The "Sony Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Bullets fly all around you. One hits you directly on the head. Big deal! It doesn’t hurt. Well it might have hurt Solid Snake on screen but it certainly didn’t give you a throbbing pain in the slightest, unless of course your very fragile and the sudden judder of the Dual Shock controller broke your wrists. So if it doesn’t hurt you, then how can you be punished for walking straight into a line of fire? The sight of a ‘game over’ screen wont get you rolling around on the floor screaming “It hurts! It hurts! Kill me…now!” will it? Yes that does include you Mr game perfectionist. So why can’t we be punished? Why can’t we go through hell just like Lara Croft and Max Payne? If every time we made a mistake in a game, and we feel pain, would it teach us to play better? Would it give us a better feeling of reality? Lets read on and see shall we.
The rumble feature and the force feedback feature. Two features used in most controllers. But what are they there for? Mostly the answer to that would be for such things like simulating bumps in racing games, or the recoil of a gun. But it’s not unusual to find a game that deploys the rumble feature to simulate you being shot, kicked or even falling from a great height onto a concrete floor. But deep down does it really hurt? Does it really give you that feeling that the producer wants you to feel? Most certainly not. How can a vibration in your hands be equal to that of a full on hit to the face? It can’t. So that’s why some developers of peripherals have tried to create things that do help to change the virtual pain to reality pain; but no one has really succeeded.
The rumble backpack. It was a heavy bit of kit that you strapped to your back and was compatible with most shooting games. It had six rumble motors that, well, rumbled, when your character was shot. If your character were shot one of the motors would rumble depending on where you was shot. Not very successful considering it’s strapped to your back and you never really get shot in the back; and the fact that the wrong motor always seemed to rumble. It didn’t hurt neither. Since then no one has really took their time to create a pain inducing peripheral. Some have vaguely tried, but most have probably seen it’s a stupid impossibility, unless you’re an insane German.
In a university, in Germany, some barmy inventor has created a games machine called the ‘Painstation’. Basically two people play a game while their hand is over a ‘pain zone’. If they make a mistake the opponent can choose whether the other player is burned, whipped, or electrocuted. Nice. Problem is, a) Do gamers really want to be left with loads of scares and injuries? and b) It doesn’t exactly recreate the proper pain you can see on the screen. Only one of these machines have been made, which is a good job really! So obviously you don’t want something like that. So this I what I would do (No I am not that much of an expert in biology. This is only an idea.)
When your body is damaged the nerves send an electric impulse to the brain to tell the brain to tell the body to feel pain. Pain doesn’t damage your body, it’s just the effect of cells in your body getting damaged. In fact pain is good for us. If we didn’t have pain we probably wouldn’t know that something was wrong with us. Then we could die. Confused? Sorry, bear with me. Suppose there was a machine; a machine that could send an electrical impulse down your nerves and to your brain. A similar impulse that the nerve itself creates. Your brain would receive the message and your body would feel pain. The good thing though, is the fact that the impulse created by the machine is artificial, meaning there would be no damage to your body. It would all be a mind trick. Fantastic! Pads could be stuck all over your body in the different places you want to feel pain. You get kicked in FIFA; you feel the pain in your leg, just like the character on the screen. Your virtual counter part gets shot; you feel the full pain exactly were the poor guy gets shot. It’s all because your nerve received an impulse to carry to the brain saying ‘give this sucker pain in his right shin’. Understand? Great! Now you can rest your mind while we have a break for the next paragraph.
Good news! (imagine). Some Einstein has created for us our ‘Super duper artificial pain inducing machine ©’! But how would it benefit our gaming? Firstly we can sympathise for the characters. We can feel the hell they are going through, and we can also feel more a part of them, as though it is we in the game. Secondly dying on a game would have more purpose. Dodging bullets, skipping tackles and skating like a pro would pay. Gone would be the days when we laugh at the weeping virtual David Ginola as he falls to a heap on the floor. Gone are the days when we try to go the wrong way around the Monaco circuit before smashing head on with Michael Schumacher. Games would have another purpose- to avoid the pain! So what’s the third thing? Well because are body isn’t getting damaged there would be no lasting effects meaning the overall experience is mainly safe.
However, the machine has got to have disadvantages. Firstly it would be costly and a hell of a lot of research would need to be done. Secondly it could have serious side effects on your body; hence the machine is only partly safe. We all know pain can make you sick. If the brain is tricked into thinking you’ve been impaled on a spike then the chances are you will come over all queasy. If you’re sick too much you could choke or receive major stomach problems. You could also have serious spasm as your body tries to fight the pain. Oh dear. Thirdly, if pain becomes a game then some bozo might get the idea that they can get the same thrills more cheaply by jumping in front of a bus. His excuse, “My mate has a ‘Super duper artificial pain inducing machine ©’ which shows me that becoming a feature on the front of the number 27 bus is fun”. Seriously though, it would only be a matter of time before this justification popped up in the crown court. And finally, not everyone likes pain. People have fits even thinking about jabs. Think about the worry it would cause if one of these people was strapped to my very nice invention. The thought would probably kill them!
So clearly, being able to feel pain like you’re on screen character does have it’s advantages and disadvantages. Its costly, could be dangerous and also would take a genius in biology to invent. But if it means virtual reality has a proper meaning, and it makes games involving, would it be all that bad?
Thanks for reading,
Nath.
Lets hear your verdict on wanting to feel pain in games and also lets see your waky pain inducing inventions!
P.s. I am not a crazed masochist.
The rumble feature and the force feedback feature. Two features used in most controllers. But what are they there for? Mostly the answer to that would be for such things like simulating bumps in racing games, or the recoil of a gun. But it’s not unusual to find a game that deploys the rumble feature to simulate you being shot, kicked or even falling from a great height onto a concrete floor. But deep down does it really hurt? Does it really give you that feeling that the producer wants you to feel? Most certainly not. How can a vibration in your hands be equal to that of a full on hit to the face? It can’t. So that’s why some developers of peripherals have tried to create things that do help to change the virtual pain to reality pain; but no one has really succeeded.
The rumble backpack. It was a heavy bit of kit that you strapped to your back and was compatible with most shooting games. It had six rumble motors that, well, rumbled, when your character was shot. If your character were shot one of the motors would rumble depending on where you was shot. Not very successful considering it’s strapped to your back and you never really get shot in the back; and the fact that the wrong motor always seemed to rumble. It didn’t hurt neither. Since then no one has really took their time to create a pain inducing peripheral. Some have vaguely tried, but most have probably seen it’s a stupid impossibility, unless you’re an insane German.
In a university, in Germany, some barmy inventor has created a games machine called the ‘Painstation’. Basically two people play a game while their hand is over a ‘pain zone’. If they make a mistake the opponent can choose whether the other player is burned, whipped, or electrocuted. Nice. Problem is, a) Do gamers really want to be left with loads of scares and injuries? and b) It doesn’t exactly recreate the proper pain you can see on the screen. Only one of these machines have been made, which is a good job really! So obviously you don’t want something like that. So this I what I would do (No I am not that much of an expert in biology. This is only an idea.)
When your body is damaged the nerves send an electric impulse to the brain to tell the brain to tell the body to feel pain. Pain doesn’t damage your body, it’s just the effect of cells in your body getting damaged. In fact pain is good for us. If we didn’t have pain we probably wouldn’t know that something was wrong with us. Then we could die. Confused? Sorry, bear with me. Suppose there was a machine; a machine that could send an electrical impulse down your nerves and to your brain. A similar impulse that the nerve itself creates. Your brain would receive the message and your body would feel pain. The good thing though, is the fact that the impulse created by the machine is artificial, meaning there would be no damage to your body. It would all be a mind trick. Fantastic! Pads could be stuck all over your body in the different places you want to feel pain. You get kicked in FIFA; you feel the pain in your leg, just like the character on the screen. Your virtual counter part gets shot; you feel the full pain exactly were the poor guy gets shot. It’s all because your nerve received an impulse to carry to the brain saying ‘give this sucker pain in his right shin’. Understand? Great! Now you can rest your mind while we have a break for the next paragraph.
Good news! (imagine). Some Einstein has created for us our ‘Super duper artificial pain inducing machine ©’! But how would it benefit our gaming? Firstly we can sympathise for the characters. We can feel the hell they are going through, and we can also feel more a part of them, as though it is we in the game. Secondly dying on a game would have more purpose. Dodging bullets, skipping tackles and skating like a pro would pay. Gone would be the days when we laugh at the weeping virtual David Ginola as he falls to a heap on the floor. Gone are the days when we try to go the wrong way around the Monaco circuit before smashing head on with Michael Schumacher. Games would have another purpose- to avoid the pain! So what’s the third thing? Well because are body isn’t getting damaged there would be no lasting effects meaning the overall experience is mainly safe.
However, the machine has got to have disadvantages. Firstly it would be costly and a hell of a lot of research would need to be done. Secondly it could have serious side effects on your body; hence the machine is only partly safe. We all know pain can make you sick. If the brain is tricked into thinking you’ve been impaled on a spike then the chances are you will come over all queasy. If you’re sick too much you could choke or receive major stomach problems. You could also have serious spasm as your body tries to fight the pain. Oh dear. Thirdly, if pain becomes a game then some bozo might get the idea that they can get the same thrills more cheaply by jumping in front of a bus. His excuse, “My mate has a ‘Super duper artificial pain inducing machine ©’ which shows me that becoming a feature on the front of the number 27 bus is fun”. Seriously though, it would only be a matter of time before this justification popped up in the crown court. And finally, not everyone likes pain. People have fits even thinking about jabs. Think about the worry it would cause if one of these people was strapped to my very nice invention. The thought would probably kill them!
So clearly, being able to feel pain like you’re on screen character does have it’s advantages and disadvantages. Its costly, could be dangerous and also would take a genius in biology to invent. But if it means virtual reality has a proper meaning, and it makes games involving, would it be all that bad?
Thanks for reading,
Nath.
Lets hear your verdict on wanting to feel pain in games and also lets see your waky pain inducing inventions!
P.s. I am not a crazed masochist.
Page:
There were no balls, jsut soft little pads that were quite easy to kick. thyey were attached to the machine.
were they meant to be shaped like half balls.....or it could be the one with the half plastic balls stuck to the machine made by namco and it was 5 a side.
Great post Nat, well done.
Totti wrote:
> Great post Nat, well done.
thank you
> Great post Nat, well done.
thank you
Na†ßu© wrote:
> Totti wrote:
> Great post Nat, well done.
>
> thank you
Thank you....and Asher...thinking about it...if it's the Namco game you mean then you could say that is one of those pain inducing peripherals. While playing it i knackared my ankle...i got to the final and i couldn't play on...so my Dad did and lost the match 5-0.....tsk....and u would have thought there would have been a danger warning...honestly...namco...
> Totti wrote:
> Great post Nat, well done.
>
> thank you
Thank you....and Asher...thinking about it...if it's the Namco game you mean then you could say that is one of those pain inducing peripherals. While playing it i knackared my ankle...i got to the final and i couldn't play on...so my Dad did and lost the match 5-0.....tsk....and u would have thought there would have been a danger warning...honestly...namco...
Tha t last thankyou was aimed at Vampiro.....i pressed reply to the wrong post...just thought u should know.
They could have a little uniform you wear so when you get shot, say, in the arm, it tightens up on your arm for a few seconds, so it hurts but is not too dangerous.
possibly like them blood pressure tester things...but it would be a bit slow and it still might damage the body...at least my design doesn't damage the body....unless they fall with pain.
I say the splashdown idea was the best.
Page: