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to providing a more dramatically interesting, and even
emotionally involving, virtual world.
Another innovative aspect of Black and White is in its
cybernetics: every aspect of play is controlled with the
mouse, using a highly intuitive “gestural system.” With
this, you can stroke your creature, teach him how to
play with balls, or smack him if he takes an unhealthy
interest in his own excrement.
As detailed in Chapter 3, systems of control are
crucial to the success of videogames, and such
imaginative new control engines can open up novel
gameplay possibilities. There was a certain
disappointment, then, as Nintendo unveiled the
controllers for its new GameCube system—they feature
nothing more than a now-standard set of buttons plus
two analogue sticks. More cybernetically creative was a
concept display by Sony at the September 2000 ECTS
trade fair, which featured an ordinary web-cam plugged
into a PlayStation2. Thanks to internal processing of
the web-cam’s visual image, the player could wield a
big foam sword or other object and have its movements
accurately mirrored in real time by the object’s on-
screen sibling.
