Sony have filed a patent for technology that will track player reaction times and adjust game difficulty accordingly.
If you're playing a game, do you want it to be as hard as it is for everyone else? Or would you rather it adapted to your skill-level (or in my case, lack thereof)? Your answer to that question will decide how you feel about this news. We've certainly seen game's adapted for more casual audiences in the past, but this technology would be far more wide-sweeping, and we could see a significant backlash from the community.
Sony Will Track Player Reaction Speeds
Sony have filed a patent for a new technology that would track player response times and adjust game's accordingly. Effectively, if you seem to have naturally poor response times, they want to make game's easier for you.
Per the official patent documents, here is a summary of what they want to develop exactly:
As further understood herein, sensors including eye tracking sensors, accelerometers and other motion sensors, and muscle sensors identify the timing gap between an object appearing on the screen, the user shifting his attention to the object, and the user taking action in response to the object. If the user's reaction time falls outside of an expected window but the intent was correct, the game adjusts its outcome to preserve the intended experience. An example includes identifying and responding to an enemy in a first-person shooter game. To maintain fidelity with the developer's vision of an experience, the response window is dynamically altered, allowing the user more time to choose the appropriate action in response to an in-game event. Damage to a blow may be delayed and invalidated, an enemy hit box expanded, etc.
It's hard to know how to feel about this one, especially when they describe expanded enemy hit boxes and delayed damage. I'm sure a great many Twitter users would decry this as the "death of competitive video games", much like they did when we first discovered how many bots would be in Warzone 2. But outside PvP experiences, this seems like a well-intentioned idea that could help younger, older, or even disabled gamers to enjoy more of their favorite games. So call me a filthy casual in the comments, but I actually quite like this idea.
Would you support a development like this? Or do you think games (like this year's Game of the Year) need to be hard?
Time to ditch the PlayStation for a good PC?