Sunday, June 07, 2009

Project Natal Milo is like My Fake Baby, for Gamers

"My Fake Baby," covers the production of realistic baby dolls, for women who have a desire to interact with an artificial child.

Looking for love, or something to love...

Darn Brits! Them and their fake children. The Japanese have dolls for sex, and the British have baby dolls for companionship, and now virtual children.

When Peter Molyneux introduced Milo for Project Natal, Microsoft's controller-less motion sensor interface for the XBOX 360, it instantly made me think of My Fake Baby. Not so much the technology itself, but rather the 'connecting' and interacting with artificial characters (realistic humanoid ones) that comes off creepy, weird, pedophilic, and useless. It's kinda like coming home to a Nintendog, or SEAMAN, but rather than interacting with a creature, it's a child instead. Weird for younger gamers. Plus, how many gamers want to interact with a child anyway?

Gamers play games to escape their homework, not help a virtual child do his. For those longing to be a parent perhaps Milo is your perfect training tool. Unless of course you're Michael Jackson.

If the virtual character were changed to a hot chick, I'm sure that would be a completely different interactive demo. Just imagine the hookers in GTA reacting to the color of your t-shirt! If applied to actual gaming scenarios, I'm sure it would be interesting to see. Talking to a kid currently isn't appealing.

I like Chris Kohler's writeup on Project Natal E3 2009.

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