The next 25 years of videogames

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2421&pageid=1

Good read.

( For you church boys out there, be warned -- some bad language in there. )

Not bad, but as usual all predictions about the future are really just extrapolations of the present, which doesn't include any awareness of how things *actually* will be in the future.

When you look back at all those dumb tv ads and shows where they're describing how life is going to be in 50 years time, it's totally nothing like what it is actually like when that future date rolls around. All you can do, right now, is take what you have right now and distort it into what looks like some kind of symbol of futurism, and pass it off as `how things will be in the future`. Things will happen in the future that nobody is predicting.

I'm especially wary of when certain individuals with an opinion and a set of what they think would be cool and great, start to project that onto everyone to say `everyone will be doing this` or `everything will want this`, especially to the point of saying that we'll all be totally substituting our real reality for a virtual existence. That's fanciful nonsense.

I don't deny some of these things might progress vaguely in the directions suggestion, but not to that degree or in the same form.

I know what you mean. We're all supposed to have flying cars right now, and be taking vacations to mars...

But, I think this article was just a light hearted, fun thing. With some ideas based off of emerging tech. :)

I was actually expecting VR technology to continue to improve and all of would be playing some kinda of Virtual Boy contraption except that it's actually good and found a way to not give us head aches. But what the hell. HD and wii-mote waving will suffice for now.


I bet there are people already working that out right now....

Futurecasting isn't effective in the long term. The reason it can be very successful in the short term, is that short term societal development is generally evolutionary, whereas long term development is also somewhat revolutionary. Revolutionary development can be futurecasted, but only in the medium term, and only with knowledge and a fair bit of luck because it depends on many factors.

the flying cars were predicted for 2015 in back to the future so it might still happen!

This bit cracked me up:

"We hereby predict that by the year 2028, someone, somewhere, will literally wipe his ass with a computer more powerful than any that exists today. "

scary thing for the UK. You have at least 25% 3,000,000+ of the worlds CCTV cameras, and the latest development for those is Gait DNA, which can recognise you from how you move, not just what you look like.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6995061.stm

Alright! Big Brother, here we come!

Interesting article, thanks!

God I hope not. Just think about how the average person drives. Now you want those people to be allowed to fly too?

Bring on the institute of silly walks!

Sounds like it is written by a 14 year old. Yawn!

I predict that will we will be playing games on some kind of 3d display. Like the helio displays you can get now but some kind of generation down that line. Technology in the user market really doesnt advance as fast as this guy thinks.

its been 7 years since the new millenium, and thats about 1 3rd of the time we are supposed to see these amazing advancements in gaming. What game were you playing 7 years ago... could it be just a slightly less graphically impressive version of the one your playing now?

Hes probably right about the procedural thing though. Why create a human character if you can just give instructions to the computer on how to do it. However I think there will still be large art budgets, because there still needs to be somone to physically tell the computer what the character should look and act like.

I predict we won't see much advancement at all - skn3[ac] is absolutely right about playing the exact same game albeit with improved graphics and physics. Look at the runaway success the Wii has been. You don't think Sony and Microsoft are going to plagiarize that? Of course they are! The next generation of games are not going to be about story, or graphics, but about Interfaces. There's going to be a lot more Singstars and Guitar Heroes about than Quake Wars and Spores, I'll tell you that for nothing.

Apart from flying cars, I refuse to believe that we'd be talking all day to some domestic computer to open the curtains, cook an egg, increase the heat, fetch the morning paper, etc. I just refuse to have to talk all day. Same with programming, do me a keyboard and a language to type, any day over having to dictate a computer what to do. No matter how good it'll eventually become, I'm just not going to talk all that much..

Can you imagine? I want to see Ellis.. I want to CLS... the horror, the horror!

I know what you mean, CS_TBL. Not only that, I can't stand it when household appliances try to exchange pleasantries with me. For example, when my DVD player scrolls 'Hello' across the display as I turn it on, I'm usually thinking 'just hurry up and open the DVD tray already'. I don't tell it that, though.

After working on a PC all day, 5 days a week I still prefer to have a game of backgammon over a pint in my local pub.

Then that may just be me. 8o)

Don't the dice and counters sink to the bottom of the glass? Surely it's more practical to use a board.