Multitasking in Gaming:Dual Screen Vs Rapid Switching

[SvennoJ]

An extra screen is useful in games that don't pause. For example if you have the inventory on the gamepad you can still keep an eye out for movement on the main screen while changing weapons in Dark souls. Pausing is better though, NFS rivals' map is useless for a racer to plot an escape since the game doesn't pause.

Snap can be useful when you're following a guide, if you're own of those people :) For anything else it's just a nuisance having to divide the screen. Not once since win 95 have I thought, let's run this game in windowed mode so I can browse, watch Youtube etc at the same time.

I did use pip in '99 while playing Everquest when meditation was still slow and locked you to the book screen. A simple tv card put the tv picture in the corner, something to watch while staring at the book screen for minutes at a time in single player. But that's just bad game design, I doubt anyone is going to put up with that anymore. Plus watching anything with a plot was dangerous, get distracted at the wrong time and you can lose hours in that game.

I used it again on my old HD ready tv. It had split screen down the middle, I could play a game while my wife watched tv. It wasn't great, half the game experience (mixing the sound was terrible, so tv obviously won out for sound) and distracting for us both. So we rather watched and played together.
The only time I still use pip on tv is when I browse the guide or other channels during commercials. For the latter it's easier to simply hit record and watch it a bit later and skip the commercials.

Maybe the facebook generation likes it though. Keep a couple of chat windows open while playing or watching. Not for me.