I'm not going to touch on any original ideas I might have... instead I'll make my input on one of many established video game concepts that I would like to see being handled differently in the future as the technology evolves.
One of them could be something along the lines of the Deus Ex series.
So far I'm not liking the QTE's much and the possible use of cinematics, because I think a game like Deus Ex should always have the player in control. That said, and unlike the first Deus Ex, I would still like to see this concept extend to even the dialogue trees.
Did you have control in Deus Ex during the dialogue trees? Yes. Full control? No. The same could be said out of something like Vampire the Masquerade, or any RPG for that matter. I think that once developers can overcome the problem present in lack of buttons in a controller, that this type of communication(dialogue trees) should still be exercized while the player maintains first, or third person control.
What I mean is that instead of giving you a different panorama or cinematic angle when actually talking to an NPC through dialogue trees, have us talk to them while always maintaining full control.
It may not sound like much, but this might actually give the player a huge level of freedom, so much so to a point where it can become a designer nightmare; however, I still think that developers can reasonably do this with current hardware, by utilizing some limitations in the concept.
This type of system wouldn't work so well in a game like Mass Effect, where you can't kill or fully interact with a lot of the NPC's in game, unless you were willing to work with limitations, but it could work on something like Deus Ex.
Not only that, but maintaining the first person view all the time and full control gives the conversation a level of interaction and immersion much more powerful than a game like the first Deus Ex did, especially when you consider what you can do in a video game today--character expressions are becoming more and more refined. So instead of focusing on giving us a cinematic angle, developers could give more focus on the player actually reading the NPC expressions and make their dialogue/action actions accordingly.
Pretty much a Half-life with dialogue trees, where you can interact more with the characters during these situations, where you don't bump into a dialogue tree that robs you of the control you had throughout most of the game and where you can interact more with these characters, other than just looking around while they're talking to you.
Imagine you were having a discussion with an NPC through this system. The NPC starts to threaten you and you the player can read in the NPC expression that anything else you might use on the dialogue tree is useless. Instead of having a dialogue option to shoot him or point a gun(like you see in Mass Effect), give the player the freedom to do so right on the spot, while maitaining a constant dialogue system. Maybe the best option was to shoot down that NPC on the spot, or maybe pointing a gun at him while using other Dialogue tree options at that point might bring the NPC to reason--having all of this done without taking control from the player.
Edited: Perhaps a better and more simple example would be you the player walking right beside an NPC, while having the control to choose through a dialogue tree system while actually doing this movement(walking).
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