Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Lose Blood as you Game: A New Way to Experience Shooting Games

       Gamers always strive for realistic games and as technology progress further into the 21st century, there are inventions that bring them as close to real life as possible. With virtual reality headsets gamers can feel like they are actually in the game. With specialized walking platforms they can even move around in the virtual world through real movements. As interesting as these devices seem, another invention is breaking the barrier of how realistic video gaming can become in the future.

       The recuperating health systems in games are often seen as flawed. Even though they work well within shooting platforms, they are highly unrealistic. In a way to combat that, Brand & Grotesque thought of Blood Sport: a mechanism that will draw real blood from your body as you get hurt in games. This allows gamers to get as close to reality as possible as lives in the game begin to have more importance than simply a statistic on the scoreboard. Blood Sport is a device that uses the controller's rumble feature as a trigger to pull a small amount of blood from the gamer as they engage in a shooting game. Since rumble is often activated through getting hurt, either falling from a high distance or getting hurt by someone, in some cases this can be an effective way to transfer that to reality. It’s an interesting twist on a rather normal gaming experience.

       However as of now, this is not intended for the general consumer to purchase and use in their living room. The device requires the gamer to have a needle in their arm, which can become uncomfortable after a while. Therefore, the creators of this project see this being implemented in blood clinics around the world, to entice people to donate blood for good causes. By engaging in a fun activity that distracts the individual, they can donate blood by simply doing what they love.

       The project appears on Kickstarter and has raised only $3390 of the $250,000 goal in two weeks. While the possibility of this project getting funded seems grim, especially as it is currently suspended for an unknown reason, it brings into question the type of gaming that might exist in the future. As the dark name implies, Blood Sport might eventually become a reality, and the idea of a Hunger Games-esqe experience continues to reside in my mind. Although a scary thought, competitions where gamers compete against each other to near death might exist. It’s an idea that should be monitored, and regulated if eventually implemented.

It’s pretty much as close to reality as video games can become.


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