Dance Dance Evolution
Spazzy seizure sessions at the local arcade and the Night Elf hustle aside, there isn’t a lot that can be said in favor of the usually rather questionable relationship between gaming and dancing. For some of us gamers who are a little, er, lighter in our loafers, this can be a source of endless amusement: I’ll never forget my first exposure to the world of Dance Dance Revolution, coming upon my poor straight friend doing something that looked an awful lot like trying to shake swarms of stinging ants from his kneecaps without the use of his hands.
“I’m d-d-dancing!” He said.
Indeed.
But according to Joystiq it looks like the people behind avant-garde/weirdo MMOG Second Life are taking their creepy dance-by-numbers scene onto a more realistic stage with the introduction of “Expressive Puppeteering” technology – allowing gamers to articulate their toons in real time. Sounds fancy, if not overwhelmingly practical.
Still, there are machinima enthusiasts aplenty who’ll surely embrace a better fusion between the funk and the frag. The Great Dance Weblog has already covered the peculiar phenomenon of dance and music performance in Second Life, and mentioned a supposed plan to link the SL world to Amazon, which would open up whole worlds of reasons to wish we’d taken the blue pill.
Until then, Maestro, play a volta!
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 4 August 2006
Other stuff like this: amazon, dance, dance dance revolution, expressive puppeteering, machinima, second life
