The direction of gaming

[Entitled]

I'm pretty sure that the days of "gaming" as a single hobby are numbered.

We are moving in a direction where we are surrounded with computers, and they can all play some sort of interactive entertainment, but these are getting so radically different from each other, that talking about "the gaming medium" is getting less and less similar to talking about "literature" or about "movies", and more like talking about "the written word", or about "motion pictures".

The Oculus Rift and VR are certainly going to be a thing, but with little gameplay focus, and a lot more emphasis on ambient surroundings and 3D paintings that you get immersed in, more Dear Esther than Half Life.

There are handheld timewasters, that are the most similar to the old arcade.

There are these long interactive CGI movies, that AAA gaming is turning into.

There will probably remain some old-school gamers, who keep the now less popular genres alive, just because they already learned to love them for their own sake, and not just for the "immersion" or "fun" that newer genres can provide objectively better.

 

[Full]

I personally see video games as the closest we've ever come to being able to physically enter someones imagination. VR will aid in that. However, I would be saddened if that's all we get, more emphasis on immersion than gameplay. Neither of these things should replace each other, they both provide things unique to games.

 

[briankoontz]

Do you perhaps have a vision of your own? Have you been philosophizing on the future of gaming lately?

Gaming itself remains highly suspect, since games are alternate realities and have the potential to eclipse the value of reality.

Logically, gaming will become more important as the world worsens, unless the hold of virtual realities are broken and people engage more fully in the real world.

Immersion could go either way, or quite possibly go both ways. The rise of casual games is partially a backlash against immersion - casual games are the ultimate non-immersive game experiences. The Oculus Rift is an attempt at greater immersion - the future then may be an expansion of immersion ala the Oculus Rift with a simultaneous expansion of non-immersive games.

There will also likely be the expansion of games into traditional reality, ala the Google Glasses but also things like real life events turned into games, so collecting real life objects to gain in-game experience points, for example.

There's no reason to assume a change in the core of gaming. The fundamental nature of games - as toys, as drugs, as martial arts, as art - all of that will likely continue.

The two most fundamental potential changes to games are those that affect all other art forms as well - people don't consume art when they have better things to do. So if people decide that directly impacting reality is more important than gaming that could have a major impact. Or if the world descends into a more direct dystopia where people lose faith in games or lose the financial means to attain them that would have a major impact.