The game industry is one of, if not, the oldest experience of computers for the general public. Pong and Pac-man blazed the way. While gaming remains a major component of the modern personal computer world, another development in that world has raised skepticism about the ability to marry the two. This second dimension of the computer world is the touch screen, characteristic of smart phones and tablets such as iPad. How much of a conflict is there really here?
Certainly, the immediate evidence would suggest such a concern is much ado about nothing. Games have been developed for touch screens: I've compiled my list of the best games for iPad elsewhere. The fact of such games though has not been without its detractors and critics.
At the risk of caricaturing the complaint, it does often come down to a fairly crude objection. The gist of the complaint is that the player's fingers get in the way of seeing the screen.
That I suspect has more to do with bad design than touch screen gaming per se. And it seems that such a protest misses a more central insight in all of this. Complaining that a tactile interaction with the screen is problematic is really not seeing the forest for the trees. What is going on here is, I suspect, the revolutionizing of gaming. In fact, it may be a portent of the future of human-computer interfacing.
What do I mean, you ask? Well, before launching fully into explaining that, let's consider some context. There's an old joke that technology is anything invented after you were born. In fact, everything a human uses as a medium for some purpose is a technology. Paint for instance is a technology. Think for a moment about the visceral pleasures of finger painting. Of course, great, important and serious painters use artisanal paint brushes, right?
Such a truism though blinds one to the valuable insight available. Who reading these lines has never experienced the joys of poking their fingers into the paint? Can you remember the sensual pleasure of smearing, spreading and indeed even shaping the paint with your finger tips? Really, if you examine it closely, finger painting is less like brush painting than it is akin to sculpture. Children famously revel in it. It provides great satisfaction for adults too though if they can overcome inhibitions against the indulging of child-like pleasures.
Compare that other childhood picture producing technology, the Etch-n-Sketch. I'm not claiming there's not fun in it. It is though a very particular kind of fun: detail-driven and fixated in a vaguely obsessive compulsive way. It's a world away from the uninhibited joy of finger painting. I propose that this sheer joyousness is directly related to the immersion in, not only the finger painting experience, but also into the product of the experience; the very tactile immersion into the medium.
For, if you think about it, the finger painter is not merely painting the picture, but doing so from within the picture. The painter is literally, physically in the picture he is producing. The painting is an extension of the painter. And no less is the painter an extension of the painting. The kind of sublime joy generated by this profoundly immersive experience goes a long way in helping us understand why touch screen gaming is the future of gaming. And not only that, but is a harbinger of the future of human-computer interfacing. With the touch screen game we discover a simulation of the immersive, joyous experience of finger painting.
Those who complain about the absence of buttons and joysticks, mice and keyboards, are simply expressing the annoyance of adaptation-challenge always expressed by those left behind by change. They are resentful that their refined skills, in which they have invested so much time and energy, are suddenly obsolete.
Our technological history is littered with those who tried to mask their efforts to protect their skills investment with pretensions of principle. Photographers complaining about digital cameras, ink-stained newspaper men complaining about the internet, motion picture moguls complaining about television, big band musicians complaining about the phonograph, and horse-and-carriage operators complaining about the automobile, are just a few of so many examples. The march of progress certainly does leave its causalities. Unless though we are happy to resolve ourselves to life in a permanent past, such change is finally for the good.
And of course superior function, though real enough, isn't even the real issue. The common themes here are more immediate and accessible experiences. Think about the very first person, whoever he was, that connected speakers to his television so as to produce surround sound. Surely he didn't know it, but he was blazing a way down a path which would eventually lead to that day not so far in the future when we'll all experience our favorite programs as total virtual reality scenarios.
It's almost a cliche to say that we like to "lose ourselves" in our entertainment, to get "wrapped up in it." We want for a little while to leave the worries of the world behind. This deep human desire for the brief refuge of an escape into fantasy and wonder, I suspect explains why we have always pushed our entertainment technology toward the experience of immersion.
The emergence of the hugely popular Wii is an obvious illustration of just this phenomenon: the move toward a tactically immersive gaming experience. The touch screen, with its immersive gaming experience, putting us right in the game in a way no control console or keyboard ever can, is a kind of link between the innocent joys of childhood finger painting and virtual reality narrative and exploratory experiences that are just around the corner.
Even that though is just a shadow of the technological immersion we can expect. Science fiction TV programs such as Star Trek or Babylon 5 depict technology that allows lights to be switched on through voice command. That though only scratches the surface of what is coming. The pioneering of cutting edge of strong AI opens the possibility of an environment in which the lights come on when we think about needing them, or they increases intensity when registering eye fatigue. This is the direction in which the future is moving and it is the logic of our endless thirst for the fully immersive human-computer interface.
Seen in this context, touch screen gaming may be regarded as a transitional step into that future. Game designers who insist upon putting "consoles" on to touch screen games are being left behind by history. They are like those early film makers and recording engineers who could not see their new technologies as anything more than the means to record live performances. And being able to do that was a great accomplishment. It was of course only when the visionaries came along who could imagine cinematography and splice-editing, though, that these new technologies realized their creative and aesthetic potential.
Likewise, until they can wrap their heads around the possibilities of organic designs, realizing the optimum potential for the best games for iPad, and other touch screen devices, such designers will be the last of the past, rather than pioneers of the future.
Certainly, the immediate evidence would suggest such a concern is much ado about nothing. Games have been developed for touch screens: I've compiled my list of the best games for iPad elsewhere. The fact of such games though has not been without its detractors and critics.
At the risk of caricaturing the complaint, it does often come down to a fairly crude objection. The gist of the complaint is that the player's fingers get in the way of seeing the screen.
That I suspect has more to do with bad design than touch screen gaming per se. And it seems that such a protest misses a more central insight in all of this. Complaining that a tactile interaction with the screen is problematic is really not seeing the forest for the trees. What is going on here is, I suspect, the revolutionizing of gaming. In fact, it may be a portent of the future of human-computer interfacing.
What do I mean, you ask? Well, before launching fully into explaining that, let's consider some context. There's an old joke that technology is anything invented after you were born. In fact, everything a human uses as a medium for some purpose is a technology. Paint for instance is a technology. Think for a moment about the visceral pleasures of finger painting. Of course, great, important and serious painters use artisanal paint brushes, right?
Such a truism though blinds one to the valuable insight available. Who reading these lines has never experienced the joys of poking their fingers into the paint? Can you remember the sensual pleasure of smearing, spreading and indeed even shaping the paint with your finger tips? Really, if you examine it closely, finger painting is less like brush painting than it is akin to sculpture. Children famously revel in it. It provides great satisfaction for adults too though if they can overcome inhibitions against the indulging of child-like pleasures.
Compare that other childhood picture producing technology, the Etch-n-Sketch. I'm not claiming there's not fun in it. It is though a very particular kind of fun: detail-driven and fixated in a vaguely obsessive compulsive way. It's a world away from the uninhibited joy of finger painting. I propose that this sheer joyousness is directly related to the immersion in, not only the finger painting experience, but also into the product of the experience; the very tactile immersion into the medium.
For, if you think about it, the finger painter is not merely painting the picture, but doing so from within the picture. The painter is literally, physically in the picture he is producing. The painting is an extension of the painter. And no less is the painter an extension of the painting. The kind of sublime joy generated by this profoundly immersive experience goes a long way in helping us understand why touch screen gaming is the future of gaming. And not only that, but is a harbinger of the future of human-computer interfacing. With the touch screen game we discover a simulation of the immersive, joyous experience of finger painting.
Those who complain about the absence of buttons and joysticks, mice and keyboards, are simply expressing the annoyance of adaptation-challenge always expressed by those left behind by change. They are resentful that their refined skills, in which they have invested so much time and energy, are suddenly obsolete.
Our technological history is littered with those who tried to mask their efforts to protect their skills investment with pretensions of principle. Photographers complaining about digital cameras, ink-stained newspaper men complaining about the internet, motion picture moguls complaining about television, big band musicians complaining about the phonograph, and horse-and-carriage operators complaining about the automobile, are just a few of so many examples. The march of progress certainly does leave its causalities. Unless though we are happy to resolve ourselves to life in a permanent past, such change is finally for the good.
And of course superior function, though real enough, isn't even the real issue. The common themes here are more immediate and accessible experiences. Think about the very first person, whoever he was, that connected speakers to his television so as to produce surround sound. Surely he didn't know it, but he was blazing a way down a path which would eventually lead to that day not so far in the future when we'll all experience our favorite programs as total virtual reality scenarios.
It's almost a cliche to say that we like to "lose ourselves" in our entertainment, to get "wrapped up in it." We want for a little while to leave the worries of the world behind. This deep human desire for the brief refuge of an escape into fantasy and wonder, I suspect explains why we have always pushed our entertainment technology toward the experience of immersion.
The emergence of the hugely popular Wii is an obvious illustration of just this phenomenon: the move toward a tactically immersive gaming experience. The touch screen, with its immersive gaming experience, putting us right in the game in a way no control console or keyboard ever can, is a kind of link between the innocent joys of childhood finger painting and virtual reality narrative and exploratory experiences that are just around the corner.
Even that though is just a shadow of the technological immersion we can expect. Science fiction TV programs such as Star Trek or Babylon 5 depict technology that allows lights to be switched on through voice command. That though only scratches the surface of what is coming. The pioneering of cutting edge of strong AI opens the possibility of an environment in which the lights come on when we think about needing them, or they increases intensity when registering eye fatigue. This is the direction in which the future is moving and it is the logic of our endless thirst for the fully immersive human-computer interface.
Seen in this context, touch screen gaming may be regarded as a transitional step into that future. Game designers who insist upon putting "consoles" on to touch screen games are being left behind by history. They are like those early film makers and recording engineers who could not see their new technologies as anything more than the means to record live performances. And being able to do that was a great accomplishment. It was of course only when the visionaries came along who could imagine cinematography and splice-editing, though, that these new technologies realized their creative and aesthetic potential.
Likewise, until they can wrap their heads around the possibilities of organic designs, realizing the optimum potential for the best games for iPad, and other touch screen devices, such designers will be the last of the past, rather than pioneers of the future.
About the Author:
To follow the latest news in the universe of touch screen games, follow Mishu Hull's regular articles at the Best Games for iPad site. He writes on a variety of technology topics. His critical review of the newest version of Kindle Fire, " Kindle Fire Tries it Again, But... ," is a must read.
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