Number of Inputs

With any video game you must immediately know which inputs do what. In more traditional video games we have a large number of inputs; an Xbox 360 or Playstation controller has 10 buttons, a D-Pad and two control sticks, and even without motion controls the Wii remote has 6 buttons and a D-Pad. Even if we take the slightly reductionist view that control sticks constitute 4 different inputs, that means that the standard console control schemes of this generation have between 10 and 22 different base inputs. On top of that then we can use various different button and control stick combinations to create a massive different array of inputs.

Meanwhile motion control games are reliant on a series of physical actions and gestures that can be easily memorised and performed. It’s not too hard to come up with a few of these gestures but you’d have to go to some considerable lengths to come up with 22 substantially different, easily memorable, and easily performable gestures, let alone ones that could be combined with other gestures in a way that makes sense to utilise as multiple inputs at the same time. You’ll notice that most motion control games are resigned to the player performing one simple action at a time and not just for the sake of simple game mechanics. The facial muscles and fingers provide more room for a variety of accurate motion inputs, but the face still has nowhere near the accuracy and variable quality of the controller and once you start delving too deep into the realms of finger control you might just as well stick a regular controller back into the hands of the player.

Going back to traditional controls, if we take away the ‘4 inputs’ simplification I was using earlier for the sake of statistics, the control sticks actually provide an accurate and highly variable input device which can be held at any angle and pushed as far away from the centre as we wish.   This may not sound particularly remarkable but it’s this accurate, fast, yet easily variable input which is specific to traditional game controls which allows us to handle delicate tasks like controlling a camera or moving a character around the game world, and it’s the lack of any current kind of equivalent input method in motion control gaming which means that designers haven’t been able to find ways to provide you with non-fixed cameras or practical means to move around the game worlds.

Replication

What’s more, motion control games also generally aim at replication of a real-world action as a form of input or at least try to provide an accessible emulation of it. There’s no rule which says that motion control games have to do this and while we “core gamers” don’t need the stepping stone of accessibility this replication offers it’s often seen as primary appeal of motion controls to us. You throw a ball, the character on screen throws a ball, you jump, the character on screen jumps and so on. The problem is that with such an emphasis on pseudo-realistic actions most motion control games focus on a control scheme which is far more willing to take realism of input over practicality of input than traditional games, and even if they didn’t there’d be little point in having motion controls at all. Now, that’s not to say that motion control game designers don’t look at what’s practical in terms of control, they do, it’s just that traditional controls are usually more practical.

Combining the Two

In situations where games try to balance motion control and traditional control alongside each other there’s also the problem that with the player having to keep hold of both sides of the controller during core gameplay, deciding on gestures which are practical, swift and representative of the in-game actions is a difficult task. This is why motion control gestures in more traditionally-designed games like Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess have ended up largely reducing the motion control elements of their games to a simple waggle and I think it’s one reason why core games may opt for voice control over motion control, Mass Effect 3 is certainly already doing so.

Voice Control

As a side note voice controls are an interesting addition to motion controls, but don’t necessarily fall into all the same traps that motion controls do. With the breadth of human language, voice control actually potentially provides a much wider range of different inputs than even traditional controls and with the malleability of language words can be shortened down to seem both realistic and more practical, however it must be recognised that voice control is a completely different beast from motion control, it’s about emulating conversation and commands rather than any more physical human action. Unfortunately voice controls also carry that major setback of taking much longer to perform than button/control stick inputs and are still a rather active form of input, potentially clashing negatively with regular controls. Do I think voice control in Mass Effect 3 could be some fun? Yes. Do I think it’ll be a replacement for regular controls? Absolutely not.

Duder, It’s Over

Motion controls have proved to be an original, fun and more accessible addition to gaming but motion control games are very different from the experiences we have traditionally referred to as video games. With a limited number of inputs, lack of speedy input, and a host of other issues these styles of control have a lot of enjoyable gameplay to offer, but are not poised to take over the tried and tested staples of standard control schemes and never were. I think a lot of the expectations and hype over motion controls have been born out of a misunderstanding about the place of realism in gaming. For now I think we’ll be sticking with the good old fashioned control pad. Good luck, have Landmaster.

-Gamer_152