Tactile feedback in the touchscreen era
You have no doubt heard me whine about this before. I’m just that kind of guy, who zeroes in on one aspect of how things are or how they have changed, most specifically in a way that conflicts with how that person thinks things should be. While I’m quite fine with how many things, particularly in technology, have changed over the course of my relatively short life, there are some things that kind of bother me.
I have grown up with video games and I play as much as I can today still. Some of those games are about the same age as I am and I still appreciate the various experiences they offer. Old electronics start up, almost as if brand new and I’m off to the races, controlling everything with a small plastic device I hold in my hands. This has changed surprisingly little since the second coming of video games back in the mid 1980’s, with the possible exception of the Kinect, although that is not yet standard equipment. By and large, we still control video games with a device that is riddled with buttons, d-pads and thumbsticks.
Some big games companies that have been around for a long have started forgetting some essential wisdoms of game design, like that you really should think about the control mechanism and put a lot of thought and effort into how the player actually interacts with the game. I have ranted about the porting of games from old game consoles to new touch screen devices more than once and I have a feeling I will discuss this many times this year, possibly several more in the future.
There is just a somewhat bizarre belief that handheld consoles as we know them, the dedicated games devices, will be a thing of the past before long. They will be replaced by smartphones and tablet computers as the way everybody will play games on the go. Heck, some people even speculate that the stationary consoles will soon be a thing of the past and also replaced by said smartphones and tablets. While these newer devices will indeed offer some very interesting and appealing gaming experiences, there are some critical facts that people love to overlook when making such guesses and speculation.
Not all games will react well to something like this proposed redrawing of the video games map. Some would have a fairly easy time adapting to new conditions as a result of their simpler interface mechanic or how limited the player input is in order to actually play the game. Other games would be much harder to port over while still making them behave properly in terms of controllability while still having a screen to look at. On screen controls are fine in some instances, but you do obscure a part of the game while using such a solution to the problem. As a result you will not be able to enjoy the full aesthetics of the game.
As for the actual touch controls themselves there is the problem of how to make them work flawlessly. Since 2008 there have been a slew of games attempting to bridge the gap between old console game and new touchscreen hardware, some to greater success than others. In my experience and opinion it’s all about the game speed and how sensitive the controls are. If the game is, say, a relatively slow RPG, then the on screen controls are perfectly tolerable, even if they are not perfect. The game can still be enjoyed for what it is, with the occasional annoyance at that it doesn’t respond as seamlessly and perfectly as you would like. Most likely, this is more up to me as the player and how I am conditioned over many years to be used to the traditional controllers, rather than a flat surface.
Seeing some more and some less successful attempts at bringing classing games series over to the new and very profitable App Store and Android Market, there are just some games I think will have a very hard time adapting to these new platforms. I can’t imagine fighting games working too well on touchscreen only devices, since they above many other games are quite unforgiving and require quite exact controls. Hooked up to something like the iCade I’m sure they would work and possibly quite well at that, but not otherwise. Speaking of the iCade and similar devices…
Some people would like to bolt on some accessories on the touchscreen devices and in that way give them the “missing” tactile feedback. While this is one of the better ways of solving the problem, it also causes some new problems in itself. Instead of just tossing your single device in the bag or in your pocket before heading out, you now have to remember to bring your controller device as well, not to mention that you have to make sure it has batteries charged if such are needed.
Besides the pure extra bulk of this there is also the problem of software support. Since the device is designed around having a touchscreen as the main input, all games and apps support that out of the box and nothing else. Any external controller stands and falls with the support of apps to actually use it. Currently there is some support from some of the more popular games, but far from as many as would be needed to make it really worthwhile to get any external controller for.
In the jailbreak camp and those who love to tinker and fiddle, there has been a number of interesting alternatives around for quite some time. A lot has been done with the Wiimote, the nearly iconic controller Nintendo developed for the Wii console. Since it’s equipped with standard bluetooth connectivity, it just requires some extra software to become a rather nifty external controller for smartphone or tablet computer gaming. But it’s still not an optimal experience given that the games more often than not are not at all optimized for using it. And I wouldn’t exactly want to say that the Wiimote is made for bringing around everywhere either.
But the really interesting part of this whole discussion is of course; Why? Why is it not enough with the touchscreen interaction offered out of the box with most modern smartphones and tablet computers? Well, for some tasks, in this case games, there is a level of control that is very hard to achieve, nearly impossible, when using a touchscreen of any kind. The exactness you can get in actually feeling, without looking, how a button is pressed down or not or how far a joystick as moved to one side or another is just not possible on a smooth surface without any kind of feedback being sent to the fingers. Games designed for only touchscreen interaction are designed to take advantage of this and have control mechanics suited for the job, while others just don’t.
Perhaps the best course of action would be to unite around a single controller layout that you can wirelessly connect to via bluetooth and then have all software take advantage of that. But getting all the people out there to agree on such a thing I’m sure is near impossible and will never happen, sadly.
While traditional handheld games consoles might not enjoy quite as large sales numbers as they have historically made, I still think that there are enough reasons for them to be around. At the very least for a while longer. Being designed for a single purpose is still a great way to achieve great experiences, particularly in terms of video games.
