Gaming Technology Articles

The CA asks that I summarize 2 articles on technology.

www.technologyreview.com/wire/23983/

I've picked one about how Xbox and PlayStation 3 have now added a function so users can access Facebook from their consoles. This basically means that instead of a guy or girl sitting in their room with the Xbox going and the laptop beside them to read those oh so important Facebook updates, they can now do the whole lot from one machine. It is blatantly obvious to everyone that Facebook has become possibly more popular than Hollywood's finest celebrities so the progression to add it to some of the most popular gaming consoles was an obvious one. The Wii, however, has not yet taken this obvious step. They are still purely a gaming only console but most likely to follow the footsteps of Xbox and the PS3.

www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23602/?a=f

The second article I chose is about Project Natal. This is a concept thought up by the Xbox people - its similar to the Wii where a little sensor picks up movement so you can move around while playing but with Project Natal, there is no controller needed. Its basically a camera placed above or below the TV and the camera records any physical movement. While it would be cool to play (assuming it worked) the fact that the gamer doesn't physically hold anything in their hand, might be a turn off for some. The "no need for controllers" concept isn't a brand new idea but there have been problems with it in the past - the camera doesn't always understand distance and getting it to recognise multiple players is always a drawback. Another con to this idea, is that it is just that - an idea. There is no release date, official name (you can't call it Project Natal forever!) and most importantly, no price set for this concept as of yet.

These two articles focus on gaming, games consoles and their users. One is on a new add-on the companies have brought out and the other is about a possible add-on that may materialise in the future. In the modern world, gaming is huge. Every household has a games console of some description whether it is a Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, PSP, Nintendo DS etc. And if they don’t have a console dedicated to playing games, they have PC’s and Mac’s and laptops that can be used to play games if they wish. But now, thanks to modern technology, some of the above companies are amalgamating the most popular hobbies onto one machine – gaming and social networking. As most people have some form of social networking application on their laptops or PC’s, it only makes sense to be able to access it from your Xbox as well.
The other article shows how the world has changed from as little as 20 years ago. Although games consoles were around back then (albeit the Atari), it was all very basic and more emphasis was put on being outside doing some sort of activity – or at least interacting with actual human beings. But these days gaming and social networks etc are becoming increasingly popular. Less time is being spent outside and with actual people and more time is being spent playing computer games and socializing on the web. This new piece of technology would mean that the gamer no longer would play in the traditional manner – with a controller – they would just need to place themselves in front of or at least in the view of a camera attached to their tv. Thus ending the need for any sort of physical human contact!