Games in the Future

[Vincent Chase]

Before I post the main content, an idealistic rant about the future of videogames, here is a bit of a timeline for you.

1983 — Nintendo Famicom released in Japan. Over the next few years the system experiences runaway success in Japan. The system is a cheap alternative to other home gaming machines at the time, and thus, the Digital age is ushered in.

1986 — Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is released worldwide, and outsells its competitors in the USA 10 to 1. A year later The Legend of Zelda becomes the first standalone software to sell over a million copies in the United States.

1989-1991 - In 1989 Sega releases the Genesis, becoming Nintendo's first competitor in the market, and briefly taking over the #1 spot in 1992. In 1991 The Super Nintendo is released in North America, and between them was the biggest console war of all time, as videogames snuck their way into more and more households around the world.

1996 — Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation are released. With this generation of consoles we get many memorable games, like the Suikoden Series and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The console wars get even more heated and more and more people are gaming.

2000-2001 - The Nintendo GameCube, Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft X-BOX, 3 giant new systems boasting of lifelike graphics, hit the market and sell like crazy. Two of them, the PS2 and the XBOX have DVD and CD playability, The XBOX has a built in Hard Drive, and the GameCube looks like a purse. Console wars get kicked up into the inferno level, and we see games that are as cinematic as some movies. Still, the promise of ‘lifelike graphics' wasn't delivered...yet...

?2005-2007? — The three new consoles will be released, the tentatively named Nintendo Revolution, Sony PlayStation 3 and [url=http://hardware.gamespot.com/Microsoft-xenon-(xbox-2)-15016-O-4-4] Microsoft Xenon[/url]. Apologies in advance if the links don't work. This, I believe will be truly the age of ‘Realist Gaming'.

I was just thinking about videogames today, just randomly. A lot has changed in the merely 20 years since the advent of affordable, high-quality videogames in North America. It's a huge thing right now, last year in North America Games made more money than movies, which is pretty crazy when you think that they haven't really been around long.

The other day in a lecture I was sitting beside this guy with a Nintendo DS. Honestly, it was beautiful, and the PSP looks even more amazing. I remember playing my old Gameboy when I was like 11 and it was completely old school, the green screen. This thing had better graphics than the Nintendo 64, and the PSP is supposedly ‘Near PS2 quality'.

And then these new systems that are coming out just next year, read those URLs or find some on Google about them, because you really should be keeping track. All of the rumors you hear, especially about the PS3 (I wouldn't be surprised if they took the next generation of console wars, too). Graphics, especially if you have HDTV, will be lifelike. This gets me really excited because of all of the RPGs that will be on that system, including more likely a few Suikoden games (also...give us a Suikoden Anthology, Konami!). Again, a lot of this was very similar to the stuff we were hearing just a few years ago, before the last release of new consoles.

This is a really good time were in right now, the twilight of the consoles. A lot of the best games are released now because the hardware has been more or less mastered by the developers and there is significant money from the success of the platform. I know for a fact that both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross were released at this time of their system's life. Haven't heard anything of a new Chrono game, but it would be really nice to see. This period is also important because the first year of so with the new systems is always pretty rocky...Remember that the must have launch title for the PS2 was Smuggler's Run, or TimeSplitters, depending on your preference.

So what do you expect from this new era in gaming that is now coming upon us? Do you believe that better than Virtual Reality graphics will be possible? RPGs that can immerse you in massive 300 hour quests (Look at the Final FantasySeries. Look how much longer VII was than VI, and then how much longer X was than the rest of them and you can see what I'm getting at). With increased storage and more memory, and all of the systems promising a built in hard drive (eliminating stupid memory cards), this will definitely be possible. One thing that has happened in this generation of gaming is that Videogames have become more mainstream, with the majority of both sexes participating and a lot of celebrity endorsement and involvement. This will only keep getting bigger in the future.

So I have one, final question: Where will it all end? Sure, the graphics on the XBOX, PS2 and GCN aren't 100% lifelike, but if you play a lot of new software...Resident Evil 4, Need for Speed: Underground II and Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, it is starting to get pretty damn close? I'm pretty sure that the developers are near their threshold for when it comes to making realistic graphics, and on the new systems it will be easily possible. However, like art, videogame developers might realize that they can only attain such a degree of realism, and thus start making more abstract works. It's just a little theory of mine, but I certainly think that games will become a lot more artistic once developers have the power to create just about anything with them. I'm not talking about stupid things, like you play as a square living in a world of circles, but original stuff, like you are a character that has godlike power and lives many lives, or an RPG where you play as yourself complete with voiceover. Taking the ideas and concepts of what a videogame is and expanding on it is what I'm thinking about, and not just making things with trippy colors. When designers start to think outside the box, there may be no ending to it all, and (I hope and I'm sure many of you hope) that we'll all be playing ultra realistic and beautiful videogames with our sons and daughters.

Maybe one day I'll pull Chrono Trigger and my SNES out of storage and set it up for them, and tell them what it was like to play videogames in my time.

[Weyoun]

Forgive me if this was said somewhere but i hope PS1 games play on PS3, if not then ill have to keep connecting, unconnecting the PS2 and PS3 if i want to play a certain game.
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[Ayreon]

Interesting topic.

The other day i was watching this trailer of a PS3 game in development(i can't remember the name) but it looked damn tight.The in-game scenes look like if you were playing inside a FMV.Still,i think the graphics are going to evolve so much that maybe this next genereation isn't so exciting,just think about it,a few years ago we were dying about FFVII or the ''stunning'' graphics of GT.

What i'm trying to say is that im not so surprised about the future,because i know that the videogame industry will always create something new and exciting.
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''Sail away to Avalon.......''

[Keriaku]

Yes, a very interesting topic. Another thing you might want to add is the likes of Gameboy/Other handheld systems to the timeline. I was talking about this with some of my friends at school, and we thought, what would happen with videogames after graphics have gotten the best they can be?

We thought that first we'd get holograms, like completely 3D, and after that full virtual reality. This means exactly like real life, but then we thought of the problems this would entail. If people had a perfect world that was totally real (stimulated your brain to think it's real e.g, You eat an apple, your brain thinks you've been nourished) why would you leave? Also, if you died in a game (maybe some horror game, et cetera) Your brain would actually think you were dead, and shut down (Like the Matrix :P). This would be a big problem, and so it gets confusing. Unless you makes you get off (Like the game shuts down every 2 hours or something) to get you tuned into reality again. I thought this was a very interesting concept.

I agree Ice, it would be cool, if in another 20 years I'll take out my old (probably not working anymore) NES and play the original Final Fantasy and Bubble Bobble (Go Bubble Bobble! Yeah!) and they'll be like: o.O Why would you ever play this when you could play Final Fantasy 34? ( :lol: ). Imagine where we'll be in another 20 years, if videogames only started roughly 20 years ago? Even though 20 years doesn't seem like that long ago, it's amazing.

There's my 2 off topic cents :-p
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Inspired by everything

[Cyrano]

well most people knows that they almost have reached their limit for good graphic. now, what will really count is REALISM right? so wichever is going to be the best, i don'T really care, i just hope they still do RPG 's( it about the only kind of game i am able to play( i suck at almost everything else hahaha.......

that is until they realize virtual reality if they do make it there hahahahah !!!
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" humans are like monkeys with no shaggies."

[Ayreon]

I think that even with VR videogames as we know them will prevail.VR its just a complete different world,and i would love to see a good 2d rpg in the future. :mrgreen:
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''Sail away to Avalon.......''

[Filipe]

I would not be surprised if within the next twenty to thirty years games will become fully virtual reality and literally all games you literally are the character within the game. Imagine what could be done with online gaming in that sense eh? Instead of just typin messages when you wanted to say something to someone you could just speak it much like some people do when playing Counter Strike inside of a game. Sure for say rpgs that might take away from character creation in species of all sorts and that sort of thing but that could be adjusted so the image is different but you still get to control the character. There are so many possibilities for games in the future if the industry continues on like they have been over the past twenty years or so. Ok so saying fully playable games by the player is a bit far fetched for the next twenty to thirty years but dont be surprised if some time in the future that becomes a possibility.
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[Vincent Chase]

^^^

Oh, I would love to be able to put on a body suit, flick a switch and then be immersed in a real world, full of enemies, with only a sword and some cool magic. This would definently be something that would be fun to do with your kids. Take them inside an interactive, virtual RPG world

Ayreon says:

[lunar shadows]

With future game, I hope that they still keep a large variety of genre and game ideas. If you notice, more and more systems are making the same type of video game. Like with xbox, all you have is blood and shooting. Of course, there are some exceptions on the xobox like fable. I like how the ps2 has much more of a variety.

[Timbo]

I dislike the current trend in games of looking more realistic, at least in the majority of games (in some types of games, such as FPSs, realism helps develop the gameplay and drive the game further).

I would like to see other ideas for enhanced graphics in games, not just a trend towards realism. I think realism takes too much of the fantasy elements out of the experience of games and takes away the player's imagination of the game. I think some images add more when we can tell they aren't real. Take art for example, some of the most intimidating, menacing paintings don't look real at all. When a painting that looks unrealistic is seen, it plays off of our imigination more than a painting that looks real. If a painting is supposed to inspire fear into the observer,much the fear has to be in the viewers head, and making an unrealistic appearance gets into the viewers head more. I think games follow this same line of thought. Video games play off our the player's imaginations, making it more realistic plays less off of that.

I'd like to see really abstract graphical ideas in games. I had this idea before: A video game where the entire game is presented like an impressionist painting (for those who dont know what impressionist paintings are go here http://webpages.marshall.edu/~smith82/monet.html). Older systems would not be able to handle that type of graphics, but as the systems become able to do more, I don't think that this idea would be so far off.

As for video games with no endings? I would hate that. I like that video games have set stories that are being presented and certain rules that cause the game to be over, it's one of the reason I don't like MMORPGs. MMORPGs hinge off of character customizatiopn, but the characters have no emotional depth or character development, they are "LV 60 Half-Elf Monks". Having no endings in games would create these type of scenarios, which I do not like. If future games followed models of GTA3 and the like of allowing the player to explore the world and just mess around to their liking, I could live with that, but no ending what soever would bother me.
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"There is no normal life, there's just life. Now get on with it"

[Deleted User 1]

Aww man... too much to read... Hey The Hot Ice... I bet I can extend that chart of yours back to the time of atari and the spectrum and such hehehe... aww man... I am not bothered... :cry: okay I will just read those short posts since it's pretty late right now hahaha...

[Raven]

i think games in the future will be virtual reality so real that you cant tell the diference from real life places and people and will be AWSOME!

but until then they will slouwily becme beter more realistic even though they never stop making stupid games

[Beethoven4567]

I think a perfect example of what future games would look like is the battle simulator in Star Ocean 3:Till The End Of Time. You can feel pain in the simulation if you get hit, but you would feel satisfied playing it because it lets you practice the use of swords and guns to defeat the monsters in the simulation.
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"In war there is no substitute for victory"

[Cyrano]

really they let feel pain in the simulator of star ocean 3? i did not know that.. or maybe i just forgot.. but it would be nice... in addition to help us get in shape, we do get to beat up some monster hahaha would be REAL fun!
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" humans are like monkeys with no shaggies."

[Beethoven4567]