You know it kills me; nowadays people just can’t get enough of talking about how Microsoft’s Kinect is terrible, not appealing, and just overall a complete mess. I’m not saying I disagree with these claims. The first word that comes to mind when I think of Kinect is boring. Honestly, all the game-play videos and games just look like complete garbage, and I can’t believe they expect people to pay $150 for it. I think it takes a very specific kind of consumer for Kinect to look enjoyable at all.

Yeah the voice commands and what not are cool, but what kind of gamer do they think will pay $150 for that functionality? So, since we’ve all confirmed that I too think that Kinect will suck eggs, on to the real meat of the motion gaming fetish: the PlayStation Move. It seems like everyone has very low expectations for Kinect (which again I understand) but everyone is behaving as if Move will be the best thing to hit the PlayStation this year. This is what I do not agree with.

PlayStation Move, like Kinect, seems to have a very low range of appeal to me. Perhaps the device is able to accomplish more than Kinect, perhaps not. Perhaps both of the devices are just the fruits of a silly fad that Nintendo started with the Wii. Ah yes, the Wii. Obviously the inspiration of the Move, and it’s hard to find a conversation about Kinect that doesn't at some point compare Kinect to the PS EyeToy / Eye.

Is the comparison unfounded though? Of course it’s not. Kinect essentially IS a buffed up webcam, which sounds cruel but is the truth. I think the worst thing about it is the fact that people can’t even imagine how it would be fun and that is going to be the killer. Now in a year or so when the platform has more support, maybe it will be more appealing at that time.

The comparison that people won’t hear as often though, is that between the PS Move and the Wii. I think that while Kinect appeals to arguably nobody, the Move appeals to a very concise demographic; that demographic would be the millions upon millions of consumers who already own a Wii. Why else would they so imitate the appearance and functionality of the console peripheral unless they also wished to imitate its success?

So taking into account the vast hardware superiority the PS3 has over the Wii, couldn't we say that the PS Move is just a buffed up Wii? The answer is yes we could, and rightfully so. So in general, the industry could've done perfectly fine without these rehashed ideas. We've already been there and done that before and many of us still are doing it. If I had a Wii, I would certainly not buy the PS Move and if I had the PS Eye I would certainly not buy Kinect.

The only Move-specific games I have seen are Kung Fu Rider, which looks worse than Kinectimals, and some type of ping-pong game. The best looking things I’ve seen are games that are Move-compatible like SOCOM 4 and Heavy Rain. So it seems to me that people are getting their panties into wads with excitement over a new controller that's been done before, and that just seems particularly laughable.

Not to sound misleading though because I won’t be buying either of them either way. They both cost the same as multiple video game purchases and it’s a little bit ridiculous to me. I don’t see why I would buy Kinect but I suppose I would buy the Move for the shooting games. Am I the only who thinks a controller works better for shooting games? Is everything going to turn into a point and shoot Duck Hunt style affair? Who can say at this point but I know I’m ready for this motion control fad garbage to be done with.

I think it’s just dandy to believe that Kinect is a total waste of time, effort, money, energy, and general excitement, in fact I wholeheartedly agree with that. But I feel the exact same way about PS Move, and that position is fully justifiable as well. It just kills me how people are parading around hailing the Move as everything the Wii couldn't be and trashing the name of Kinect and all it represents. It seems very one-sided, but know that I and a wide margin of hardcore gamers could care less about this motion trend, on either console.