I haven't been following 3D gaming much except for news articles about Sony planning to support it with the PS3 but it struck me how Natal would be a much better fit for the technology.  Imagine driving a virtual car, aircraft, tank, etc with 3D controls you can see in front of you and manipulate with your hands rather than using a motion controller which would seem tacked on to the 3D experience.  I would be very surprised if some game companies aren't already doing research and design on such ideas .  I'm curious as to what people here think of 3D gaming and Natal.  Are they perfect for each other and likely the future of gaming or do you think motion controllers are the future?

How do you propose someone walks forward? The future of the genre does not include control schemes that, necessarily, eliminates most popular genres from being executed properly. It certainly could evolve into a part of the future control schemes, but I have my doubts. A gamepad will be a part of consoles for many, many years to come.

Video game designers are some of the most creative people in the World, I'm sure they or others could come up something simple for walking/running/turning.

hey legend, nice to have you back i thought you left the site

That is the worst cop-out answer I have ever seen. Attempting to adapt a genre that was built on, and completely defined by a very specific control input scheme is extremely difficult. Look at how long it took FPS to be fully realized on consoles, and the mouse+keyboard is not fundamentally all that different of an input scheme.

That is why you're not a game designer, keep thinking in your clearly defined box.  FPS games haven't always been the "most popular" games and they will not be forever either.  I would also add that surely the 2 best selling games this generation aren't even FPS games?

another one comes crawling back to VGChartz

OT: I totally agree with gnizmo

You didn't get it. If you try to completely change an established genre just to fit an interface, then you're going to fail.

The secret it's to think the oposite. Create a genre to that interface. That's thinking outside the box. And that's why the 2 best selling games this gen are the best selling games this gen ;)

You might want to try reading that again. FPS were not extremely popular until relatively recently. This is absolutely true. That is also the point. It took them a great deal of time to figure out a control scheme that would work well despite the similarities in control schemes.

And no, the most popular games are not FPS. They more or less fit into newly defined genres working with a different controler to maximize the use of the particular strengths and weaknesses of it. Funny how that works out eh? The best games will be designed from the ground up with natal in mind, and, consequently, fit poorly into defined genres if they fit at all. There will be exceptions no doubt. Theoretically a racing game could work superbly well with this set-up. However, the very core of most games are built around the control scheme we currently have.

This is not about thinking inside the box at all. In fact, it is the result of the opposite. To think inside the box you would try to twist, turn, mold, and break a new system of input to merely replicate that which exists currently. Instead, I propose we move into new territory with new mechanics designed to take advantage of the unique strengths of the input method. This does not immediatly mean we exclude all the older genres. But it does mean we need a way to go backwards to them in order to maintain the quality of the games being made.

I'd highly recommend you go re-read both of my posts before replying to this one as well. You seem to have entirely missed the point of my statements. I don't really know what point you have imagined I am trying to make, but it doesn't seem to be anything remotely related to the words I have typed.

Yes, they are perfect for each other.  The end goal (that won't happen in our lifetimes) is the holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  That's is the ULTIMATE gaming platform.  To get there, we have to be freed from tradition control inputs and have a complete immersive and interactive experience.  Full body motion control and 3D are steps in that direction, whether people like it or not (and, for the record, here on VGC most will NOT like it).