Move 2 Weeks On Part 3: Mainstream Views

Let’s be honest: most of us fanatical enough to be reading TSA every day are most likely hardcore gaming enthusiasts and early adopters. We will jump on any new technology with glee (not Kinect obviously, exceptions have to be made for moral decency on occasion) and somehow find it entertaining, even if it’s really just novelty chaff that gets thrown under the sofa after a week to be buried in crisp packets and empty pizza boxes, never to be seen again.

For this article, we present something unique. We have taken a (very) small sample of people from completely different demographics and asked them to try the Move and give their feedback.

Each participant was an individual who had never used the Move before. The trial was held one day after Move’s release, with each person being given the same simple task: calibrate the controller, then complete the tutorial and 2^nd level on Tumble. They were given about 20 minutes to do this with minimal guidance, then asked a fixed set of questions to get their first impressions. Do note that this therefore presents no information about how they might use the device long-term.

No concrete conclusions can be drawn from a small number of people of course, but the anecdotal evidence should prove interesting. Is the Move novelty chaff? Does it appeal to non-gamers? Let’s find out.

The elderly person

Gender: Female

Age: 56

Occupation: Telephone sales

Has heard of Move: No

This subject was as green as you could get: she had never heard of the Wii, and although she has tried many years ago to use a regular gamepad, she considers herself to have never played a video game before in her entire life.

Her experience with Tumble went quite smoothly and only required minor prompting. She grasped the 3D tracking concept within one or two minutes and had no problem getting gold medals on the test levels.

The subject commented “I have tried to use normal controllers before and this is much better”.

Ease of use – 4.5

Ergonomics – 5

Fun factor – 5

Value for money (pricing information was given) – 4

Would play again if left alone – 4

The non-gamer

Gender: Male

Age: 51

Occupation: Nurse, Rehab Worker

Has heard of Move: No

This subject had seen the Wii but not used it. He had much more difficulty understanding the motion controller concepts than the previous subjects, particularly with depth perception. The task took longer to complete and he managed a silver medal on the test level.

The subject commented that he had trouble reading the symbols on the four face buttons and that the controller was a little too small for his hand, but was the most enthusiastic of all the subjects about continuing to play on.

Ease of use – 4.5

Ergonomics – 4

Fun factor – 5

Value for money (pricing information was given) – 4.5

Would play again if left alone – 5

The conservative gamer

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Occupation: Fitness Instructor

Has heard of Move: No

This subject had used a Wii before, at ‘1’ on scale of 1-5, where 1 represented occasional use. His primary gaming focus is PC-based games World of Warcraft and Starcraft II. The subject described himself as skeptical about playing console games primarily because he prefers a game with is long and deep, and plays for the social aspect. Single-player gaming does not particularly appeal to him.

The subject had surprising difficulty understanding the motion controller concepts and needed considerable prompting, again depth perception being the main issue. He managed a silver medal on the test level.

The subject commented that the T button felt a wrong fit for his hand, that Tumble wasn’t really his kind of game, and when presented with pricing data commented that the cost of a DualShock 3 is “a rip-off” (Norwegian RRP: £54.99; Move RRP: £29.99)

Ease of use – 3

Ergonomics – 3

Fun factor – 4

Value for money (pricing information was given) – 3

Would play again if left alone – 2

The skeptic

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Occupation: Warehouse Floor Manager

Has heard of Move: Yes

This subject described himself as a fairly interested gamer who tires of console games quickly. He has approximately equal experience with World of Warcraft and PS3 games but finds much greater longevity at his PC. Although he owns a Wii, he also rated his use at 1 out of 5, noting that only Super Mario Galaxy was particularly worth playing for him.

The subject’s initial view is that devices such as Move and Kinect are gimmicks – “like the Wii” – and will generally go unused after a short while.

The subject grasped the concepts extremely quickly – being familiar with the Wiimote – and had no problem completing the task. However, he commented that the tracking was laggy, and on a later try of Sports Champions archery, height was an issue as the PS Eye frequently lost tracking when the subject reached for an arrow. Like the conservative gamer, this subject did not feel the T button was well-placed or shaped.

The subject did not wish to provide ratings based on 10-15 minutes of play – stating that it would be too much like game-show journalism, and wanted to play a variety of games for some hours to give a more balanced view. In the 4^th part of this series, we’ll have an interview with this gamer and get his detailed feedback.

What is it?

A separate set of subjects picked at random were shown the device up front and asked to guess what it was. These subjects were 3 young females, 1 young male and 1 middle-aged male. Here are the results:

Don’t know – 2 (young male, middle-aged male)

Halloween toy – 1 (young female)

Microphone – 1 (young female)

Sex toy – 1 (young female)

Broad conclusions

Feedback from the non-gamers was encouragingly positive, although nobody had heard of the Move except for the skeptic, who I told about it some months ago. Problems with depth perception were common, and everyone except the elderly subject raised complaints with button placement, shape or size.

Observational notes were also taken during the trial to note how different subjects used the controller differently and any particular problems they had. The most common issue with everyone except the skeptic was a failure to memorise the different function of the Move button and T. Everyone except the elderly person failed to move the controller sufficiently in the Z direction (towards and away from the screen) to push and pull blocks at first, and these three each took a different amount of time to adjust.

The elderly person and the non-gamer both commented that the game was becoming more fun just as they got a grasp of it and finished the 2^nd level. It was especially interesting to see that both of these subjects had more enthusiasm than the gamers and both seemed more switched onto the idea in particular that they could control a video game and that it could be enjoyable.

We will bring you the full skeptic interview in the final part of this series.