Molyneux's vision and the future of Natal/Kinect
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:19 pm
I never watched the Milo demo until now. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIbGnBQcJY
And here is more video of Peter Molyneux (creator of games such as Populous, Black & White, and Fable) talking more about his vision for Project Natal (now known as Kinect) and the Milo game he developed for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xsENuhnk7E
It's interesting to me how the development of Natal has played out. Milo was demonstrated in 2009. Molyneux's vision is very revolutionary and grandiose. Of course, you would expect no less from the man who laid down much of the foundation for the "God Game" genre. His God complex has now taken him to developing virtual people that he can actually have a real interaction with. In a way, I think it is sad to hear Molyneux talk from a year ago and to see that Natal has now become the obnoxiously named "Kinect" and instead of having a visionary interface as seen in the Milo demo, it's largely being promoted for it's ability to let you pretend to pat the head of a virtual baby tiger (Kinectimals, by the way, is the worst name for a game ever. Blegh!).
I have heard others talk about how great it can be to have "you as the controller", which always seemed like the same thing we have had with the EyeToy for years, but I never realized they were using tech for identifying facial expression and tonal voice changes. The idea of interacting with a character that has artificial emotional communication abilities is actually quite exciting. I like how Molyneux points out that it's not just about artificial intelligence. You can enhance the realism of a character only so much with artificial intelligence. You can take that character realism to another level wtih artificial emotional communication. And really, that wouldn't be possible without something like Natal/Kinect. You need the ability to read facial cues and auditory cues, and to adapt to those in real time. I think Molyneux has a really interesting vision for this new technology that others are missing. It really could take interactive story telling in a completely new direction, as long as it doesn't get bogged down by a bunch of crap games with no creative vision that just have you prancing around in front of your television.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIbGnBQcJY
And here is more video of Peter Molyneux (creator of games such as Populous, Black & White, and Fable) talking more about his vision for Project Natal (now known as Kinect) and the Milo game he developed for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xsENuhnk7E
It's interesting to me how the development of Natal has played out. Milo was demonstrated in 2009. Molyneux's vision is very revolutionary and grandiose. Of course, you would expect no less from the man who laid down much of the foundation for the "God Game" genre. His God complex has now taken him to developing virtual people that he can actually have a real interaction with. In a way, I think it is sad to hear Molyneux talk from a year ago and to see that Natal has now become the obnoxiously named "Kinect" and instead of having a visionary interface as seen in the Milo demo, it's largely being promoted for it's ability to let you pretend to pat the head of a virtual baby tiger (Kinectimals, by the way, is the worst name for a game ever. Blegh!).
I have heard others talk about how great it can be to have "you as the controller", which always seemed like the same thing we have had with the EyeToy for years, but I never realized they were using tech for identifying facial expression and tonal voice changes. The idea of interacting with a character that has artificial emotional communication abilities is actually quite exciting. I like how Molyneux points out that it's not just about artificial intelligence. You can enhance the realism of a character only so much with artificial intelligence. You can take that character realism to another level wtih artificial emotional communication. And really, that wouldn't be possible without something like Natal/Kinect. You need the ability to read facial cues and auditory cues, and to adapt to those in real time. I think Molyneux has a really interesting vision for this new technology that others are missing. It really could take interactive story telling in a completely new direction, as long as it doesn't get bogged down by a bunch of crap games with no creative vision that just have you prancing around in front of your television.
