Where Will Video Games Go Now?


Pong is a game that puts the player into the shoes of a block who is trying to block a ball from going into his/her court while at the same time trying to get it into his enemy’s court. Today there are games ranging that involve shooting the bad guy before he shoots you and finding the best strategy in a turn based fashion. All of these games involve the player taking the role of someone or something; and with this control they try and win the game that they are playing.


So the whole point of a video game is to immerse the player in another world. In my opinion the games today do a much better job of it. There is generally some sort of story or tournament that the player can go through. The graphics are bordering on photorealistic in some of the more high-end games. Controls are more complex, there are recognizable characters to know or play as, competitive multiplayer, varied game play, and the list goes on and on. Even the worst game of today may seem like a masterpiece 10 years ago.


So where will developers innovate now? With graphics bordering on perfection and the average gamer only willing to memorize a certain amount of controls before they deem it “too complicated”. How will developers innovate their systems for the next generation of systems and video cards?


Right now I think that there are a few ways that developers can go. With the success of the Wii and the DS, this may persuade future control schemes to incorporate alternative ways of controlling your character. But there are constantly people complaining about the tacked on motion controls of some Wii games, and many PlayStation 3 games with motion control. To answer that problem Nintendo produced multiple controllers to give the players the choice of which controller to use. This controversy is a testament of how controllers can be updated to include the best control scheme possible for each game that it controls. The PC for example has come very close with the mouse and keyboard combo, but is that really as good as it going to get.


The current generation visuals can also pose a problem. They can only get better when the way they are displayed get better. And what could this possibly include? With movies like UP and Spy Kids 3-D being shown the possibility of a 3-D video game presents itself. But 3-D glasses are needed at this point, and many people may loose these glasses, which may prompt two separate formats. In any case the graphics will most likely keep improving in one way or another.


Every game that has ever come out has tried to entertain the player and immerse this player in a new world where physics can be altered, and re-spawns can be infinite. And every year boundaries are pushed, and sometimes it just takes a little creativity or innovation to make something completely different and fun.