I showed 'Lifeline' during Thursday's (9/20/2007) class of Survey of Interactive Media (CTCS 505), and I said that it was the first commercial use of Voice Control I had seen and Steve Anderson, Professor of said class, asked what came after? I paused and said 'Nothing.' Nothing I know of used voice control after Lifeline (2004). Why was this?
Was it because of the shoddy story? Was it because the voice recognition wasn't 100% accurate (it was pretty good though)? Was it because the interface was too 'new' to the consumer? Was it because you needed to have a USB headset (not included)? It was actually all of these combining into the pivotal reason: it didn't sell enough (it sold competently in Japan, apparently [according to Wikipedia], but from what I remember, not in the US). This is the problem with industry. Well, one of them. First off, they are afraid to do innovative things because they don't know if they will sell or not. The standard fare has been proven to sell and is therefore 'safe', while innovation is unknown territory and 'scary' to the publisher. Secondly, if something has been released that was innovative but did not sell well, the whole idea is canned and treated as a diseased foot fungus by everyone in the industry. These are all my opinions by the way, you can think differently if you desire. My point is, I think voice controlled games are not being made today (commercially) because Lifeline didn't sell well enough. Its sad story and clunky interface is more to blame then the technology behind it. It clearly demonstrated that voice-controlled games are possible, and with some work they can become more accurate, can have more words it understands (Lifeline knew "thousands of words and phrases" [from the back of the box]). Voice-controlled games, I believe, can be very immersive as it makes you play as you, and you can kind of think of the characters you interact with as being real (after all, it's a real conversation. You say something, they respond. Well, ideally... more on Lifeline in a bit about this).
My final point is that I want to see more voice-controlled games being made. If you are thinking about making a game, don't disregard a voice interface. They're interesting, they're fun, and right now they are still really innovative!
Okay, now I am going to talk about Lifeline specifically so stop reading if you don't care. Lifeline is a game where you play an unnamed man stuck in a control-room after attending a swanky party in space that horribly goes wrong (as all parties in space generally do). See, mutant creatures attacked, turning the people into horrible monsters as well and generally making a muck of things (the space station was a research station & space hotel, a combination ripe for unfortunate happenstances). See, I told you the story wasn't anything to hold in admiration. There is a waitress who is free to roam about and you talk to her, controlling the doors from the control room and generally bossing her around. She wants to find out about something in the research station (looking for her lost dad [lost before the party tragedy] and some other stuff) and you want her to find your missing girlfriend and to have her save you (as you are stuck in the control room, plus you are defenseless from the monsters. Rio, the waitress, has a gun at least). Any-who, that is the main setup. You can command Rio to walk somewhere, look at things, run, play games (tongue twisters, trivia, etc), shoot monsters, etc. She bosses you around by making you open doors for her. The voice recognition software is not 100% accurate like I said before, but once you get used to it, it actually does a decent job of it. You have to speak clearly, make sure you pause between holding down the button (that tells the game to pay attention to what you are saying) and speaking as otherwise I think it doesn't hear the complete command (likewise, no speaking about something else while pushing the button, it hears stuff it doesn't recognize). But at the end of the game, I could mostly have her do what I wanted. And mind you, I am more forgiving about such things then a lot of people.
No, in my mind it is not the voice-recognition that is its main failing point (although it is a minor one for me). No, it is the game-mechanics. To have it voice controlled was to make Rio an absolute moron. 'What should I do, a monster is attacking and I have a gun? Tell me operator!' Yeah, yeah. Shoot it, Rio, shoot it. 'I'm about to be hit, what should I do??' Dodge Rio! She has to be told everything! And she has to be. To have it otherwise is to not have a voice controlled game. It is the inherent limitation of the interface. The creators need to craft a story where the voice-control is natural and the characters believable, otherwise the game just doesn't work right. Play as a voice in someone's head to make them do things, or control a robot that has no free will, something like that. But to set up Rio as a human being and then have to tell her what to do 24-7 is silly. Be the operator who can look at the cameras and tell her where the monsters are, or be able to analyze the monster as she fights it to tell her the weak points, that is acceptable. But it is unbelievable that without you telling her to shoot, she will stand there, gun in hand, and be pummeled to death without any resistance (oh, she will complain at you, but that's it). A stealth game would work well as being voice-controlled, as you could 'hack' into the place's security system (or use satellite imagery or whatever, something to let you see the area) and you could guide the operative around the area, avoiding traps and people. If they had to fight, they could do it themselves and you could offer suggestions (like you saw on a camera two guys talking about how the legs in the new battle bot are weak or something like that so you could tell the agent to aim at the leg joint). There is a wealth of situations where voice-control is natural, and someone needs to exploit it. Maybe me, at thesis time, who knows. But I am tossing it out there to everyone because I think it has promise and I would like to see more of these games.