Wii, Move and Kinect

Thanks to our System Interface class, we've been able to play around with the Wii, Playstation Move, and Kinect. I wanted to offer my reflections on my experience.

With the Wii I was able to use one arm to interact with the game. I could wave my hand around to direct things, swing a racket, whatever. With additional equipment I could include other parts of my body. We had a balance board in the lab which meant I could interact by shifting my weight.

With the playstation move I could use multiple controllers at once (this may be possible with the wii, I'm not sure). In effect my whole upper body could be involved with the game. I could hold a sword in one hand and a shield in another. But to move my avatar left or right I needed buttons (and the playstation buttons were more user friendly than the Wii's).

But with the Kinect every part of me was involved with the game. I started playing a dodgeball sor to f game. I was fun knocking the balls around with my arms. But then someone told me to use my legs. I was blown away. What?! I can use my whole body? (I was aware of this fact on some level). My experience with the Wii and PlayStation Move had had my legs planted. But I immediately began kicking and shuffling. I found myself testing the sensitivity of the avatar by dancing between levels.

In short, I was quite surprised at how well the Kinect worked. The whole thing felt very different from a traditional video game. For one thing it was pretty social. There were 4 of us in the lab and we were all participating to different degrees. And since there was no controllers or buttons it seemed much more like a fun indoor game than anything else.

Now granted, I have a hard time imagining playing halo on the Kinect. A certain amount of precision and complexity is granted a user with buttons. But in terms of fully interactive games, the Kinect beat the competition.