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With todays technology ever pressing forwards, gaming is reaching whole new levels; Better graphics, better FPS, more content, better gameplay and even online play on consoles. Seeing as in just under 20 years we have gone from the basic BBC type computers, with less memory than your standard pocket calculator to IBM supercomputing networks, will the advances in technology still keep gamers grasping their joypads?
Will game designers be able to create enough game material in the alotted time period? Will they be able to completely satify the hoards of grimey geeks out there, who sit at a screen all day?
I see a solution, one so radical that could change the face of games, redefining the meaning of a game altogether. It would ultilse the internet more than any other game has done EVER, and assuming the price of faster connections decreases it may become possible sooner than we think.
The system would work like this: As before, one would have to buy a disc with the game on it, but insted of holding all the content, it would only hold certain types of data on it, bits which would be used the most frequently, such as textures, models, sounds and video elements. The rest of the data would be held on one of many massive servers, either in that particular country or continent, with bandwidth 100% dedicated to the game itself, and with massive amounts of storage space for the rest of the data, mainly the environment in which you play, allowing it to bigger than you could imagine, as game environments tend to be the smallest capacity hogs.
Now this seems like a far fetched idea, but theres more, oh yes! This ultilisation of storing some of the game data elsewhere would allow game developers to constantly add more to the game after it came out, making expansion packs irrelevant, and adding more replay value to many games. Imagine a space RPG game for example. The universe would constantly be expanding, literally, as more worlds and planets are added by the designers to the server, which is then uploaded to you when you play. Some new textures and features could be added, and loaded to the console/PC harddrive to allow fast loading times, but letting the environment meshes remain on the server. Clever eh?
Back to advancing technology. With HDD's being implemented into consoles and future consoles, and internet speeds getting higher for less, we could have gigabyte speeds within 10 years, allowing effortless streaming of data to the console or PC. This effectively wipes out a portion of load times, seeing as some data is being read from the disc and some from the internet, splitting the load!
This idea can only work if technology keeps progressing and prices keep tumbling, which is a common technological trend, so maybe this idea could become the next level of gaming. A euphoric thought i must admit, the sheer amount of gaming that could become available is enough to make you smile in glee.
Lets just hope the software matches up to the standard of technology...
Will game designers be able to create enough game material in the alotted time period? Will they be able to completely satify the hoards of grimey geeks out there, who sit at a screen all day?
I see a solution, one so radical that could change the face of games, redefining the meaning of a game altogether. It would ultilse the internet more than any other game has done EVER, and assuming the price of faster connections decreases it may become possible sooner than we think.
The system would work like this: As before, one would have to buy a disc with the game on it, but insted of holding all the content, it would only hold certain types of data on it, bits which would be used the most frequently, such as textures, models, sounds and video elements. The rest of the data would be held on one of many massive servers, either in that particular country or continent, with bandwidth 100% dedicated to the game itself, and with massive amounts of storage space for the rest of the data, mainly the environment in which you play, allowing it to bigger than you could imagine, as game environments tend to be the smallest capacity hogs.
Now this seems like a far fetched idea, but theres more, oh yes! This ultilisation of storing some of the game data elsewhere would allow game developers to constantly add more to the game after it came out, making expansion packs irrelevant, and adding more replay value to many games. Imagine a space RPG game for example. The universe would constantly be expanding, literally, as more worlds and planets are added by the designers to the server, which is then uploaded to you when you play. Some new textures and features could be added, and loaded to the console/PC harddrive to allow fast loading times, but letting the environment meshes remain on the server. Clever eh?
Back to advancing technology. With HDD's being implemented into consoles and future consoles, and internet speeds getting higher for less, we could have gigabyte speeds within 10 years, allowing effortless streaming of data to the console or PC. This effectively wipes out a portion of load times, seeing as some data is being read from the disc and some from the internet, splitting the load!
This idea can only work if technology keeps progressing and prices keep tumbling, which is a common technological trend, so maybe this idea could become the next level of gaming. A euphoric thought i must admit, the sheer amount of gaming that could become available is enough to make you smile in glee.
Lets just hope the software matches up to the standard of technology...
jeez, it was just an idea. I do business studies A level and im aware of the financial aspect of it, but if companies actually catered to the gamers rather than their pockets then it could work.
Just an idea.
Just an idea.
Why do you think companies make expansion packs to PC games as opposed to making the content free to download?
They make money out of it.
If they put resources into free stuff, they lose money.
It's simple business.
They make money out of it.
If they put resources into free stuff, they lose money.
It's simple business.
1: I was assuming it was somewhere in the future when broadband was as common and accesable as a dial-up connection, and as cheap.
2: yeh that would suck, but it would be dedicated to the game, and surely would be a very good server and reliable, one would hope.
3. not necessarily true. if they dont pack it with loads of new kool stuff people wont buy it as much, and would be expensive to work on another game, rather than just updating a server with new pieces of data (think simcity 4 website buildings uploader etc)
2: yeh that would suck, but it would be dedicated to the game, and surely would be a very good server and reliable, one would hope.
3. not necessarily true. if they dont pack it with loads of new kool stuff people wont buy it as much, and would be expensive to work on another game, rather than just updating a server with new pieces of data (think simcity 4 website buildings uploader etc)
1) Not every gamer has a broadband connection that would be able to handle that.
2) If the server went down there'd be a huge number of piddled off people.
3) Why would companies want to add more to games? Surely it is more cost effective to release a sequel?
2) If the server went down there'd be a huge number of piddled off people.
3) Why would companies want to add more to games? Surely it is more cost effective to release a sequel?
With todays technology ever pressing forwards, gaming is reaching whole new levels; Better graphics, better FPS, more content, better gameplay and even online play on consoles. Seeing as in just under 20 years we have gone from the basic BBC type computers, with less memory than your standard pocket calculator to IBM supercomputing networks, will the advances in technology still keep gamers grasping their joypads?
Will game designers be able to create enough game material in the alotted time period? Will they be able to completely satify the hoards of grimey geeks out there, who sit at a screen all day?
I see a solution, one so radical that could change the face of games, redefining the meaning of a game altogether. It would ultilse the internet more than any other game has done EVER, and assuming the price of faster connections decreases it may become possible sooner than we think.
The system would work like this: As before, one would have to buy a disc with the game on it, but insted of holding all the content, it would only hold certain types of data on it, bits which would be used the most frequently, such as textures, models, sounds and video elements. The rest of the data would be held on one of many massive servers, either in that particular country or continent, with bandwidth 100% dedicated to the game itself, and with massive amounts of storage space for the rest of the data, mainly the environment in which you play, allowing it to bigger than you could imagine, as game environments tend to be the smallest capacity hogs.
Now this seems like a far fetched idea, but theres more, oh yes! This ultilisation of storing some of the game data elsewhere would allow game developers to constantly add more to the game after it came out, making expansion packs irrelevant, and adding more replay value to many games. Imagine a space RPG game for example. The universe would constantly be expanding, literally, as more worlds and planets are added by the designers to the server, which is then uploaded to you when you play. Some new textures and features could be added, and loaded to the console/PC harddrive to allow fast loading times, but letting the environment meshes remain on the server. Clever eh?
Back to advancing technology. With HDD's being implemented into consoles and future consoles, and internet speeds getting higher for less, we could have gigabyte speeds within 10 years, allowing effortless streaming of data to the console or PC. This effectively wipes out a portion of load times, seeing as some data is being read from the disc and some from the internet, splitting the load!
This idea can only work if technology keeps progressing and prices keep tumbling, which is a common technological trend, so maybe this idea could become the next level of gaming. A euphoric thought i must admit, the sheer amount of gaming that could become available is enough to make you smile in glee.
Lets just hope the software matches up to the standard of technology...
Will game designers be able to create enough game material in the alotted time period? Will they be able to completely satify the hoards of grimey geeks out there, who sit at a screen all day?
I see a solution, one so radical that could change the face of games, redefining the meaning of a game altogether. It would ultilse the internet more than any other game has done EVER, and assuming the price of faster connections decreases it may become possible sooner than we think.
The system would work like this: As before, one would have to buy a disc with the game on it, but insted of holding all the content, it would only hold certain types of data on it, bits which would be used the most frequently, such as textures, models, sounds and video elements. The rest of the data would be held on one of many massive servers, either in that particular country or continent, with bandwidth 100% dedicated to the game itself, and with massive amounts of storage space for the rest of the data, mainly the environment in which you play, allowing it to bigger than you could imagine, as game environments tend to be the smallest capacity hogs.
Now this seems like a far fetched idea, but theres more, oh yes! This ultilisation of storing some of the game data elsewhere would allow game developers to constantly add more to the game after it came out, making expansion packs irrelevant, and adding more replay value to many games. Imagine a space RPG game for example. The universe would constantly be expanding, literally, as more worlds and planets are added by the designers to the server, which is then uploaded to you when you play. Some new textures and features could be added, and loaded to the console/PC harddrive to allow fast loading times, but letting the environment meshes remain on the server. Clever eh?
Back to advancing technology. With HDD's being implemented into consoles and future consoles, and internet speeds getting higher for less, we could have gigabyte speeds within 10 years, allowing effortless streaming of data to the console or PC. This effectively wipes out a portion of load times, seeing as some data is being read from the disc and some from the internet, splitting the load!
This idea can only work if technology keeps progressing and prices keep tumbling, which is a common technological trend, so maybe this idea could become the next level of gaming. A euphoric thought i must admit, the sheer amount of gaming that could become available is enough to make you smile in glee.
Lets just hope the software matches up to the standard of technology...