Where are games going?

[Dastardly]

What do you think is the future for games?
It seems most of you (like me) have been playing for a long time now, some of you maybe even from the beginning. Ive been playing games since the start of the 80's and have seen it change into something unrecognisable from those early days of a few colours on screen and one button joysticks.

Do you think the future is VR and well all be playing inside virtual worlds?
Do you think gaming is getting bigger than films and music and will one day be equally respected?
Or do you think the whole thing will implode in on itself and games will go back to the days of the 'hardcore' gamer?

What are your thoughts on the future of our favourite pastime?
I know for a fact Ill still be playing as long as I can hold a controller.

[RetroMan]

Well, I personally hope, that the game industrie will go back to it´s roots and make enjoyable, good games again .... but I really think it will be some kind of VR future in games and that someday there will only be a kind of Film-Games instead of Films/Games seperated from each other .... and believe me, for all us retrogamers, it will be a VERY SAD day

[Drake1009]

The future of gaming I think will be that it will grow larger and larger. There will be more and more stuff which is hyped up but will end up sucking serverely. Just as with most everything else there will still be people ready to defend it no matter how much it sucks. I'm afraid with the advent of 3d accelerators it'll be hard to convince most parts of the gamers that they should buy something 2D. I know I have a hard time with it too, because most non 3D accelerated games you could find for sale will usually be 3D games rendered in software mode which just makes it look worse.

[jmmijo]

In some respects this will be correct in that there are always going to be duds in the gaming industry. But hey this is also pretty subjective as well, to me it's no different then Movies or Music for that matter. Not everything is going to appeal to everyone, it's just the way it is. You will however run into titles that the majority will really dislike as well as some that will be split down the middle.

One thing I hope does not happen is that there will be VR like games that require you to where special glasses, this will annoy me no end, but hey, I know others will like them as it will be more immersive to them. Perhaps so, but I require prescription lenses so wearing something else will not allow me to enjoy these types of games, of course they have tried this already with some VR type glasses support in games like Descent and some others.

The one area that I hope will eventually take off will be holographic imagery, instead of a normal CRT or LCD display you'll have a projector like device that displays something that appears to float in space or walk along a dank dark dungeon floor perhaps, say like in Dungeon Master. Of course you have to have the sorround sound to go with it, otherwise you don't get the full effect

Today's game developers try to make everything as realistic as possible, ignoring gameplay. This was discussed several times on eab, but I just cannot believe how 3do could fuck up probably the best 2d strategy game on the market, Heroes of Might and Magic IV so badly by trying to make it in prerendered tree-dee. They must have thought it was a brilliant idea but it looks worse than -anything- I've seen. I just can't believe it. IT SUCKS TO THE BONE!!!!

I'm very desperate about the future of gaming seriously

[th4t1guy]

Speaking of holographic games, didn't SEGA make an arcade machine about a decade back that used holograms? If I remember right, you controled some sort of Time traveler?

I think I remember it being complete crap.

I remember I saw a photo of that in a magazine but I'm not sure if it was ever released. It was said to be fantastic but the image looked rather dull to me. There was a purple guy surrounded with purple objects.

[th4t1guy]

I remember playing it in the arcades when I was a kid. It was $1 a game (most games were $.25 then) and it was extremely hard. Kinda played like Dragons Lair, but you had to look at these holograms that were very flat, and didn't work well in bright rooms.

[Djay]

"DOWN THE PAN"

[Djay]

Time Traveler, crap Hologram arcade "Game"

[Djay]

nice white unit, mmmmmmmm

check out the video clip of Time Travelers, if this is the FUTURE of games, then i DO want to be a Time Traveler

[CPC464]

My opinions on modern gaming and where it's going are easy to express, I myself have been playing games since the early days of the ZX81, and (although I must say) the Graphics were far from good and there was a lack of colours, the gameplay was superb and the games original.

Now we have games that are graphically good (some even superb), 90% of them lack Gameplay and originality.

This is a sad thing

In my opinion the Games industry will just go on as it is, I mean it seems like it's already going backwards.

Some of my favorite games have been made for low end computers that ran in Dos & on other Platforms games like:

Xcom - UFO Enemy Unknown
Xcom - Terror from the Deep
Power Drive
Moonstone
Pirates

To name just a few, modern games are (in my opinion) all Graphics and little more), I feel that the future of gaming and games will just go on as it it, but to get bigger it needs to improve quality, Gameplay and originality.

And finally game designers need to make sure the game is 100% working before releasing in this would mean less of those dasterdly patches that we need to download.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by CPC464
And finally game designers need to make sure the game is 100% working before releasing in this would mean less of those dasterdly patches that we need to download.

I disagree with this one. Publishers have already been given the green light on releasing games that are buggy and in need of patching - given this green light by the consumers. Regardless of the flaws of buggy released modern games, they still make a buttload of money, so why do anything to change the formula? The public would have to demand it, but instead they pour inconceivable amounts of money into it. They are buying the trailer. As long as this is what consumers accept, this is what consumers will get.

And it is getting worse. Did I mention that Heroes IV has no multiplayer support yet? When you click the multiplayer button in the menu, it say that the feature will be implemented in the future with a patch!!!

[Dastardly]

These are fair points, patches are totally unacceptable, but they are PC game problems and I think the PC isnt the future of gaming. I havent really had my PC for that long now but I tried gaming with and hated it. Its far too user un-friendly. The only gaming done on it now is with WinUAE and a C64 emulator.

[hal]

game makers believe too much in 3d these days
i used to love adventure games and i like most of those i´ve seen
then i´m all of a sudden looking at something like grim fandango and monkey 4 they were cool to look at at first but in the long run pathetic.

and then are the real time strategy games/first person shooters
mass production of the same idea over and over again
it is only logical that the people will become bored of this
(i hope)

if not then at least we´re the smart ones not accepting that junk
and going after the games of those days when they were made good

i´m just babbling my humble opinions
(please don´t kill me )

[Fred the Fop]

Well, being a Mac owner as well as a PC owner, (I own an iBook for work and serious matters, no gaming), it is depressing to see that the platform that was right up there in terms of quality and innovation of games- Shadowgate, for example, was created on the Apple 2GS- as the venerable Amiga and poorer cousin, Atari St, is a filter for PC games. Meaning, if the games sells well for the PC, the lords of gamedom will see fit to pass it on to the Mac gamer. As for patches? I owned one of the best notebooks ever, an Apple Powerbook 540 PC. I was at my freind's house and saw the new sequel to Panzer General, Allied General there. He kept getting crashes, slow response (PZ General was a DOS game. Allied General was the first of the series to "make" it to Winblows).
In any case, I went to the nearest EB and got Allied for my Powerbook.
Any crashes? Noooooo.
And patches? Noooooo.
Speed problems? Nooooo.
I may have been angry with the supporters of the next gen Amiga freaks in another thread. Its because I think it'll never happen, and I detest the idea that people cannot admit the truth and delude themselves. But inside, I hope it happens, because maybe, gaming can....
Nah. I looked at a link to new Amiga One games that Twist put up in that thread, and all the games are just PC Wanna-bes.
Ugh.
We're doomed to Half-life, Crapmand and Conquer and Diablo Shit.
Long live emulation

[jmmijo]

Hey now Frederica, some of us like Diablo

[Twistin'Ghost]

But do we really need to have yet another system with those same games being re-hashed all over again. Where's the identity? No longer an Amiga game platform, but a clone game platform, keeping up with the Joneses. (sigh)

[Fred the Fop]

First of all, this thread is too good to be relegated to this section. Would a mod please move it?
Its a theme that I'd like to return to.
Secondly, I am in total agreement with Twistin Ghost. I remember the both of us discussed the "soul" of games. How he felt a tingle as he popped a C-64 game in the floppy drive (or emulator). how I dust off my old NES and pop in Metroid, or emulate Tecmo Super Bowl. The feeling..the grittiness, the "beautiful ugliness" of the game. A craftmanship, a soul.
Games now are wonderbread. Games in the old days (Pre 1995) were home baked bluberry scones.
*sigh*
Pass the Shedd's Spread