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I was reading an article in a scottish newspaper a few days ago which was about what scientists and experts expect to see in the next 30 years. It didn't go into detail, just highlighted some of the most interesting points. Things like a completely inteligent robot which could be capable of passing a degree exam (something similar to the movie A.I) some of the things seemed a bit far fetched but then I remembered something a lecturer at uni said to me. He said that within 30 years a computer will have the same storage capacity and the processing power of the human brain then 10 years after that a normal desktop will be equivalent to all the human brains on the planet. This lecturer is one of the most inteligent people I know so when he believes these findings I find it hard to disagree with them.
So what has any of this got to do with gaming I here you ask. Well I myself and many of you have posted topics about the future of the industry in the short term and the long term. This information has made me think that maybe just maybe we aren't realising the true potential that technology will play in gaming. All the ideas we have could be possible, anything could be possible, no flaws, no restrictions, anything you want could be done.
But what does this say for us? Will this really make games better or could it remove every element of fun there is. Truely life like graphics, inteligent enemies and computer A.I, something that could well be described as a perfect game. Is this what we really want.
A few questions for you if you would please answer them.
1.Are you happy with the way the industry is?
2.What would you do to make it better?
3.Would the perfect industry appeal to you?
If technology did progress to such standards, I believe it will, we could see games with a fully explorable environment, could have any options that developers want, fully inteligent opponents, perfect graphics and gameplay. It seems like a dream but I think many of us underestimate the potential it has to become a lot lot better.
It is obvious things like on-line gaming will take off but what about some of the other things that people expect to see? Could virtual reality be made to be a believable possibility to taking the industry to another level? How about complete interaction with the game in that you can actually believe you are part of a game and interact with others through a network. You could wear a suit and headset simialr to VR and become part of the game, depending on the style of game you could use various peripherals like weapons, golf clubs.
It could be great for sport games like boxing, football, fighting games and even first person shooters.
I'll not go on any more as it is late. But think about it. Think about the possibilities and exactly what you think we could see in the future.
So what has any of this got to do with gaming I here you ask. Well I myself and many of you have posted topics about the future of the industry in the short term and the long term. This information has made me think that maybe just maybe we aren't realising the true potential that technology will play in gaming. All the ideas we have could be possible, anything could be possible, no flaws, no restrictions, anything you want could be done.
But what does this say for us? Will this really make games better or could it remove every element of fun there is. Truely life like graphics, inteligent enemies and computer A.I, something that could well be described as a perfect game. Is this what we really want.
A few questions for you if you would please answer them.
1.Are you happy with the way the industry is?
2.What would you do to make it better?
3.Would the perfect industry appeal to you?
If technology did progress to such standards, I believe it will, we could see games with a fully explorable environment, could have any options that developers want, fully inteligent opponents, perfect graphics and gameplay. It seems like a dream but I think many of us underestimate the potential it has to become a lot lot better.
It is obvious things like on-line gaming will take off but what about some of the other things that people expect to see? Could virtual reality be made to be a believable possibility to taking the industry to another level? How about complete interaction with the game in that you can actually believe you are part of a game and interact with others through a network. You could wear a suit and headset simialr to VR and become part of the game, depending on the style of game you could use various peripherals like weapons, golf clubs.
It could be great for sport games like boxing, football, fighting games and even first person shooters.
I'll not go on any more as it is late. But think about it. Think about the possibilities and exactly what you think we could see in the future.
And think about the cost too. That technology's not cheap, especially the idea of all the peripherals you mentioned. We are getting more and more advanced AI, but it still only knows what we tell it - for these games to be effective, the computer would have to be able to think for itself, follow your behaviour and adapt itself accordingly, as a human would when playing against different opponents in a deathmatch.
This is done to an extent, but only when the program is told exactly what to look out for. It has no conciousness, it can't exist without constant support and teaching from humans, and so can't evolve on its own, which would be nescessary for it to make challenging opposition over a long period of time - beyond when you can learn their behavioural patterns.
This is about the point where people get worried about technology that can advance on its own, when it takes over the human race and enslaves us all...once this is achieved, it'll be some time before it makes it to the consumer market in the form of games and personal robots. I could see it being used in other ways - a game environment that could advance itself and evolve around you as the player would be good to see, creating a unique experience, and presumably significantly easier to do than creating human like opposition.
Nice as AI may be at the moment, difficulty levels annoy me - experience with FPS games tends to show that different difficulties just increase the bot's accuracy, between hopeless on easy and headshot kills on hard...if the difficulty simply progressed with the player then I don't see it being much different to how it is now, simply with automated difficulty settings. The other characters would have to advance as you did, learning new skills etc and improving with use. This would have to be defineable by the player to an extent - how good you wanted them to become, or possibly still an easy/medium/hard option for gamers who wanted to play a one off game at a certain level.
These things individually would be nice touches to games, but until we see developers taking the time and effort to include all of them in a game and build an entirely self sufficient, continually evolving engine, I think they will be seen as little more than gimmicks. On its own, an environment that changes around you may not be much, a few landscapes change, people move, you have to look around harder. On the other hand, if you built this is with characters who had motives for moving, discernable layers of plots, other things happening in the world that you could keep track of and divert your game to - then the game would be something different.
This would have to be carefully implemented - throwing such a title on to the market now would no doubt be a bad move in some respects, gamers would complain about the new way of doing things, having to keep track of what was happening elsewhere, and it could become overcomplicated to the degree where games are more of a chore to keep up with. There would have to be an option of simply halting the advances if the player wanted to stop and just play in a predefined world for a while , but others would certainly enjoy the freedom and possibilities of such a world, where characters other than your own are properly represented.
This has been possible to a degree up until now, but it creates a huge amount of extra work for the programmers, testing for bugs with all the different ways the game could go and planning for every individuality. If the engine was created so as to be able to handle all this on its own, where characters were given motives, personalities and backgrounds which could change as you progressed without any intervention, then games could become significantly more interesting.
That's more relvent to some genres than others - that particular sort of play would suit RPGs and Adventure games, whereas some FPS players prefer to be able to learn the ins and outs of all the levels and improve their tactics. It has a place in various other genres, a more advnaced form of random seeds, but almost all could make use of a progression in AI which allowed the computer controlled characters "think" and adapt for themselves.
This is done to an extent, but only when the program is told exactly what to look out for. It has no conciousness, it can't exist without constant support and teaching from humans, and so can't evolve on its own, which would be nescessary for it to make challenging opposition over a long period of time - beyond when you can learn their behavioural patterns.
This is about the point where people get worried about technology that can advance on its own, when it takes over the human race and enslaves us all...once this is achieved, it'll be some time before it makes it to the consumer market in the form of games and personal robots. I could see it being used in other ways - a game environment that could advance itself and evolve around you as the player would be good to see, creating a unique experience, and presumably significantly easier to do than creating human like opposition.
Nice as AI may be at the moment, difficulty levels annoy me - experience with FPS games tends to show that different difficulties just increase the bot's accuracy, between hopeless on easy and headshot kills on hard...if the difficulty simply progressed with the player then I don't see it being much different to how it is now, simply with automated difficulty settings. The other characters would have to advance as you did, learning new skills etc and improving with use. This would have to be defineable by the player to an extent - how good you wanted them to become, or possibly still an easy/medium/hard option for gamers who wanted to play a one off game at a certain level.
These things individually would be nice touches to games, but until we see developers taking the time and effort to include all of them in a game and build an entirely self sufficient, continually evolving engine, I think they will be seen as little more than gimmicks. On its own, an environment that changes around you may not be much, a few landscapes change, people move, you have to look around harder. On the other hand, if you built this is with characters who had motives for moving, discernable layers of plots, other things happening in the world that you could keep track of and divert your game to - then the game would be something different.
This would have to be carefully implemented - throwing such a title on to the market now would no doubt be a bad move in some respects, gamers would complain about the new way of doing things, having to keep track of what was happening elsewhere, and it could become overcomplicated to the degree where games are more of a chore to keep up with. There would have to be an option of simply halting the advances if the player wanted to stop and just play in a predefined world for a while , but others would certainly enjoy the freedom and possibilities of such a world, where characters other than your own are properly represented.
This has been possible to a degree up until now, but it creates a huge amount of extra work for the programmers, testing for bugs with all the different ways the game could go and planning for every individuality. If the engine was created so as to be able to handle all this on its own, where characters were given motives, personalities and backgrounds which could change as you progressed without any intervention, then games could become significantly more interesting.
That's more relvent to some genres than others - that particular sort of play would suit RPGs and Adventure games, whereas some FPS players prefer to be able to learn the ins and outs of all the levels and improve their tactics. It has a place in various other genres, a more advnaced form of random seeds, but almost all could make use of a progression in AI which allowed the computer controlled characters "think" and adapt for themselves.
I was reading an article in a scottish newspaper a few days ago which was about what scientists and experts expect to see in the next 30 years. It didn't go into detail, just highlighted some of the most interesting points. Things like a completely inteligent robot which could be capable of passing a degree exam (something similar to the movie A.I) some of the things seemed a bit far fetched but then I remembered something a lecturer at uni said to me. He said that within 30 years a computer will have the same storage capacity and the processing power of the human brain then 10 years after that a normal desktop will be equivalent to all the human brains on the planet. This lecturer is one of the most inteligent people I know so when he believes these findings I find it hard to disagree with them.
So what has any of this got to do with gaming I here you ask. Well I myself and many of you have posted topics about the future of the industry in the short term and the long term. This information has made me think that maybe just maybe we aren't realising the true potential that technology will play in gaming. All the ideas we have could be possible, anything could be possible, no flaws, no restrictions, anything you want could be done.
But what does this say for us? Will this really make games better or could it remove every element of fun there is. Truely life like graphics, inteligent enemies and computer A.I, something that could well be described as a perfect game. Is this what we really want.
A few questions for you if you would please answer them.
1.Are you happy with the way the industry is?
2.What would you do to make it better?
3.Would the perfect industry appeal to you?
If technology did progress to such standards, I believe it will, we could see games with a fully explorable environment, could have any options that developers want, fully inteligent opponents, perfect graphics and gameplay. It seems like a dream but I think many of us underestimate the potential it has to become a lot lot better.
It is obvious things like on-line gaming will take off but what about some of the other things that people expect to see? Could virtual reality be made to be a believable possibility to taking the industry to another level? How about complete interaction with the game in that you can actually believe you are part of a game and interact with others through a network. You could wear a suit and headset simialr to VR and become part of the game, depending on the style of game you could use various peripherals like weapons, golf clubs.
It could be great for sport games like boxing, football, fighting games and even first person shooters.
I'll not go on any more as it is late. But think about it. Think about the possibilities and exactly what you think we could see in the future.
So what has any of this got to do with gaming I here you ask. Well I myself and many of you have posted topics about the future of the industry in the short term and the long term. This information has made me think that maybe just maybe we aren't realising the true potential that technology will play in gaming. All the ideas we have could be possible, anything could be possible, no flaws, no restrictions, anything you want could be done.
But what does this say for us? Will this really make games better or could it remove every element of fun there is. Truely life like graphics, inteligent enemies and computer A.I, something that could well be described as a perfect game. Is this what we really want.
A few questions for you if you would please answer them.
1.Are you happy with the way the industry is?
2.What would you do to make it better?
3.Would the perfect industry appeal to you?
If technology did progress to such standards, I believe it will, we could see games with a fully explorable environment, could have any options that developers want, fully inteligent opponents, perfect graphics and gameplay. It seems like a dream but I think many of us underestimate the potential it has to become a lot lot better.
It is obvious things like on-line gaming will take off but what about some of the other things that people expect to see? Could virtual reality be made to be a believable possibility to taking the industry to another level? How about complete interaction with the game in that you can actually believe you are part of a game and interact with others through a network. You could wear a suit and headset simialr to VR and become part of the game, depending on the style of game you could use various peripherals like weapons, golf clubs.
It could be great for sport games like boxing, football, fighting games and even first person shooters.
I'll not go on any more as it is late. But think about it. Think about the possibilities and exactly what you think we could see in the future.