Great post, Bill.

I've never been particularly impressed with motion sensing technology, though I could easily see how it could work for certain kinds of games. I think it's just easier using a controller from the comfort of your couch than gesticulating and gyrating in front of a sensor (or waving your arms around, even).

I do love the special seats that give you a more visceral feedback. I didn't like the vibrating controllers very much, but moving that tech to the chair does make a noticeable difference. Of course, the costs are much too high for consumers, but who knows what may happen in the future. The old "body suit" thing gets mentioned a lot. Maybe they could just use mild shocks or electric pulses to simulate touch, but that could be dangerous and who knows how all that electricity would affect you over the long-term. It's about the only way I could think of though that you could get a fine-tuned touch response that could really be jacked up. It's just too big of a pain to have to put on something like that just to play a game. Sitting in a chair is much easier.

I just watched Top Gun for the first time last night (gasp, I know) and now watching the special features. One thing that struck me was how much they talked about how flying a fighter jet is a physical, athletic experience. People have no idea how it actually feels to fly in one of those (the g's, the stomach leaps, etc.) Obviously, no matter how good the graphics get, this a realm of realism that's only possible with some kind of special hardware.