Call of Duty Ghost on XBOX ONE Redefines Video Game Design

Over the past few years, Call of Duty has come under attack from many critics and gamers stating that the series hasn’t developed its video game design enough. That’s all about to change with Call of duty Ghosts for XBOX One.

Call of Duty Ghosts for XBOX One aims to create emotional realism. We’re promised characters that we genuinely care about. Naturally, that means we’re going to be getting much more into the story and drama than ever before. We’re more likely to care about the development of the plot in campaign mode and to be more attached to the characters.

And it’s not just human characters but a dog too. Animals have that unique capability to bring out the best in people. To most people, animals bring about compassion. We care about animals, and particularly man’s best friend, dogs.

The dog in Call of Duty Ghosts is currently unnamed. But what we do know is that the dog is a central character and has motion captured to create ultra realism.

Call of Duty Ghosts takes the best of COD and adds humanity, emotion and compassion. As any good screenwriting course or school for video game design will tell you, if you can access a gamer’s emotions you create a much more immersive experience.

And speaking of immersive, Call of Duty Ghost’s multiplayer even features dynamic environments, truly brining to life the multiplayer maps.

Call of Duty Ghosts for XBOX One is about to revitalise the FPS genre and create a new chapter in video game design. And if you’re not excited about that, you’re not a gamer.

Xbox ONE, Kinect 2 and the New Field of Video Game Design

ON the previous page we discussed how the voice capabilities of XBOX ONE, offered through the Kinect 2 system, will probably end up not being used to change the TV channel or switch to the internet, among the other things shown at the XBOX One press conference.

This doesn’t mean the Kinect 2 is pointless. Far From it. It just means that for the Kinect 2 to become a success, video game developers will need to create video games with new and exciting styles of video game design.

With the original Kinect, we saw a few exciting games (mostly dancing and sports related). These tried to make positive use of the Kinect system but, let’s face it, Kinect never really took off. The trick to making Kinect 2.0 work is for it to improve the types of games that are already popular: FPSs, Adventure games and so on. Sports and dancing simply aren’t many stream gaming, and it’s in the mainstream that Kinect 2.0 needs to find its success.

Hardcore gamers probably aren’t going to want to put too much effort into playing a game. That’s why the emphasis on video game design for Kinect 2.0 games should be on simplicity. It’s simple gesture like merely raising the controller, or perhaps even moving your eyes in the real world to look around in the game. . . these are the sorts of ways in which Kinect 2.0 can change gaming without requiring too much effort from the gamer.

Imagine if you were playing a Kinect 2.0 FPS game and when you moved your eyes to look at a different part of the screen, the game moved the camera to focus on that point. This is simple and requires little energy, but it would put gamers in the game in an all new way.

Simplicity is the key to making Kinect 2.0 work. Hopefully we’ll see some video game designs that realise this.

Microsoft’s XBOX One and the Future of Video Game Design

    Microsoft’s XBOX  One reveal sure was an exciting time. We’d all waited for years to see the new XBOX One, finally it was here. New console, that looks the same as the old one, and new controller, that looks the same as the old one.

Eh.

The presentation would have been stronger had Microsoft opened by showing the new, innovative and exciting aspects of the console, of which there are plenty.

Perhaps the one element of the XBOX One that received more attention of any other was the XBOX One’s Voice capabilities. It’s simple. You want your TV on, say “TV On,” you want to play a game say “Gaming,” you want a bacon sandwich you say “Babe, make me a bacon sandwich.” It’s easy.

There’s just one flaw with the XBOX One’s voice command: absolutely no one in the world is ever going to use it.

Why?

It’s not just  because talking to a machine makes you feel like schizophrenic. It’s simple psychology. Pressing a button on a remote is quicker and easier than saying “XBOX, on.” Were psychologically programmed to do everything in the most energy conserving way. Speaking to a machine does not conserve energy. Humans do things the easy way. The easy way remains to press a button.

The first thing any school for video game design will tell you is that ease of use is everything. Speech isn’t easier than clicking a button. Hopefully, video game developers can create new types of experiences with voice command and use it to create video games that are new and this will make the voice capabilities worthwhile.

The exact same thing is true for the hand gesture commands, in which you open your hand to maximise a video screen and so on. These gestures are simply more complex than pressing a button. That’s why, about five minutes after the XBOX One’s release, people will forget all about these voice and hand commands.

The voice command and hand command gestures seemed exciting during the press conference. But they seemed exciting in the way Kinect seemed exciting. It’s a cool idea, using voice and hand gestures. It’s the sort of thing you expect to see in sci-fi movies. It makes the XBOX One look futuristic. This makes it a great element of the business marketing strategy. But these gestures won’t find their place in the future of video game design.