Your Vision Of The Future Of Gaming

It's time to think Gamespotters. About the future. So much has happened in the last few years in gaming it's mind boggling. Technology has advanced so much in a little time. New ways to game, new titles, new industry ways arguably. What's your vision of the future? Will we see virtual reality gaming? We will see new ways to play? What's your vision? What do you think the future of gaming will bring, and why?

I think virtual reality gaming will start within the next ten years myself. :p

If humanity does not end in 2012, then im thinking virtul reality as well.

Yeah, I hope to see virtual reality within the next 10 years myself.

And with the speed that technology is increasing, I wouldn't be surprised if we see it even sooner.

Its a dangerous assumption (and the one most professional videogame analysts tend to make)but I think that in terms of trends, what we are looking at now reflects what we will be looking at a decade. Casual gaming (minigame collections, motion controls) will dominate but hardcore gaming will thrive in its shadow (so long as hardcore games continue to put up good numbers in the West).

While I don't think motion control has brought much to the table from a game design perspective, the excitement it has caused among people traditionally indifferent to games is undeniable and its effect is already being felt. For such people the peripherals literally make the game fun. As a result, peripheral based gaming and minigame collections (which have always been with us) have exploded in terms of popularity. Right now we're looking at (among other things)cameras, wands, drum sets, scales, wheels, guitars, skateboards and pulse monitors. Processing power and in-depth games mean nothing to the peripheral crowd and their numbers mitigate against the types of hardware improvement/console cycles we've seen in the past.

That being said, the future is still bright for traditional, software focused gamers due to DLC and downloadable games. While both are controversial, both are good things that will benefit gamers and the industry.The download route isawesome because it gives small game makers a way to release console games (it allows allows niche games such as Siren to cross the Pacific). DLC is awesome because while it has been and no doubt, a decade from now, will be subject to abuse by unscrupulous developers/publishers, in conjuction with the internet it allows good developers to listen to fans and give them exactly what they want. That might translate into the most popular character in an adventure game getting some 'Lost missions' as DLC or a map in an online shooter which facilitates a style of play that has become popular 'Sniper's Heaven, Pilot's Paradise, that sort of thing) or just includes some terrain type users want to see. Also, I think user created content (not just level creators like LBP or Halo 3's Forge, but skin creators like Forza) will get bigger and bigger.

For the above reasons, I think while the futureis bright for hardcore gamers, in a decade life will be a little tougher for makers of hardcore games. Want to sell a new free-roamer? You're not just competing with the year old GTA, you're competing with the expansion pack that was just released. Will this result in fewer games? Maybe. It will certainly mean fewer from those who are supporting their old games as opposed to just focusing on new ones, and it might mean fewer games from those too intimidate to go against an established game. Of course, not being willing to go against the latest Halo expansion pack might lead a develop to make something other than an fps, so longer lasting games might result in more innovation (that could very well be me being optimistic though).

Echoing btaylor's concerns, it seems like there's so much of a focus on multiplayer these days that it kinda concerns me. I don't have a shortage of good solo games to play right now, and I love good online multiplayer, but sometimes it seems to be at the expense of the solo.MAILER_DAEMON

I don't know if gaming will go the way of Demon's Souls, but I think the way it blurs the line between multiplayer gaming and single player gaming is very, very interesting.

I love single player games and multiplayer games and all I ask is that developers don't include throwaway single or multiplayermodes merely to have another bullet point on the back of the box. I haven't really noticed a focus on multiplayer over single player, but I have noticed throwaway multiplayer modes being included in a lot of games. Though its not clear to me that such bullet pointsgenerate sales, clearly developers labor under the impression that they do.

Some sort of virtual reality - absolutely (for some types of games). Ever since I first tested the Wii (and again when I saw the Sony Wand demo at E3 where he simply couldn't hit the ball with the tennis racket) I have waited for that. I think motion sensing without virtual reality is in many cases pointless - you need to be able to actually hit the (virtual) ball directly - not control something on a screen a few feet away that is hitting the ball.

I'm mainly a PC gamer - not because I like tinkering with PC hardware but because I prefer the types of games and control mechanisms (Mouse & KB) normally associated with PC:s. I do like the idea of console hardware though, i.e. having a level playing field + knowing that I will be able to run games at the optimal resolution etc for years to come. I expect/hope to see a solution that allows for PC-like gaming on console hardware.

I would like to see the consoles become more like a server I can hide somewhere and then, depending on the type of gaming I want to do at the moment - e.g. playing Battlefield 3 alone (but online), NHL2011 with a bunch of friends in my living room etc- I simply use a suitable client/control mechanism. That could be monitor/mouse/keyboard for traditional PC gaming, TV/gamepad for console-type gaming or maybe even a mobile device of some kind (like an iPhone) that I would use to connect to my server at home. I would expect the games for the platform to be designed with this in mind from the start, i.e. the games should still be designed with a specific control scheme (e.g. mouse/keyboard for FPS:s) in mind so they don't try to allow for multiple control schemes in the same game, or at least have ways to keep players using different schemes separate.

I just hope they continue with improved graphics...to the point you wouldn't be able to tell between the game and reality...eventually it would be cool if they could somehow use real people and objects, and settings in games..and somehow be able to make them move and stuff..

I think Carnage makes some great points and to kind of carry on from what he said, I think the games industry is going to fracture under its own weight. That isn't really a bad thing per se, rather its going to be so broad and varied that we'll see a future that encompasses all times of gaming for all types of people. Much like the film industry I believe we will continue to have our super blockbusters but also like the film industry have our small art house and independant games which will do well for their own audiences.

That is to say I don't believe we are going to have ONLY motion controls or only VR. I think there will be a place for a varied amount of gaming in the future. I do however think networked and online functionality is going to be increasingly more important, MMOs are focusing on the single players experience and story, while traditionally single player games are expanding into multi user titles. I'd argue against us losing the controller as an interface modul just as we are unlikely to lose the keyboard and mouse. Graphics will continue to increase in the blockbuster titles, but we will see many titles embrace simpler display too. Games were single player experience is crossed with people playing multiplayer is going to increase and we're likely to see a bigger acceptance and intergration of games into our lives.

However you cut it the future looks great for games.

I hope to see gaming in the form of virtual realities in the coming future.

It's just my own opinion, but I think we're heading towards another video game market crash like that of the 90s. There are frankly far too many FPS/TPS games now, especially FPS, that tend to be the same game time and time again.
No matter what people say, the facts are right there when you see how many have come out in the past decade.
While graphics may have improved to the point where they're seen as the by all and end all of gaming, with gameplay being phased out more and more, it's become clear that developers are scared to release anything different due to the popularity of FPS games with the young, who think playing them will make them 'mature' and 'hardcore', with adults who are looking to get a lot of anger from life out and with those who have low attention spans who want instant thrills and find anything that doesn't give those to be too complex and boring.

Without more varity we may see another video game market crash where there will be so many online only FPS games outweighing single player games, and even more online only RPG's, along with terrible movie licence games and sports games that are the sme old thing year after year, that the market will become bogged down with titles that don't offer anything truly new.
That's my opinion anyway.

R/T

I think that as memory becomes more abundant in depth RPGs will compensate by becoming deeper and more open ended, of course I think that morelinear games won't completly be forgotten, they willdefinitely develop bettergraphics,but they will probably get longer. Also physics engines will become more realistic, and subsequently make the games more realistic. Then again, that's what I think is realistic. what I hope for is better good/bad systems and much better character creation processes. And linear games will have better explosions, and a linear/RPG hybrid will will generated 76.4 linear and 23.6 Role Playing and have a magnificent physics engine. This is my dream for the perfect game. others that have come close: Oblivion (bad physics, to RPGish) Arcanum (bad explosions, not linear enough, no physics engine) Fable (no physics engine, stuffy and mashed controls) halo combat evovled,2, and 3(not RPGish enough great physics engine however) all in my opinion great, but not perfect

i think more and more games are going to offer a similar type of level destruction that red faction has, a long with ever increasing quality of graphics

Companies will learn new tricks to make games cheaper and sell them for more. Resulting in all games being a weird mesh of Shooter and Western Style RPG with pretty much the same carbon copy storyline with slightly edited setting and protagonist. Games will have less and less included on the actually disk or main download and have ridiculous amounts of DLC including. having to purchase and download things that should be standard such as multiplayer mode and such. More and more games will require you to buy expensive interfaces in order for you to enjoy the full experience. And there will be games that simulate mundane outdoor activities using some kind of motion sensor like playing catch or tag. People will do these things from the comfort of their own homes instead of outside which would lead Vitamin D deficiency all around the world. and video games will have massive amounts of product placement.

Thats the true sad future of gaming