Peter Molyneux has compared Kinect to the dawn of the computer mouse, stating that the criticisms people have for Microsoft’s EyeToy are similar to those had for the now-crucial computer peripheral many moons ago.
“You know what? This is exactly like the mid-80s when we got the Amiga and we started playing with a mouse,” said the snake-oil salesman of gaming. “I can remember everyone writing about how the mouse is the worst thing for gaming and it took a little while for the development community to start exploring and experiment with it. But out of that exploration and experimentation came Wolfenstein and DOOM and real-time strategy games.
“Before that we were all doing stuff with a joystick. I think that any invention as big as Kinect just takes a while for us to get our teeth into. I agree with the scepticism from core gamers because there is no example yet of anything which is as dramatic or as exciting (as a game on a controller) or even an experience that lasts more than fifteen minutes. When you get past the idiosyncrasies which every control mechanism has, Kinect is a wonderful device to innovate on.”
Yeah, the difference of course is that the mouse opened us up to whole new ways of playing games, whereas Kinect seems so far to just be restricting us to on-rails shooters. Sorry, but Kinect is not a PC mouse. Developers talk a big game about how it opens up possibilities, but when you look at the sheer lack of appreciable input afforded by the device, you’re more restricted than anything else.
Peter Molyneux: ‘They used to criticise the PC mouse… Kinect will take time’ [CVG]
