Eyes off: Another subtle use for Natal

So here I am trying to power through these setlists in Guitar Hero World Tour, desperate for a few more Achievements since Shadow Complex has gotten too frustrating and Killzone 2 has yet to arrive from GameFly. These songs are pretty boring and even an Encore featuring The Doors barely holds my interest so my mind begins to wander.

Being that most of my time with rhythm games has revolved around dance pads I play Guitar Hero and Rock Band a little differently than most people probably do. I only play standing up and I can’t help myself from trying to look at the screen as little as possible, flash-memorizing the next four or five notes coming down the highway and either looking down at the guitar or shimmying around the room. I, of course, have no interest in high scores.

Mindlessly flicking my way through Santaria this morning I was thinking, if Natal is good enough to read individual fingers and sense facial expressions surely it can tell when you’re actively looking towards the screen. So why can’t a game like Guitar Hero that already tracks so many scoring stats throw in another one for “eyes off the screen” time? People have always poked fun at Guitar Hero and Rock Band for making people look like glassy-eyed zombies while standing rigid in the glow of a TV. Now there would be incentive to at least move your eyes around which could lead to moving your body around and eventually lead to rocking out, like, really rocking out.

Just another thought for the idea pool.