So I was driving home today, stuck in traffic listening to Daft Punk (this is how all inspiration happens) and I got thinking about gaming and where it's headed. More specifically, the notion of motion control as the next big step towards gaming perfection. Turns out, I don't think it is. At all.
Pictured: Not the future
The way I see it, pure motion controls will never be able to substitute a controller. This is simply because of the sheer complexity of said controllers. Think about it. I look at my Dualshock3 and there are 8 buttons, two "triggers", a d-pad, and 2 analog sticks which also count as buttons when depressed. And when you consider all the possible combination's of these inputs (L1 + R1 to shoot, L stick to move + R stick to look around, all the button combinations in fighting games, etc) and the speed that is sometimes required, mapping all of this to body motions you start to see that it won't be an apt substitute.
This is our current setup:
And this is the alleged future:
To set an example of why I think this won't work. Imagine your playing a Grand Theft Auto. Your walking along, and see a car you like. You walk up to it and jack it. A cop spots you. Wanted level 1. You gun it, speeding away towards safety. A cop car T-bones you out of nowhere. You spray some uzi fire from your car. The car starts smoking. Time to leg it. You sprint to an alley. Take cover behind a column. Switch to assault rifle. Rain hell down on the fuzz. Toss a grenade, in the confusion you dart towards a bike you saw. Get on it, ride towards the subway station, you'll lose 'em in the tunnels.
Now, can you really imagine all of this going as fluid as it does now with no controller in hand? Cause I don't. I see it more going like something like this.
Now in time the cameras will be advanced enough to track every minuscule movement we do, but we are still part of the problem. To perform all possible actions in a game we are gonna need room for it, which some people don't have. We are gonna have to be fit, cause that will get very tiring after a while. And we are gonna have to memorize possible non-intuitive movements for certain things (using the above example, how would you carjack? Point at it? Where's the fun in that?)
So do I think motion is complete trash? No. For certain games it could work, for example racing games I can see it happening. It can add on to existing control schemes for other genres, such as FPS/TPS (Head-tracking maybe? Leaning out of cover by leaning yourself?) . But that's the thing, it will add on to most controller schemes, not replace them. So where do I think gaming will go controller wise? Mind control.
Like this, but less painful
That to me is the future. What we do right now is that our brain tells a middle man (our hands) to do certain actions with the controller to get the desired result in a game. Motion is trying to replace that middle man with our bodies. The solution, in my mind, is to cut out the middle man all together, and give our brain direct access to the game.
That way, we could do exactly what we want to do in a game, untethered by such mundane things as sticks/buttons/flailing. That is when we will be able to say "this is the next big thing, the future is now". No more accidental button presses, no need to move around the room to get something done, think it and it will happen. This is where I believe the real future for controlling games lies. Far off in the future? Maybe, but it will happen, and when it does it will be glorious.
Also, as a congratulations for reading this whole thing, here is a result for google image search for "natal"
Sorry ladies, I'm doing it for the ratings. 
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We feel like this:
But we actually look like this:
That's enough for me.
As I said, motion can be properly utilized with no controller involved, but the options are limited to certain genres. Beyond that, mind control is the future.
@Handy
I also await these articles, lulz will be had.
@robotbebop
Exactly, that in part is what got me thinking about the subject. People either write it off completely as a gimmick or hail it as the second coming of Jesus. It is neither. Enhance current games? Sure. Replace controllers? Not gonna happen. That will happen when mind control eventually comes.
I don't know about you, but that's how SKYNET GETS IN YOUR HEAD.
Honestly, the games you cite as complex could be made less so. If not, I hope we see less of them in the future. Maybe motion controls as they are won't be the future, but some fundamental changes need to be implemented lest even more players experience severe overload.
The way we control games will no doubt have to change at some point, and not by adding even MORE buttons/triggers/sticks, which is why I believe controlling them with our minds is the next step. Aiming and shooting won't be "press L1 and then R1", nor would it be "raise your arms and pretend your shooting", it would simply be thinking "aim there, shoot" Much more simple (for us to control, not for studios to program I don't think) and intuitive than the current setup or the proposed setup of motion controls.
@Daxelman
The Governator will save us if that ever happens. BELIEVE.
I agree with all of your points.
Just cutting to the brain would solve the trouble and even open up new possibilities, like controlling multiple things at once. How about a game where in the middle of combat you use telekinesis to fling a bookshelf at people and not even having to look at it to pick it up. Or how about a game where you can be various animals and you control every motion. I'd like to see some play THAT with Natal.
I'm probably having too many and too high expectations for what brain control could do, but I'm at least sure it would be available someday. Though that's probably the day when everyone has tiny screens installed into their eyeballs with the possibility of giving you 3D-glasses.
@Uther
Those aren't unrealistically high expectations, those are things that I sincerely believe will eventually happen. Will we live to see it? Can't say, but it will come in due time. We've gone from cavepeople with stone tools to sending exploration probes to the far reaches of space, I think we can handle a bit of mind control games hahaha
I think the future for serious gaming is going to connect with our sense of touch more rather than less. Some kind of general-purpose touch surface that can pretend to be a variety of controller layouts and trick us into feeling textures, surface features, etc. when we interact with it. Pure gesture control is taking off in the wrong direction, and mind control would be even worse.
@fission mailed
mice mgs refrence i like doing naked cart wheels myself
I agree that some games motion controls just work. Bowling, golf....etc but as you noted games that offer a wide variety of options (GTA) just feel right with a controller and would be almost impossible with just motion controls.
Mind control might work but when I play a game I am never 100% focused on just the game. There are outside interruptions or the likes so I wonder how that would come into play.
I definitely feel that if games are to exclusively have motion controls, they need to be a different type of game. Games like GTA simply don't translate to this motion control type. So it seems that developers have to almost think of new genres, which probably isn't easy.
However, I do like the idea of using it in conjunction with current styles of gaming. Most of my favorite Wii games add motion control rather than make it the center. Something like No More Heroes where just the wrestling moves are performed by motion and the rest is essentially a normal action game.
For starters, mind control isn't how we control anything in real life. Driving, golfing, shooting a dude, in real life you're holding on to some kind of object and you need it for physical feedback to give context to your actions.
Look at how driving games are with motion controls... Mario Kart or this coming Natal game. In real life you're holding on to a control bolted down to the thing you're sitting in. That's the only way a steering wheel works. Motion controls don't have a central axis to push against and a natural "center" for your wheels pushing back against you. A self-centering analog stick is immeasurably more realistic because of the subtle response it gives... you can tell how far you're steering left or right without having to watch where your car's going for half a second. The same goes for any game with any sort of "steering" interface. The analog stick isn't the best compared to a gaming wheel but it captures one of the most important things, that slight push back to a neutral position. Light gun games, same deal only the gamepad isn't a good substitute. You really want a thing you hold and point like a gun, preferrably with some kind of kickback mechanism for recoil.
Mind control would be an extremely effective form of control for abstract point-and-click game interfaces like adventure, horror, RTS... but would it be too good? All it would need to do is tracking what you're looking at on the screen and pop context-sensitive menus with appropriate actions... depending on how often the "right" choice is the more eye-catching one, you could potentially play your best by not thinking at all and just letting your view wander around the screen. It would have all the interactivity of a TV show as far as your consciousness was concerned. Or alternately if there was even one scene where you got Game Over from looking at boobs, it would be impossible and pointless for most players (except for seeing boobs)
Personally I believe seeing the reactions from what you're thinking would solidify it for the brain.
Still, heavy and very subjective topic.
PvPPY also raises a valid point I did not consider initially. We will need some sort of tactile feedback for what we do, or else we might get disoriented by it. So if I may put on my Sci-Fi hat for a moment, it would probably delve into something akin to taking us into a "dream-like state" if you will. Tricking our brain into thinking that what we see and do is completely real, basically The Matrix for gamers. That sounds reeeeeeeeeeeeally cool, but also veeeeeeeeeery far away in the distant future. Not to mention all the possible consequences putting us in such a state could do to us (Shell shock from a FPS that's hyper real? Oh shi-).
For now, I'll stick to mah controllers and let the innovators innovate. And dream of that awesome high-tech future I might never see. Unless they invent stasis pods before I go, then I'll be all over that shit.
My own idea for a scifi game controller would probably be a pair of featureless nunchucks... well, kinda pistol-grip shapes... and a mousepad sort of thing made of the same material maybe with little springmounts so you can use the nunchucks as properly anchored joysticks.
They would be touch-sensitive all over, the grips would track motion, and most importantly they'll all be surfaced with "pixels" of stuff that can change between a gel and a solid... so if the controller's using some spot as a specific input, it can draw and label (lol, everyone can learn braille) a button, analog nub, keyboard, etc. The surface of the device can represent different textures... hard, soft, bumpy, specific details.
If you're playing a shooter, the grip that's representing a gun could have the same texture as a gun. Instead of a button to set the mode from semi to auto, it could have what feels like a little mechanical switch. If the grip has an area used as a d-pad or analog nub, you'll be able to feel when it's on-center or at the edge of its range.
The touchpad could act as a pointer for objects on the screen, and you'll be able to feel the outlines of objects as you run your finger across them. It could represent a larger or smaller area than what you're looking at and from a different angle (think of a map for marking objectives while playing a FPS) ... by feeling around for landmarks you could see, you would be able to figure out the bounds without any visual indicators. It could give some representation for anything you fiddle with in the environment... the components of the bomb you're defusing, the keypad you're typing a code on and the wall around it, pages in a book you're shuffling through.