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Games Entertainment

EGM On the Future of Games 38

Posted by Zonk from the not-yesterday-or-the-day-after-that dept.
A few issues back, EGM ran a cover story theorizing on what gaming would be like in the future. Attempting to sidestep the easy answers of neural interfaces and crazy inventions, the editors at the magazine spoke with game makers of all stripes to get a feeling for the pulse of gaming in the next twenty years. They discuss everything from control to display, to the business of gaming itself. "How long until Bleszinski's dream comes true? Answering that question is just one of the goals of this months-in-the-making cover story. We've asked experts across the industry to track the next 20 years of everything from game-design trends to the evolution of your living room. A two-decade forecast, we figure, is near-term enough to be tangible (we're staying away from silly sci-fi stuff) but far enough out to fire up your imagination. And maybe give you some kick-ass dreams, too. Your trip to 2027 begins now...."
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EGM On the Future of Games

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  • My interest in the plug-in matrix type game is to visit the billions of places I'll never afford to be able to go, or that simply aren't possible. How about being a noble in the dark ages? Or a knight in a battle? Or be king in your own fantasy world and run the universe. These sorts of "games" would not only be entertaining to the inquisitive type, but would be quite educating as well, both in the strictly historical sense, yet also in the real life sense-- where else would you learn the complexities of ru

    • Re:plug-in matrix style (Score:4, Insightful)

      by technos ( 73414 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @03:20AM (#19591591) Homepage Journal
      You just summed up 'Westworld' without Yul Brynner trying to plug you with a Colt.

      So actually, not only is your idea is 30 years older than the accelerated graphics card, it was written by Michael Crichton after an acid trip through 'Pirates of the Carribean'.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Creepy ( 93888 )
        by "plug-in matrix style" I assume plug in and the reality is entirely in the mind is meant. This was hinted at in early cyberpunk (late 1970s - mid-1980s) and elsewhere in sci-fi, though it really wasn't exploited in the movies much until the 1990s.

        Westworld was all about androids going out-of-control. Technology running amok was a common theme in writing of the time (2001: A Space Odyssey, for instance), and for the most part (outside of Asimov), there were two types of robot - servile, and evil. Crich

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by technos ( 73414 )
          I think it boils down to a question of perception.

          It doesn't matter whether they're computer generated digital constructs injected into my brain-stem ala 'The Matrix', computer controlled androids ala 'Westworld', or actors.

          If I can't tell the difference with my eyes and senses, it doesn't matter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
      "My interest in the plug-in matrix type game is to visit the billions of places I'll never afford to be able to go, or that simply aren't possible."

      Haven't Shadowrun and Ghost in the Shell taught you anything about why you shouldn't put wires into your brain?

    • How about being a noble in the dark ages? ... These sorts of "games" would not only be entertaining to the inquisitive type

      NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
  • We've asked experts across the industry to track the next 20 years of everything from game-design trends to the evolution of your living room

    Why assume that consoles are going to be around? Or in a common area? I've been playing video games since around 1982 (when I wrote a crappy Asteroids clone in BASIC on my VIC-20). The last console I owned came with an orange plastic gun and a copy of Duck Hunt. Consoles have a horrible interface when compared to PCs, and until recently, TVs had a horrible scree

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by biovoid ( 785377 )

      Question:

      Why assume that consoles are going to be around? Or in a common area?

      Answer:

      Anyway, I'm probably in the minority, but I don't ever see myself buying a console, or playing video games in the living room.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by doctor_nation ( 924358 )

      Consoles have a horrible interface when compared to PCs
      Right, because everyone loves controlling a game with a keyboard, especially when you need a template to figure out what all the keys do. Console controllers are comfortable and have as many buttons as any game should ever need, plus you get extra effects like rumble and motion sensing.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by enjerth ( 892959 )

        Console controllers are comfortable and have as many buttons as any game should ever need

        Let me introduce you a console called the Atari. You get 2 buttons. They do everything you need them to do.

        The point is that games have to limit their number of functions to what's available on the console controllers their designed for. Just because the console has enough buttons to perform all the tasks that a certain game requires does not mean no game should ever need more. As games become more advanced, so do the controls.

    • "My 24" LCD can display pretty much any game beautifully, and someone can watch TV if they want at the same time. People can do this without interrupting each other. If I want to play a video game, I want a little peace and quiet, a little alone time. I don't want to be in the middle of the family room. I think the rest of the house (who might be arguing over the remote) wants the same."

      Uh, what does that have to do with the death of the console? My Xbox 360 is in my office plugged into a KVM switch. It l

    • Consoles have a horrible interface when compared to PCs,

      Oh really? I remember the "joys" of trying to play action games with a keyboard. It sucked then, it sucks now.

      and until recently, TVs had a horrible screen on which to display games.

      Depends on what you consider recently, and besides some of us aren't as resolution obsessed as PC gamers are. Sometimes I think PC gamers care more about benchmark bragging rights in regards to frame-rates, resolutions and so forth than actually having fun playing ga

  • From the articile:

    The guy who designed one of last year's biggest blockbusters hits the hay each night dreaming about the ultimate game. He just can't make it happen yet. "It's a world that can flip upside down in a second and change from an empowering fantasy to a dreadful nightmare," Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer of Epic's Gears of War, says of his dream game. "It all hinges on thoughts and impulses--not on button presses. The biggest obstacle we're facing now is one of interface. We need a significant

  • Games will all be web based, using some souped up evolution of Flash or whatever, and you'll have to log in to play; this will make any kind of piracy irrelevant. The servers will control all access to the game and thus you always need access rights. And cheating will then be impossible, too.

    Of course 10ghz multi core processors with 64gb RAM will be the norm by 2027... *eek*
    • Cheating will still be wide spread because you need to download the program and other information down to something under my control.
      You already have cheat programs that do not modify the original, on disk, in any form they just are run before you start the other program and then add thier hooks and cheat into the running software.
      The only way to advoid this would be everything is run on the servers and all the users computer does is act as a dumb terminal; full circle from the old multi-player games from

  • P2P Theory gives networking speeds a boost (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @06:09AM (#19592343) Journal
    Now that we have some broadband penetration, at the theoretical level of networking that thousands of players to play at once if you can get over the video card and memory bottlenecks caused by thousands of players. P2P is a good solution, but even at the client-server model you can stop the number of connections being n^2. Here's the good part: if you're running a mostly melee video game: you don't have to update people that are far from you as often. You update the closest 4 people at 50 ms increments, and then as you go outwards, you send packets less frequently. It turns out that a melee game like a Tekken MMOG can easily have 1000 combatants on the field at once. It takes a little bit more work to get the next 9000 combatants, but theoretically it is possible with P2P melee games.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      I disagree about the memory/video bottlenecks. Have you played Dynasty Warriors? Even on a PS2, it manages an impressive number of on-screen characters, all doing their own thing. NNN on the 360 already has hundreds onscreen. 1000 on a PC is easily do-able right now. The network is the only bottleneck for that on the PC.

      I agree with your idea for a network model, though. I've been thinking about a P2P-based MMO and how well it would work. I've been thinking a step further, though, where the main serv
      • Right on man.

        I have a multifaceted toolset to deal with cheaters. First off, I don't want to be a target, but I will be, so I have many things to deal with hackers.

        I am using the server you mentioned. It only keeps information for logon + save characters and telling which other players are in the zone you're entering.

        If you want to see the MMOG I'm working on, its RoamingDragon.com [roamingdragon.com]
    • The problem is games like Tekken require accuracy down to the individual frame. Online fighitng game play is just now coming into fruition.

  • That's the question every developer on the planet would love to answer. "If I saw a whole new genre that needed to be created, I'd probably go create it myself," says Warren Spector. "The fact is, no one can predict a new genre's creation. I feel pretty safe in saying that someone, probably a 12-year-old staring at the ceiling avoiding doing her homework, will create something entirely new in the next 20 years, but I wouldn't presume to say what that might be."

    Translation : we don't know what will be crea

  • In 20 years, we'll smell our avatar's farts. Huge advance. As a result, we'll all be having sex in 3d virtual worlds instead of the real world. For the first time in human history, recreation will be fully separated from procreation.

    http://www.buzzle.com/articles/day-smelly-compute r -has-arrived.html/ [buzzle.com] + http://www.fuckingmachines.com/ [fuckingmachines.com] + http://www.nvidia.com/page/home.html/ [nvidia.com] = http://www.3d-sexgames.com/ [3d-sexgames.com]

    Probably won't take 20 years. All the pieces are there, just waiting for some shameless pervert
  • > My interest in the plug-in matrix type game is to visit the billions of places I'll never...be able to go.

    Like a vagina?

    Oh come on. You wish you thought of this.
    • Zing! All though chances are the OP was in one once for a bit, when they were really young. They just don't remember, and it was their mom's :\
    • Zing! Chances are they were in one once when they were young. They just don't remember, and it was their mom's :\. Oh well, it was good for me.

  • Wow... I'm scared... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 7Prime ( 871679 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @08:22PM (#19603147) Homepage Journal
    This assessment couldn't possibly be farther than what I want to get out of gaming.

    One theme tends to ring clear: INTERACTIVITY, INTERACTIVITY, INTERACTIVITY! And to that, I'm yelling back, STOP, STOP, STOP! It's difficult to up interactivity without in some ways destroying immersion. The more control the audience has over the environment, the less they're able to freely immerse themselves in it. I have no interest in creating an environment or a persona, I'd like to see what a great artist can come up with, and experience that... the same way I love listening to a great piece of music.

    I love how their definition of RPG seems to be limited to the much smaller subset of American PC-style RPGs. That definition may be a realistic one, but it's pretty much moot for a good 75% of games that are considered "RPGs". So what if half the genre needs a new name, that's what they're called.

    Also, I found the definition for "platform game" to be completely wrong, and over-complicated: A platform game is simply an adventure game in which the character's movements are key to progressing through the environment. A staple has been to have a plethora of floating and moving platforms... hence the genre name, "platform game". Some have unrealistic graphics... some don't. Many traditional adventure games have unrealistic and stylized graphics too... but I'm noone's going to call the latest Monkey Island a platform game. Action Adventure and Platformers are merging to the point of indistinguishability. Every action/adventure these days has platform elements, and platformers are fastly becoming epic and intriquite like their action/adventure counterparts. But it's not graphical style that dictates the traditional boundary.

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