roll for initiative

Just a quick little reaction shot to the most recent WayLay comic.

An alternative theory:  Both the woman and the dog survived the fall, but the woman was knocked unconscious.  The dog was probably freaking and was trying to get out of the barrel.

But in any case, if things did go down like Ms. Lay suggests, I’d still have to excuse the dog.  In his defense, he wasn’t a consenting passenger on the trip over the falls.
See, I’m a dog owner.  I love my dogs.  One thing I’ve learned is that the human-dog relationship is one based on trust and respect.  We have a tight little mini-pack going, my dogs and I.  I give them food, water, attention, and the structure to make them happy.  They return that attention ten fold and give me companionship.  It’s a great trade off, but I don’t do things that puts them in mortal freakin’ danger.

Sorry “intrepid woman”, but if this story is actually true, you broke the human/dog contract when you put your dog in that situation.

The last post was just a setup for today’s brilliant (hopefully) thought.

As previously mentioned, I’m not a big sports fan - I don’t watch a lot of sports. I do get into 4-year sports - the kind that only show up once every 4 years, like the Olympics and the World Cup.

And I’m not a big fan of sports video games. No knowing much about sports is actually a big handicap when playing sports game - especially in multiplayer matches against people who actually know that they are doing.

But like my interests in the 4 years spots, every 4 years or so I do like to bust out the latest version of FIFA. True to form, during the last World Cup I did play a few matches of FIFA on the Xbox 360 and found it quite enjoyable.

And the TV to Games to TV cross pollination mentioned yesterday is quite evident in FIFA 2006. For example, in FIFA 2006 you have many camera options, one of which is a “broadcast camera” which uses a camera style similar to what you would experience when watching a game on TV. I haven’t tried playing many matches with this camera style so I’m not sure how it’ll work during actual gameplay, but it’s a great example of video games adapting to user expectations based on their experiences with traditional media. Not to mention (too late!) the real world broadcasters that provide the in-game color for the game. I could go on and list various other ways in which the video game borrows from TV broadcasts to make the experience more exciting and “realistic”.

But what I really want to talk about is the in-game Heads Up Display (HUD) and how TV could borrow from it to make the viewing experience a bit more enjoyable, especially for us quadrennial fans. (And hopefully, these ideas won’t detract from the more frequent viewer … unlike the horrid super puck from back in the day.)

In any case, as can be seen in this image, the HUD in FIFA displays various bits of information. Some of these you’d see on a TV broadcast, like the time remaining, the score, and the teams playing (duh). Some of these are specific to the game, like the player’s name (and his stats) who is currently being controlled by the video game player. The final bit of the HUD is an image of the pitch (that’s the field to you yanks) with colored dots representing the players and the ball and their location in the pitch.

And THAT’S the bit that I think broadcasts could borrow from the FIFA games (if EA hasn’t patented that, which they may have). With RFID technology, it’s possible to put a chip on each player and the ball (which they did in the last World Cup anyway). When viewing the game you’d get to see the action near the ball, but you could also glance at the pitch overview graphic and see where the defenders of the attacking team were, how far up their goalie was playing … generally, you’d get a sense of where all the other off-screen players were. Personally, I think this would open up the TV viewing experience greatly … making it somewhat more similar to watching the game at a stadium where you can decide to follow the action or focus on the other players to see how they’re setting up for the next play.

Here’s an in-game clip that shows a bit of the gameplay and the HUD in action: FIFA 2006 Gameplay Video. Take a look at it in full-screen mode and see how that little graphic gives you a fuller appreciation of the entire pitch.

So …all you all footballers out there … would this add to your viewing experience or is this another Super Puck?

Video games have long borrowed from other media forms. Developers use cutscenes and in game cinematography to drive the storyline - and the best cutscenes are as effective as the best Hollywood has to offer. Horror games make great use of sound effects and music to heighten the suspense, much like horror films have been doing since Nosferatu.

Games have also borrowed from TV. One of my favorite games from back in the day was Interstate ‘76, which had a hokey ’70s TV show feel, including a great opening sequence. Watch this great opening movie and credit sequence and tell me that it doesn’t hit that ’70s action series feel on the head: I’76 Opening Movie.

Today, video games are becoming such a big part of popular culture that we’re starting to see some design ideas going the other way - from video games to TV and movies.

Sports broadcasts and games are a prime example of this cross pollination. Football video games were overlaying the scrimmage and 1st down lines decades ago - which is a common practice in football broadcasts these day.

Sports broadcasts have also borrowed some camera techniques from video games. The flyover, fly-by-wire, aerial camera required need technology to pull off but video games have been using that for a long time … which they probably originally borrowed from the movies to begin with.

Examples of this type of borrowing are everywhere. The Matrix’s “we’re all living in a virtual reality MMORPG” is heavily influenced by video games. Max Payne took the bullet cam and made it the interactive bullet time. And it’s only a matter of time before sports broadcasts figure out how to do real-time bullet cam. And soon after that DVRs will figure out how to give users the ability not only to stop and rewind live TV, but also allow the viewer to change camera angles at the same time … basically a bullet time camera for live TV.

Sign me up!