We had a record 576 votes on the latest SVGL poll -- thank you to all who participated. Yes, even those who whined about the absence of a more moderate option. I think obviously everyone understands that no single input solution is likely to supplant all others, and which you prefer depends on the kind of game it is and blah blah blah -- the poll was intended to find out what general attitude toward control schemes you most closely align with.
As much attention as was paid to Sony and Microsoft's gesture-based motion control reveals at E3, those of you who are super-duper gung-ho about them are in a surprisingly distinct minority. Only 5 percent of you are ready to ditch your controllers.
About a third of you, or 33 percent, like the idea of motion control, but want to keep something in hand. There's been a lot of suspicion on whether gameplay can maintain the same level of depth as we're used to without a button of some kind. Perhaps the tactile aspect of gaming is important to us on an abstract level, too (expect more on this from me soon).
Given how widely successful Nintendo is in the current generation, it's also surprising that nearly half of you still want very little to do with waggle. The opinion that motion control is a "gimmick" or fad that will pass on our way back to more traditional schemes is a popular one, but I didn't realize how much so -- 45 percent of you are sick of waving your arms around and just want to push buttons.
15 percent of you don't care about control innovations or lack thereof. I am not in that 15 percent -- I've been fascinated lately by ideas of accessibility and the concept of controller-as-entry-point to the gaming world. The shape that entry point takes will have major and wide-ranging reverberations in the social, cultural -- and, of course, business landscape -- of the gaming world, in terms of who the audience is and what kind of games are being developed for that audience.
We've already seen it happen with the Wii -- Nintendo's power of change has been pretty absolute so far. I actually wonder if that's entirely a good thing, and my latest Gamaustra editorial analyzes that question in the context of Miyamoto's newly-patented "automated walkthrough" code that Nintendo will start implementing starting with New Super Mario Bros.
What I find most puzzling about it is that Miyamoto has noticed that current design schemes aren't compelling enough to help players solve problems in games nor to encourage them to persist and complete games -- and the father of modern game design's response is to implement a mechanic that skips design solutions altogether.
Just... let the game play itself? Rubs me the wrong way. Give my article a read and then let me know what you think: Can Nintendo take accessibility too far?
And a new poll is up! This time, I want to gauge your nostalgia level. Did you find you were more emotional about games as a child, when everything was simpler? Or are you able to connect more deeply now that the medium -- and you -- have grown up? Have you maintained the same attachment level over the years? Or maybe you think "caring" about games or feeling attached to 'em is silly. Vote, vote vote in the sidebar!
