The future of games

With the advent of new sophisticated and lightweight devices capable of monitoring movement while being inexpensive to produce, a variety of new products have started making their way into gaming.

Motion-based gaming is kinesthetic, making some of the actions of the game more intuitive than in the past (such as performing a certain button press combination, sequence, or timed press). The rise of motion-based gaming in mainstream popularity is attributed largely to Nintendo's Wii console.

Of course, Microsoft's Kinect provided a different way to achieve motion control, using a dual camera setup which used the cameras to determine depth, and used a vector finding system that identified the player separately from the background.

Additionally, 3d gaming has begun to make its way into the limelight as well. Nintendo's 3DS tries to do this on a small scale as a handheld and portable gaming device. And the Oculus Rift is a headset (with built in gyroscopic sensors, making it also a motion controller) which functions similarly: by displaying a different image to the left eye than the right eye, the brain interprets the differences in image as depth.

Other interesting devices are also in development to allow for movement of a character through walking on a pad or in a sphere (to provide an infinite walkable area, while making walking more intuitively controlled).

All of these technological advances are meant to help increase the immersion factor the games provide.
The goal: to increase the suspension of disbelief by making the player feel as if they actually ARE the character in the game.

Is this the future of games? Well, quite simply, I think it is. The question remains, however, whether it's a distant future, or one that's closer than expected. Virtual reality has long been a fantastical daydream for the people who love their games. Who doesn't want to actually BE the characters they're playing as (minus the pain those characters might experience)?

I don't think that virtual reality will ever completely replace other types of gaming, but as we continue to push forward into a realm with smaller, lighter, more powerful, more intuitive technology, the idea of a virtual reality simulation becomes more and more imaginable.

There may even be a day in which people can plug their consciousness into a game directly, as in the storylines of some of today's most popular video games, anime, and manga.

But is this the best idea? Should we continue to strive toward making virtual reality gaming possible?
I would say that making virtual reality possible for the sake of doing so is a rather poor reason. However, if virtual reality is used to enhance the delivery of a narrative, or give rise to powerful tools for learning and simulation, it needs to happen. Tools like these can change the people who use them, and thusly change the world.

Imagine a world even more globally traversable than today's. You could visit a friend that lives across the world by simply putting on glasses, gloves, and standing on a pad. You'd enter a world and be able to interact with them just as you could if you were there in person! How exciting.

The future of games looks bright. And the idea that they can be used to improve the world, not so far fetched.

Game Development

The development of video games is no longer a task to be undertaken by a single person. In the past, it was possible for an individual to create an entire video game by his or herself. It's still possible for a person to make a game by themselves, but the process in modern game development is so complex, the likeliness anyone would attempt this is low. Due to the technological limitations in graphics and memory, there wasn't much content, which was what allowed individuals to develop a game by themselves. (Moore) Now, however, the content is generally so extensive that if a person were to attempt to build a game by themselves, it could take years longer than if they worked with a team.

Online Gaming's Effect on Culture

 The online interaction factor


Online gaming isn't new, but it has become more prevalent over the past decade. As online gaming grows, there are some implications that should be noted. The rise in online gaming popularity leads to socialization in alternative means, but also allows for people to escape from reality.

'Clan'- or 'guild'-based play has become an accepted (and expected) aspect of multiplayer gaming. Many clans and guilds also have active fan-bases.Clans also allow players to assist each other in simulated combat and quests in game advancement, as well as providing an online family for friendly socializing.

"Home" is where the start is.

Over the years, there have been many button configurations for video game systems.
There was the classic up, down, left, right, 'A' and 'B' that later developed an 'L' and an 'R'.
There was also an 'X', 'Y', 'C' (in four directions and as a stick), and the additional 'L2', 'L3', 'R2' and 'R3'. Some consoles even have buttons without letter associations, simply of a certain color, black or white. In almost every case there are certain buttons we're accustomed to seeing "Start" and "Select".

What these buttons do, however, is generally not what they are called. Not often are "Start" buttons used to actually start a game, nor "Select" used to choose something –although there are still exceptions. A new button has been introduced recently, though. In a way befitting an internet browser, Nintendo has added a "home" button to their latest console's controller and to their next planned hand-held system.

What's the deal with backlighting?

One often unappreciated aspect of technology that benefits users greatly has been the innovation that comes with the usage of back-lit screens.

Playstation Portables feature back-lit screens (image by cthulhu32)

Before the invention of the back-lit screens for handheld or portable devices, people could only play games with ease while travelling if the lighting around them was optimal. Although it was still possible to play games on the go, the difficulty of seeing what was on the screen increased as it got dark, meaning people had to resort to the usage of lights external from the system to make up for the otherwise poor lighting condition.

Processing power: preparing products possessing pervasive prerequisites

How the need for faster processing power has changed, and how it's measured

There has been a recent trend (some three or so years, now) to advance the technological intricacies of computation. Specifically, I am referring to the increase in the processing power of devices. In this 'generation' of game console systems (a term that refers to everything in a game console's production period), there has been a major focus on increasing the raw processing of data. When systems (from computers to game consoles) are capable of processing more data simultaneously, those who make products for these systems are free to make more process-intensive programs.

The Effect of 3d on Modern Culture

Although we live in a three dimensional world, the obsession culture has with entertainment rendered in 3D is astounding. In the past, the idea of there being a third dimension was uninteresting to most people. They simply accepted it as part of what existed, and went on. This, of course, assumed they were even aware of this fundamental fact.

Some things changed, however, when the idea of taking media, such as comics, pictures, film, et al, and bringing them 'to life' in a 3D way. Before we go into what changed this idea, we should have a firm understanding about what makes something appear to be '3D', or to 'pop out' as it may be.