LotRO blog discusses using Kinect to control a PC MMO

Be honest with yourselves -- the first thing you thought when you saw Kinect was along the lines of "OMG imagine an MMO on that!" Sadly, no MMOs have yet been released for Kinect. For the moment, it seems that we'll have to draw our bows, swing our swords and run head-first into danger through the good old-fashioned mouse and keyboard -- or will we? Some time ago, an open-source project started up with the goal of bringing Kinect to the PC. Drivers were created to pipe the inputs from Kinect's infra red field sensors to a PC program, which could then produce a silhouette of the player and even a basic skeleton.

Using this software, players can convert body movements into a series of keystrokes. Orchida over at A Casual Stroll to Mordor has seen the potential in this early PC adaptation to control MMOs and has given it a test-drive in Lord of the Rings Online. For those with Kinect who want to give it a try in their favourite MMOs, Orchida gives a rundown of the software you'll need and how to configure it to convert body movements into keystrokes for movement and attacks. The article lists some valid pros and cons to using Kinect as a control method for LotRO and has a video of the entire process in action.