The Legacy of the Power Glove and Why Motion Controls Are the Future
 

My first experience with motion-based gaming came way back in 1989. I was eight years old and completely convinced, in my naivety, that the new Nintendo-designed Power Glove would transport me into the games I loved so much. After seeing the commercial, I dreamed of being brought into Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! and trading blows with Bald Bull and Glass Joe.

Imagine my surprise when, after opening my Christmas presents that year, I found that the Power Glove was largely a sub-par device that detracted more from the experience than it added.

Now, the Power Glove is little more than a footnote in the history of pop culture. People my age like to litter discussions with ironic mentions of the thing. Last week I heard someone quoting the oft-forgettable, Nintendo-advertisement-masquerading-as-a-movie The Wizard by saying, "It's so bad." It's embarrassing, even now, to admit how much faith and hope I had in that damned thing. But rest assured, for as ridiculous as it was, for as misleading as it was, the line of thought that once led to the production of a useless plastic glove covered in buttons is the direction we, as gamers, are heading in.

Read More - The Legacy of the Power Glove and why Motion Controls are the Future

I hope your wrong...

Remember these same "experts" back in the mid 90s said we would be playing holographic games by 2010.....

Yea I remember holographic games....lol Look if I want to be that active in a game. I'll go outside and actually play it... But I want to say... I still have my power glove packed away nicely unopened sealed box.

I posted this on the other feature about how "Motion Controls aren't the future..." I thought it was fitting to re-post what I said here as well. Hope that sets up the context well enough.



I was in your camp until I played The Bigs on the Wii. That's my favorite game on the console. It blew me away how well they worked the motion controls into the game. If you have a Wii, I suggest you rent it at the least, just so you can see what I'm talking about.

Football, basketball, and soccer are little harder to do. But I think you can add Baseball to the Golf, Bowling, Tennis, and Boxing plausible list. Hockey's somewhere in between. I know Slapshot came out, but NHL11 is just so **** good with the sticks.

I don't see motion controls replacing conventional controllers... at least not in my life time... and I'm 36 years old. Will motion control compliment and co-exist with conventional controllers? Sure, they already do and they have their niche. The future with gaming, in regards to revenue for the gaming companies, is in selling advertising and downloadable content. The value of both of those are directly proportional to keeping eyes glued to screens... keeping eyes glued to screens isn't as easy to do when your audience is physically tired after a 30 minute motion control session... Sitting on your fat behind with a controller and only using your thumbs? Hell, you can do that for hours and hours and hours on end... So yea... the demise of the conventional controller is not in the cards.

I liked this article until you said North Carolina player struggling at Duke, Bad analogy, as UNC has won 4 out of the last 5 at Cameron, just to say.

For this to work with sports like basketball and football it will be really hard. What are you gonna do to simulate running the fast break? the system will need a treadmill attached. How will you tackle someone? you will need a tackle dummy in your living room or risk taking out the tv. I see that some day games might go into the VR realm but if your gonna make it so that you have to act out the actions, not being able to do simple stuff like run, tackle etc. will create a disconnect from the plan of "full gamer imersion".