The direction of gaming
Well, here I am on the floor of GO3. Today is industry day, perfect for guys like me who want to get hands on to all the goodies without having to battle the crowds. Technology is everywhere as far as the eye can see.
Well, assuming your eyes can see within a radius of 100m.
Its times like this I wish I had my credit card on hand. Or at least a firearm of some sort combined with a guy named Larry waiting in a getaway vehicle. The amount of electronic goodies that surround me could make a grown man cry. Not too sure how that would happen.. I suppose all the goodies might start cutting up onions or something. But nonetheless, I’m sure there will be some sort of male crying involved somehow.
I’m standing in front of the Aussie HiFi stand watching two gamers with plastic guitars strapped to their bodies. In front of them is the game Guitar Hero 2, playing on a huge Samsung flat panel. A small crowd gathers behind our two rock stars as they strum away. The massive speakers surrounding the screen blast out a cover of warrant’s classic ‘cherry pie’ whilst our budding guitarists jam away.
In their minds, these two gamers were rock gods.
To the rest of us watching, they were just two nerds playing with fisher price toys.
At the Gametraders stand to the right of me, staff demonstrate the joys of Wii sports to a gaming neophyte. Our new gamer hails by the name of Hayley, an energetic young lass from Ballajura. She is playing Wii tennis and swinging the Wiimote wildly in the air with a maniacal grin on her face.
Hayley tells me this is the first time she has ever picked up a games controller and now she’s hooked. I lamely attempt at stretching the interview further but decide its rather unsafe given I nearly get decapitated by her spasmodic thrusts of the Wiimote in the direction of my beautiful face.
Yes folks, this is what gaming has evolved to – in a few years gaming will blossom into a full-contact sport. Naturally being a conference, you hear buzz-words being thrown around but two words used quite often was “motion and emotion”. And to be honest, I think the concept is here to stay. Looking around me, crowds have gathered to stare at goofy looking kids play on the Wii and the Guitar Hero guitars yet these patrons promptly ignore the impressive World in Conflict stand.
I smile to myself as their set finishes and grab one of the guitars.
Time for the big boys to show em’ how its done.