Before I even got on my flight to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual video game conference and show), I knew I would have a lot to absorb, and it’s still sinking in well after the doors have closed. E3 is sort of an electronic entertainment mecca. Brands spend their entire year (if not years) preparing to wow the public with glimpses of new games and previews of a new console system.
This year was no exception, and I’m sure quite a few of you have already heard about Nintendo’s unveiling of the Wii U. If you haven’t heard much of the system, you may have at least heard about the controller, because during the entire Nintendo press conference it seemed to be the focus. And why not, after all, it shows us a glimpse of a future where multitasking is ubiquitous.
Gone are the days when multitasking meant taking a call, answering an email, and listening to television noise in the background. Now multitasking is becoming almost a modern requirement to survive.
In case you haven’t heard, the Wii U controller acts as a second screen. It allows you to play exclusively on it, or more importantly, integrates it with what is happening on your television.
This means game developers will no longer be marketing something to an audience that simply understands four buttons, a jog-wheel, and an arrow pad. They’re going to target people who can easily jump between two screens with the blink of an eye and juggle the information on both of them at the same time.
We’ve seen multitasking creep up into everyday life. (We’ve also seen it hinder life and the anti-texting campaigns that have come out of it). So does this mean that we’re getting better at doing more things at once? Perhaps, but I think more importantly it shows that we, much like video games themselves, are about to level up.
And not in the sense that we’re getting stronger, or about to save a princess in a castle (or be told that your princess is in another castle); it’s leveling up our comprehension. Look at the Wii for example—motion controls seemed so strange and awkward at first; until they became a natural reflex between swinging and button mashing.
We’re on the edge of this expanded comprehension, and as internet TVs, smartphones, and mobile devices get us closer to merging the real and the virtual; they also get us more comfortable working with our minds, hands, eyes, and feet at the same time in two (or more!) different thoughts.
This offers a new sensory appeal indeed, one that has the ability to shift the way we view and experience everything from food to television. A few years ago putting bacon on a salad was an edgy move, then came the fifth sense, umami. A few years ago we didn’t have touch screens or augmented reality, and now we manage to question how the world operated without them. People are leveling up in big ways that slowly play out across their day-to-day experiences in technology and entertainment. And once we get to our new level, where we can comprehend two screens at once, we will again ask someone for a map to the end of the level, so we can start all over again.
