Now E3 is done with and I've got my think-thesis-or-die cap back on again I'm somewhat disappointed to learn that the PS3 gamepad will be trading in its vibration features for a motion sensor (apparently they weren't compatible). What follows are a few notes I jotted down about the replacement.
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Haptic feedback provides another output for the game, adding to the already existing audio-visual outputs and can be used to:-
1. Attract the players attention to critical events e.g. vibration can be used to inform the player when they are at a critical level of health. Although the user-interface (UI) is normally responsible for presenting such information, it does not mean the player pays any attention to it (e.g. bad UI design, focus is on other events occurring in the game world) - haptic feedback however is not so easily ignored though.
2. Provide intimate information about the status of the players avatar and the game environment e.g. when playing flight simulators, conveying an event such as stalling or sluggish controls due to adverse wind effects is not as easy to simulate through the audio-visual outputs as it is with haptic feedback (in the former case a simple rumble effect can be used, in the latter force can be applied on the control mechanism, see force feedback controllers).
3. Creating moods or eliciting emotional responses e.g. when playing horror games, the gamepad can be made to mimic the vibration signature of the avatars heartbeat and so allow the player to feel how the horrors they encounter affect their character (from what I've read Haunting Ground on the PS2 does something similar).
Of particular interest to me is the latter, not only for my own personal enjoyment as a player (being immersed is not just about feeling as if I'm physically in the game world, but emotionally as well), but for my own research as well, for example determining the empirical impact of haptic feedback on the affective responses of the player during game play.
Considering what haptic's have to offer the game playing experience I'm curious as to why Sony chose to replace them with an input already satisfied by the gamepad's current design. IMO it looks like a cheap attempt to usurp the Nintendo Wii's controller, which to be honest is a much better implementation of the technology, for one it's design suggests a degree of intuitive control (since it's not modeled on conventional gamepad's), however the PS3's controller doesn't (if you've ever used the FreeStyle Pro, you'll get my meaning, less you actually enjoyed using it of course!).
Hopefully Sony will reintroduce haptic feedback later on, but for now I have to ask the question how difficult would it of been to have implemented both the motion sensing technology and haptic feedback and place the following constraint on developers - you can only use one of these devices at any one time during game play?
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Well that's my rant for the day, in other news ACE posted the acceptance rate for full papers, 16 out of 133 (12%), huzzah for us (me, Nicolas and Devina). However the timetables also got released, were presenting first .. bugger.
Edit:
My dreams of Ace Combat super-uberness can finally be achieved with the PS3 gamepad; the split second infinity-barrel roll - a maneuver that can dodge any and all enemy fire, all you have to do is throw the controller out the window with a slight spin and bingo you dodge everything. Hopefully the guy outside the window is just as good at dodging.
Mood [16:49] | Ring : N/A | ECG :N/A |
