Poll: Just hear me out for a second.

[Heat149]

I know there's been a lot of forums about the Wii U, most of them ragging on the thing for whatever nintendo's doing with it now (I havent been following it very closely).

But I didnt start this link to create more negativity towards this new console, I want to talk about what the concept has potential for (Ei: touch screen controller). So lets ignore the processing capabilities for now and talk about what this concept could do to enhance the hard core audience's gameplay experience. I think it would enhance RPG gameplay greatly, ranging from turn based to real time games.

(I know these were never actually on the Wii, I'm just using them as references)

For those of you who play turn based, imagine how fast things could be done were the touch screen used for navigating the menu. One of the reasons I used auto attack so much in the recent FF13 was because selecting individual attacks took too long and wasted time, could this solve that issue for some of us?

For those of you who play real time RPGs (Ei: fallout, elder scrolls), Imagine being about to navigate the menus without having to break the flow of combat? Keep playing with the controller portion, navigate the menu with the touch screen portion all at the same time.

And this one's a little more game specific, but Resonance of Fate. I know I some times found the menus obnoxious, and Im sure some of you have to, this could greatly increase the speed of navigating those too. Also, think of what this could do for hero actions and other aspects of gameplay. Instead of draging the H.O. marker, you could simply tap where you want it, and intead of awkwardly navigating targets, you could do a quick select by tapping.

Reading this over, I noticed a lot of my ideas were menu related, but lets look at the potential of this product. Forget that this is nintendo's baby and think of where this could be applied in any game for any console. What do you think this could do?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

For those of you who play turn based, imagine how fast things could be done were the touch screen used for navigating the menu. One of the reasons I used auto attack so much in the recent FF13 was because selecting individual attacks took too long and wasted time, could this solve that issue for some of us?

I suspect that such a screen would not net a significant reduction in time it takes to complete an action in this case; It would almost certainly be no more than could be gained by better design alone.

For those of you who play real time RPGs (Ei: fallout, elder scrolls), Imagine being about to navigate the menus without having to break the flow of combat? Keep playing with the controller portion, navigate the menu with the touch screen portion all at the same time.

You're asking me to look away from the game screen (and thus drastically limit my ability to play the game) so that I might screw around in my inventory, a task that requires an entirely different train of thought in the first place? That doesn't really seem to offer an improvement in my eyes.

And this one's a little more game specific, but Resonance of Fate. I know I some times found the menus obnoxious, and Im sure some of you have to, this could greatly increase the speed of navigating those too. Also, think of what this could do for hero actions and other aspects of gameplay. Instead of draging the H.O. marker, you could simply tap where you want it, and intead of awkwardly navigating targets, you could do a quick select by tapping.

Again, I do not see much potential for increasing my efficiency of command input simply by having a secondary touch screen. If anything, I find that using a motion device to input commands is slower than simply pressing a button. For example, when playing Dawn of War 2, I rely on hotkeys for everything but issuing movement and attack orders to my troops.

Reading this over, I noticed a lot of my ideas were menu related, but lets look at the potential of this product. Forget that this is nintendo's baby and think of where this could be applied in any game for any console. What do you think this could do?

I think that the RTS genre is the one that would be best served by this device simply because the primary hurdle facing the genre on consoles is that it is difficult to efficiently issue commands to multiple units in a short period.

 

[BanicRhys]

Voted no.

I wonder if one day Nintendo will stop relying on crappy gimmicks and start making good games again.

 

[Hamish Durie]

unfortunetly i suffer froma a case called "sausage fingers" and selecting one group or even one unit would be hell because you would end clicking half the units on the screen
(i exagerate)

 

[Stasisesque]

Smart phones are way ahead of you. At least Android (sure the others have their own versions) has an app that turns the phone into a controller for, well, anything you care to link it to.

So sure the technology will catch on... it already has.

 

[9thRequiem]

Personally, I think it's a pretty terrible idea. I'd want to pause the game for any time I was looking away from the main screen, and if I'm pausing, why not just use that screen?

Will it catch on? Maybe. If it sells well (and I've no doubt there'll be enough Mario and Zelda for that) then MS/Sony will probably find a way to copy it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Hmm, I don't think there is much to it right now.

As long as you only have a flat screen for your view into the virtual world pulling that view from it will always break immersion (just try to observe your actions when playing an immersive game, you never break eye contact with the game world).
Once video glasses kick in and your entire world view is the game world then we can start talking of extra immersion.

But it has it's small uses, for anyone who shares his TV and for the shitter that thing is great(in theory anyway, we have yet to see how it will actually be supported).
It could also be an autonomous device, but ofcourse then they wont make money on your other mobile devices.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

I just don't think they can be as ergonomical as the form fitting PS3/360 controllers. Could be me stuck in my ways, I'd wager you could tell most console gamers a sequence of button presses like R1 R2 L1 R2 up down left right up down left right and they would be able to accurately mime it without looking at their hands.

With a touch screen you need to crane your neck or put up with arm strain as well as adapt to whatever new user interface you're faced with. In my opinion an ideal controller is one that is:

Comfortable
Either light or doesn't need to be held
Have easily reachable buttons (only fingers and thumbs should need to move, not your wrists and hands)
Require minimal or no visual contact to use

If I was to make a controller it would need to tick all those boxes to get past the brainstorming stage.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

For those of you who play turn based, imagine how fast things could be done were the touch screen used for navigating the menu. One of the reasons I used auto attack so much in the recent FF13 was because selecting individual attacks took too long and wasted time, could this solve that issue for some of us?

The wierd thing is the auto-attack seemed to pick attacks that wasted time, a regular enemy with no weakness made Lightning pick Attack Ruin Attack Ruin Attack which takes what seems like twice as long to execute as attack x5 or ruin x5