~JKL

President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata is one smug guy. In an interview for the UK Times Online, he was asked for a reaction to Sony’s and Microsoft’s presentations of motion-control peripherals at E3. In short, he called them late to the party. “I’d like to say to them, ‘Welcome to the motion-control world!’is the quote that has been floating around. What a set Iwata must have. The Wiimote for the Wii set the standard for motion control, when it was released years ago. When Iwata greets Sony and Microsoft to the “motion-controlled world”, I do not see a company ahead of the curve so much as an old man about to watch the young run on by. Nintendo has been in the “motion-control world” for years, and its latest offerings are a vitality sensor, like the ones you find on treadmills, and the Motion Plus, which was developed to fine-tune the Wiimote, a fix more than an innovation. The UK Times Online article describes the audience reaction to the vitality sensor as “astonished”, I am sure in the pejorative sense rather than excited. I expected more as well. And according to an article by Brian Ashcraft on Kotaku.com, the Motion Plus is suffering difficulties in development. The greeting into the “motion-control world” would mean more if Nintendo had its shit together.

The Sony’s motion control system does not have a proper name and I am sure Project Natal is far from finished as well, but they are already more exciting than the Wii motion control. Heck, Project Natal even appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The Wii has made plenty of public appearances in the media, after it was finished. Sony and Microsoft may have viewed motion control as a gimmick when the Wii was released, but if E3 has proven anything, it is Nintendo that is becoming the novelty.

“RPGs, Moving Forward: An Interview With Feargus Urquhart” by Ben Fritz, from Gamasutra.com.

I will admit that I am sometimes slow on the uptake when it comes to industry news and the like–I am not in the video game industry and lately have been preoccupied with renovating a house. Fortunately, I am only a day late in learning about Peter Molyneux’s promotion to Creative Director for Microsoft Game Studios in Europe, netting him responsibility over first and third party projects out of Europe. The only reason I am concerned about this new position of his is that Molyneux has been a name that has haunted and thrilled gamers for years.

Molyneux has a reputation as both dreamer and deluded designer, snake oil salesman and visionary. He is a man of big ideas that usually do not fully translate into reality. Recall Project Ego’s promise of a world that grew over time with a hero that already players unprecedented control over his development from his personality to appearance. The resulting game was the first Fable which while a phenomenal game hardly lived up to the hype fanned into an inferno by Molyneux himself. He promises the stars then gives us piles of stones, yet those piles are made of gems.

Molyneux’s Milo demonstration of Project Natal at E3 set a new level of ambition even by his lofty standards. While I wonder if he still would have been named Creative Director if Milo botched, it is no surprise that Microsoft would want a dreamer to lead the European front of Microsoft Game Studios after Molyneux worked his magic on the crowds at E3. Perhaps the grass will actually grow in the next game he gives the “OK.”

If you would like to check out the Milo demonstration of Project Natal at E3, please check out kotaku.com’s “Molyneux’s Milo Brings a Virtual Child to the XBox 360” by Brian Crecente. Video of Milo provided by GameTrailers.com.

I am all for voice acted NPCs, but will the no text policy apply to ingame chat as well? As incredible a feat as an all voice presentation would be, I think many players would be turned off by the lack of text chatting. Although, imagine a plaza full of players chatting away, and you had to be close to players to hear them unless you were using a communications device. Now imagine having to sneak up to a couple of players to overhear their plans. While I am a man of the written word, I think a textless MMO would be interesting. Include ingame sign language and I am all in.

I will mention that while the Comcast call-center workers suffer harassment from angry customers everyday, they deserve every bit it, probably more.

More to come,

JKL

More to come,

JKL

The success of Gaming Lit. is my priority. I enjoy delving into video games to uncover depths that are usually ignored by non-gamers.  If you have not guessed already from the title of this blog, I am taking a mostly literary approach with my articles. I seek to offer something different from what is out there. I hope my future articles prove as interesting to everyone else who visits Gaming Lit. as they are to me.

More to come,

Jon K Langdon

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