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First of all let me assure everyone that this is not just another speculative topic about what games will be like in 10 or 20 years time, more on our place as gamers in the future.
So what am I actually talking about?
Well first of all, will we actually still be playing games in 10 or 20 years time? At the moment I’m not exactly that busy so I can easily fit in a few hours of gaming every now and then. But what about when I start work? God forbid that day will ever come, but what if it does? Those few carefree hours spent in front of my computer screen might be gone forever.
“NEVER” I hear you all say. “Gaming is too much fun to give up completely. And what if we get jobs in the gaming industry…” etc. In fact I would agree with you, but this is not the main point of my argument. I’ll get to that soon.
The thing that has been bothering me is this: Take a look at your parents. Can they play computer games? In general probably not all that well (OK there may be a few that can, but they’re exceptions to the norm). What if - and this is just speculation – when we have children of our own, we become like our parents. Not in the way that they are completely incompetent at virtually any game, but perhaps we will be completely incompetent at the games that are being released then. We’ll still be masters at our Half Lifes, C&Cs and our GT3s, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. But will we be able to cut it with the new games? Maybe not. I’m already resigned to the fact that when I’m older the things that I like will be out of date. I can already see the kids of tomorrow, with their music systems the size of their thumbs laughing at how much room my collection of CDs takes up. But will games be one of the things that we can’t keep up with?
There are good arguments against this. For instance, computer games in any decent form have only been around for a short while. I mean I’m not that old, but I can remember the rise of the P.C. I know what a 286* looks like. A P.C. was not the first computer in my house that I can remember. The point is our parents didn’t grow up in the digital age. Computers back then needed to be the size of a room just to have enough processing power to play pong**. They weren’t surrounded by the computing power we have today. How could they possibly learn to play computer games? We, on the other hand are the gaming generation. Just because our parents can’t play games doesn’t mean we won’t be able to when we’re their age. As long as we can afford a few upgrades every now and then we’ll be fine.
Maybe this is the case. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing. But think for a minute. Why haven’t our parents learnt to play games? Not enough time to learn the essential skills maybe. Perhaps a lack of interest. Or maybe there is some truth in that old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. But we’re OK – we’ve learnt those essential gaming skills haven’t we? So things will be fine.
Providing those skills are still applicable.
Technology is moving fast – and it’s moving faster all the time. It took years for a home computer processor to reach the Gigabyte point, but then within a relatively short time they’d already reached 2 Gig. Computer games are also progressing quickly. Why do you need such a fast computer? To do school work? No – it’s to play the latest games without your P.C. dying on you. God only knows what games will be around in 10 or 20 years time. Will we even recognise them as games? Will our essential skills still be useful? Or will these new games be as incomprehensible and alien to us as our games are to our parents?
OK - I suppose we could learn new skills. Ones more suited to the new games. But will we have time? Its one thing to keep playing games when you’re working for a living, but will you have enough time (and motivation) to learn these new skills so they are as second nature to us as making an opponent eat rocket (for example…)?
So in conclusion – will we, in 20 years time, be staring slack jawed as our youngsters try to explain the newest gaming craze? Or will we still be able to hold our own? Will we be Old dogs or Old Masters?
I don’t really know the answers to all these questions. Maybe you do. But whatever the future of gaming holds for us all, remember there’s always a place for good old Nostalgia. And just think how fast you’ll be able to run Half Life…
----
Footnotes for the young:
* 286 - a computer from sometime around 5 or 10 pp (that’s Pre-Pentium)
** Pong – one of the first games around. Black and White. 2D. You controlled a line and had to stop a dot from getting past it. Meant to be a bit like tennis. Yes it was considered a game…
So what am I actually talking about?
Well first of all, will we actually still be playing games in 10 or 20 years time? At the moment I’m not exactly that busy so I can easily fit in a few hours of gaming every now and then. But what about when I start work? God forbid that day will ever come, but what if it does? Those few carefree hours spent in front of my computer screen might be gone forever.
“NEVER” I hear you all say. “Gaming is too much fun to give up completely. And what if we get jobs in the gaming industry…” etc. In fact I would agree with you, but this is not the main point of my argument. I’ll get to that soon.
The thing that has been bothering me is this: Take a look at your parents. Can they play computer games? In general probably not all that well (OK there may be a few that can, but they’re exceptions to the norm). What if - and this is just speculation – when we have children of our own, we become like our parents. Not in the way that they are completely incompetent at virtually any game, but perhaps we will be completely incompetent at the games that are being released then. We’ll still be masters at our Half Lifes, C&Cs and our GT3s, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. But will we be able to cut it with the new games? Maybe not. I’m already resigned to the fact that when I’m older the things that I like will be out of date. I can already see the kids of tomorrow, with their music systems the size of their thumbs laughing at how much room my collection of CDs takes up. But will games be one of the things that we can’t keep up with?
There are good arguments against this. For instance, computer games in any decent form have only been around for a short while. I mean I’m not that old, but I can remember the rise of the P.C. I know what a 286* looks like. A P.C. was not the first computer in my house that I can remember. The point is our parents didn’t grow up in the digital age. Computers back then needed to be the size of a room just to have enough processing power to play pong**. They weren’t surrounded by the computing power we have today. How could they possibly learn to play computer games? We, on the other hand are the gaming generation. Just because our parents can’t play games doesn’t mean we won’t be able to when we’re their age. As long as we can afford a few upgrades every now and then we’ll be fine.
Maybe this is the case. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing. But think for a minute. Why haven’t our parents learnt to play games? Not enough time to learn the essential skills maybe. Perhaps a lack of interest. Or maybe there is some truth in that old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. But we’re OK – we’ve learnt those essential gaming skills haven’t we? So things will be fine.
Providing those skills are still applicable.
Technology is moving fast – and it’s moving faster all the time. It took years for a home computer processor to reach the Gigabyte point, but then within a relatively short time they’d already reached 2 Gig. Computer games are also progressing quickly. Why do you need such a fast computer? To do school work? No – it’s to play the latest games without your P.C. dying on you. God only knows what games will be around in 10 or 20 years time. Will we even recognise them as games? Will our essential skills still be useful? Or will these new games be as incomprehensible and alien to us as our games are to our parents?
OK - I suppose we could learn new skills. Ones more suited to the new games. But will we have time? Its one thing to keep playing games when you’re working for a living, but will you have enough time (and motivation) to learn these new skills so they are as second nature to us as making an opponent eat rocket (for example…)?
So in conclusion – will we, in 20 years time, be staring slack jawed as our youngsters try to explain the newest gaming craze? Or will we still be able to hold our own? Will we be Old dogs or Old Masters?
I don’t really know the answers to all these questions. Maybe you do. But whatever the future of gaming holds for us all, remember there’s always a place for good old Nostalgia. And just think how fast you’ll be able to run Half Life…
----
Footnotes for the young:
* 286 - a computer from sometime around 5 or 10 pp (that’s Pre-Pentium)
** Pong – one of the first games around. Black and White. 2D. You controlled a line and had to stop a dot from getting past it. Meant to be a bit like tennis. Yes it was considered a game…
First of all let me assure everyone that this is not just another speculative topic about what games will be like in 10 or 20 years time, more on our place as gamers in the future.
So what am I actually talking about?
Well first of all, will we actually still be playing games in 10 or 20 years time? At the moment I’m not exactly that busy so I can easily fit in a few hours of gaming every now and then. But what about when I start work? God forbid that day will ever come, but what if it does? Those few carefree hours spent in front of my computer screen might be gone forever.
“NEVER” I hear you all say. “Gaming is too much fun to give up completely. And what if we get jobs in the gaming industry…” etc. In fact I would agree with you, but this is not the main point of my argument. I’ll get to that soon.
The thing that has been bothering me is this: Take a look at your parents. Can they play computer games? In general probably not all that well (OK there may be a few that can, but they’re exceptions to the norm). What if - and this is just speculation – when we have children of our own, we become like our parents. Not in the way that they are completely incompetent at virtually any game, but perhaps we will be completely incompetent at the games that are being released then. We’ll still be masters at our Half Lifes, C&Cs and our GT3s, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. But will we be able to cut it with the new games? Maybe not. I’m already resigned to the fact that when I’m older the things that I like will be out of date. I can already see the kids of tomorrow, with their music systems the size of their thumbs laughing at how much room my collection of CDs takes up. But will games be one of the things that we can’t keep up with?
There are good arguments against this. For instance, computer games in any decent form have only been around for a short while. I mean I’m not that old, but I can remember the rise of the P.C. I know what a 286* looks like. A P.C. was not the first computer in my house that I can remember. The point is our parents didn’t grow up in the digital age. Computers back then needed to be the size of a room just to have enough processing power to play pong**. They weren’t surrounded by the computing power we have today. How could they possibly learn to play computer games? We, on the other hand are the gaming generation. Just because our parents can’t play games doesn’t mean we won’t be able to when we’re their age. As long as we can afford a few upgrades every now and then we’ll be fine.
Maybe this is the case. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing. But think for a minute. Why haven’t our parents learnt to play games? Not enough time to learn the essential skills maybe. Perhaps a lack of interest. Or maybe there is some truth in that old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. But we’re OK – we’ve learnt those essential gaming skills haven’t we? So things will be fine.
Providing those skills are still applicable.
Technology is moving fast – and it’s moving faster all the time. It took years for a home computer processor to reach the Gigabyte point, but then within a relatively short time they’d already reached 2 Gig. Computer games are also progressing quickly. Why do you need such a fast computer? To do school work? No – it’s to play the latest games without your P.C. dying on you. God only knows what games will be around in 10 or 20 years time. Will we even recognise them as games? Will our essential skills still be useful? Or will these new games be as incomprehensible and alien to us as our games are to our parents?
OK - I suppose we could learn new skills. Ones more suited to the new games. But will we have time? Its one thing to keep playing games when you’re working for a living, but will you have enough time (and motivation) to learn these new skills so they are as second nature to us as making an opponent eat rocket (for example…)?
So in conclusion – will we, in 20 years time, be staring slack jawed as our youngsters try to explain the newest gaming craze? Or will we still be able to hold our own? Will we be Old dogs or Old Masters?
I don’t really know the answers to all these questions. Maybe you do. But whatever the future of gaming holds for us all, remember there’s always a place for good old Nostalgia. And just think how fast you’ll be able to run Half Life…
----
Footnotes for the young:
* 286 - a computer from sometime around 5 or 10 pp (that’s Pre-Pentium)
** Pong – one of the first games around. Black and White. 2D. You controlled a line and had to stop a dot from getting past it. Meant to be a bit like tennis. Yes it was considered a game…
So what am I actually talking about?
Well first of all, will we actually still be playing games in 10 or 20 years time? At the moment I’m not exactly that busy so I can easily fit in a few hours of gaming every now and then. But what about when I start work? God forbid that day will ever come, but what if it does? Those few carefree hours spent in front of my computer screen might be gone forever.
“NEVER” I hear you all say. “Gaming is too much fun to give up completely. And what if we get jobs in the gaming industry…” etc. In fact I would agree with you, but this is not the main point of my argument. I’ll get to that soon.
The thing that has been bothering me is this: Take a look at your parents. Can they play computer games? In general probably not all that well (OK there may be a few that can, but they’re exceptions to the norm). What if - and this is just speculation – when we have children of our own, we become like our parents. Not in the way that they are completely incompetent at virtually any game, but perhaps we will be completely incompetent at the games that are being released then. We’ll still be masters at our Half Lifes, C&Cs and our GT3s, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. But will we be able to cut it with the new games? Maybe not. I’m already resigned to the fact that when I’m older the things that I like will be out of date. I can already see the kids of tomorrow, with their music systems the size of their thumbs laughing at how much room my collection of CDs takes up. But will games be one of the things that we can’t keep up with?
There are good arguments against this. For instance, computer games in any decent form have only been around for a short while. I mean I’m not that old, but I can remember the rise of the P.C. I know what a 286* looks like. A P.C. was not the first computer in my house that I can remember. The point is our parents didn’t grow up in the digital age. Computers back then needed to be the size of a room just to have enough processing power to play pong**. They weren’t surrounded by the computing power we have today. How could they possibly learn to play computer games? We, on the other hand are the gaming generation. Just because our parents can’t play games doesn’t mean we won’t be able to when we’re their age. As long as we can afford a few upgrades every now and then we’ll be fine.
Maybe this is the case. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing. But think for a minute. Why haven’t our parents learnt to play games? Not enough time to learn the essential skills maybe. Perhaps a lack of interest. Or maybe there is some truth in that old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. But we’re OK – we’ve learnt those essential gaming skills haven’t we? So things will be fine.
Providing those skills are still applicable.
Technology is moving fast – and it’s moving faster all the time. It took years for a home computer processor to reach the Gigabyte point, but then within a relatively short time they’d already reached 2 Gig. Computer games are also progressing quickly. Why do you need such a fast computer? To do school work? No – it’s to play the latest games without your P.C. dying on you. God only knows what games will be around in 10 or 20 years time. Will we even recognise them as games? Will our essential skills still be useful? Or will these new games be as incomprehensible and alien to us as our games are to our parents?
OK - I suppose we could learn new skills. Ones more suited to the new games. But will we have time? Its one thing to keep playing games when you’re working for a living, but will you have enough time (and motivation) to learn these new skills so they are as second nature to us as making an opponent eat rocket (for example…)?
So in conclusion – will we, in 20 years time, be staring slack jawed as our youngsters try to explain the newest gaming craze? Or will we still be able to hold our own? Will we be Old dogs or Old Masters?
I don’t really know the answers to all these questions. Maybe you do. But whatever the future of gaming holds for us all, remember there’s always a place for good old Nostalgia. And just think how fast you’ll be able to run Half Life…
----
Footnotes for the young:
* 286 - a computer from sometime around 5 or 10 pp (that’s Pre-Pentium)
** Pong – one of the first games around. Black and White. 2D. You controlled a line and had to stop a dot from getting past it. Meant to be a bit like tennis. Yes it was considered a game…
I think that it's a question of casual gamers and hardcore gamers.
Most of us on this site are hardcore gamers.
Hardcore gamers from the 70's have grown, evolved and develloped skills to stay competent at modern games.
Most of our parents, however, were casual gamers who used to just have the odd bash at Galaxians or Donkey Kong at the local arcade inbetween playing darts.
If you suddenly stopped playing games and suddenly started again in about 15 years time, you would be lost.
But keep playing, learning, adapting and evolving and you'll be just fine! :-)
Nice post by the way. Most Future of Gaming posts are all about the "Gamecube Vs PS2 Vs Xbox" console war that have been done again, and again, and again...
This future of our gaming is a pretty untouched area though.
GAD deserving in my humble opinion.
Most of us on this site are hardcore gamers.
Hardcore gamers from the 70's have grown, evolved and develloped skills to stay competent at modern games.
Most of our parents, however, were casual gamers who used to just have the odd bash at Galaxians or Donkey Kong at the local arcade inbetween playing darts.
If you suddenly stopped playing games and suddenly started again in about 15 years time, you would be lost.
But keep playing, learning, adapting and evolving and you'll be just fine! :-)
Nice post by the way. Most Future of Gaming posts are all about the "Gamecube Vs PS2 Vs Xbox" console war that have been done again, and again, and again...
This future of our gaming is a pretty untouched area though.
GAD deserving in my humble opinion.
A future without gaming as we currently know it? I get what you`re saying... my Dad was good at computer games in the day of Repton 3, Castle Quest and Pacman, but now he has no interest. Not even MGS will tempt him.
I guess this could happen to me in the future, seeing as I love computer games, but am also slow to adapt. I can`t imagine it though, not being able to fit in with the latest technology.
Good topic though, and a shame it didn`t win gameaday. It would have been a worthy winner.
I guess this could happen to me in the future, seeing as I love computer games, but am also slow to adapt. I can`t imagine it though, not being able to fit in with the latest technology.
Good topic though, and a shame it didn`t win gameaday. It would have been a worthy winner.
I think as we grow older our interest in the games will originally deplete slowly, from X hours to X-1 hours etc etc. But as we get wives, children, home, career we will realise more speedily that we have to give up games, at a point. And the gap between giving up games and your own children being able to play them may be so wide that you forget the joy you once got. Forget the buzz of that new cellophane wrapped RPG you been wanting for a year. Forget all those graphically intense intros and endings you once saw. And as your children's interest in video-gaming grows, your own will "die". And soon you will be your grandad, probably forgotten how to play those now graphically horrific games you played in 2002. So be grateful for the life you have with video gaming, because unless you get into the industry, your passion to play will eventually go.
I think :)
I think :)
how do you know that it didnt win GAD???
the only way i find out about the winners is when they update the things on the front page.
so can you tell me how???
thanks
the only way i find out about the winners is when they update the things on the front page.
so can you tell me how???
thanks