alongside anything else they wish to do. The computing experience for the majority of users is designed around the "Sit down, shut up, and do your work" mentality of the corporate user from which the personal computer was spawned. Its a closed off, stationary and sitting experience which doesn't fully meet the desires and expectations of the millions of people being drawn into the world of computing by necessity or requirement.
Yeah, this is what turns me off of computer gaming for the most part. Back in the day (like early 90's) I used to look in awe at the games on computers because of the different ideas they had. Sim City, Populous, Civilization & games like that came from the computer world.
But I would hate to play a control-intensive game on a keyboard. It just doesn't feel right. Keyboards are good for typing but playing complex games on them. UGH! I know they have joysticks & gamepads too (thank your consoles for that) but it's also the feel of playing on a computer that's undesirable. You get tired of sitting upright at attention all the time. The control interface is the biggest reason why many don't get into computer gaming. You're right. It feels like work. I'm glad you highlighted the corporate cubicle mentality as what influences personal computing design.
Lighter games like Text Twist & Bejeweled & Hexic & Alchemy I can play on a computer because the controls are pretty simple but the high-end side of computer gaming turns me off. I didn't get into the expenditure it takes to run most of those games due to the wild west nature of computer resource standards. I hate configuring shit all the time! Give me clock radio not ham radio.
The next Xbox console is an opportunity for Microsoft. A majority of the market wants a simple Terrier whereas instead they get a German Sherpherd which is far beyond their most basic needs. Internet, communication and media are the key features of the rapidly expanding computing market. They have an opportunity to unencumber their consumers and free computing from a closed off mentality to be shared and accessible to many more people. Computing has to become something that anyone can do, and it must be able to be accomplished at a distance rather than requiring people to give their computer their undivided attention.
Interesting. Computers have an closed clandestine elitist nature to them which came from the whiz kids who knew how to work the code & components way back on the college mainframes in the 50's & 60's. Even the internet has residue of this mentality. I remember how people acted in newsgroups & there was this attitude that if you didn't know all the encyclopedias of computer knowledge about a certain subject you were hopeless. Everybody had to start somewhere & computers aren't necessarily intuitive. There's a inherent snobbery against the newcomer & this reflects itself in forums like say NeoGAF.
So you say that Microsoft is working on opening this world up?
The computer itself occupies a central position in the lives of many people and yet it is cast off to the periphery of the house. The central position of the house is where people gather, and that is the living room and kitchen in most houses. This is where the new interface developments of consoles are important. If you take a Wii mote or a gesture/speech driven interface, finally people can interface with computer systems from a distance without being required to sit down and perch a keyboard awkwardly on their lap. A console phillosophy of simplicity and the consoles place in the living room are both perfect for a new way of computing.
You're right. My computer is in my bedroom not front & center in my living room. At my cousin's house, the computer used to be towards the hallway at the back of the kitchen close to the washing machine. Now it's in a bedroom where like with me you can close the door & hide away.
Meanwhile Nintendo's aims since the beginning was to deliver on the trademark console experience, a Family Computer that all can enjoy. An appliance of technology that you could be comfortable with front & center in your living room. Wii's fulfilling that in the way VCR's & DVD players do. This is why Nintendo is so important. They recognize the faults of interface. How you interact with technology determines how you assume this technology into your family. At one time technological limitations provided us with limited ways to translate the software on screen into an enjoyable experience in your hands. Keyboards are great for typing up stuff in offices but they're clunky awkward & wide to use anywhere else than a work office or home office setting.
I bet money Nintendo's working on that very thing you mentioned for their upcoming systems.
In the end, if people want simple and reliable they don't have any options currently in computing. They have no organic or simple user interface and perhaps the time has come for the keyboard/mouse combo to be kicked to the curb. Not completely, just as the be-all solution for computing. The times they are a-changing, and its already happening. Mobile computers are outselling the stationary desktop kind and people are already bringing the computer into the central core of their homes. The console becomes instead a server in this new way of computing, sharing computing power and acting like a hub for a 21st century style computing experience. The sun is shining but not all the curtains are open, and this is the opportunity and threat Microsoft joined the console market for. Can they open the curtains?
It's amazing how much console control has evolved but how static computer control has remained. The selling of any product has to factor in human comfortability. How at ease a person can be with the item. How it feels in their hands, how it pleases their sensibilities. Or at least how it provides that person with a power they never had before.
I've talked with this friend of mine before about this subject & he said one reason Microsoft's in videogaming is to make their own hardware. Basically rewriting the script on computer design through XBox. XBox is Microsoft's computer. It could be a way to control the software & hardware sides of the business so they have absolute monopoly. And they're using that same make it common & standard approach they used in the office world long ago by making the XBox prevalent in every household they can.
It will be interesting to see what develops in the next few years. Next generation I see a collision course between Microsoft, Apple, & Nintendo. I don't know how it will play out but I DO know it will redefine how we look at consoles (& perhaps computers) in the future.
John Lucas
Words from the Official VGChartz Idiot
WE ARE THE NATION...OF DOMINATION!
