On the Relevance of Video Gaming in Human & Social Sciences – Interview with Sébastien Genvo, game design expert
Dance Dance Revolution
Technological exemplification is expressed not only via graphic design, but also through tangible interfaces, a new and ever-evolving industrial field in which David Arenou, who asked me to be his tutor, is an expert. I also wrote an article on this topic called “Tangible Interfaces: In Search of Utopia?” Night Driver, one of the first automobile simulators, already donned an internal vision wheel. However, since the birth of video games, the Wii Remote has become the first real successful tangible interface in this field. For instance, first-person shooting games, such as Operation Wolf, were initially played in arcades with real pistols or machine guns with force feedback. While these tangible interfaces failed to gain user approval, first-person shooting games with mouse and keyboard were all the craze. Yet, they are not quite what you’d call intuitive! What players seek, first and foremost, is rule-enforced efficiency. Players will not immerse themselves in an interface because it resembles reality, but because they master the rules of the game. If players fail to reach their objectives, the graphics will take over for a while, but their interest will, ultimately, be short-lived. On the other hand, if the tangible interface is integrated into the gaming system, its chances of survival increase. For example, in Dance Dance Revolution, the mere mimicking of steps won’t get you to the next level. Players are eager to take to new rules in a new world, and not necessarily to one that feigns their own daily routine as most interfaces usually did. The main challenge with tangible interfaces is developing tools that are effective in the gaming world without imitating realistic behaviors. The first journalistic feedback about Sony and Microsoft interfaces leaves little to be desired. People quickly lose interest. When playing tennis on the Wii, it does not take long to realize that a simple backhand movement is more than enough to engage in the game and not copying the tennis player’s exact gesture. Mimicry is no longer sufficient, which is why we should favor, instead, what I call “playability.” It is this factor that makes a video game what it is today. The art of video expression lies not only in technological amplification, but in the quality of the interaction.
IRS by David Arenou gives S. Genvo’s research concrete expression
Thierry Lehmann: What do you think of David Arenou’s concept, IRS?
Page 5 of 7 | Previous page | Next page
