Video: Kinect Joy Ride Discussion

GEL Plays Joy Ride

By now this video clip has circulated your favorite popular blogging sites and has garnered almost a half a million views as of me posting this entry. I want you to think about a couple things going on in this video. Kinect has been picked [in an odd sort of manner] for being this holiday season's high-tech Furby or Tickle Me Elmo toy. Much like political campaign strategies, advertising dollars control the masses. There were talks of having this Microsoft branded device in your living room being able to give you some form of a Minority Report experience. I'm guessing the video below will suffice as a lofty pipe dream being made into a kind of reality.

Kinect Controls Windows 7

Though I recognize the weight of such a revolution in tech, there is already a growing divide within the gaming world -- and the consumer technology world on a larger level [I can hear mom yelling at me to make her new Xbox stop flashing 12 o'clock -- err ... if they do that]. This Friday, there is going to come quite the reckoning for most consumer level tech. Will people happily trample over their fellow man for a 3D television? Will these same people want to pretend they are in the future that Tom Cruise movie so coyly promised us?

Kinect On HSN

It would seem that in gaming we have some form of Wag The Dog syndrome. Where the consumer no longer controls what they would like to see in the future. Instead we only control the number of options available to us via our mighty dollar.

Now I'd like to think that eventually the consumer has their say. When our Playstation Move's and Microsoft Kinect's begin collecting dust due to uninspired ideas leading to lack of support -- what's the next step? These warring businesses aren't even playing fair anymore. Sony has said they've been selling [sorry ... shipping] millions of their motion control devices and most recently, market analysis Michael Pachter, has noted sluggish sales in the States. Small points leading to the larger. 

I'm willing to guess that there are going to be more people like our friend Gel [in the first video] than that of these last two. At least in the long-term, these exciting neck sweat inducing toys don't seem to have steady ground under them. How far can advertising push these devices and when do the successful experiments catch on with the general populous?

But I acknowledge the right to be wrong at all times. I ask you, is this what you want and what is the motivating factor? 

Source: NeoWin & Pradeep Viswav

Source: HSN

***via Le Brog***