The new Nintendo wii is to revolutionize the way gamers play games, the new wii controller is bringing a new element to the Nintendo catalogue of games, but more does need to be done by games designers to take advantage of this new technology. As games companies start developing games to work with the new controller the full potential of the wii will be realized, but not enough of this happening, Ubisoft have dedicated a huge chunk of their energy towards developing games for the wii, but that seems to be the exception to the rule. new forms of game controllers have traditionally influenced game design, from the original joysticks on the Atari to the two analogues sticks of the ps2, these new controller features have influenced game design. Here is a breakdown of the influence of different controllers on game design:
The Pong Wheel: The very first attempt at a commercial video game, SpaceWar, flopped because the button-and-lever controls were too complex for newbies. Pong's dead-simple paddle wheel was much easier to grasp, and boom: A zillion ball-bouncing copycats, including Breakout, were born.
Space Invaders' Buttons: Space Invaders' "fire" button transformed video games into a sci-fi shooting gallery. But because it only allowed side-to-side motion, it limited the "space game" to earthbound combat -- scuttling back and forth across the bottom of the screen. Games wouldn't break out of this paradigm until ...
The Atari 2600 Joystick: Presto: X-Y coordinate motion! By allowing you to roam in any direction, the joystick opened up the rest of the screen, and a flood of new types of play emerged -- including maze navigation with Pac-Man and side-scrolling shooters like Scramble. (Caveat: Atari didn't invent the joystick, but it did popularize it at home.)
Nintendo Entertainment System Gamepad: The more buttons you have, the larger an array of moves a game designer can easily put into a game. Though Nintendo's epochal gamepad had only a D-pad and two buttons, gamepads quickly evolved. Soon, the Sega Genesis offered a six-button pad that created a generation of mash-ariffic fighting games. Later, trigger and "shoulder" buttons paved the way for increasingly Byzantine button options in today's supercomplex titles.
The Computer Mouse and Keyboard: By letting you type in text and conduct precise aiming with a mouse, computer games sacrificed simplicity -- but gained sophistication. The result? Everything from complex, chat-based online games to the 3-D bloodbath of Quake and the elegant crack of Bejeweled..
The Nintendo 64 Analog Stick: By going analog, Nintendo created the most subtle controller movement yet. In Mario 64, you could run, walk or creep slowly -- and swivel around easily to marvel at the environment. Without the analog stick, 3-D worlds would never have taken off on
consoles.
The Rumble Pack: Sure, the Rumble Pack was most often used as a gimmick: Hey, I just got shot! Cool! But it also brought "ambient information" to consoles. Games could use subtle rumbling to expand your senses -- letting you sense the approach of an enemy you couldn't yet see.
Sony's Dual Analog Stick Controller:The second analog stick allowed for two vectors of movement to fluidly intersect. Increasingly complex movements -- such as running around a corner while swiveling your gun in the opposite direction -- became easier. In response, game environments erupted in sophistication.
c thompson wired (2006)
The Nintendo wii will hopefully have the same influence as these other types of controllers had on games designers. Such games are in development now, a good example is trauma centre were u have to play the role of a surgeon. You use the wii controller as the instruments on the game and perform the surgery virtually.
But as these games come out the way we play games could change and this inturn will change the 'model' for traditional game design.
(trauma centre ,Nintendo wii)
