The Future Of Gaming.

[Dave]

So, lately I have created a lot of new threads and thought about where gaming has been, where gaming is now and I think it is only natural to start some discussion into where people think gaming will go in the future. Now, I personally love the idea of more evolution from the gaming industry. It is a great time to be a gaming fan and more so than that, it is great to relive the history of where gaming has come from. Naturally, like everything else, gaming will have a beginning, a middle and an end. Or to be more precise, it will have a beginning and an end, with the filler in the middle that is the hope of achieving the end. The end of gaming may not be a long time away and it only depends on what you see as that end. For me, I think the end of gaming, or what should be the end of gaming, is virtual reality. I know some virtual reality already exists and I think that I share the same impression of where gaming should be heading as most of the main developers do. For example, in the last few years, we have seen the invention of the Wii. The Wii is a huge step forward in the search for the end game, so to speak. It allows the player to be more involved with the game and has a great deal of ingenuity about it.

Then you have the later addition to this from Microsoft. Project Natal is probably going to be quite revolutionary, to be honest. I am a Microsoft fan so that might be somewhat of a skewed view. However, a fool could see that when Natal is eventually released and is coupled in the market with the Wii, progress wil likely be made. The progress of the gaming industry has been swift and continuing since the very first console was released. Games have become more life-like. Graphics have obviously been improved dramatically and the games market is as prosperous as it probably has ever been. With that being said, everyone is trying to achieve the ultimate gaming experience. So, I have a few questions for you guys.

Firstly, how far away do you think we are from having a perfect gaming experience?

Secondly, how much progress needs to be made to ensure that your idea of the gaming end is met.

Lastly, what is your idea of the end game?

 

[G3]

I'm pretty sure the future of gaming will head down the MMO scene.

MMO's are fun because they bring together thousands of people on a server to fight and do stuff together. I can see so many possibilities for games.

GTA- Game being developed, All Points Bulletin from Realtime world, guys who brought you crackdown are making a GTA like mmo.

Halo would be a great mmo, they could have huge battles and vehicles flying all over the place.

MAG for the ps3 is somewhat like an MMO because it is massive multiplayer online. It is a great step in the direction I expect all games to go down. People love huge online battles for the most part. The only reason they don't would be because of lag right now. Lag now is a problem of today, not the future.

Although all that I think a few games just couldn't go that way, or it would change the set up of that type of game currently. Take Smackdown VS Raw, they would have to change it into hundreds of federations and have people work their way up until they are on top. Being number one would be a challenge that would draw lots of people into the game if it was done properly.

 

[Lee]

I think what we're going to have is a lot more gimmicks with gaming. It's the level now where graphical advances can't really go forward much more. Virtual reality is one of those ideas that are good in theory but realistically it won't work for the same reason I'm about to blast the MMO theory....

Gaming is fun with others. Everyone can remember a point where they stayed up late with some mates finishing random games, for me gaming used to be a huge family thing for us. If you go down the road of MMO you remove that interaction and if you put it bluntly only nerds play MMOs. What would you rather do, play Goldeneye with your mates or with some 14 year old American kid who's not allowed to leave the house in case he dies.

 

[G3]

If you go down the road of MMO you remove that interaction and if you put it bluntly only nerds play MMOs. What would you rather do, play Goldeneye with your mates or with some 14 year old American kid who's not allowed to leave the house in case he dies.

Sorry but that is very wrong. That is just stereotyping.

That is along the lines of saying wrestling fans are gay because they like watch men hug on each other in skin type clothing.

I play some MMO's with friends from my school. We would be bored to death playing goldeneye together. 9/10 people I know that play games, play online mainly. That is almost always live.

Also, I am not talking about pretending to live in these games. But simply jumping into a huge game for a while and then leaving. Games should never be a virtual reality, just like TV shouldn't have reality shows. It is for your entertainment, to have fun outside of reality.

Of course this is all in my opinion and is based on what I feel is fun.

 

[Lee]

You'd think playing the game that the forums voted as the greatest ever as boring... You want a proper reply? You've got it....

You're in the primary demographic of gamers who would play MMOs, you're at school so therefore you will play them. 9/10 though...that's a bit of an exaggeration, of the 34million 360s sold there are 17 million X box live users, so that's 50% not 90% for that console. Nintendo have very few online games and the PS3 doesn't have any figures that I can find.

Gaming as a whole has gone the direction of almost the PG era effect, it's opening up to families, playing a console now is getting the family together like it was initially. You want gaming to remove that and go the way of MMOs. Just think about it for a moment...if you make the industry future of MMOs what will happen? Well you've got people with high speed internet and technological no how, so what will happen? They'll download the games, cracking, but there's a thread on piracy.

In essence I will say you're wrong.

 

[G3]

Saying I'm wrong? You can not say anybody is right or wrong about the future.

Also I stated 9/10 people I know that play games, play online. I am surprised you would find playing a game from the 90's that fun. There is a few like tetris and pacman that are fun for a bit, but nothing serious.

I have to disagree, I honestly don't know anybody who plays games with their whole family. I'll play with my brother but that is about it.

I've also read post on other websites about fathers and sons playing mmo's together. Personally I wouldn't want to play a game with my family.

Isn't your idea of the future more gimmicks? Which is pretty broad and doesn't really say much. Now that I have went over my idea of the future, what are the details of your predictions?

 

[Dave]

Saying I'm wrong? You can not say anybody is right or wrong about the future.

Also I stated 9/10 people I know that play games, play online. I am surprised you would find playing a game from the 90's that fun. There is a few like tetris and pacman that are fun for a bit, but nothing serious.

I have to disagree, I honestly don't know anybody who plays games with their whole family. I'll play with my brother but that is about it.

I've also read post on other websites about fathers and sons playing mmo's together. Personally I wouldn't want to play a game with my family.

Isn't your idea of the future more gimmicks? Which is pretty broad and doesn't really say much. Now that I have went over my idea of the future, what are the details of your predictions?

OK, first thing is first. You tried to say that people who play MMO's are not mostly nerds but then you say that you have met people who play with their dads! What the fuck, seriously? To be honest, I know plenty of people who play MMO's like World of Warcraft and to be honest, they are nerds. MMO's seem to make them that way. All they do is talk about Warcraft and who is a level 72 paladin and then they get mocked for it. No offence to you, if you play it but that is my experience of it.

Nevertheless, I am with Lee here. I don't think that MMO's are the future. Not even a little bit. I think that people have been trying to live their lives through gaming for a long fucking time and that is the reason that MMO RPG's and RPG's in general have been so successful up until this point. People are looking for the perfect gaming experience and virtual reality is that reality, so to speak.

 

[Lee]

Ooooh someone's getting a bit upset. You don't like games from the 90s then list two games made in the 80s, I'm building up an image of you in my head.

Quick history lesson, the biggest console ever was the NES, in Japan it was called Famicom which stood for Family Computer, at its essence console gaming was meant to be family orientated, and what's the biggest selling console at the moment? That's right the one that goes on about family, the biggest selling games are the gimmicky ones. Look a round, you have wii fit, wii sports, sing star, this invizamals game. All gimmicks that are more than just pressing buttons, motion control, cameras such as eye toy, bongos as controllers etc. That is where I can see it heading down that route more opening further to the family with these.

I don't play consoles with my family, I live alone and play with mates when they come around. However it's clearly obvious by sales figures and advertisements on TV who's idea is getting the most money. MMOs as a whole still have the geeky stereotype attatched to it and rightly so this will not be the future of gaming.

Online gaming has a place for a shoot em up on Halo for example, but making it into an MMO would just be a bit silly if you think about it. Online gaming for playing mates is different to an MMO, you should do your research a bit first before you attempt to take me down.

 

[G3]

The crazy thing about this is that its the future. Nobody would have expected the Wii to come along and "revolutionize" gaming.

We can go back and forth on it but nobody can really say what is going to be big or not in the future. I just hope it takes gaming to an extremely new level. Complex but fun. I did read about a machine you get in that has video everywhere and you run and walk and stuff, but that would of course be a long time from now. Probably twenty years. I think the surface computers could also do some stuff with gaming that would be pretty fun.

 

[lenguy]

When you talk about the future of gaming what i want to know is just how far into the future your talking about. I dont think gaming will change very much in the next 10 years so to speak. probailly a continuation of whats already out there. a more powerful machine that produces better graphics, with motion sensing technology(like on wii) which is what project natal, which will improve on the technology current out there. if your talking about something absolutely groundbreaking, the no. I dont see anything groundbreaking anytime soon.

Gaming hasent really changed much in its history(by pure game play alone) by this i mean, button mashing. the controller has been around since the beginning.which is why to me gaming still has the same feel as it did 20 years ago...more button mashing..sure the graphics have improved, but i could careless how pretty a game is, im more of a game play person. A game could have all the sweet graphics, but if it dosent nail that area of fun then to me its not worth playing

I applaud nintendo for taking gaming in a new direction. If nintendo had not done what it did, i bet you anything we'd be stuck with button mashing for another 10 years..which gets redundant after so long

Virtual reality seems to be what everybody is waiting for.. but the technology just quite isent there yet. I bet within our life time tho we will probailly see it. just not anytime soon. hopefully im wrong tho. As for the whole gaming being geared towards families. I think its safe to say its already happend. look at the WII, even microsoft has added commercials that seem to imply that their system is a new way to experience game night or movie night. why just target single gamers when you could target the whole family?

Thats my take on the future of gaming. Sounds promising to most. more family friendly features with more motion sensing. no more button mashing! Also expect online to really take off in the next generation consoles as everything might be downloadable content

 

[G3]

Activision Hints at Call of Duty Online Plans

During today's BMO Capital Markets Conference, CFO of Activision Blizzard Thomas Tippl was asked if the successful World of Warcraft online business model will ever translate into the publisher's other major franchises, such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. While Tippl said WoW's model is difficult to replicate, players should expect new monetization models for its other titles soon enough.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1044965p1.html


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This was published last Thursday, just came across it today. Say what you will but it seems like I was right, games want the success of World of Warcraft. Games are going to head down that path. It is certainly not a bad idea. With 12 million subscribers Blizzard makes bank.

 

[lordslix0129]

I love pc gaming, not console gaming. Nothing against the console, but I love the power of being able to harness the power of your own machine, without being stuck with proprietary, closed hardware. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have been trying to create these hybrid machines that combine the power of the pc with the console, and I don't like that. Seriously, you can't even mod a damn xbox 360 anymore and play online without Microsoft banning you from the network.

As a PC Gamer, nothing is more empowering than being able to build your own gaming machine, customizing and overclocking all of your hardware, and being able to choose what platform you want to play games on. And it's so much easier to just download a game through bit torrent, run a crack and be online playing with other people in no time at all.

 

[Dave]

I love pc gaming, not console gaming. Nothing against the console, but I love the power of being able to harness the power of your own machine, without being stuck with proprietary, closed hardware. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have been trying to create these hybrid machines that combine the power of the pc with the console, and I don't like that. Seriously, you can't even mod a damn xbox 360 anymore and play online without Microsoft banning you from the network.

I really don't see how that makes the PC any better than consoles, to be honest. Microsft acted against people who broke the terms of use and people should ave bothered to read them through before doing it. In my opinion, if you are modding a console, you are asking for trouble since you are working under the same architecture that the company has set out for you. Ig computer building is you thing, then so be it but people generally aren't going to build a computer to run Crysis on the highest setting if you can buy a console that has that all done for you.

As a PC Gamer, nothing is more empowering than being able to build your own gaming machine, customizing and overclocking all of your hardware, and being able to choose what platform you want to play games on. And it's so much easier to just download a game through bit torrent, run a crack and be online playing with other people in no time at all.

So, how exactly does this tie in with the future of gaming? I would imagine that console gaming is more of the gaming future. Computer gaming is quite specialised whilst console gaming can appeal to everyone.