Appleâs next big thing ships next month, and soon wrists all around the globe will be thrumming with iTechnology. What can a wrist-based device with a tiny screen bring to gaming? Quite a lot, probably.
Iâve been considering whether or not to invest the $350 necessary to add Apple to my arm since the Apple Watch was first announced last year. Right now Iâm at the point where had Tim Cook announced they were on sale today I would have found the cash. Why? Partly for fitness, partly for being able to leave my iPhone charging somewhere else in my house and still get important texts and emails, and largely due to the possible gaming applications Iâve been thinking about in the days leading up to todayâs Apple event.
Thatâs right, Iâm planning on spending upwards of $400 based on my imagination. It hasnât steered me wrong yet, except for all of those times it did.
Letâs start off with the obvious.
Notifications
Until youâve embraced the sort of mobile game that relies heavily on knowing who is doing what to you when, notifications arenât much more than annoyances that pop up from time to time when you accidentally hit âYesâ instead of âGod no.â But when youâve been building up your base for weeks and are certain itâs completely impervious to attack and suddenly some 12-year-old rolls in and steals all of your things, waiting until you pull your phone out of your pocket to call him a little shitbird is mighty inconvenient.
With the Apple Watch, shitbirding can be convenient and nearly instantaneous. Plus youâll be looking at your watch, and people will be too busy trying to steal it to worry about your use of foul language.
Notifications can be quite handy for gaming in the right situation. With the Apple Watch they can be wristy as well.
Audio From Your Arm
Years from now weâll look back and realize the Wii Uâs crowning achievement was how pleasing it was to augment full stereo sound with tinny noise from the tiny control pad speaker. Itâs ridiculous how much depth that stupid little thing adds to game audio. Now imagine you had a stupid little thing on your wrist.
But itâs not that stupid. Youâre playing a game where youâre some sort of lizard-based military operative. Your comm buzzes. Bring your wrist to your face and say something cool like âGoâ or something even cooler like âGo, asshole.â Oh look, there on the screen! Itâs some generic name for Otacon so I can keep this thinly-veiled Metal Gear Solid reference going.
Maybe not-Otacon asks you questions. The Apple Watch has a microphone as well, so you can answer and let voice recognition determine whether you live or die.
SNAKE!
Haptic Feedback
Using magical magnetic technology, the Apple Watch can send tactile feedback through the watch to your wrist. Say you get a text message from your significant other. Itâll pop up on your watch, and it will give you a little love tap.
Immediately an application comes to mindâunderwear with an Apple Watch pouch.
Once that notion fades (it can take awhile), another replaces itâwhat if when you got shot in an iOS game on your phone or tablet, you died in real life? Or maybe just felt a tapping on your wrist. Probably the latter.
All silliness aside (most silliness, at least), having a haptic feedback-enabled device strapped to your body that can connect to your mobile gaming platform of choice (as long as that choice is Apple) opens up a wealth of gaming possibilities. Getting shot in shooters. Jump scares in horror games. Wrist crushes in Wrist Crush Saga.
I lost you all at Apple Watch underwear, didnât I?
Cloak And Dagger
Since the heyday of Dabney Coleman, people have been obsessed with the idea of running through public places pretending to kill each other. Every year a developer comes out with some cool new mobile game that involves taking over territory or tracking people using GPS and then subduing them using some form of mobile phone trickery. In fact, I dread the emails from these developers that will flood my inbox following the publishing of this artical, as I do not like going outside.
If I did, I imagine the Apple Watch would be the perfect complement to my virtual arsenal. I come into close proximity of another player, and a radar screen pops up, slowly guiding me towards the enemy. Perhaps some developer could even employ Appleâs creepy heartbeat sharing technology here.
Iâll be frank hereâIâve always wanted a watch with a radar display on it. I really donât care who or what it tracks. It could be the location of the nearest Dennyâs or the results of a worldwide âWhatâs your favorite directionâ poll. I just want to look at my watch and walk forward deliberately. I suppose I could do that without spending $400, but would I feel as fulfilled?
Probably. Moving on.
Fitness Games, I Guess
Apple is really pushing the fitness features of the Apple Watch, and I am not averse to letting fancy new technology spatula me out of my office chair and out into the open air. Iâve played some pretty amazing audio-adventure running games on my phone, largely zombie-based, and I imagine the Apple Phone could enhance my terrorized lumbering exponentially.
Take all of the technology weâve spoken about except for notifications, because screw those, and youâve got the makings of a pretty amazing fitness survival horror game. Haptic feedback simulates undead fingers trying to steal your watch. Audio cues hint at shambling hordes gaining on you. An arbitrary radar display fills with points of light, hot on your trail. The microphone listens to your gasping breaths and laughs.
On top of all of that, the Apple Watch can monitor your vitals, so when youâre about to die because you havenât technically exercised intensely this decade, it can try to tell you to stop. You wonât hear it for the blood pounding in your ears, but the coroner will find it hilarious.
The Apple Gaming Watch
Okay, maybe I wouldnât go that far, but there really are some interesting gaming applications for the Apple Watch, giving it enough gaming potential for me to justify it with my wife. If all else fails I just tell her I am getting it for exercise. When she falls over laughing Iâll grab her wallet.
