The Future

Being my final post on the blog my thoughts turn to where the future of gaming lies. Browsing online I came across this very interesting article by Jim Rossignole. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=223189
It quotes a noted inventor and futurologist Ray Kurzweil who believes "games are the harbinger of everything," and that "they are going to be competitive with real reality." Kurzweil then goes on to say that within two decades nanobots will be in our blood and we will be able to use our eyes as a screen into the gameworld. If we are to believe this then from my perspective this a very scary thought! How will we be able to tell whether one is in game mode or not? Will this mean we will lose our sense of self and start identifying more with characters than ourselves? Luckily the author offers other possible paths that the future of gaming may take which are less alarming than the previous.
Charles Stross an author, is also quoted in the article, he believes that "rapidly balloning band-with" together with 4G technology will make gaming more mobile, connected and multidinous. We will soon be able to play for example MMPORPGs where-ever we are as long as there is suitable bandwidth. Rossignole states that this is already happening, "... and it's already happening. The idea is simple: it makes more sense for the steady increase in processing power to be centralised, in huge banks of professionally maintained servers, than for us to be continually fiddling with processors, graphics cards and drivers." I would have to agree after what was discussed by Kevin in this mornings lecture referring to the Steam server. I can see the pro's and con's of the Steam server (as discussed in lecture) but cannot say (because I am not a gamer of any sorts) whether playing an MMPORPG on a mobile device would be attractive. Also due to the state of NZs broadband service I cannot see this happening for a very long time! Further on in the article artificial intelligence is bought up and the possibilities this will create for games. For me this is a bit over my head, I am not sure whether I would enjoy interacting with something or someone who is not real.
Where ever the future of gaming lies my hope is that it retains its social value and that we not become walking talking characters rather than human beings.

Candace.W