As we are nearing the end of the course and in light of this week’s reading. What do you think is the future of video gaming? Are the boundaries between the virtual and the real getting blurred? If so, how?
13 thoughts on “CP470 VGT SU14 Week7M1”
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I believe the future of gaming is going to center around social behavior and technology. I believe we are going to see a surge of video game play within the social media realm, but also as technology gets better so will multiplayer play. From what started out as Hot Seat play to split-screen to LAN parties, I think the social element of gameplay is going to be the driving force. Today we are starting to see a mesh of virtual world play and online play as single player worlds become multiplayer worlds in the push of a button. I do believe the game and real world are beginning to blur based on social constructs that are created and passed on via gameplay (learning social behavior through other players), good behavior is awarded and bad behavior is shunned. In the real world there is almost a constant stream of game media always available, logging onto Facebook and there are tons of game invites, as long as we keep our phones on us video games are never out of reach. It’s hard to tell where the future of gaming is going to go but it is safe to say that multiplayer and social media will be at the frontier.
I think that the future of video gaming will inevitably be VR if and only if they can implement it in a way that is affordable and realistic (not talking about graphics). It must allow the player to move around whilst not making them run into a wall. My best guess is that it will be a form of augmentation like on the 3DS where reality is blended with the virtual world with a Google Glass-type device.
I read an article about researchers looking into manipulating the senses of the player essentially giving sight to blind gamers and hearing to the deaf. It was a really deep article so I probably said that wrong, but I think this will also play into the future experience of gamers. We can only go so far, graphically speaking. No matter how realistic we make graphics look our eyes will adjust to the differences. Therefore, I think that the only way to immerse the player more thoroughly is to engage their other senses.
At the same time, I do not think it will change too much from how it is now. Players have grown accustomed to the feel of a controller in their hands and past attempts going as far back as the Atari 2600 have failed to replace controllers. I think that this relationship to a controlling device is crucial in a gamer’s experience with the machine. They feel as if they are truly interacting with something as opposed to struggling against it as with the Kinect.
(Honestly though, I want them to be like Reboot. Love that show!) 🙂
I find the discussion of the relationship or the boundary between virtual and actual reality to invoke the Map-Territory Relation Problem. Korzybski famously said, “the map is not the territory,” or that which is represented is not the representation. We frequently speak of geographical maps in terms of scale e. g. 1:1000, 1:10, but what if a representation were to become 1:1? Many speculate then there would be a conflation between the two and they would become not just the same but identical. Baudrillard in Simulation and Simulucrum suggests that the representation can become more real (“hyperreal”) than the represented. Already HD television has created a pixelated and perfected way of viewing the world that transcends the limitations of the human eye. Essentially the matrix is what we’re talking about when it comes to making virtual and actual reality a 1:1 relation.
Personally, I cannot be more excited for the future of gaming. Coming from my mother who worked from Namco, she still cannot believe what gaming has became today, so we still can not be entirely sure of what can happen in the world of tomorrow! We already have systems that basically put you in the game ( such as the oculus rift) and systems that do things at the sound of your voice. I could never be so creative as some of the new designers that come up with all these new ideas for systems. It just astounds me! My hope is that we build more up with the senses so that gaming becomes more of a sensual experience, much like they are integrating with film.
I also believe the lines between virtual are real are getting blurred to an extent. Yes everything looks as if it can be real, but I still believe a lot of people will know the difference between the two ( or so I hope). If we do make the gaming world our reality, though, that may end very badly. We still need to keep both worlds separate, but we can make them very much like eachother.
Yeah, I hope the Oculus Rift defines a new generation of gaming. That would be so cool! I just hope that they do more with it than has been done with the kinect. Though I have to admit, seeing an entire world to move through as opposed to standing in front of your TV and moving your hands sounds more immersive. Although, none of this is to full knock the kinect, I know it has helped medical science, which makes me ask if the Oculus Rift could to? Which also asks, could advances in gaming keep equaling advances in other fields not unlike what video gaming did for the PC? Perhaps these could offer games that are kids first steps towards stuff like medical science.
I think the future of video gaming will grow in terms of being a social avenue for gamers (through online MMORPG’s), but so will the console games that are so popular now. I do think that the boundary between reality and the virtual world have been blurred for quite some time, with games like The Sims and websites like Second Life. Sure, although these virtual worlds present you with skills that you would never have in real life (like flying in Second Life), there are other aspects of the games that stand right on the border of reality and video game. Building your avatar, buying it clothes, and interacting with other avatars are just a few ways the boundaries are blurred. The fact that users pay actual money (and not some made-up currency) on a virtual house or car crosses between the lines of reality and virtual reality.
I also think that the boundary is muddled by people who play the games. Many times, users will form friendships through gaming that cross over into their real lives, resulting in lifelong friendships and even romances. The players are allowing others from the game world into their personal worlds.
It’s a ghost town here….
Funny that this is this weeks topic as Comic-Con is ongoing as we write! And I know it’s not E3, but Legendary had a very interesting booth where you put on the oculus rift, that virtual reality headset in development for use in certain games, and it lets you step into the cockpit of a jaeger from Pacific Rim. The Jaeger being, if you haven’t seen it, one of the giant robots that humanity builds to combat the Kaiju, several monsters that rose out of the ocean to destroy mankind. In the movie two pilots merge minds to each pilot part of the robot in sync. This oculus rift demo doesn’t necessarily do that, but it lets you experience first hand what it’s like to be a Jaeger pilot. And this got me thinking that this is the same direction that video games are going. Forgive my laziness/ignorance on the subject, but Playstation I believe is developing their own VR headset, that will, as we read in last weeks readings, further immerse gamers within the game world. It’s the next step after the rise of 3D gaming, and the introduction of different forms of control, such as with the Wii, the Playstation’s little wand, and Kinect. Why can’t I remember playstation tech names. ugh.
To respond to the second half of the prompt, and as mentioned about with virtual reality, it is absolutely becoming more and more blurred. There’s still a distinction, of course, but as video games have grown the line has become more obscure. Companion apps are now available for most major games, to bridge the time when you’re able to play it at home on your console and when you can’t. You can take games with you wherever with mobile apps, and even more “console-esque” games with platforms like the 3DS and PSP. It may not blur the line between virtual and reality to the point beyond distinction, but it is undeniably invasive.
Plus I think people rather welcome such advances!
From the description of this chapter it can be safe to say that multiplayer gaming and virtual gaming are going to increase. Social gaming primarily because if society still maintains its “protective custody” beliefs and because people can communicate from a much broader range there may be no doubt that it will expand further. As for the boundaries between virtual and real they are being blurred in a way because of how technology has improved and will continue to improve, virtual is becoming more realistic as everything within the virtual other than the players actions may look or behave similarly as real life. Otherwise as augmented reality games such as Wii and Eye Toy, or Kinect seem to help put gaming on the line between those two because of how they can better integrate players into a game but may not do much more due to only having limited motions and not carrying the same amount of realistic graphics as their counterparts. However if pervasive gaming can catch up then the it may fully blur the lines between virtual and real
I think that games will only continue to become more realistic and more immersive. Already you no longer have to be on the computer to play online with other players, giving any gaming platform the potential to be social. Also, games have become increasingly detailed and graphics have become almost photorealistic, which gives the player a sense of the real. I think these aspects and more are only going to improve from here. Eventually computers will be able to render graphics that completely mimic reality, allowing games to appear as though it is a live action film. With the advancement of virtual reality, you will also see that gamers will eventually become totally immersed in the environment to the point that they can block out everything else that surrounds them. Gaming will eventually become all encompassing to the point that the player feels as though they are really doing the actions the game depicts, and this will have interesting consequences.
I think the lines are not terribly blurred now, depending on what games people are playing, but they will only get worse. I have watched a documentary called Life 2.0 about people who get caught up in the game Second Life to the point where their second life merges with their real one. Games like that already exist and are easy for people to get caught in. However, I think it will come a time (around the time when virtual reality headset get incorporated) that all games will have the ability to merge with someone’s reality to the point where the lines are blurred. It gets scary when you think about the violence that people act out in games and how people will willingly absorb themselves in a world where killing is their main goal. When this world of violence becomes all absorbing, I wonder what affect it will have on people’s psyche and social interactions. Only time will tell what effect virtual reality will have and how it will affect people and gaming, I just think that it will only make people lose themselves more into the games they play. It’s a somewhat scary thing to think about, at least to me, but people are already absorbed by technology with their heads in their phones and eyes always glued to a screen. It’s just more of the same just taken one step forward.
I think with new technology such as the Oculus rift, video games will start to head in a direction more virtual reality based, and just like there was a market for the Wii and its Wii remotes, so will virtual reality. My main question as to whether it will ultimatley catch on or stay static is the kinect, which has had lackluster games from my understanding. And regardless there will still be a market for controller based games.
I will hope that over time gaming will also change with better representation on varying genders and races. I think like film it is a matter of time, although film still itself has a lot of work to be done on that front. Problematic representation is far from over in both forms of media.
I think the boundaries will be more blurred from this in terms of the technology, but based on Game Theorists, I doubt it will ever be fully immersive. No body is going to want to smell a koopa troopa, or feel Charizard’s fire breath. I think games are already blurring reality, but based more on our investment in them and nature of gameplay, as opposed to realistic graphics of such (though those certainly help at times). I myself have been more immersed in games like Pokemon Silver and Megaman 64 than I ever have with most realistic games, and I assure you I would still play FO3 if it was more cartoony. Those are games where as I said I get to explore and define character, and there are other people that will be totally immersed in different games, like Call off Duty, Halo, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy 10, etc. I think it is mostly about ones passion, and that is why there is a market for totally different games.
I feel that eventually the video game world will become a part of our physical world. To me games have no limit because they are created from our on imaginations. The only true boundary is a power source and seizing to develop our technology. Video games gives the player a chance to escape into the virtual world. This is an idea developers have been pushing towards since the beginning of gaming. Online gaming will be the new standard and platform for gaming and the internet will eventually become essential to the gaming experience.
I feel boundaries also would have to do with censorship and copyright which is definitely a blurred line now because unless you are a hardcore gamer you probably aren’t aware of these factors. The technology we use is also not flawless so working out the kinks and finding a way to create this “fair play” may be a blurred line as well.
I believe that the future of gaming is going to dive more into totally immersion games that are 3D and include hours and hours of gameplay. One game that I heard about recently was one that the players could visit other worlds and/or galaxies as well as build and establish their own worlds. That means that the game is ever expanding and so the gameplay is limitless. I think that there will be more games that are designed like this as the future of gaming progresses.
I’ve seen a few people above comment about this as well, but I have no doubt that the Oculus Rift is going to be a major part of future video gaming. Who hasn’t played a game and wanted to be actually inside the game? The Oculus Rift is the closest thing to that available now and is only growing in popularity. More games are being developed for it, or being redesigned to be able to incorporate it, and the videos I have watched all looked amazing. One in particular was of Skyrim, the man had on the Oculus Rift, was harnessed into what I’m just going to call a foot sensor machine, and had “electronic controller gloves” on his hands. This setup as a whole allowed the player to be able to walk and move his body and hands to control the character, while wearing the Oculus and feeling like he was actually there.
So, I have no doubt that virtual reality will be the future, and more and more games will come out that give you a “full body” experience, allowing you to literally move and interact with the game, in ways that Kinnect for instance, cannot offer.