# Project Netal - Gaming without a Controller on XBox



## Semper Fidelis (Mar 13, 2010)

This is going to be huge. I saw a demo at Redmond this past week:

Xbox.com | Project Natal


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## Roldan (Mar 13, 2010)

Yeah I can't wait to play around with that thing mannnn.....


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## AThornquist (Mar 13, 2010)

Can I use my own guns as I virtually headshot people on Call of Duty?


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## Grillsy (Mar 13, 2010)

The more I read about this the greater the anticipation.

---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:45 PM ----------

Did you see the demo in person?


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## ericfromcowtown (Mar 13, 2010)

Does no one else find this disturbing, at least potentially?

[video=youtube;HluWsMlfj68]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related[/video]


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## dudley (Mar 13, 2010)

ericfromcowtown said:


> Does no one else find this disturbing, at least potentially?
> 
> [video=youtube;HluWsMlfj68]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related[/video]



Amen brother Eric...a very good point; it is amazing, awesome and exciting technology. It can be disturbing I think like all new inventions depending on how it is used, for good or for evil.


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## Theoretical (Mar 13, 2010)

ericfromcowtown said:


> Does no one else find this disturbing, at least potentially?
> 
> [video=youtube;HluWsMlfj68]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68&feature=related[/video]


 
I have to agree. Back in my younger days, I read a Christian thriller trilogy that in part dealt with VR. It had plenty of ham-and-cheesy aspects to it, but one of its better moral critiques was how corrosive to human interactions immersive virtual reality could be---especially when interacting with artificial intelligences. 

On the individual person level, "obvious misuses" of this type of technology will of course go into the p0rn industry. On a more serious level, these technologies could well produce fake boy/girlfriends for the romantically lonely and best friends for the socially inept. It could even conceivably expand into a business or personal advisor, with the focus being all on you and your needs. Whether base or sophisticated, I think the common thread of this depth of interaction is that the programs will likely be designed to learn what the user wants and appreciates, making you the user, the AI's god in whose image it is formed. In turn, the AI's learning and adapting to you as a real person, only much more perfectly and consistently, truly allows it to meet felt needs more than a spouse, friend, clergy, or social involvement. Especially since no-glasses 3D display technology is coming into its own and home automation is getting progressively more sophisticated, these types of interactive entities could well take on an aura of reality to blur the lines between 0s and 1s and real people psychologically. If the technology ever advanced to the point where the AI could "learn" what you told it to (from a database or set of scanned books), then you could have a highly sophisticated pseudo-knowledge get developed. 

I don't think it is necessarily an "evil" or wrong technology, but I think Neil Postman right in saying that no form of technological breakthrough doesn't fundamentally alter a society.

These were the three for reference. Unsurpirsingly, they're fairly Dispensational and broad evangelical. It's been too many years, and I've grown too much to remember much more beyond that I do think they were orthodox at the most essential levels. 

Amazon.com: Virtually Eliminated (Ethan Hamilton Technothrillers Trilogy #1) (9780880708852): Jefferson Scott: Books
Amazon.com: Terminal Logic (Ethan Hamilton Technothrillers Trilogy #2) (9781576730386): Jefferson Scott: Books
Amazon.com: Fatal Defect (Ethan Hamilton Technothrillers Trilogy #3) (9781576734520): Jefferson Scott: Books


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## Michael (Mar 13, 2010)

wow


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 13, 2010)

Grillsy said:


> Did you see the demo in person?


 
I was at a Navy/Marine Corps conference at Microsoft headquarters and one of the VP's was demo'ing the technology via a Video. I probably could have asked to see it in person but I was there for other purposes.

Microsoft is incredible. I mean that. There's not a company that can hold a candle to them in terms of breadth of penetration in many areas of the IT industry. They're in 18 magic quadrants by Gartner (grudgingly) and they invest more in R&D than any other company. Their campus at Redmond was impressive as was the Conference Center where the event was sponsored.

If they don't do something well they double-down until they improve. There's a reason why they're so dominant.

I had a serious question to ask about how MS is advising some of the DOD agencies that the USMC depends upon but before I asked it I told the VP that I was willing for my 4 children under 7 to be beta-testers for the Netal.


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## kvanlaan (Mar 13, 2010)

> Does no one else find this disturbing, at least potentially?



Um, yep.


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## CharlieJ (Mar 14, 2010)

Well, I'm not so thrilled about the Wii, and this seems to be going farther in the same direction. With a controller in my hand, I can play a fighting game with jumps, kicks, and mandatory fireball blasts much more easily than I can try to sort-of-mimic those actions with a Wii controller. The more genuine my motions have to be, the worse I get at anything I'm not naturally good at. I'm not athletic. I like being able to pull off a skateboarding move with the touch of a button or a button combo. My hands are much more dexterous than the rest of my body. If I actually had to jump in the air or even shift my weight and balance in any way even approaching real skateboarding, it would be much more difficult and much less fun. 

And, what am I going to do when I'm sick (which is usually when I play video games)? Oh, I can't play my sports games because I feel too ill to be stepping and throwing and turning and punching.... What if I have laryngitis? Then I can't communicate with the characters in my video games?

We all, amputees excluded, just need to realize that the Playstation 2 controller is the unsurpassable pinnacle of gaming technology.


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