Games Overboard

Unless you’ve been too wrapped up in World Cup fever, you’ve probably noticed there were a few news stories about E3 and all the new gaming options that are coming out in the near future.  One of these stories is the release of the Xbox Kinect (formerly Project Natal) and the Kinect series of games.

Kinect (pronounced: connect) is an auxiliary device for your Xbox that allows you to use your body as the controller in order to play games.  To drive a car you just put your hands out like they’re on a steering wheel.  To ride a skateboard, you stand sideways and lean back, forth, forward and backward.  You are literally part of the game.

So what is this fancy new tech device doing on a board game site?  Well, my friends, the Kinect has one other capability that has not been discussed all that much.  Kinect allows you to connect with other Xbox users and play games, chat, and interact with them in an almost Skype or Apple Facetime way.

This is where I see the Kinect really taking off in the future.  Not with body contortioning video games, but with the ability to play simpler interactive games with others.

Xbox Live and the games available therein have already been one of the drivers behind the system (think of playing Halo or Modern Warfare alone… I shudder at the thought.)  Now we can actually see and interact physically with our online friends, now we can play those games in person (sort of) and actually see and talk to them while doing so.

I foresee a time coming soon where I’ll be able to boot up my Xbox (when I buy one) load up a game of Tichu, Tobago, or Small World, and connect with Olivia if Florida, Dad in St. Louis, and my brother Mike in Mangalore, and play a round or two.  That connection and interaction, that ability to keep in touch with family and friends regardless of distance, that’s where Kinect will really shine.

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