Why the Wii Vitality Sensor is a brilliant idea

I have no doubt that it'll be used with something what baffles me is why Nintendo wouldn't show us how it could be used. It's not hard to imagine it'll have a use for Wii Fit, maybe they want to bundle it with the Wii Fit after Plus but didn't want to announce the game just yet.

The immediate thing that occurs to me about this (and to a certain amount, Milo) is the possibility of a game generating feedback and moderating your gaming experience based on feedback it gathers directly from you.

The best example of this is the Director from Left 4 Dead. Imagine how much better a job it might be able to do if it could monitor your pulse, or analyse your facial expression to get an idea of your current emotional state.

The problem, of course, is that then you could feed the AI false information and manipulate the state of the game by, say turning the camera to face the wall. or smilng gleefully as a zombie rips your limbs off. And I have visions of your Wii deciding to call medical assistance if it can't detect your pulse, even though you're fine and just didn't want to wear the stupid thing on your finger. :lol:

Another example where player feedback might be useful is during the "talking heads" scenes in Oblivion. Imagine if you could change the "tone" of your questioning based on facial feedback?

I see this as the first experimentation of ideas for the next iteration of the wii. Imagine a remote that could sense your pulse with no additional hardware needed. The gaming possibilities would be endless: Increase/decrease the difficulty of a shooter when stress levels are high, up the tension in a survival horror game by linking your characters health to your own heart levels meaning if you are too shocked your avatar dies!, sensing a putt is too difficult and offering a virtual compensation automatically.

This would be a huge revolution in in-game interaction and much more immersive than waving your arms around or using the force to play a game.

I'm not sure many people here want the next Wii Fit

Herbi wrote:I'm not sure many people here want the next Wii Fit

We don't matter half as much as we like to think we do.

I have no idea what the Vitality Sensor is, but I started reading anyway. A few paragraphs in, and I still didn't know what it was that I was reading about, so I lost interest. The article needs just a few words near the start that explain the device, for those who haven't already heard about it.

And I've just realised I've replied to this thread as if I'm editing something at work.

If Nintendo really want to contribute to this area of artificially extending peoples lives, perhaps they could do what they're renowned for and best at, which is making life-enriching games so deep that by playing them to completion you feel like you've lived several life times.

I hope Nintendo die a slow and painful death, like that of someone with a terminal illness. If they want more people to play games, perhaps make some with real genuine worth.

Why the Wii Vitality Sensor is a brilliant idea

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