G-pinions

Jonah asked me tonight whether I think the SmartJoy FRAG, a new keyboard/mouse adapter for XBox and PS2, will ruin online gaming, specifically Halo 2. It's a good question, and it seems the gaming community has been buzzing about it since yesterday sometime. Fears of people dominating Halo 2 unfairly, hot dogs being snatched out of open hands, and general grey-matter implosion might be commonplace, but not to worry. What people seem to be forgetting en masse is that Bungie already has counter-measures set up for this by way of their online ranking and matching systems. Based on your performance, you're placed with players of a generally similar, slightly higher skill level from your second game onwards; the more you play the more accurate it will get, one can assume. So even if the keyboard/mouse combo does give players a significant advantage, which I don't think it will (more on that in a second), they'll soon be playing in rooms populated solely by their cheat-attempting douchebag brethren. That, and the people willing to shell out $75+ for the whole package will be the vast minority of Halo 2 players.

Though as I said, I don't think that this will give people an advantage whatsoever when it comes down to it. The movement and look speeds will still be limited by the game settings, and any good player (such as my immodest self) knows that when you want to go somewhere or shoot something, you do it. The limitations and challenge come in the form of reflexes, knowing the level and your weapons, and anticipating your opponents. None of that changes with a mouse in your hand. If anything, I can move my thumb a hell of a lot faster than my whole hand, and more subtly too. So that's that. No worries. This game needs to come out already so we can stop coming up with reasons why it won't be awesome.