Shakermaker
Party Escort Bot
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
- Messages
- 9,246
- Reaction score
- 2
There are only two weeks left of the 21st century's first decade. That made me look back at gaming in the last 10 years. The decade started off with the first console war. Microsoft entered the market with the Xbox and challenged the hegemony of Sony and Nintendo. On the PC front GPU's came of age and were able to create believable 3D environments. As a result from this, first person games seem to have become the norm on all platforms and almost all of those games had an online component, another trend of the Naughties.
The 'next generation' of consoles (and to a lesser extent DX10 graphics) was the main theme of this decade's second half. They provided an even more photorealistic experience, although the uncanny valley still hasn't been crossed. But with the higher level of detail came exponentially rising production costs. The reaction to this was the renaissance of indie games, in part made possible by widely available broadband which made bricks 'n' mortar retailers redundant.
The next decade promises to be very interesting. Gaming has become mainstream, consoles will probably become the norm, with the PC being relegated to the role of secondary platform (if it isn't the case already). It won't become redundant though, I think. Since computers are so omnipresent now, there will always be people making games for them. In movie terms it will probably be the arthouse bracket. Consoles on the other hand will be providing blockbuster entertainment. This will be where the money is made.
I doubt that we will see a big advancement of holographic or real 3D games. As much as I'd like my personal holodeck, I don't expect any groundbreaking revolutions like that. I think we will see a steady evolution from where we are now. Online gaming will become even more prevalent, with the different industry molochs all setting up their own networks. Activision seems to be leading the way here with IW.net and Battle.net, although the friendlier face of this development is Steam.
One thing I know for sure: I will keep gaming. There are some lulls but generally this is a field of entertainment that keeps on evolving quite rapidly and it is still immensely enjoyable.
tl;dr Gaming ftw
The 'next generation' of consoles (and to a lesser extent DX10 graphics) was the main theme of this decade's second half. They provided an even more photorealistic experience, although the uncanny valley still hasn't been crossed. But with the higher level of detail came exponentially rising production costs. The reaction to this was the renaissance of indie games, in part made possible by widely available broadband which made bricks 'n' mortar retailers redundant.
The next decade promises to be very interesting. Gaming has become mainstream, consoles will probably become the norm, with the PC being relegated to the role of secondary platform (if it isn't the case already). It won't become redundant though, I think. Since computers are so omnipresent now, there will always be people making games for them. In movie terms it will probably be the arthouse bracket. Consoles on the other hand will be providing blockbuster entertainment. This will be where the money is made.
I doubt that we will see a big advancement of holographic or real 3D games. As much as I'd like my personal holodeck, I don't expect any groundbreaking revolutions like that. I think we will see a steady evolution from where we are now. Online gaming will become even more prevalent, with the different industry molochs all setting up their own networks. Activision seems to be leading the way here with IW.net and Battle.net, although the friendlier face of this development is Steam.
One thing I know for sure: I will keep gaming. There are some lulls but generally this is a field of entertainment that keeps on evolving quite rapidly and it is still immensely enjoyable.
tl;dr Gaming ftw
