binarynewmedia

It interesting how the gaming controller has evolved into an extension of one mind in current adaptations.  The origins of the controller were very mechanical in nature and extremely uncomfortable.  You would literally get cramps in your hands from playing too long with certain controllers. The human factors were ignored and this had a direct impact on the performance and playability of most games.

What liked the most about playing with the old controllers was that fact that they just never seemed to fail as compared to today’s modern controllers. The controller I use for an Xbox 360 feels like it has a serious case of arthritis.

While playability and human factors are important in gaming controllers the industry is now realizing that the controller is not just an extension of the human form, it is just getting in the way of human to game interaction. The controller will die similarly like the mouse and keyboard and will be replaced by more natural systems that use gestures, touch interfaces and speech recognition systems to manage user input.