Five perspectives on OnLive

OnLive was recently released in the UK. Its key feature is the ability to stream gameplay from a central server to players in realtime, offering an entirely new way to experience videogames. But what experiences, precisely, does OnLive offer? They're about much more than just the games themselves, so I'm going to look at OnLive, accessed through its MicroConsole, from five user experience viewpoints: the out-of-box experience; store UI; games; controller and novelty.

Out of the box

The out-of-box experience, or OOBE, is the experience from the moment you take off the shrinkwrap until the product is turned on and ready to go. Apple is the industry leader in this field. Anyone who remembers the folding box of the original iPods will certainly remember how packaging can create an incredibly engaging initial experience. The rest of the consumer electronics industry doesn't come close, however, and OnLive is no exception. That said, everything you need comes packed in the box, including HDMI and ethernet cables, and batteries for the controller. OnLive has really made efforts to ensure that there will be no disappointment. Setting up was relatively straightforward, and similar to that of most other consoles.

After powering up for the first time, I was greeted with a screen telling me to update the console's firmware. I was immediately concerned that OnLive might turn out to be like the PS3 experience - somehow never ready to play a game when I want to - but time will tell how intrusive this turns out to be. I then had to also update the controller, which meant plugging it in with a USB cable. My spirits dampened a little, but I was still interested to see what was on offer.

Store UI

We're now ready to go. The UI is best described as functional, and although I can see evidence that they've conducted usability testing, I wouldn't say that it offers a great user experience. For example, it's quite frustrating to browse and play games. There aren't that many games on the store at the moment, and browsing using OnLive's linear list approach is already cumbersome. As more titles get added, I can see a rethink of the UI being needed quite soon.

In the UK, OnLive gives a great offer to users: your first game is £1. I decided to pre-order Batman: Arkham City and although the price was listed at £39.99, I thought that somewhere before checkout it would realise that this was my first purchase and then discount it to £1. It didn't. I ended up paying the full £39.99.

30 minutes to impress

But OnLive does have an ace up its sleeve. It's incredibly simple to try out new games. It's even easier than the iOS store as there is no installation, and it really is only seconds from selecting Play Game to experiencing it. I tried out game demos for titles that otherwise would simply have passed me by - this can only be a good thing for developers. Getting more people to experience your game can often be the biggest barrier to a sale, and OnLive could radically change this.

What makes the game demos different to other platforms is that they are limited to 30 minutes of play from the full game. This presents a unique challenge to developers - how should they design the first 30 minutes of play to ensure that it's likely to lead to a sale? Compared to the standard demo approach which generally allows players to play them as often as they please, 30 minutes may not be enough to make that decision; it's one-shot deal, 30 minutes to impress. Can developers afford to get this wrong?

As it was so easy to try out new games, I started moving through the list. I was surprised, and frustrated, that many of the games require a keyboard and mouse to play, which is fine if you're using the Mac or PC app. But I'm using the MicroConsole and its gamepad. If the system knows that I don't have a keyboard and mouse connected, it shouldn't show me those games because it's only going to disappoint me if I try to play them.

As the experience of trying out games was so smooth, it made the more ponderous usability design of some of the games themselves quite jarring. I tried Dirt 3, and found myself shouting at the menu design (not an uncommon event, it must be said). I wanted to get to the action right away, iOS style. I wonder will the immediacy of OnLive have an impact on future menu design?

The gameplay experience itself was good. Admittedly, my home broadband speeds are quite low at 3-4Mbps, but this will only improve in the future. I played Dirt 3 via OnLive and then on Xbox 360, and then back again, and although the graphics were sharper on the 360, I still had the same feeling of excitement on both platforms.

Controller

My biggest issue with the system however is with the controller. The analogue sticks are made of the wrong material - the hard plastic quickly becomes slippery and so to increase grip you have to dig your thumb into the recess of the stick. This leads to 'PSP cramp'; the angle in which you hold your thumb is so awkward that it soon becomes tiring and you want to stop playing.

The problem extends beyond the material of the analogue sticks and into their layout. As both sticks are placed very close to the bottom of the controller, selecting down in particular requires a significant bend of the thumb.

This is perhaps more critical for FPS gamers, who are most likely to need movement in all four directions on the left stick than on the right stick, which tends to control the camera. Microsoft's decision to situate the left analogue stick higher up the Xbox pad, allowing the thumb to rest at a more natural angle, was a smart move.

I understand that it's possible to connect an Xbox 360 controller to the OnLive console, but this seems to be an admission that they haven't designed their controller quite right.

Ground breaking

One particular feature stands out as having amazing future potential - the Arena. This is where you can spectate on another player's game at any time and even rate their performance. I see this as a potential way of delivering the ultimate tutorial or guidebook. "Don't know how to get past the end-of-level boss? Press X now to watch someone who can." I'm getting tired of buying AAA games only to play a small percentage of them because I get stuck. Or perhaps I would persevere for longer with a game if I knew the awesomeness that the next level contained. I think the Arena could be a mechanism that can encourage longer gameplay, and so much more.

OnLive is remarkable, it really is, and I'm quite certain it has a place in the future of videogames. For developers, increasing the number of players who can easily try out their games is a huge leap forward, though the 30 minute demo period means they have to carefully construct the game to not only overcome any initial issues, but also leave the player on a high. Usability has never been so important.

Graham McAllister is director of game usability lab Vertical Slice. Read and follow Graham's other columns on his topic page.