Get the Game Machine in Motion

Three Hundred Eighty First Post: Get the Game Machine in Motion

Well an article on Gamasutra.com quoted Bill Gates as saying, “Working Perfectly.” He was talking about the Xbox 360's success compared to Sony and Nintendo. He said the graphics on the Xbox are more powerful and even if they weren’t it wouldn’t make a difference. To him the Nintendo Wii is just novelty. That is paraphrasing what the article said.

I agree with Bill Gates prediction. The motion of the Wii controller is an attempt to change the gamming experience. But after a while I believe that most people will find it boring as they become more familiar with it. The problem was discussed in the Hunches – Math section of Constructor’s Corner. The controller can on move the objects in 2D. It has a 3D range but the movements of the characters onscreen is a simple 2D motion. In other words a baseball bat or sword slash of the player might be diagonal, but the motion of the game is a simple generic slash. So instead of having a 3D sword fight true to the players moves, the game just reacting the same way the button of a joystick would. So the difference between a joystick and Wii remote is a movement of the hand instead of pressing a button.

One other problem I see with the Wii and have friends who have complained that the Wii remote is no good for First Person Shooters. There is less control of the character onscreen than with a joystick or mouse. In fact the Wii remote makes it more difficult. In games like Red Steel the gun onscreen must move before the character moves. It is hard to explain but the controls are frustrating.

I’ve been on message boards all day discussing the Mac. As I have blogged before I was going to switch to a Mac. And I have been told and agree that Macs are better at sound, graphics, and video editing. The Mac Pro is powerful for the price, but as others have told me it all comes down to what you are going to do. That combined with the expense of new software and familiarity of Windows leads to the decision to keep the PC. I also want to Mod games and the PC proves to be the best platform. I am in no hurry to upgrade to Vista because XP works great. But as stated in PC Magazine (paraphrased here), “Vista will prove to be a good system not because of all the development. What will make it great is the programs that will run on it.” Also Direct X 10 seems to be done nicely.

Of course all this message exchange on message boards makes me ask the question: Who owns the copy right on message boards and wiki’s? I ask this because I am now starting a wiki and need to know how the knowledge would be shared. Obviously the poster will get credit for their work, but we all know that when something is posted on the Net it can be copied. I was thinking of giving my wiki users the ability to post vanity pages. For example a page showing their artwork would advertise their talent and give other users some graphics to use. There are a lot of options and ideas here. But again if you wish to join the wiki email trurlthe_constructor@hotmail.com .

And until the laws of the Wiki are set in stone: May the Creative Force be with You