To clarify the title, not just mine but anyone's.  I want this to be a thread that only has people talking about the good/bad qualities of Kinect based on what they have actually experienced through personal use of it. 

I declined to make this a poll as that would be too ... pollarizing, lol, but seriously it would probably oversimplify and end up being a lightning rod. 

Now, as for my personal experience:  there's a free demo that Microsoft has set up in the Mall of America with some of the games and whatnot.  The lines were fairly short, but I still didn't check everything out; I only played one of the games.  It was a raft ride or something where obstacles (bars) would pop up on the left or right, or top or bottom, and you would have to move away from them or duck or jump.  Jumping also made the raft speed up.  There were coin-like things you collected by running through them. 

The controls were pretty good, although I felt that there was a small delay between my action and my character's response.  I ran into a lot of obstacles!  But it wasn't too bad, I feel like I could probably get used to it if the game had this limitation in mind.  A bigger concern I had as a potential buyer was how physical it all was.  It made me feel like Microsoft read all the people on forums complaining that the Wii Remote made you do a workout just to play a game, and thought that was the appeal of the Wii!  It was okay for a demo or minigame that I only played for a few minutes but I sure wouldn't want to play for hours like that.  I'd also worry about degrading abilities as I got tired. 

What do you think of my story?  What stories do you have? 

well i think...

...you'll get a lot more replies if you make this thread after kinect is released.  

oh stop it kitler, I for one am really interested in VGC hands on experience and opinions.

I have a day off . FF, do you have a listing of where these demos are located in the U.S I might just give it a try tomorrow if one's nearby.

 "I only played for a few minutes but I sure wouldn't want to play for hours like that."

I read that a lot in forums and hands-on previews. The lasting appeal seems ... not so lasting.

All I know is that it was in the MOA.  I wouldn't be surprised if MS had a list somewhere on a relevant website ... after all, they WANT people to check them out. 

Okay, there's something called the "Kinect Experience Mobile Demo Tour".  It's not apparently what the MOA demo is part of [edit:  apparently Minnesota is so awesome it's simultaneously on the east and west half of the country] but here's the list for that: 

And it's also at a bunch of Macy's stores. 
http://www.1up.com/news/kinect-playable-macy-stores-starting

P.S.  If you don't live in the USA, sux to be you I guess.  Or maybe there's a list of international demos somewhere. 

P.P.S.  Got bored so I edited up a list of the Macy's stores. 

•Macy's Herald Square
151 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

•Macy's South Coast Plaza
33 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

•Macy's State Street
111 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60602

•Macy's Pleasanton
1300 Stoneridge Mall Rd
Pleasanton , CA, 94588

•Macy's Roosevelt Field
630 Old Country Road
Garden City, NY 11530

•Macy's Lenox Square Mall
3393 Peachtree Road NorthEast
Atlanta, GA 30326

•Macy's Valley Fair
2801 Stevens Creek Boulevard
Santa Clara, CA 95050

•Macy's Dadeland Mall
7303 S.W. 88TH STREET
Miami, FL 33156

•Macy's Tysons Corner
8000 Tysons Corner Center
McLean, VA 22102

•Macy's Easton Town Center
4141 Easton Loop
Columbus, OH 43219-6136

•Macy's SCOTTSDALE
7014 East Camelback Rd
Scottsdale , AZ, 85251

•Macy's Galleria Mall
5135 West Alabama Street
Houston, TX

•Macy's Bellevue Proper
400 Bellevue Square
Bellevue , WA, 98004

Well, I guess I'm too late

Then I hope you like Macy's. 
•Macy's Easton Town Center
4141 Easton Loop
Columbus, OH 43219-6136

The 1up story says "starting July 15".  It doesn't say how long it will last but apparently they're giving away Kinects Aug. 12 to Sep. 10, so there's hope the demos will be up till then.  But for all I know they are already closed.  Good luck! 

According to what FF linked, there will be one right outside my window in mid Sept, I would want to try this out for myself.

At E3 I played Dance Central, Dance Masters, Zumba Fitness, and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

Dance Central was the bomb.  I really enjoyed it and wrote a very happy preview about it here.  Awesome moves, awesome songs, awesome freestyle section, great presentation, awesome way to see which steps come next, awesome tutorial mode to learn the steps in advance.

Dance Masters was okay.  I kind of liked how you had to match specific poses at specific times.  It reminded me of We Cheer 2 in that sense.  But I preferred the madness of Dance Central.

Zumba Fitness was great.  It was more of a cardio-dance the calories off type of exercise game, but that meant it had some more hilarious dance moves.  It was basically a hilarious workout video.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved had some really neat use of Kinect, when it put me on the screen.  I could change the color of myself so I could be a green me-shaped blob, or pink or purple, or just the straight up live video feed of myself inside the game.  That was really cool.  The actual gameplay though: I only got to play a few parts.  Some of it was just ... the same stuff from Wii Fit, but without the ability to measure my balance, which was really important for the yoga-type stuff.  But punching the blocks out of the air was pretty rad.

For all the games I hated the menus and selecting any options at all.  I thought it was really awkward and janky.  But Dance Central rules.  It's a shame they're all only 2 players.