Though the tech may be interesting, and one day, someone will make a playable ghost-hunting game (with a PK Meter!), I'm not convinced that a great game will ever be born from it.

Plus the Eyetoy-type application seems really cheesy, where you stare at your own goony, mirrored face as you make hamburgers, and shit. I could conceivably get into that style of game if you could put the camera behind you, but how many great games are played in Second-Person? It's so weird.

I'm not sure how far the term "Augmented Reality" goes, though. Does it cover, like, RTS games made from Google maps? I'm mostly talking about camera-based stuff. I remain unconvinced.

(Also, I've had ideas for AR games for years, and I'm pissed that everyone's 'stealing' them now! Ooo, I just had another. What if there was a dating game based on facial recognition? Like, you'd have to smile at appropriate moments and look sad at appropriate moments, and appear interested as your virtual date blathered on and on about her problems.)

Anyway, what do you peeps think about AR? The future? The wrong tree?

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Meh. (it's so unremarkable that I refuse to type more than one line of text about it) *reads OP* You poor soul.

I'm not even sure what you are talking about. As far as I can gather, it is using real life photographs in game or something?

AR is a pretty broad term, is it not? My understanding is that stuff like the monocle on the Yelp iPhone app or even the first down / line of scrimmage marks on NFL broadcasts would count.

Are we talking about that stuff generally or as it pertains to games specifically?

Oh those first down marks really annoy me. But then, I'm not really a sports fan so I guess I'm not overly anxious to know whether the team got to the next marker or not...

@Zero

What a weird thing to annoy someone. It's one of the better innovations in sports broadcasting I'd say.

I agree. The sports usages are very cool and useful. Too bad I have no desire to watch sports. (They would also give me a valid reason to care about HD broadcasts.)

@Zero
Yeah, that's pretty much the current gaming application of Augmented Reality. Combining some element of reality with a game, usually video. Like the Eyetoy games that show you swatting flies like a goon, or like that DSiWare game that superimposes ghosts on what the camera sees.

@Kal-El814
Augmented Reality is super-broad, and does include the stuff you mentioned, but I'm just talking about the current gaming trend.

You know, like how the main functional difference between the Move and the Wiimote is the possibility for Augmented Reality.


That's my agenda!!

@Jargon I guess I just don't understand sports fans in general. Are they really that anxious to know whether a play is moving into first down territory that they need fake stuff painted on their games as opposed to just sort of keeping an eye out for the first down marker and waiting a couple seconds to know if they missed it?

Now here is an interesting question... what if they found a way to do this LIVE, I mean as in, using some kind of 3D light tech to let fans in the stands see artificial first down lines on the fields. Would that be preferable to the current situation, or is it just silly at that point?

(LOL at continuing down the path that the thread ISN'T about...)

I could definitely get into it if it was from a first person point of view. Stereoscopic glasses that you can see through but that add elements to your environment. That's perfect for virtual pets or goofy racing or shooting games.

I hate the 2nd person uses of it too though. And overall it feels like an evolutionary dead-end.

That "fake stuff painted" on the screen to know where the first down is going to be is just an easier "GUI" so to speak. Think of it like a "heads-up-display." As a gamer, I don't understand why this wouldn't be understandable (or annoying). I'm... so confused.

Also, on topic: screw augmented reality. Unless something awesome comes out of it.

@GameDadGrant But do I want a GUI for real life? I'm kind of sick of the digital world as it is.

I guess as long as they don't bring it into nature programs I'm ok. I don't want to hear "and this pristine, untouched spot of nature" and see a huge ass red arrow pointing at it.

I think my problem is I read too much sci fi, and I kind of have a feeling that "reality" isn't going to exist in a couple hundred/thousand of years. Everyone will be wearing something (or it'll be hooked up to their brain) that lets/forces them to view reality in many unreal ways in day to day life. So I rebel against anything that is leading towards that.

Oh, and I'm also reading Walden at the moment...

Zero said:

@GameDadGrant But do I want a GUI for real life?

Nobody wants to see a bubble over my head telling the world I need food badly.

Zero said:

@GameDadGrant But do I want a GUI for real life?

Dude, it's just a sports game broadcast. On TV.

Zero said:

I guess as long as they don't bring it into nature programs I'm ok. I don't want to hear "and this pristine, untouched spot of nature" and see a huge ass red arrow pointing at it.

Nature programs? Considering your adversity to the "digital world" I'm surprised you tune into those.

Zero said:

I think my problem is I read too much sci fi, and I kind of have a feeling that "reality" isn't going to exist in a couple hundred/thousand of years. Everyone will be wearing something (or it'll be hooked up to their brain) that lets/forces them to view reality in many unreal ways in day to day life.

.... Nova-Keto-Thyrazine?

My least favorite thing about football is the waiting and the possibility that something that seems good might turn out bad. For this reason I hate booth challenges and I hate holding flags that take away touchdowns. Having the marker on the field helps to counter that. If it's third down and the guy on my team gets past the line, I know immediately to judge that play as good. If they come up short, I know to judge that play as bad. And I don't even have to think about it. That's what I want from my sports, gut reactions.

Edit: Oh and I have those fears of a future like that as well, but if you have those fears, you should love sports. One of the things that simply cannot be reproduced digitally.

Bud Bowl!!

Also, Fantasy Football is super-popular these days. People get super into it. How long will it be before they start simulating the matches with Madden, or something? I can see people being more personally invested in a team that they coach/create than one that has no real relation to them.

@GameDadGrant I hate the digital world because I spend too much time with it! I don't want the entire world to go digital! Though actually, I don't really watch much TV, since I have no cable and my TV has no antenna, thus making it useless for anything besides dvds and video games.

But of course, this is just where it starts. Eventually there will be true VR and people will hook up to machines and not really find many reasons to unhook. Now, I vaguely recall Anand making the argument that if you can get everything virtual WHY unhook? But I sort of imagine the virtual world will just turn into an addiction more than true enjoyment. I think part of the enjoyment of stuff is the fact that we have to work at it a bit to get there.

@Jargon Patience is a virtue! I dunno. I guess if my E3 feed was lagging I'd like some sort of visual representation to keep me up to date.

@anandxxx

They already do that. They're called sim leagues. I'm in a sim baseball league, it uses a program called Out of the Park to simulate what would happen if you put the players in a different lineup, against different players, in a different ballpark, etc.. But it still has a basis in reality, otherwise it wouldn't be fun.

But I meant more playing sports than being a sports fan. Although you definitely can't digitally simulate going out to the ballgame either.

Zero said:

But of course, this is just where it starts. Eventually there will be true VR and people will hook up to machines and not really find many reasons to unhook.

I think there was a "Batman Beyond" episode that dealt with that.

People got hooked up to VR simulators and got to experience their wildest dreams come true. It was ecstasy for them - in fact, they got hooked on it. Like, REALLY addicted. So much so, that they never wanted to leave the simulation and return to the real world. I'm not sure how the villain profited from this (or why) but I seem to vaguely remember that being the plot of the episode.

Man, the Batman animated shows were so awesome. I really liked 'The Animated Series' best, but even the stuff that came after is pretty watchable. Anyway, I'm rambling....

I've played around with augmented reality in the past. Let me tell you, my hands were HUGE.

@Pandareus

They can touch anything! Except for themselves.

...... oh.

GameDadGrant said:

I think there was a "Batman Beyond" episode that dealt with that.

There is an episode of EVERY sci-fi show that deals with that. (Along with an issue of the awesome Spider-Man 2099.) Regardless, Batman Beyond was awesome. Superman TAS, too. After Dini left, I didn't like the animated DC stuff as much.

@Zero
That sounds kind of like me, but I was probably just posing it as a hypothetical. I don't cheerfully dream of a Wall-E future. I do think that triggering happiness with non-toxic chemicals is kind of winning the game, though. Isn't happiness our ultimate goal? What if we could reach it and maintain it with no struggle whatsoever? That's one of my favorite topics: The science of happiness!

@Jargon
You can simulate anything! Maybe not well, at this point, but simulations can get better and better until they are indistinguishable from reality. Especially when you start talking direct brain access. Another of my favorite topics: The near-perfect simulation of the human brain (and, later, body), leading to eternal life (after we functionally replace the sun, and then destroy it (and then attach a propulsion mechanism to the Earth to position it in space))!


That's right, party people! It's fucking FRIDAY!! WHOOOO!!

Uh, oh... Too much of my actual personality is bleeding into this thread. Better tone it back...