SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

Adventures with Casual Gaming

Sometimes I get a little caught up within the narrow-minded perspective of a hardcore gamer, and I forget to judge gaming experiences on the only aspect that truly matters… fun.

This past week I spent some time away from my competitive platforms such as Street Fighter on console and League of Legends on PC, and I found myself 2,000 miles away from home at a family wedding. I took this time to refrain from glowing screens of every variety. I read a book, explored the local sights, and spent my time conversing with friends and family. For a second, I almost forgot about videogames entirely, until my brother-in-law asked my four nieces and nephews if they’d ever played Kinect.

Obviously, being kids, they were inherently intrigued by the nature of the device. Our adventure into the realm of free-motion gaming started with a question from my young nephew Codey,

“Where’s dah contwoller?”

This gave me an opportune moment to explain how Kinect worked and examine a child’s comprehension of the technology. I remember being exalted as a child for being able to navigate a computer better than my parents, but in at this stage of my life I can see how the younger generation picks up on technology so much faster than I ever could; this may be a reoccurring theme throughout history when I really think about it.

So the time came to pop in Kinect Adventures.

Immediately they understood that they needed to be positioned a certain distance away from the T.V., and their ability to navigate the menus with their bodies became second nature within minutes. I felt like I was observing the product of human evolution, with technology as the catalyst.

It makes you wonder what the human brain will be capable of a couple generations from now…

So I and the rest of the fossils in my family watched the kids play Kinect and it was beyond hilarious. It may have been how excited they were or just how much they were enjoying themselves, but I don’t ever remember having toys at that age that were so fun and stimulating.

At this point I began to really understand what Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony were getting at when they created these peripherals. They may not be 100% precise, responsive, or practical, but they can be extremely fun if you don’t take your gaming experience so seriously. If you remove all aspects of competition and you just want to have fun, then Kinect completely delivers. It embodies the meaning of casual gaming and I really can see how this can appeal to a scope just as wide as the hardcore demographic.   

I don’t have any kids of my own, but I’m sure when I do I will definitely have some sort of motion control peripheral in my house. It’s a great way for your kids to play videogames just because of how kinetic and mobile they become, as opposed to sitting in one spot and just moving their thumbs. 

The experience I had with Kinect while I was away was one that resonated with me. It opened up my eyes wide enough to see the claim that these devices aren’t blasphemous; instead I feel that motion control has a justifiable niche within gaming.

Now I’m back in my four walls, staring at glowing screens on a daily basis, and although the time I did spend away from technology was much needed, I’m happy to be jacked back into the matrix. Now it’s time for some hardcore gaming, because despite my humbling experience, proving to someone that I’m better than them at Street Fighter is the most fun I have playing videogames.