I'm trying to go through the last few pages, but did anyone even attempt to think of how haptics could be even applied to the most important genres?
I'm trying to wrap my head around it, but touch is a sense, and sensory inputs are generally meant to be used to acquire informations. Now, in videogames we generally use visual and aural cues in order to do that, and I don't really see where touch can come in.
Even considering the easiest genre to implement the system in (first person adventure/investigation), how is this system gonna supplement visual cues? Is feeling something "soft" on the pad any helpful, when we already can see we're touching cloth?
I can imagine a situation like an Ace Attorney game where touching on a cloth surface returns a "soft" sensation, and if something "hard" is hidden underneat, the pat could give an "hard" feedback... but it's grasping at straws. When we see an object, we're capable of imagining how it feels.
And if the information the haptics system is important, it has to be something we can't discern in other ways. Imagine playing Mario, and having the haptics system as the tool that allows you to know if a surface is "icy" (cold/smooth feedback), normal (rough feedback), bouncy (soft feedback) etc... that means removing the visual cues from the game. It doesn't add anything.
People have often incorrectly labeled motion controls as gimmicks, but this thing fits the definition a lot better.