These days, it is difficult to stop and take stock of the world we live in.  Along with all the technological advances made in just the last 20 years, videogames have become a part of everyday life for many people.

 Games and the way we play them have advanced exponentially, and will continue to do so.  It was with this mindset that I decided to look at the past of gaming and postulate about where games are headed - where have we come from and where might we be going?

Graphics
At first glance, the most noticeable advancements in games have been visually.  Although I am too young to recall them first hand, I know graphics began on a basic level.

 In this time of primitive tools, artists were forced to be creative.  If you know the story of Mario, you know that Miyamoto worked with an incredibly limited medium to create a plumber with a mustache and overalls, and incredible feat for the day.  Looking at the games of today and their art, you realize that it still has a drastic impact on a game's overall appeal.  However, I fear that because our gaming systems offer so many choices for an artist's pallet, that perhaps some are not working for their art. 

Our videogame systems are able to replicate our existence quite accurately, especially when compared to the systems of old.  We haven't quite fully captured reality, but I think we may in the next few years.  I believe graphics will be something akin to movie-quality.  But if we look ahead further, we may see the dawn of “full emergence” graphics, one that would be indiscernible from real-world surroundings.

Might I be underestimating the years?  Perhaps, yet with the rapid appearance of new consoles and the greater “horsepower” they incorporate, it will most likely be soon.  Although I have no notions as to how this will be achieved, I do have some thoughts on the subject which vary from the use of low-cost high-definition displays to the area of electro-brain stimulation.

Controls
What does the future of gaming hold with regard to controls?  My thoughts vary, because if you look at the evolution of game controllers, with few exceptions, they have changed very little.  Granted, controllers were originally comprised of one meager joystick and button, and have since exploded into the complex amalgamation of sticks, buttons, and pads we see today.  An inventory of an Xbox 360 controller reveals two joysticks, one directional pad, and 12 buttons.  Assuming a sustained rate of expansion, how large and complex will controllers be 10 years from now? 

Nintendo has broken away from the mainstream, and taken a completely different approach with their Wii Remote.  For the first time in years, non-gamers are not intimidated to pick up a controller and give gaming a try.  I suspect we will see more of these interactive controllers because, quite frankly, they are very intuitive.  If you look at a title like Wii Sports, you see all of the motions are similar to the real-world activities they attempt to emulate.

 That being said, I would not be surprised if the future holds something very different entirely.  Although controller based games will certainly still exist, I believe they will mostly be limited to simulations in which you would actually be grasping some sort of mechanism.  The remaining games will most likely employ motion capture technology by 2018.  While some may scoff at the idea, one need only look to the PS3 which, with its Eye Toy peripheral, has a few games that already utilize the technology.

Online
As our lives are further merged with the online world, the spaces that separate us are only becoming smaller.  At the advent of videogames, with the exception of Pong, most titles were limited to one player at a time.  But the virtual landscape changed rapidly, and multiplayer was quickly incorporated. 

The current trend in multiplayer is to make teamwork a key component of play.  The problem with online teamwork play is that it only works with the willing.  In other words, people just don't want to help each other, often because the player is introverted or just anti-social.  It is because of this that some game developers have developed in-game request systems.  These systems allow a player to ask for something and reward others for fulfilling that need.  I see this being a method of encouraging player interaction, and will most likely be used more in the future.  If fully virtual worlds ever come to fruition, these types of systems will be needed as a catalyst to play, lest our virtual worlds be more aloof than the actual.

Conclusions
I realize my meanderings are broad and bold, and although I have no clairvoyance to see where technology is headed, I believe my suppositions will become reality.

The only question is what options will we explore?  I, for one, hope for a completely virtual world that requires no interaction other than what my brain can provide.  Check back with me in ten years, and we’ll see just how right I am.

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