[Music]
some of you may remember that way back
in season 1 we talked a little bit about
motion controls we talked about what
Microsoft was trying to achieve with the
connect and what it might become if we
stepped past the idea of simply trying
to make Wii games on a fundamentally
different device and now 18 months after
its initial launch now that we've had
the opportunity to experience the
connect as a community and now that we'
gotten the chance to work with the
device both from a player perspective
and a development perspective we felt
like maybe it was time to return to the
topic and discuss the most Salient thing
we've learned about the device and what
it might mean for motion controls in
general now back in season 3 we
discussed a principle called The Uncanny
Valley this is turning into quite the
little Nostalgia trip just for a quick
refresher the basic concept is that as
something becomes more human we tend to
like it more and associate with it
better until it gets close to being
human but still has noticeable
differences then we tend to be creeped
out by it and revile the thing the idea
comes from robotics you know how when
you see a cute Wally likee robot you
feel that it's charming and quaint and
with his little eyes and oh it thinks
it's people but when you see some of the
fleshy robots at the Tokyo trade shows
with their thousand yard tears and their
rubbery lips you find them disconcerting
or downright even though they're a lot
more human-like than the plastic hunk
that is azimo that's the uncanny valley
and it happens a great deal in games
when your hyperrealistic marine or
assassin ends up clipping into geometry
or just taking actions that make no
physical sense for a human being like
running in place or into a wall over and
over the whole the whole scene often
feels unsatisfying when you're playing a
toune shaded game on the other hand
humanoid characters can get away with
all sorts of odd behavior and it won't
knock you out of the experience but
enough recap the important thing we
found out is that this also happens in
controls and connect is the uncanny
valley of input devices you see as human
beings we're sort of evolutionarily
hardwired around being tool using
animals that and language are pretty
much the things that define us so as
tool using animals we've developed
something that I'm just going to call
kinesthetic projection you ever notice
how when you're driving a car you say
I'm going to turn right or I was clipped
by a drunk on the highway rather than
I'm going to turn the wheel to the right
in order to make my car turn right
around this corner or my car was clipped
by another car being driven by a drunk
while we were driving our cars on the
highway you do this because you view the
car as an extension of yourself your
mental process actually is I'm going to
turn right you don't think about all
that other stuff that's kinesthetic
projection the idea that we can see
tools as an extension of ourselves that
we can project our movement out onto the
tools we use It's actually an incredible
adaptation and a mind-blowing mental
trick when you think about it well this
sort of kinesthetic projection is a
well-known phenomena amongst game
designers if you've ever been playing a
game and the controller just sort of
disappears and you in some ways lose the
separation between you and the character
on the screen in some ways you become
the character you start to think I'm
going to turn right rather than I'm
going to turn my character right that's
kinesthetic projection the moment where
the controller sort of Falls away where
you stop thinking about the piece of
plastic in your hand and it feels like
the character on the screen is doing
what you're thinking rather than
following a series of commands that
you've punched into an input device
that's the moment when that character
has become an extension of yourself but
with connect we lose that you see The
Uncanny Valley happens when something's
close enough to human for it to register
in pre-existing mental slots slots that
we know incredibly intimately and can
tell even the tiniest deviation from the
norm so rather than registering
something as oh a cute robot thing there
becomes a point where your brain
registers it as human but with something
horribly horribly wrong this sort of
thing is what happens with the connect
with a controller the actions are
abstracted enough that we can understand
them as tool use actions and then
mentally begin to project onto them
entering a state of kinesthetic
projection and losing the controller
entirely but with the connect an odd
thing happens because all the actions
are happening in your body you run into
the problem of your body knowing how
those actions are supposed to go we all
know that you don't run by pressing a
stick forward but that's tool use we can
get past that we also all know that you
don't run forward by running in place or
sliding one foot forward but those
actions are similar enough to what we do
understand as running that we can't get
out of that jarring Sensation that this
just doesn't feel right and this follows
for almost all the actions on the
connect if there's any way we can
understand doing an action as a human
being even if it's one that we don't
often do like say firing a bow or
something all the little things like the
lack of heptic feedback prevent us from
ever getting past the fact that we're
using an input device in the way that we
do with a controller so by making
controls more realistic we've actually
made them feel less real but the very
fact that these controls tend to be
immersion breaking leads to a
fascinating new Vector in design the
games that I believe are the most
successful for The Connect seemed to
start with inherently engaging
physicality like Dance Central in the
past we never had to worry about whether
using the controller was in and of
itself fun we just had to make sure that
the translation between the inputs on
the controller and the actions on the
screen were smooth enough that a player
could achieve that state of kinesthetic
projection and just forget the
controller was there but now with these
full body movement controls design may
have to start with what is it fun to do
physically as a human being the control
scheme itself has to be fun and engaging
because you are going to notice it this
type of controls first design is
something pretty new to our industry and
May in many cases be why so many connect
games fall short traditional developers
beginning design traditionally from
systems mechanics theming or narrative
will have to backfill the controls that
are best for the game they're building
which has always worked in the past for
good developers because with a
traditional controller they had to find
something highly functional rather than
inherently fun but now even a good game
with a functional control scheme may
feel cumbersome to the player if it
forces them to do an action which feels
silly or unnatural in some way so
connect has reached the uncanny valley
of input devices and we're left
understanding that there's a lot more we
have to do to make physicality engaging
than simply putting together a good
control scheme this isn't to say that we
should stop experimenting with the
connect or that this type of full body
motion control is a bad idea by any
means though I think there's a lot of
untapped territory and I'm almost
certain that they'll become important
for a number of applications even if
games don't end up being one of the
first places to use them well so does
the connect broaden what we can do with
design absolutely but without that
inherent kinesthetic projection that
comes from a well-crafted tool creating
an immersive experience is even harder
than before see you next week
[Music]
he
[Music]