I came across something online not too long ago – a blog entry perhaps – that I recall wanting to revisit. Unfortunately I can’t find it since I didn’t bookmark it. But the point of what I’d read was that intimidatingly complex game controllers were keeping a large number of potential consumers from even trying videogames. The example provided in the entry was the author’s own father who was sufficiently intrigued by a game the son was playing to want to try playing it himself … at least until he took a look at the controller.

There’s now a similar discussion regarding how controller designs are actually influencing game design. And much of it is focusing on Tom Armitage, one of the speaker’s at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (ETech).

His presentation, which stands out like a sore thumb on the ETech schedule, is/was titled “From Paddles to Pads: Is Controller Design Killing Creativity in Videogames?”. From the summary for his session (Link):

The videogames market is stagnating. The primary cause is not the domination of the industry by larger companies, the rising costs of next-gen games, or even lack of imagination.

The primary cause is the interfaces we play the games with.

We Make Money Not Art has now posted a nice entry (Link) about Armitage’s talk. Give it a read to supplement the summary. And if you’re a product/interface designer be on the lookout for more articles and blog entries about this issue. There will doubtlessly be some interesting chatter. Just be sure to bookmark what you find.

A lot of people think it’s cool that indie band Matmos did this: begged recipients of their promo CD not to post tracks on the internet. I don’t think it’s so great. Because they shouldn’t have to ask. Because as soon as some greedy jerks see an opportunity in handwritten pleas asking us to respect the creative work of others, kids in some undeveloped third world cesspool will be writing little “personalized” notes just like this … a dollar for a every few thousand or so.

One of my favorite movie lines is “Starvation is a powerful aphrodisiac.” Screwing people over – literally or metaphorically – isn’t cool.

via Boing Boing

{Image source: Resonance FM Blog}

There’s a nice “scratchpad” entry over on the Brands In Games blog culling quotes from a recent article in the International Herald Tribune concerning branding inside Atari’s “Test Drive Unlimited”. Of particular interest to me is this quote (Link):

And, unusually for a genre in which car crashes generally count for more than fashion splashes, gamers will also be able to select their on-screen drivers’ wardrobes.

The ability to customize the racers’ attire comes courtesy of Ben Sherman, a clothing brand popular among soccer fans in Britain and urban hipsters in America. Realizing that many young men spend more time with their Xboxes, Playstations or Nintendos than their televisions, Ben Sherman joined a growing number of marketers who see video games as a promising new frontier in advertising.

There’s plenty more, so either get some of the juicier bits over on Brands In Games (Link) or read the full article.

As an aside, I checked out the game’s website. Very nice. This image, however, caught my attention –

I’ve not seen tool icons like these. And at the top of the screenshot, too small for you guys to see here (it’s on the game’s website under Media>Screenshots), the application name is Twilight II. Never heard of it. I did, however, find a site for Twilight 3D the game engine.

Now I’m curious. As are others I’m sure … the game’s forum has plenty of people asking about customizing their cars. Most are interested in simple in-game customization, but this does seem like the kind of external mod/content opportunity videogame developers should be chasing by using tools commonly available to content creators everywhere: Max, Maya, SoftImage, aso.

I’ve only seen a couple videogame developers go to the community for content. If they’re having trouble with budgets (see my recent post on this issue – Link) why use a relatively unknown, proprietary tool … especially when there are sites that sell models of this quality for $100?

I don’t get it.

Back to the original article:

In-game advertising also solves a problem for game developers and publishers. Games being created for a new generation of consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are far more complex than previous titles, and can cost more than $10 million to produce. Ad revenue defrays some of these costs, as consumers balk at paying higher prices for games.

Maybe game developers are keen to discuss rising content costs while advertisers start showing them some love. If I were a developer, I’d be justifying high advertising rates by pointing to those costs while meanwhile starting to look at overseas content providers. No reason Twilight II can’t import models from other applications.

That makes more sense.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Atari Interactive, Inc.}

Chalk this one up to internet rubbernecking. And if you’re similarly inclined to slow down and watch, you might enjoy the back and forth going on in the Marketing community over “word of mouth” (WOM) marketing.

The latest hostilities (I’m assuming this has been brewing for a while since I’ve come across some occasional debate on the subject) started with a post (Link) by Jack Trout over on Forbes called “Is Word Of Mouth All It’s Cracked Up To Be?” which, to be honest, wasn’t all that bad imo.

Friendly(?) fire came from George Silverman, author of a book on WOM and considered by some – I guess – to be “the father of word-of-mouth marketing”; he didn’t think Jack’s comments were very good. And he says so (Link).

Close to the sidelines but rooting for George is the Brand Autopsy blog where I first read (Link) about this little civil war percolating in the Marketing community. He adds some good comments … until that last little swipe which sounds to me like a bad political tagline. Maybe that was an example of why consumers prefer WOM to artificially constructed messages.

Now I could justify my posting this entry on the fact that WOM is a big part of the economic system I see developing within and around the future 3D internet. But the truth is, as an industrial designer, I’m getting a kick out of the controversy for its own sake and intend to find time to visit a few trackbacks. This is the kind of drahma I like.

I know. I’m bad. Now go read those posts … because, ummm, WOM will be a big part of the future 3D internet.

Okay, it may not look like much, but what it does is really cool. From the article discussing the “mental typewriter” (typewriter?) over on New Scientist (Link):

A computer controlled by the power of thought alone has been demonstrated at a major trade fair in Germany.

The device could provide a way for paralysed patients to operate computers, or for amputees to operate electronically controlled artificial limbs. But it also has non-medical applications, such as in the computer games and entertainment industries.

There have been some previously-reported efforts to develop this sort of interface, but this one goes beyond the devices about which I’ve read. Seems like we’re on our way to having a version of Johnny’s cyberhelmet. Hopefully. Wearing the one above is not the fashion statement I want to make.

{Image source: Fraunhofer Institute}