I think it's a fascinating move on Microsoft's part to integrate a video game character into a users day-to-day reality. I can imagine some nostalgia fueled sales happening as a result. But moreover, I can't help but be reminded of the movie Her. Where the lines between our physical reality and our digital reality start to blur
> But moreover, I can't help but be reminded of the movie Her. Where the lines between our physical reality and our digital reality start to blur
That's because it's a fallacy from the start. What happens on-line, what's digital, is as real as anything else. It's a mental dead end to think there are two separate things.
Point taken, but I'm still not entirely convinced. I agree that what happens online is just as real. But today, online is still feels like a separate space. It's like opening a window (our devices may literally represent this window but I'm using the term as analogy). I think "blurring the lines" has to do with removing the window from the equation.
To me it's a particularly intriguing move because Cortana's story wasn't a happy one. I know that most of the people aware of that fact also won't be fazed by it (if you've played that much Halo, you can probably distinguish the assistant from the character), but it's a surprisingly deep choice to take a name from a character who faced AI decay and all kinds of other scary techno-ills.
The reference to Her is especially relevant, since in the Halo series Cortana was clearly designed for sex appeal, and romantic tension between Master Chief (the player character) and Cortana was strongly implied.
The beginning where he talks to Cortana, it totally reminded me of the movie Her. [1] It seemed fascinatingly real. Although that bit might have been pre-recorded, I think we will eventually get there, where a computer's voice and its interaction would seem indistinguishable from a human's.
Heh. If you ever really stop to think about it, Halo is a love story between a cyborg and an AI, with the backdrop being a war for survival of the species. It probably didn't start out that way, but it surely turned into that.
Cortana, in the game, was nearly useless outside of the cutscenes.
Hopefully she's better at navigation on the phones. I don't think providing a compass heading to your destination, and constantly yelling that you need to get there is going to cut it.
Seems odd that the article doesn't contain the word "Halo". You'd expect that somebody at TNW would have caught the reference, nevermind the writer or editor would have googled the name before clicking "publish".