Introduction 1000 Ways to Walk: An Analysis of Movement in Video Games

 Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, 1000 Ways to Walk:  An Analysis of Movement in Video Games. Let’s start with this question: What is walking? Walking is the physical movement of standing up and using your legs to travel. There are multiple ways of walking:  walking slow, fast, or even just your normal everyday strolling. There is also moon walking, which is basically walking backwards. That’s one version of moon walking; for the other you would have to be on the moon, in space, or in an antigravity environment. In this blog, I will be talking about walking (and other kinds of movement) in video games. An interesting fact is that not all video games allow walking, so I will be looking at the different forms of movement. Movement also includes a whole other set of activities such as jumping, crawling, crouching, climbing, swinging your arms, and more. 

I will be looking at a wide variety of games from 2 dimensional (2d) games to 3 dimensional (3d) games, and even virtual reality (VR) games. Each game will have its own equipment or apparatus needed. There will also be a variety of consoles mentioned. I think it would be useful to describe some of the history of the video game systems and their components. For simplicity sake, I will start with the commercial video game industry of the 1970s and 1980s. I am focusing on home systems, not arcade systems. I will just focus on some examples of video game systems. The Atari System was created in 1972. There was a console that plugged into a television and a joystick for user input. Movements were very simple. The Japanese company Nintendo advanced the genre by making its first video game console in 1971. In 1994, Sony made their first Playstation. This console had a box and a controller. Their rival in this field would later be Microsoft. The first Xbox was released in 2001. This console included a box and a controller. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are the three big producers of video game consoles today. Nintendo did create some consoles over the years similar to the Xbox and Playstation like the Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and Nintendo GameCube. They would create the first motion controlled system in 2006 called the Wii. This system would leave Microsoft and Sony in the dust. It was the first system to include Motion controllers and even sensors. In addition, Nintendo also created the first handheld system in 1980. These systems included the Game & Watch series, the Game Boy series, the Nintendo DS, the 3DS, and lastly the Nintendo Switch. Sony focussed mainly on Playstations. They did build one handheld called the PSP (Playstation Portable), but could not compete with Nintendo in that field. Microsoft created more Xbox consoles to compete with Playstation consoles. 

Computers have  adapted a lot but it’s a much different, wider field so I will only mention some things. The first games on computers were similar to and included Pong. For this game, you could only move side to side or up and down. There were also text adventure games in which you basically only chose options. How well the game ran with your movement was based on your computer and its components. Doom was an example of a game where moving was hard initially and you could barely aim. The last important note I’d like to mention is that this would lead to the generation of VR systems that we have today. Let’s go back to motion for a minute and explain how this affected VR. Nintendo made the Wii and motion controllers. This created a new competition in which Sony created the Playstation Move and Microsoft created the Xbox Kinect. The PS Move used a sensor and 2 motion controllers. The Kinect also used a sensor. This caused the companies to look into building VR systems. Playstation released the PSVR which was played with either motion controllers or regular controllers and a headset. Microsoft used the same VR systems as the computers. Nintendo had a headset and created a VR(cardboard box) system for the Nintendo Switch. The invention of the Nintendo Switch was a significant event because the Nintendo Switch used their handheld technology and combined it with their console technology and now had a VR system so it became a collection of different consoles all in one machine. Computer VR systems were important too. The Oculus Rift is a VR system that comes with two sensors, two controllers, and a headset. This system uses cords on the sensors and headset. This is what I will be using for some of my blog so I will probably repeat this description in more detail later. 

I will analyze player movement in all of its forms and will also analyze how the movement affects the game. There are many ways that player  movement can complicate a game. There are questions of whether scenery should be changed (as with a jump or a fall).  There are questions of whether injury or death should occur (ie If a jump, fall, or accident occurs). There are also questions of rewards if a task is accomplished in the game. In addition, there are different ways of dealing with player movement. Some games have a set pattern of activity and continue on their merry way regardless of player activity. Other games directly interact with the player and react not only to direct contact, but also change the scenario based on what the player does. Then there are games that actually attempt to guess where and how fast the player is going in an effort to chase him. 

Advances in technology and programming have greatly improved the experience for the player of video games. No longer is he passively sitting in a chair just waiting for something to happen. In today’s virtual reality games, he is actively walking, jumping, and experiencing things as though he is present in another world.