[geeks] Dos and similar games

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 @ 10:43 -0500, Lionel Peterson said:

> Personally, I get confused when there are too many things for a given
> digit to do - for example, my son's basketball game has not only
> motion (joystick), but also uses the four top buttons, two triggers,
> and various combinations to effect certain actions in the game.
> Compared to Tetris (left or right rotate and "drop"), Space Invaders
> (left, right, shoot), or even Asteroids (left, right, shoot and
> accelerate) that basketball game is too complex for me...

Ah...

Basically what you are complaining about is poor user interfaces.
That's one reason I hate consoles.  There is no useful skill involved in
those finger acrobatics.  I can do it just as well as a 16 year old with
about the same amount of practice, but I just don't give a damn to do
it.

I like to actually use something in my brain besides motor control
neurons.

> But, to be fair, I play video games to relax/unwind and compare my
> scores to no one - the vast majority of my son's games are
> "competitive", multi-player games - mine are not.

I like games where the UI doesn't get in my way.  None of them are
perfect, but a lot of them seem to go out of their way to make
it bad.  Consoles are really bad, plus they have natural disadvantages
in comparison to a personal computer.

Then, you have games that don't even try to be good, and focus mostly on
eye-candy and controller fixation to win.

Bah!


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- [There is a limit to how stupid people really
are -- just as there's a limit to the amount of hydrogen in the Universe. 
There's a lot, but there's a limit.  -- Dave C. Barber on a.f.c.  ]