“We are all mad here , you know “, Said Cheshire cat .” I am mad , you are mad . “

“How do you know that I’m mad ? “ , said Alice.

“Of course you are mad”  , said Cheshire cat, “Only mad people come here “ .

                                                                                                                  Alice ’s adventures in Wonderland

If you have not heard from the new ambitious project currently being worked on by Lionhead studios called Project NATAL you need to check out the video bellow :

The first thing that crossed my mind while watching this part of Microsoft Press Conference at E3 09 was a hybrid of sadness and excitement . Almost all of us have seen the movie Matrix . The world of everything and nothing ; this rabbit hole seemed so amazing yet fake back when the movie was released . Being able to live in an imaginary world with people whom you like for as long as you want without having to worry about the dangers , frustration and hardships of real life is something that makes anyone happier .

Playing video games for many of us has always been the way to relieve ourselves of the stress and problems of real life . However, playing video games despite the solid frame-rates , dynamic shadows , superb textures and terrific animations can never take us completely out of this world or help us immerse ourselves deeply in a fictional world . After all , all we do is pressing ,holding and moving bunch of buttons .

Another fact is the nature of video games which regardless of the genre , number of endings , alternative game plays are literally linear and the gamers eventually observe the credit screen in the end . But what if a game starts and never ends ? That way the term “game “ would not be appropriate anymore .  Try to imagine that you can interact  with an endless world full of probabilities and opportunities !!!

Many of you agree with me that after coming home full of stress and anger because of  your professor , employer , cab driver ,your own mistakes.. etc,  nothing like crushing Zombie’s skulls in Dead Rising or tearing apart terrorists in Call of Duty or running over pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto makes you feel better !!!! .

Now try to imagine coming home with all the aforementioned problems and turning on your TV and talking to someone who has all the time in the world to listen to you , respond to you , make you laugh , force you into doing something relatively silly , ask your opinion , scrutinize your work , ask you about your shi** or wonderful day ….. .  It’s breathtaking even thinking about this issue .

Once again we come across the idea of everything and nothing , sanity or insanity ! There is no doubt that Project NATAL is nothing less than a ground breaking revolution and the grounds for this idea are not limited to a small boy in a small place by a lake . Project NATAL  and responsive AI can eventually and after years of progression help humanity reach levels of interactions that can only be described as magic even in the contemporary world .

Although we should never forget the sad side of this innovation ; The need to create such technology implies the deep level of loneliness of the modern world that is taking us farther and farther from each other . Maybe humanity will reach a point where it only interacts with fictional characters and places !!!

Nevertheless this technology that was debuted at this year’s E3 deserves a huge round of applause and only time will tell the benefits and harms of this plan , ….. this fabulous fable ……..

“ Wake up Alice dear “ said her sister  “ You’ve been asleep a long time “ .

“ Oh , I’ve had a very curious dream  “ Said Alice and she told her sister all about the strange adventures in her wonderful dream .

Daniel