Motion-Sensitive Controllers: Leveling Up to the MMO?

Nintendo was the first to introduce the concept of motion-sensing controllers to the gaming world and as of late it has taken off. Motion-sensing technology has become such a hit, all major platforms have imitated the Wii with their own perspective on it; Microsoft came out with the Kinect and Sony with the Move. With all these attachments being introduced to revolutionize gaming leaves us asking the question: how far it will go? Will we live to see the day where we can actually play our favorite games like Call of Duty utilizing these motion-controls? Can we go even further and wonder if our favorite MMOs will come to life?  Check out more after the break.

As the popularity of both MMOs and Motion-Controls are on the rise, we are just starting to truly imagine an MMO where you can interact with your character in a whole new way – making the player really feel like he is in the midst of battle every single time he plays. Motion-sensing technology opens a lot of doors for an MMO’s control scheme, an example being a close range DPS character, controlling as follows: the player can act as if they are swinging the sword, and for special attacks, one would have to spin or move their hand in varying directions. The long-range DPS characters can gesture as if they are using a gun or bow – the longer the shot is held determining power, or various effects. With a spell-casting character the player would have to maneuver their hands in a distinct manner to cast a spell, use a power, etc.

The addition of motion-sensing technology could also take away a number of stigmas associated with MMOs in the past. People will no longer be able to say that MMOs have caused a player to get lazy, because one is constantly moving. The truth of the matter is that you won’t even be able to get that “addicted” to the game because sooner or later you will not have the stamina to play.

The most important part of an MMO is that it is always enjoyable to play, and that is something a developer would have to consider in adding motion-controls to a title. People already complain about MMOs platform-ports because of the lack of input options, so imagine having that reduced to simply a camera. But the ultimate advantage of motion-controls in an MMO is the ability to fulfill the dream of becoming their online characters, and currently this motion-sensing technology is the closest to that we can get.