I'm a fairly old school gamer. I was just a kid when the Atari system was in its prime and its decline but over the years, I've seen a lot. From my point of view, gaming was, for the most part, a TV, a console, a controller. It was good. Well, since the very beginning, the cutting edge industry of gaming has been the testing ground for new technology. Well, with a few exceptions, most of the new innovations that come to gaming have been gimmicky, at best.
There was the Power Glove. A device that let gamers interact with the game buy punching in mid-air and moving individual fingers (it was "So bad!"). There were various "Light Guns". From the Konami Justifier to the Nintendo Zapper to the Sega Menacer. They let you shoot objects on screen while using a facsimile of a gun. There were lesser known items like the U-Force (you held your hand in front of two sensors, allowing you to control a game without actually holding a controller), the Turbo Touch 360 (replaced the d-pad with a touch screen), the Sega Activator (full body movement controls). Other devices that recieved limited support but added to immersion were the Power Pad, Dance Dance Revolution dance mats, Guitar Hero/Rock Band instruments, and the Tony Hawk RIDE board. I could go on and on and on and on about the various cameras, microphones, e-readers, etc. that came out over the years. But look where we are, today. One could argue that, for all of the advances in technology, we are basically where we were when gaming first started--a TV. A console. A controller.
And that's what bothers me about the state of gaming, today. The integration of online (which isn't a new thing but really caught on, during the last gen and this gen) and motion controls (loved by some, and hated by others) are about the only features that seem to have made a permanent impact on gaming. Well, since the Wii became a massive success based on the promise of a new experience, it seems like nobody wants to launch a console without a "Gimmick". But look at the Wii. I own/enjoyed the system but how many gamers and customers bought the console, grew tired of the gimmick, and then asked, "Now what?" Was the Wii the right way to go? Yeah, Sony and Microsoft went after their market with the Move and Kinect (respectively) but was it time? Which leads me to the whole point of this rant: Technology for the sake of technology.
Are things like the Dreamcast VMU, Kinect, Move, the Wii Remote, the 3DS's 3D screen, the Wii U's controller, the SIXAXIS motion control, the PS Vita's touch pad, etc.. just there to hook us? Do the gaming companies actually know what the hell they're doing when they push these things on us or are they just pushing the technology out of the door in the hopes that someone will figure out what to do with it? Are we just gunea pigs for new technology? Forgive me, but sometimes, I have a hard time figuring out exactly what all of this new stuff brings to the table when it comes to improving my gaming experience.
