Interaction design

With games being like little worlds that we as players immerse ourselves within, we have to ensure that the gateways between our 2 worlds are smooth and seamless. When watching a film, that gateway is the screen itself. With the recent push for "3D" in cinema and even on home theater systems, the medium of film is trying to find ways to expand that doorway, to provide new experiences. Sometimes innovation for the sake of innovation can cost the quality of an experience, but we'll get to that later. Games, on the other hand, have more than just the screen to connect the audience with the experience. Actual input devices need to be conceived in order for games to exist- that defines them as interactive experiences.
 


Controllers our usually our main input for games, and for the most part they have remained very similar for a very long time. Nowadays, there is a fairly standardized controller setup which includes 4 face buttons, 2 movement pads or analogues as well as pairs of shoulder buttons. It took a long time to get there, but the three major games companies have all adopted this system. This is probably down in part to the prevalence of multi-platform games available today. Games like Call of Duty and Need For Speed are released on all systems, and therefore all systems need to share controller similarities to make porting easier for those platforms. The wii-u gamepad incorporates a second touch screen to use as a further method of input for players, but as this is a console-specific feature it is rarely utilized effectively unless at the hands of nintendo. The same goes for the Kinect, the xbox one's smart camera interface. A very powerful piece of tech, the Kinect has found a place amongst software developers outside of the gaming industry, pushing concepts like PC navigation and even surgical software. On the gaming front it doesn't fare so well, with few games using it and those that do being generally negatively received. Again, innovation for the sake of innovation is a mistake in my opinion, and doesn't seem to add anything intuitive to the industry. VR headsets like the occulus rift promise a new and more immersive way to experience games, coupling recent leaps in 3D technology along with head-tracking systems. The truth behind this remains to be seen, but there is clearly a lot of potential here. At least more than with the Virtual Boy anyway...







http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/81/10/0498c060ada08c335ad79110.L.jpg
http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/01/15/interview-oculus-rift-founder-palmer-lucky/
http://www.edge-online.com/news/potential-new-wii-u-mario-game-could-aim-to-use-the-gamepad-more-says-nintendo/
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/gamepad/0/2
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2014/03/OculusRift1.jpg