One of the first media of widespread popular computer use was the playing of games. Think Pong and Pac-man. Today a top thriving trend is the touch screen, familiar on smart phones and tablets such as iPad. The juxtaposition of these two trends has raised doubt in many people's mind how compatible they can be.
Certainly, the immediate evidence would suggest such a concern is much ado about nothing. Games have been developed for touch screens: I've compiled my list of the best games for iPad elsewhere. The fact of such games though has not been without its detractors and critics.
Most commonly, there are those who complain about the practicality of touch screen game playing. The usual (perhaps obvious) complaint is something along the lines: my fingers get in the way of seeing the screen.
Well, maybe, but perhaps a more central insight is being missed here. The very idea that a tactile interface with the screen is an obstacle may in fact be an increasingly outdated abstraction. Those who play the touch screen are quite possibly the cutting edge not only of a new world of gaming, but in fact of an entirely new human-computer interface.
What do I mean, you ask? Well, before launching fully into explaining that, let's consider some context. There's an old joke that technology is anything invented after you were born. In fact, everything a human uses as a medium for some purpose is a technology. Paint for instance is a technology. Think for a moment about the visceral pleasures of finger painting. Of course, great, important and serious painters use artisanal paint brushes, right?
Yet, we all know the joys of sticking our fingers into the paint; of using the tips of our fingers to smear, spread and shape the paint. Finger painting in a sense is almost a kind of sculpture. Kids of course notoriously love it, but even adults, given the rare occasion, if not worried about getting paint on their new dress or suit, will often be compelled to spontaneously stick in their fingers.
Compare that other childhood picture producing technology, the Etch-n-Sketch. I'm not claiming there's not fun in it. It is though a very particular kind of fun: detail-driven and fixated in a vaguely obsessive compulsive way. It's a world away from the uninhibited joy of finger painting. I propose that this sheer joyousness is directly related to the immersion in, not only the finger painting experience, but also into the product of the experience; the very tactile immersion into the medium.
The person finger painting, in a very real sense, is actually "in" the picture that she is painting. The painting is literally an extension of the painter and the painter an extension of the painting. If we can wrap our head about this dynamic we will understand why touch screen gaming is not only the future of gaming, but of human-computer interface. The touch screen game has the same affect of immersing the player in the game as finger painting does of immersing the painter into the painting.
Those who complain about the absence of buttons and joysticks, mice and keyboards, are simply expressing the annoyance of adaptation-challenge always expressed by those left behind by change. They are resentful that their refined skills, in which they have invested so much time and energy, are suddenly obsolete.
It's really no different from photographers complaining about digital cameras, old ink-stained newspaper journalists complaining about the internet, motion picture studios complaining about television, big band musicians complaining about the phonograph, and horse-and-carriage operators complaining about the automobile. Progress marches on and those with investments in the past get passed over. Unless we want to live in some permanent past, though, surely this is a good thing.
It's not just though about improved functionality, but also about a more immediate experience and a more accessible one. The first person who had the idea to hook up speakers to their TV to create a surround sound effect were leading the way along the path to the day when we all will experience our favorite shows as virtual reality experiences. And that day isn't as far off as you might think.
It's almost a cliche to say that we like to "lose ourselves" in our entertainment, to get "wrapped up in it." We want for a little while to leave the worries of the world behind. This deep human desire for the brief refuge of an escape into fantasy and wonder, I suspect explains why we have always pushed our entertainment technology toward the experience of immersion.
The recent explosion in popularity of Wii is a case in point. It illustrates the desire to bathe ourselves in a tactically immersive gaming experience. The immersive experience of the touch screen approaches such immersion in a manner no control console or keyboard ever will. It links the child-like joy of finger painting and the intense pleasures promised by full virtual reality engagement. It links our personal past with our social future
In Sci-Fi shows we see space age technology in which lights come on when given a verbal command. How much more impressive would it be though if our lights came on when we needed them, or raised their intensity when our eyes were growing tired of a task. Leading edge AI technology raises this very possibility. Immersion is the natural inclination of human-computer interface.
Touch screen gaming is a stepping stone into that future. Game designers who try to build button or stick driven games for the iPad are like the early film makers and record producers who could only conceive film or tape recording as instruments for recording live performances. Until the benefits of splicing were discovered the potential of such media went unexplored.
Likewise, until they can wrap their heads around the possibilities of organic designs, realizing the optimum potential for the best games for iPad, and other touch screen devices, such designers will be the last of the past, rather than pioneers of the future.
Certainly, the immediate evidence would suggest such a concern is much ado about nothing. Games have been developed for touch screens: I've compiled my list of the best games for iPad elsewhere. The fact of such games though has not been without its detractors and critics.
Most commonly, there are those who complain about the practicality of touch screen game playing. The usual (perhaps obvious) complaint is something along the lines: my fingers get in the way of seeing the screen.
Well, maybe, but perhaps a more central insight is being missed here. The very idea that a tactile interface with the screen is an obstacle may in fact be an increasingly outdated abstraction. Those who play the touch screen are quite possibly the cutting edge not only of a new world of gaming, but in fact of an entirely new human-computer interface.
What do I mean, you ask? Well, before launching fully into explaining that, let's consider some context. There's an old joke that technology is anything invented after you were born. In fact, everything a human uses as a medium for some purpose is a technology. Paint for instance is a technology. Think for a moment about the visceral pleasures of finger painting. Of course, great, important and serious painters use artisanal paint brushes, right?
Yet, we all know the joys of sticking our fingers into the paint; of using the tips of our fingers to smear, spread and shape the paint. Finger painting in a sense is almost a kind of sculpture. Kids of course notoriously love it, but even adults, given the rare occasion, if not worried about getting paint on their new dress or suit, will often be compelled to spontaneously stick in their fingers.
Compare that other childhood picture producing technology, the Etch-n-Sketch. I'm not claiming there's not fun in it. It is though a very particular kind of fun: detail-driven and fixated in a vaguely obsessive compulsive way. It's a world away from the uninhibited joy of finger painting. I propose that this sheer joyousness is directly related to the immersion in, not only the finger painting experience, but also into the product of the experience; the very tactile immersion into the medium.
The person finger painting, in a very real sense, is actually "in" the picture that she is painting. The painting is literally an extension of the painter and the painter an extension of the painting. If we can wrap our head about this dynamic we will understand why touch screen gaming is not only the future of gaming, but of human-computer interface. The touch screen game has the same affect of immersing the player in the game as finger painting does of immersing the painter into the painting.
Those who complain about the absence of buttons and joysticks, mice and keyboards, are simply expressing the annoyance of adaptation-challenge always expressed by those left behind by change. They are resentful that their refined skills, in which they have invested so much time and energy, are suddenly obsolete.
It's really no different from photographers complaining about digital cameras, old ink-stained newspaper journalists complaining about the internet, motion picture studios complaining about television, big band musicians complaining about the phonograph, and horse-and-carriage operators complaining about the automobile. Progress marches on and those with investments in the past get passed over. Unless we want to live in some permanent past, though, surely this is a good thing.
It's not just though about improved functionality, but also about a more immediate experience and a more accessible one. The first person who had the idea to hook up speakers to their TV to create a surround sound effect were leading the way along the path to the day when we all will experience our favorite shows as virtual reality experiences. And that day isn't as far off as you might think.
It's almost a cliche to say that we like to "lose ourselves" in our entertainment, to get "wrapped up in it." We want for a little while to leave the worries of the world behind. This deep human desire for the brief refuge of an escape into fantasy and wonder, I suspect explains why we have always pushed our entertainment technology toward the experience of immersion.
The recent explosion in popularity of Wii is a case in point. It illustrates the desire to bathe ourselves in a tactically immersive gaming experience. The immersive experience of the touch screen approaches such immersion in a manner no control console or keyboard ever will. It links the child-like joy of finger painting and the intense pleasures promised by full virtual reality engagement. It links our personal past with our social future
In Sci-Fi shows we see space age technology in which lights come on when given a verbal command. How much more impressive would it be though if our lights came on when we needed them, or raised their intensity when our eyes were growing tired of a task. Leading edge AI technology raises this very possibility. Immersion is the natural inclination of human-computer interface.
Touch screen gaming is a stepping stone into that future. Game designers who try to build button or stick driven games for the iPad are like the early film makers and record producers who could only conceive film or tape recording as instruments for recording live performances. Until the benefits of splicing were discovered the potential of such media went unexplored.
Likewise, until they can wrap their heads around the possibilities of organic designs, realizing the optimum potential for the best games for iPad, and other touch screen devices, such designers will be the last of the past, rather than pioneers of the future.
About the Author:
To check out the latest goings-on in the universe of touch screen games, check out Mishu Hull's regular articles at the Best Games for iPad blog. He writes on a variety of technology issues. His critical review of the newest version of Kindle Fire, " Kindle Fire Tries it Again, But... ," is required reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment