De Blob dev cautious about WiiMotion Plus

[Shrygue]

via Joystiq


We've called Wii MotionPlus "the thing that makes the WiiMote work the way it always should have" but there's at least one developer who doesn't care for that alternate history time line. Nick Hagger, the producer of Wii's de Blob, said he's worried the addition will overcomplicate things for the Wii's base, as developers move towards more gestural control schemes.

"While it's definitely intellectually stimulating from a development perspective to play with those ideas - and I think it does appeal to a set of gamers out there - I think the majority of people that play on the Wii want something very simple that they can just immediately get their heads around," Hagger said.

We'd like to think that there's room for both gamers who want more gestural controls and those who want to keep flicking their wrists to pretend they're tipping cows, or whatever's going on over in Wiiville these days. What about you?

[Grey Acumen]

His thought process is backwards.

He's looking at this as "simple gameplay needs the controls to be simple" as in "simple minded" in other words; stupid.

What really should be is "simple gameplay needs the controls to be simple" as in "it is simple for the controls to recognize the motion I am performing" in other words; smarter.

More accurate instruments do not REQUIRE more accurate motions. However more accurate motions do require more accurate instruments.

[trugamer]

I agree with him. I think the wii motionplus is something rushed out for unimaginative developers who wouldn't look past shaking and blamed the inaccuracy of the wii.

And he is right about more accurate motions, given to the same developers who have us flailing our arms we'll end up with tight margins of error, if someone makes a boxing game with hooks and jabs, how far out do I move to hook and how far out is simply an error made while jabbing?

You only need to look at the first wave of fps games to see how lazy developers have been with controls and more options isn't going to improve it.

[mcdougall57]

Definitely needs to be more gestural but the wii remote kills the xbox and ps3 for an fps control scheme.

[vicious1988]

Needs more buttons.

[mcdougall57]

Needs more buttons.

haha what the hell is that?!

[vicious1988]

Steel Battalion(XBox) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Battalion

Never played, but I assume it is a more complicated less complicated controller. More buttons = no combos.

Click for large image of controls

[mcdougall57]

If they only sold 2000 of those things how did the game profit?

[grossaffe]

Needs more buttons.

Steel Battalion! (my friend had it)

[grossaffe]

If they only sold 2000 of those things how did the game profit?

wow, only 2000 sold? well I guess I'm in the vast minority here of being someone who's actually played it.
A lot of the buttons were fluff, like flipping the switches at the start of a level to turn on the VT. I think I only beat one or two levels, there was quite a bit I didn't understand and the thing was a bit odd to control.