Mastery and skill are two important elements accounting for the success of recent generations of video game consoles. "Traditionally, the FPS genre has been closely linked to hardcore gaming, perhaps because mastery of ...[such games] requires an investment that goes beyond the game itself" (Jin, 2011). This segment derives pleasure from engaging with familiar controls to accomplish difficult and complex tasks while playing console games (Ratliff, 2015; Harvey, 2015).
Familiarity with the console controller and mastery over its sophisticated technology is critical to an enjoyable video game experience. The game controller is one of the most important components of the hardware system of the video game console. The controller unit is the device that mediates the player input to the console. It both defines and limits the type of actions and options available to video game designers and players and therefore has a significant impact on the way video games are designed and played.
Video game technology itself and more specifically, the game controller, appear to favour the reproduction of similar game types and alienate new users and severely limit the developer's ability to innovate new game types. The Social Shaping of Technology perspective (MacKenzie & Wajcman, 1985) is a useful tool for understanding the evolution of the console controller. This perspective highlights the fact that technological design both constrains and confirms patterns of use. In the case of the console controller, ergonomic improvements to its design conform to the requirements and patterns of existing game genres while constraining expansion and exploration of other possibilities for video game control.
125 The first video game controllers consisted of a single joystick and a single push-button. Refer to the Atari system first produced in 1977 in Figure 9. Typically, this configuration was used to control an avatar in a 2D virtual space; the player used the joystick to control the avatar’s direction and movement and the push-button discharged the avatar’s weapon or defence system.
Figure 9 Atari 2600 Console (1977)
Along with the enhanced performance of today’s consoles over older consoles, their controllers have also undergone generations of improvements in ergonomics and functionality since their first appearance in the 1970s. During that period, video games have become more sophisticated and required more complex types of input. Early video games were typically two dimensional adventures requiring simple up/down and left/right movement. Now that
126 for today’s digital play, a four-directional controller no longer provides the player with a
satisfactory control scheme for three dimensional movements.
In response to the need for more sophisticated avatar control, the latest generation of controllers (Figure 10) are now wireless peripherals equipped with vibration feedback, motion control features, two joysticks (typically operated by the player’s thumbs), four action buttons, a directional pad (D-Pad), separate start and menu buttons, and four triggers (typically operated by the player’s index fingers). In addition to facilitating more complex input between the player and the console, the newest controller designs have responded to player’s need for a more ergonomic design. Whereas early console controllers were clumsy, awkward and uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time, current generation controllers are designed to be held with two hands while sitting, easily allowing players to comfortably engage in digital play for extended periods of time.
127 Console manufactures have responded to the need for more complex human/game
interaction by adding more buttons and joysticks. Game controllers have now become very complicated input devices that are used by video game designers to pilot complex games. Video games have evolved from the earliest video game genres, sport, racing, action/adventure, all of which are conducive to single joystick-based input. In each of these genres, the player controls a single “avatar” (which may be a humanoid, a vehicle, or spaceship) as the primary basis of the gameplay. Thus, avatar-based gameplay mechanics such as those found in sports, racing, and action/adventure games have dominated console titles from the very first console generation. The control of an avatar continues to be the dominant mode of control in the development of new video game content to this date (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003).
In the most recent console generation, the controller has reached the height of its complexity. Its design, now based on thirty years of video game content development, is primarily focused on avatar-based gameplay. Video game development during this period has also advanced in each of these previously noted genres (racing, sports, action/adventure) by incrementally enhancing and adding new features to base gameplay types. We now have a generation of video game players trained in the navigation of three dimensional game space using this sophisticated dual joystick-based input device. As video games continue to become more sophisticated, so do the requirements for increasingly sophisticated input. For experienced players, the mastery of this input device creates a portion of the pleasure derived from the game.
As previously noted, the elements of mastery and skill are important motivators in attracting hardcore players to console gaming. This can be related back to our discussion on gender as hardcore players have traditionally been male. To the extent that publishers and
128 developers have focused on creating games for hardcore male players with years of playing experience, this creates a barrier for female players that do not have similar years of experience with console gaming. This presents a reinforcing trend in the development of new video game content that makes it difficult to attract new audiences. The learning curve required not only for the video game, but also the input device itself becomes challenging. Both are very difficult for novice gamers to master (Zagal & Bruckman, 2008). However, regardless of whether players are male or female, as long as skill development and mastery remain primary motivators
attracting audiences to console gaming, it is reasonable to expect the future evolution of console games to remain limited to incremental changes to existing genres, where new content
innovation will be oriented towards exploiting the technical capabilities of the consoles and its familiar controllers within the confines of existing established game genres.
Despite the path dependent trajectory of gaming consoles, Nintendo was able to reconceptualise a very important aspect of its seventh generation console, the controller. As previously noted, the barriers presented by Xbox and Playstation controllers as well as the accessibility of their games to casual gamers had become formidable by the seventh console generation. In a move to attract the underserved casual console gamers (gamers outside the male 18-35 year demographic segment), Nintendo introduced a wand-type controller as its primary input device in its Wii console generation. The wand controller is a motion sensitive device that can be operated with one hand and does not incorporate a joystick (although this feature is available as an accessory). It is a much simpler device modelled after a television remote and only has two buttons, a trigger and a directional pad. This control was designed to be more familiar and intuitive to players with little or no previous experience playing games, effectively eliminating these technological barriers to playing video games. This improvement was also
129 important for girls and women who did not grow up playing games with joysticks. Additionally, the motion sensitive nature of this controller allowed for the translation of a range of human movements, not previously available, with the goal of expanding the scope of digital play.
The success of the Wii was in part due to its ability to appeal to non-traditional gamers such as the elderly and women with its ease of operation and easy learning curve. The focus on redesigning the controller allowed Nintendo to escape the performance trap in which Sony and Microsoft found themselves of having to incorporate costly new technology into their seventh generation console, such as BluRay disc readers (Wesley & Barczak, 2010). The new motion controller also permitted the expansion of alternative game types and game challenges (Wysocki, 2013). The Wii led the seventh console generation sales with more than 100 million units sold, beating Xbox and Playstation sales (78 and 77 million unit sales, respectively) by significant margins (Makuch, 2013a). It was successful in expanding the audience of gamers to in include greater numbers of women. Nintendo has reported that 80% of female console players play on the Wii (Hotho & McGregor, 2013). Sabine Hotho and Neil McGregor (2013) attribute the popularity of the Wii among women and novice gamers to the accessibility of its control system. This is a strong indication that technology advancements combined with latent player demand can produce successful leaps of innovation in the console gaming segment despite the industrial constraints.