The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only.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.
Gaming with your senses, is it a posibility we will see more of in the future? Ok seems a strange idea and needs to be explained a little more to fully understand it. I have been playing Medal of Honor: Frontline earlier and thought how it could be made better, it was then that the idea of senses in gaming came around.
The main senses are sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Obviously we already have sight and sound in basic levels, taste wouldn't change much gaming wise and touch just seems to be a bit too hard to implement at the present moment. This means that smell and an improvement in sight and sound could be the only changes possible or worthwhile. Lets have a look at each of these in turn to have a look at what I see as the main ways of these making gaming better.
Sight
A strange one to think of how you could possibly improve it other than polish up graphics and make them look more realistic. But maybe there are other ways to change things. Could we have first person shooters which after certain events such as being shot in the eye or suffering heavy damage your vision becomes impared and you lose a bit of your sight, or maybe having more effects such as sunlight, fog, rain etc which reduce your field of vision. I know some of these already are used but not as well as they should and also could be. Some games need the camera angles to be as good as they can the whole way through the game, the number of games where a poor view spoils it is going down but there is still a few that get it wrong.
Sound
Sound in games is a very important feature, but could be made better. I don't mean the music but more the sounds such as enemy fire, objects falling etc. In games it is very hard to judge distance without decent sound and differing sound. This is why maybe we need more effort on the sound and not just the same sound used for a particular weapon but the level of the sound dependant on how far away the enemy is. Getting the balance right with music to set the atmosphere is also important, this can help make good game great. Maybe one day we will get games that have different audio in them depending on what you do in games, almost like intelligent games where it works out certain things to have realistic conversations with you. One day it may well be that we will use voice as input more, it could become a more common form of input in the future.
Smell
It seems a bit strange to associate smells with gaming, but soon we may well be able to.
Time and time again I see articles and links to sites with information on devices that are set to bring smells into gaming. Most are usually a small box which you connect to the console which mixes a combination of various chemicals to create various different smells. Early models are capable of producing smells like burning rubber, rotting flesh and blood and a few more. Whether it is your thing or not it does seem like an area that could have some use in gaming to make the experience more complete.
Obviously for me personally there are a number of other areas that are much more important for the developers to consider before they begin to include code which handles these and other ideas to bring senses into gaming. They also need to be thought through and make sure that the developers feel they will be useful and not make there games suffer. Guess we will just need to wait and see but maybe soon we can all play with our senses too. So what do you think? Any views on this? Or any areas you think we could see us using our senses more?
The main senses are sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Obviously we already have sight and sound in basic levels, taste wouldn't change much gaming wise and touch just seems to be a bit too hard to implement at the present moment. This means that smell and an improvement in sight and sound could be the only changes possible or worthwhile. Lets have a look at each of these in turn to have a look at what I see as the main ways of these making gaming better.
Sight
A strange one to think of how you could possibly improve it other than polish up graphics and make them look more realistic. But maybe there are other ways to change things. Could we have first person shooters which after certain events such as being shot in the eye or suffering heavy damage your vision becomes impared and you lose a bit of your sight, or maybe having more effects such as sunlight, fog, rain etc which reduce your field of vision. I know some of these already are used but not as well as they should and also could be. Some games need the camera angles to be as good as they can the whole way through the game, the number of games where a poor view spoils it is going down but there is still a few that get it wrong.
Sound
Sound in games is a very important feature, but could be made better. I don't mean the music but more the sounds such as enemy fire, objects falling etc. In games it is very hard to judge distance without decent sound and differing sound. This is why maybe we need more effort on the sound and not just the same sound used for a particular weapon but the level of the sound dependant on how far away the enemy is. Getting the balance right with music to set the atmosphere is also important, this can help make good game great. Maybe one day we will get games that have different audio in them depending on what you do in games, almost like intelligent games where it works out certain things to have realistic conversations with you. One day it may well be that we will use voice as input more, it could become a more common form of input in the future.
Smell
It seems a bit strange to associate smells with gaming, but soon we may well be able to.
Time and time again I see articles and links to sites with information on devices that are set to bring smells into gaming. Most are usually a small box which you connect to the console which mixes a combination of various chemicals to create various different smells. Early models are capable of producing smells like burning rubber, rotting flesh and blood and a few more. Whether it is your thing or not it does seem like an area that could have some use in gaming to make the experience more complete.
Obviously for me personally there are a number of other areas that are much more important for the developers to consider before they begin to include code which handles these and other ideas to bring senses into gaming. They also need to be thought through and make sure that the developers feel they will be useful and not make there games suffer. Guess we will just need to wait and see but maybe soon we can all play with our senses too. So what do you think? Any views on this? Or any areas you think we could see us using our senses more?
Good point AliBoy, I think that the senses could be more in tune with gameplay – it would certainly increase the sense of immersion in games. No matter how immersive the current games are, you can always step back and recognise the boundaries, as after all you are only looking at a television screen.
Future games are starting to implement the sight changes you mentioned, for example Metroid Prime and Samus’ visor which changes according to environement. But other than that what you mentioned has only appeared in touches, like the spots of water on the screen in Metal Gear Solid 2. But they are graphical touches rather than gameplay affecting things. I think the one that has the most potential is smell, but that could take years for that to be properly implemented and mass produced.
Future games are starting to implement the sight changes you mentioned, for example Metroid Prime and Samus’ visor which changes according to environement. But other than that what you mentioned has only appeared in touches, like the spots of water on the screen in Metal Gear Solid 2. But they are graphical touches rather than gameplay affecting things. I think the one that has the most potential is smell, but that could take years for that to be properly implemented and mass produced.
I sometimes wonder if we use our "sixth-sense" whilst playing games - as in sensing imminent danger and solving puzzles on a hunch. Just a thought.
Gaming with your senses, is it a posibility we will see more of in the future? Ok seems a strange idea and needs to be explained a little more to fully understand it. I have been playing Medal of Honor: Frontline earlier and thought how it could be made better, it was then that the idea of senses in gaming came around.
The main senses are sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Obviously we already have sight and sound in basic levels, taste wouldn't change much gaming wise and touch just seems to be a bit too hard to implement at the present moment. This means that smell and an improvement in sight and sound could be the only changes possible or worthwhile. Lets have a look at each of these in turn to have a look at what I see as the main ways of these making gaming better.
Sight
A strange one to think of how you could possibly improve it other than polish up graphics and make them look more realistic. But maybe there are other ways to change things. Could we have first person shooters which after certain events such as being shot in the eye or suffering heavy damage your vision becomes impared and you lose a bit of your sight, or maybe having more effects such as sunlight, fog, rain etc which reduce your field of vision. I know some of these already are used but not as well as they should and also could be. Some games need the camera angles to be as good as they can the whole way through the game, the number of games where a poor view spoils it is going down but there is still a few that get it wrong.
Sound
Sound in games is a very important feature, but could be made better. I don't mean the music but more the sounds such as enemy fire, objects falling etc. In games it is very hard to judge distance without decent sound and differing sound. This is why maybe we need more effort on the sound and not just the same sound used for a particular weapon but the level of the sound dependant on how far away the enemy is. Getting the balance right with music to set the atmosphere is also important, this can help make good game great. Maybe one day we will get games that have different audio in them depending on what you do in games, almost like intelligent games where it works out certain things to have realistic conversations with you. One day it may well be that we will use voice as input more, it could become a more common form of input in the future.
Smell
It seems a bit strange to associate smells with gaming, but soon we may well be able to.
Time and time again I see articles and links to sites with information on devices that are set to bring smells into gaming. Most are usually a small box which you connect to the console which mixes a combination of various chemicals to create various different smells. Early models are capable of producing smells like burning rubber, rotting flesh and blood and a few more. Whether it is your thing or not it does seem like an area that could have some use in gaming to make the experience more complete.
Obviously for me personally there are a number of other areas that are much more important for the developers to consider before they begin to include code which handles these and other ideas to bring senses into gaming. They also need to be thought through and make sure that the developers feel they will be useful and not make there games suffer. Guess we will just need to wait and see but maybe soon we can all play with our senses too. So what do you think? Any views on this? Or any areas you think we could see us using our senses more?
The main senses are sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Obviously we already have sight and sound in basic levels, taste wouldn't change much gaming wise and touch just seems to be a bit too hard to implement at the present moment. This means that smell and an improvement in sight and sound could be the only changes possible or worthwhile. Lets have a look at each of these in turn to have a look at what I see as the main ways of these making gaming better.
Sight
A strange one to think of how you could possibly improve it other than polish up graphics and make them look more realistic. But maybe there are other ways to change things. Could we have first person shooters which after certain events such as being shot in the eye or suffering heavy damage your vision becomes impared and you lose a bit of your sight, or maybe having more effects such as sunlight, fog, rain etc which reduce your field of vision. I know some of these already are used but not as well as they should and also could be. Some games need the camera angles to be as good as they can the whole way through the game, the number of games where a poor view spoils it is going down but there is still a few that get it wrong.
Sound
Sound in games is a very important feature, but could be made better. I don't mean the music but more the sounds such as enemy fire, objects falling etc. In games it is very hard to judge distance without decent sound and differing sound. This is why maybe we need more effort on the sound and not just the same sound used for a particular weapon but the level of the sound dependant on how far away the enemy is. Getting the balance right with music to set the atmosphere is also important, this can help make good game great. Maybe one day we will get games that have different audio in them depending on what you do in games, almost like intelligent games where it works out certain things to have realistic conversations with you. One day it may well be that we will use voice as input more, it could become a more common form of input in the future.
Smell
It seems a bit strange to associate smells with gaming, but soon we may well be able to.
Time and time again I see articles and links to sites with information on devices that are set to bring smells into gaming. Most are usually a small box which you connect to the console which mixes a combination of various chemicals to create various different smells. Early models are capable of producing smells like burning rubber, rotting flesh and blood and a few more. Whether it is your thing or not it does seem like an area that could have some use in gaming to make the experience more complete.
Obviously for me personally there are a number of other areas that are much more important for the developers to consider before they begin to include code which handles these and other ideas to bring senses into gaming. They also need to be thought through and make sure that the developers feel they will be useful and not make there games suffer. Guess we will just need to wait and see but maybe soon we can all play with our senses too. So what do you think? Any views on this? Or any areas you think we could see us using our senses more?