Microsoft has thrown open the door from the think tank and what has come forth smacks of oxygen deprivation. Available soon, exclusively in Japan initially for the new Xbox Live is Video-Chat with a "Tickling" feature.
Microsoft has not determined how much extra it will charge to download and operate software for the video-chat option. Regular Xbox Live subscriptions cost about $ 50 a year. Video chat also would require users to have a USB camera attached to their Xbox console, Moore said. Then there is "tickling." "You can send a vibration to one of the participants in the chat session, which vibrates the controller they're holding," Moore said. |
The mind races after reading that and struggles to grasp the impact of such a weird technology. How long before the systems are modded to provide other sorts of stimuli? I am reminded of the Simpsons episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home". Homer gets upset at the company picnic that his family doesn't get along like the other co workers families. He spots a TV commercial and brings the family to see an unorthodox psychotherapist Dr. Marvin Monroe. His specialty is a cure via shock therapy. He puts them in a circle of chairs and wires them up so that as they talk, any one has the ability to send a shock to any of the others if they think they need it. It isn't long before the talking ceases and a shock delivering war ensues. It gets so intense that they cause a failure of the towns power grid. D'oh!
Source: International Herald Tribune
