On being "Microsofty"

If you are wondering what I mean when I carp about Microsoft's general inability to get things intuitive and right, this video will show you what I mean:

(It's 24 minutes, which is ridonkulously long, so you were warned)

In short, they are trying to show off the new features and:

2:20 -- tried to use left hand for "back," gets the pause feature to pop up

3:40 -- they break the voice command then they can't get it to pause.

4:15 -- "what the hell did I do?" I dunno how you got it back to the Kinect hub, either, dude.

Only five minutes! But see, this is what I mean when I talk about Microsoft being Microsofty. It is also what I mean when I am watching streaming "Downton Abbey" from Netflix on the Xbox and some character says something that makes it start to fast-forward (or reverse, or stop, or whatever), and you basically find it does this so often you have to disable the voice commands altogether so you can just find out whether the daughter will stay on course to marry her distant cousin after her mother learns she is preggers and might just save the family estate from falling into said distant cousin's hands.

Watching streaming video is sketchy enough, I'm curious to see how the actual gameplay comes out with voice commands so totally integrated. There seems to be a potential downside to such attentiveness on the part of the system and developers.

All that said, I would absolutely LOVE to see Microsoft get all things Xbox right. Not only have I invested in the Kinect system (by buying it, not by owning a ton of MS stock), but it's a great company that is deeply supportive of my beloved Pacific Northwest, and I want to see it flourish for all kinds of selfish reasons, whether it's my game system or my community reaping the benefits.

Why Kinect?

The first time I seriously considered getting a videogame system for myself, I was playing with a Wii. It was me, my much younger cousins (like, in high school), and "Just Dance 2." I could have played that game all day with them.

My exercise life was in a bit of a transition at the time. My longtime aerobics instructor had just left the classes I'd depended on for fitness, and my work schedule was making increasing demands on my time. My local Y is overcrowded, and I don't get excited much out of the fitness machines, if I can even get the one I want. The Wii appealed to me, and "Just Dance 2" was precisely the kind of thing I liked to do -- boogie down.

So when I went home, I thought to myself that maybe a Wii was right for me. At the time, the Kinect had just come out, and when I started Googling around, I made these notes:

1) Kinect had no controller except your body. I'm in my 30s and a decade of desk jobs had given me some carpal-tunnelly/repetitive motion-y type stuff in my right wrist. Gripping a Wiimote was not something I wanted to do all day. Also, being in my 30s and basically having never played much in the way of videogames, I was not into the whole controller thing. Too many buttons, too much pressure to make the right combinations, too much Skinner-boxing. I want to use all my muscles, and I don't need anything that keeps me on my butt. (My decision was further confirmed when the new Wii was shown to have an iPad-like controller. Clever, but no thank you, I do not do traditional push-the-button gaming, I am an old lady.)

2) "Just Dance 2" was published by Ubisoft, a company which had just announced its intentions to be the number one third party videogame publisher for Kinect. Since "Just Dance 2" was a huge winner for me, I thought, "Dude, that sounds perfect."

3) The reviews for Kinect were ecstatic. Its sales were already breaking records, and it seemed like a pretty sure bet that developers would fill the gap of its fairly paltry initial game offerings. Plus, what existed at the outset seemed to fill most of my basic needs. It doesn't matter if there aren't a lot of games as long as the few you need are on offer, and as long as better ones come along as time goes on. Right?

A couple of things nagged at me. First, there was the fact that it is a Microsoft system. I'm sorry, but Microsoft has always offered products with counter-intuitive, over-buttoned, over-optioned, not-quite-working-right clutter. Nintendo is sort of the Mac of the videogame world, albeit softer and fuzzier. Playstation is the Unix (in the sense that hardcore gamers, like my brother, use this system). By this equation, I should be a Nintendo person, considering the Playstation Move as my backup. But the Move doesn't seem to generate much enthusiasm at all, and Nintendo is headed in a touchscreen direction.

Second, there was the cost. The Xbox and Kinect are freaking expensive. No getting around that.

There was a lot of dithering room, and I dithered. Enough so that my husband -- who I would have expected to say, "Don't do this, do you really need more time in front of a screen?" -- said if I thought I'd really enjoy it, I should go get it. Nuff said.

So, months later, here I am, Kinecting and liking it. Hope I can help all you other grown-up ladies and gentlemen out there who are considering expanding your videogaming from Farmville and Bejeweled to something more physical.