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What I was thinking about was the real potential of the on-line networks that companies and developers are planning to set up and finalise for each of the consoles. In some ways one of the biggest changes most of us will have seen in gaming, possibilities from this are endless so I decided it is about time I had a think and let you know just what I think some of the big things we could see from this that will benefit the gaming industry.
Ok first up is On-line regular updates for certain games, I'll talk about updates later but for now use two games as example. A football game like FIFA or Pro evolution soccer and a game like WWF Smackdown.
FIFA
Football is filled with it all, transfers, injuries, new stars. It is about time that we found a way to make games follow the real game as much as possible, this is where the on-line market could provide an extra little help. There could be an option for those who want to use it for regular updates that can be downloaded to a memory card or to a hard disk and then the game could check for them as it loads. The updates for football games could update squad lists, injuries etc so that it makes it seem closer to the real thing. It could allow us to play world cup style tournaments with all the teams that qualify.
Smackdown
A similar idea as above, here all the storylines and all the stars that fail to be included in the game could be added, reducing the difference between storylines on tv to what appear in the games, this would increase the overall appeal of the game and also make it last a lot longer and give more options to the gamer. It is an idea I would like to see used, just to see the full potential that these games are capable of and also to get rid of all those poor sequels with limited differences between the original game it is based on. The game could be set up to check for new updates and promt you to download them or continue without them.
Game Updates
It would be possible with an on-line network to allow updates to be downloaded on to a hard drive and run each time the game loads up. The updates could allow extra features like extra characters, levels, fix little problems. To make sure this works though all games would need to be of a high standard before release so that the updates are not an essential to make the game playable. As long as they don’t turn out in the same way as some PC game patches did in that they were needed to fix major bugs and without them the standard of the game was very poor. Like the two examples before for just regular updates it could be arranged to offer more in the way of making a game that bit better for us gamers.
Mass Multiplayers
Another idea that I not olny think is possible but could also offer something very special to the console industry - multiple player games. Instead of just having 2, 4 or 8 players playing we could see a lot more people taking part in the game. So for example we could see future on-line wrestling games where in a royal rumble match all the wrestlers are controlled by a human playing on-line somewhere in the world. This offers gamers something special and unique as it is something which is almost impossible to think of doing at home at the moment. Or how about a football game where you pick a team and enter a competition playing others who have picked different teams, like a world cup or european cup. The network you play on could also arrange a league and each time you and an oponent are on-line you could play your match. It is a new experience and one which I’m sure a lot of people would like to see implemented, could create some of the most interesting and fun to play games we have ever seen.
Start of competitions?
As I was going through all this another idea popped into my head, after writing a post a while back on professional gaming, another thing I thought more about today as well, I think that the on-line network could play a small part in the process of leading to more and more professional gamers. Small competitions could be set up and the best of the best could play against each other to determine a winner, at first competitions and prizes would be small but with the right approach to it all it could take of very fast.
Fully downloadable Games
Since I started playing games the storage medium games come on have changed, from tapes that take around 30 minutes to load to floppy disks, cartridges, CDs and now DVD's. Now what's next? A number of possibilities but I do see a possibility for games to be downloaded in a similar way to the updates mentioned onto a hard disk except it would be the full game, Ok so we would have to ensure that people can't find a way to obtain them free or pirate them - if they could then this idea is totally not worth it at all. But if the problems can be fixed then it could change things, hopefully lower the price of the games as it cuts out a lot of the middle men so profits go to the game developers - then they have more to spend on making their games even better.
There are advantages and disadvantages to this though, as with anything these days I presume, in that it would cut down costs and the use of a storage medium but on the other hand it could encourage people to try piracy and time it takes to download a full game, damage to file on the disk etc. Are the risks worth trying it or should this be avoided. As I think about it more and more the disadvantages are weighing out the advantages, but I could be missing some.
Testing
Another idea I think we could see is the idea of on-line testers. All pieces of software contain bugs and glitches, games being software are no different. There isn't much way of fully getting rid of all the bugs and glitches, in an ideal world every piece of software would be perfect and bug free but this very rarely happens. Most of the time the bugs are kept to a minimum and have no serious effect on the final version game at all.
Testing. It is an important part of any software development but is it carried out as well as it could and probably should. I have no idea how long games are tested for and how many people are involved but in my view it is an important stage in the games development and it should be taken serious. The problem I see is how long would it take to fully test a game? Surely there must be a time when they might as well stop and release the game as the bugs or glitches that are left probably have no effect at all.
Developers could allow users to download a small demo of the game and allow them to play and then give feed back to the developers about any bugs and improvements that could be made for the final version. I have been playing games for about 13 years and have never met anyone who has been involved in testing games, this way would allow us to get a preview of games and also give developers more options and help with the development of their games. They could allow people who have made good judgements on small demos and offered good feedback in the past to try a full copy before release. It would be beneficial to the developers and also give us all a chance to see if the game really is as good as planned and maybe offer feedback on how they could improve it or bits that have faults.
I know there are some obvious ones such as playing games on-line against one or a few other human players, that is the basic feature of it. We probably will also see extras such as demo clips, music etc being made available for games and others such as e-mail features are possible with the on-line gaming networks.
Well there you go, thats just some of the ideas I would like to see used and think we could well see in the future. Of course as they have never been seen then early goes could be very poor or not fully thought through, but the potential is there, just needs to be thought through and a combined effort from all console manufacturers, designers and game developers. It is unlikely to see anything of this size soon as technology and creating it all takes time, but the first developer who makes full use of it could be into something big, much bigger than anything I have seen in my many years of gaming. Looks like gaming could go on for quite some time. If you have any ideas that you think we could see then post them, I would be interested to here them.
Ok first up is On-line regular updates for certain games, I'll talk about updates later but for now use two games as example. A football game like FIFA or Pro evolution soccer and a game like WWF Smackdown.
FIFA
Football is filled with it all, transfers, injuries, new stars. It is about time that we found a way to make games follow the real game as much as possible, this is where the on-line market could provide an extra little help. There could be an option for those who want to use it for regular updates that can be downloaded to a memory card or to a hard disk and then the game could check for them as it loads. The updates for football games could update squad lists, injuries etc so that it makes it seem closer to the real thing. It could allow us to play world cup style tournaments with all the teams that qualify.
Smackdown
A similar idea as above, here all the storylines and all the stars that fail to be included in the game could be added, reducing the difference between storylines on tv to what appear in the games, this would increase the overall appeal of the game and also make it last a lot longer and give more options to the gamer. It is an idea I would like to see used, just to see the full potential that these games are capable of and also to get rid of all those poor sequels with limited differences between the original game it is based on. The game could be set up to check for new updates and promt you to download them or continue without them.
Game Updates
It would be possible with an on-line network to allow updates to be downloaded on to a hard drive and run each time the game loads up. The updates could allow extra features like extra characters, levels, fix little problems. To make sure this works though all games would need to be of a high standard before release so that the updates are not an essential to make the game playable. As long as they don’t turn out in the same way as some PC game patches did in that they were needed to fix major bugs and without them the standard of the game was very poor. Like the two examples before for just regular updates it could be arranged to offer more in the way of making a game that bit better for us gamers.
Mass Multiplayers
Another idea that I not olny think is possible but could also offer something very special to the console industry - multiple player games. Instead of just having 2, 4 or 8 players playing we could see a lot more people taking part in the game. So for example we could see future on-line wrestling games where in a royal rumble match all the wrestlers are controlled by a human playing on-line somewhere in the world. This offers gamers something special and unique as it is something which is almost impossible to think of doing at home at the moment. Or how about a football game where you pick a team and enter a competition playing others who have picked different teams, like a world cup or european cup. The network you play on could also arrange a league and each time you and an oponent are on-line you could play your match. It is a new experience and one which I’m sure a lot of people would like to see implemented, could create some of the most interesting and fun to play games we have ever seen.
Start of competitions?
As I was going through all this another idea popped into my head, after writing a post a while back on professional gaming, another thing I thought more about today as well, I think that the on-line network could play a small part in the process of leading to more and more professional gamers. Small competitions could be set up and the best of the best could play against each other to determine a winner, at first competitions and prizes would be small but with the right approach to it all it could take of very fast.
Fully downloadable Games
Since I started playing games the storage medium games come on have changed, from tapes that take around 30 minutes to load to floppy disks, cartridges, CDs and now DVD's. Now what's next? A number of possibilities but I do see a possibility for games to be downloaded in a similar way to the updates mentioned onto a hard disk except it would be the full game, Ok so we would have to ensure that people can't find a way to obtain them free or pirate them - if they could then this idea is totally not worth it at all. But if the problems can be fixed then it could change things, hopefully lower the price of the games as it cuts out a lot of the middle men so profits go to the game developers - then they have more to spend on making their games even better.
There are advantages and disadvantages to this though, as with anything these days I presume, in that it would cut down costs and the use of a storage medium but on the other hand it could encourage people to try piracy and time it takes to download a full game, damage to file on the disk etc. Are the risks worth trying it or should this be avoided. As I think about it more and more the disadvantages are weighing out the advantages, but I could be missing some.
Testing
Another idea I think we could see is the idea of on-line testers. All pieces of software contain bugs and glitches, games being software are no different. There isn't much way of fully getting rid of all the bugs and glitches, in an ideal world every piece of software would be perfect and bug free but this very rarely happens. Most of the time the bugs are kept to a minimum and have no serious effect on the final version game at all.
Testing. It is an important part of any software development but is it carried out as well as it could and probably should. I have no idea how long games are tested for and how many people are involved but in my view it is an important stage in the games development and it should be taken serious. The problem I see is how long would it take to fully test a game? Surely there must be a time when they might as well stop and release the game as the bugs or glitches that are left probably have no effect at all.
Developers could allow users to download a small demo of the game and allow them to play and then give feed back to the developers about any bugs and improvements that could be made for the final version. I have been playing games for about 13 years and have never met anyone who has been involved in testing games, this way would allow us to get a preview of games and also give developers more options and help with the development of their games. They could allow people who have made good judgements on small demos and offered good feedback in the past to try a full copy before release. It would be beneficial to the developers and also give us all a chance to see if the game really is as good as planned and maybe offer feedback on how they could improve it or bits that have faults.
I know there are some obvious ones such as playing games on-line against one or a few other human players, that is the basic feature of it. We probably will also see extras such as demo clips, music etc being made available for games and others such as e-mail features are possible with the on-line gaming networks.
Well there you go, thats just some of the ideas I would like to see used and think we could well see in the future. Of course as they have never been seen then early goes could be very poor or not fully thought through, but the potential is there, just needs to be thought through and a combined effort from all console manufacturers, designers and game developers. It is unlikely to see anything of this size soon as technology and creating it all takes time, but the first developer who makes full use of it could be into something big, much bigger than anything I have seen in my many years of gaming. Looks like gaming could go on for quite some time. If you have any ideas that you think we could see then post them, I would be interested to here them.
Yeah, XBOX live has most of the features, taken from www.xboxrules.com i found this :-
"On Friday, Nov. 15, the one-year anniversary of the launch of the most powerful video game system on the planet, Microsoft Corp. will launch its Xbox™ Live online game service and propel the North American gaming world into the future of video games.
At launch, more than 5,000 North American retail outlets will begin selling the Xbox Live Starter Kit for a suggested price of $49.95 (U.S.). For the price of a new game, the kit includes a one-year subscription to the broadband-only service, the highly anticipated Xbox Communicator headset and a minigame so gamers can start playing with their friends right away. Retail programs will be supported by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that will include advertising, retail communications and promotional activities.
In addition, at least six Xbox Live-enabled games are currently scheduled to be available on Nov. 15, with more than 10 others to follow by the end of the holiday season. Scheduled launch games for Xbox Live are 'Unreal Championship' from Infogrames Inc.; 'Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon' from Ubi Soft Entertainment; 'NFL 2K3' and 'NBA 2K3' from Sega Enterprises Ltd.; and 'Whacked!™' and “NFL Fever 2003” from Microsoft Game Studios. More than 50 Xbox Live-enabled games will launch during 2003, including 'Halo™ 2', 'Counter-Strike' and 'Star Wars: Galaxies.' More than 60 game publishers are currently working on Xbox Live-enabled games.
“We designed Xbox from day one to catapult console gamers online,” said J Allard, general manager of Xbox at Microsoft. “Xbox Live is the answer for gamers who want to take this next leap forward. Last year at this time, we took gaming to the next level by launching Xbox; now we’re in concert with our partners and the industry to ensure that Nov. 15 will once again be a great day for gamers and the industry. Xbox Live is the first unified gaming service that takes gamers beyond the box to a global gaming arena where they become the superstars.”
The Xbox Live service was part of the initial design of the Xbox console, taking into consideration specific feedback Microsoft received directly from gamers and game developers about what they wanted and expected from an optimal online gaming experience. Key to the service is the support of four datacenters: two in Seattle, and one each in London and Tokyo. These datacenters will enable Microsoft to assist publishers by managing the hosting, networking, security and billing so game creators can focus on awesome game content, and gamers can be comfortable with a single bill for all gameplay.
In addition, gamers will benefit from key, consistent features of the Xbox Live service across games from all publishers, including these:
Gamertag A player’s Gamertag will be the same for all games across the global gaming service.
Friends list Players will be able to find their friends online and invite them to a game, no matter which Xbox Live game they’re playing.
Xbox Communicator Voice communication functionality is integrated with all Xbox Live multiplayer games, enabling teammates and opponents to speak to one another during games. Key elements of this feature exclusive to Xbox include voice masking, global muting and parental control.
Matchmaking QuickMatch allows gamers to enter a multiplay experience with a single button click, and with OptiMatch, an Xbox Live exclusive, players will be able to select games and opponents based on similar skill levels.
Downloadble Content Ability to download content to the Xbox hard disk. Only Xbox enables console gamers to download and permanently store both free and for-a-fee content that can include new levels, characters, missions and statistics.
To date, more than 100,000 gamers have signed up for an opportunity to be beta testers for the Xbox Live service. Later this month, more than 10,000 of these gamers will be selected to participate in the final stage of the beta test. Details for the Xbox Live service launch in Japan and Europe will be announced in those markets in the coming months."
Sounds good ;)
"On Friday, Nov. 15, the one-year anniversary of the launch of the most powerful video game system on the planet, Microsoft Corp. will launch its Xbox™ Live online game service and propel the North American gaming world into the future of video games.
At launch, more than 5,000 North American retail outlets will begin selling the Xbox Live Starter Kit for a suggested price of $49.95 (U.S.). For the price of a new game, the kit includes a one-year subscription to the broadband-only service, the highly anticipated Xbox Communicator headset and a minigame so gamers can start playing with their friends right away. Retail programs will be supported by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that will include advertising, retail communications and promotional activities.
In addition, at least six Xbox Live-enabled games are currently scheduled to be available on Nov. 15, with more than 10 others to follow by the end of the holiday season. Scheduled launch games for Xbox Live are 'Unreal Championship' from Infogrames Inc.; 'Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon' from Ubi Soft Entertainment; 'NFL 2K3' and 'NBA 2K3' from Sega Enterprises Ltd.; and 'Whacked!™' and “NFL Fever 2003” from Microsoft Game Studios. More than 50 Xbox Live-enabled games will launch during 2003, including 'Halo™ 2', 'Counter-Strike' and 'Star Wars: Galaxies.' More than 60 game publishers are currently working on Xbox Live-enabled games.
“We designed Xbox from day one to catapult console gamers online,” said J Allard, general manager of Xbox at Microsoft. “Xbox Live is the answer for gamers who want to take this next leap forward. Last year at this time, we took gaming to the next level by launching Xbox; now we’re in concert with our partners and the industry to ensure that Nov. 15 will once again be a great day for gamers and the industry. Xbox Live is the first unified gaming service that takes gamers beyond the box to a global gaming arena where they become the superstars.”
The Xbox Live service was part of the initial design of the Xbox console, taking into consideration specific feedback Microsoft received directly from gamers and game developers about what they wanted and expected from an optimal online gaming experience. Key to the service is the support of four datacenters: two in Seattle, and one each in London and Tokyo. These datacenters will enable Microsoft to assist publishers by managing the hosting, networking, security and billing so game creators can focus on awesome game content, and gamers can be comfortable with a single bill for all gameplay.
In addition, gamers will benefit from key, consistent features of the Xbox Live service across games from all publishers, including these:
Gamertag A player’s Gamertag will be the same for all games across the global gaming service.
Friends list Players will be able to find their friends online and invite them to a game, no matter which Xbox Live game they’re playing.
Xbox Communicator Voice communication functionality is integrated with all Xbox Live multiplayer games, enabling teammates and opponents to speak to one another during games. Key elements of this feature exclusive to Xbox include voice masking, global muting and parental control.
Matchmaking QuickMatch allows gamers to enter a multiplay experience with a single button click, and with OptiMatch, an Xbox Live exclusive, players will be able to select games and opponents based on similar skill levels.
Downloadble Content Ability to download content to the Xbox hard disk. Only Xbox enables console gamers to download and permanently store both free and for-a-fee content that can include new levels, characters, missions and statistics.
To date, more than 100,000 gamers have signed up for an opportunity to be beta testers for the Xbox Live service. Later this month, more than 10,000 of these gamers will be selected to participate in the final stage of the beta test. Details for the Xbox Live service launch in Japan and Europe will be announced in those markets in the coming months."
Sounds good ;)
What I was thinking about was the real potential of the on-line networks that companies and developers are planning to set up and finalise for each of the consoles. In some ways one of the biggest changes most of us will have seen in gaming, possibilities from this are endless so I decided it is about time I had a think and let you know just what I think some of the big things we could see from this that will benefit the gaming industry.
Ok first up is On-line regular updates for certain games, I'll talk about updates later but for now use two games as example. A football game like FIFA or Pro evolution soccer and a game like WWF Smackdown.
FIFA
Football is filled with it all, transfers, injuries, new stars. It is about time that we found a way to make games follow the real game as much as possible, this is where the on-line market could provide an extra little help. There could be an option for those who want to use it for regular updates that can be downloaded to a memory card or to a hard disk and then the game could check for them as it loads. The updates for football games could update squad lists, injuries etc so that it makes it seem closer to the real thing. It could allow us to play world cup style tournaments with all the teams that qualify.
Smackdown
A similar idea as above, here all the storylines and all the stars that fail to be included in the game could be added, reducing the difference between storylines on tv to what appear in the games, this would increase the overall appeal of the game and also make it last a lot longer and give more options to the gamer. It is an idea I would like to see used, just to see the full potential that these games are capable of and also to get rid of all those poor sequels with limited differences between the original game it is based on. The game could be set up to check for new updates and promt you to download them or continue without them.
Game Updates
It would be possible with an on-line network to allow updates to be downloaded on to a hard drive and run each time the game loads up. The updates could allow extra features like extra characters, levels, fix little problems. To make sure this works though all games would need to be of a high standard before release so that the updates are not an essential to make the game playable. As long as they don’t turn out in the same way as some PC game patches did in that they were needed to fix major bugs and without them the standard of the game was very poor. Like the two examples before for just regular updates it could be arranged to offer more in the way of making a game that bit better for us gamers.
Mass Multiplayers
Another idea that I not olny think is possible but could also offer something very special to the console industry - multiple player games. Instead of just having 2, 4 or 8 players playing we could see a lot more people taking part in the game. So for example we could see future on-line wrestling games where in a royal rumble match all the wrestlers are controlled by a human playing on-line somewhere in the world. This offers gamers something special and unique as it is something which is almost impossible to think of doing at home at the moment. Or how about a football game where you pick a team and enter a competition playing others who have picked different teams, like a world cup or european cup. The network you play on could also arrange a league and each time you and an oponent are on-line you could play your match. It is a new experience and one which I’m sure a lot of people would like to see implemented, could create some of the most interesting and fun to play games we have ever seen.
Start of competitions?
As I was going through all this another idea popped into my head, after writing a post a while back on professional gaming, another thing I thought more about today as well, I think that the on-line network could play a small part in the process of leading to more and more professional gamers. Small competitions could be set up and the best of the best could play against each other to determine a winner, at first competitions and prizes would be small but with the right approach to it all it could take of very fast.
Fully downloadable Games
Since I started playing games the storage medium games come on have changed, from tapes that take around 30 minutes to load to floppy disks, cartridges, CDs and now DVD's. Now what's next? A number of possibilities but I do see a possibility for games to be downloaded in a similar way to the updates mentioned onto a hard disk except it would be the full game, Ok so we would have to ensure that people can't find a way to obtain them free or pirate them - if they could then this idea is totally not worth it at all. But if the problems can be fixed then it could change things, hopefully lower the price of the games as it cuts out a lot of the middle men so profits go to the game developers - then they have more to spend on making their games even better.
There are advantages and disadvantages to this though, as with anything these days I presume, in that it would cut down costs and the use of a storage medium but on the other hand it could encourage people to try piracy and time it takes to download a full game, damage to file on the disk etc. Are the risks worth trying it or should this be avoided. As I think about it more and more the disadvantages are weighing out the advantages, but I could be missing some.
Testing
Another idea I think we could see is the idea of on-line testers. All pieces of software contain bugs and glitches, games being software are no different. There isn't much way of fully getting rid of all the bugs and glitches, in an ideal world every piece of software would be perfect and bug free but this very rarely happens. Most of the time the bugs are kept to a minimum and have no serious effect on the final version game at all.
Testing. It is an important part of any software development but is it carried out as well as it could and probably should. I have no idea how long games are tested for and how many people are involved but in my view it is an important stage in the games development and it should be taken serious. The problem I see is how long would it take to fully test a game? Surely there must be a time when they might as well stop and release the game as the bugs or glitches that are left probably have no effect at all.
Developers could allow users to download a small demo of the game and allow them to play and then give feed back to the developers about any bugs and improvements that could be made for the final version. I have been playing games for about 13 years and have never met anyone who has been involved in testing games, this way would allow us to get a preview of games and also give developers more options and help with the development of their games. They could allow people who have made good judgements on small demos and offered good feedback in the past to try a full copy before release. It would be beneficial to the developers and also give us all a chance to see if the game really is as good as planned and maybe offer feedback on how they could improve it or bits that have faults.
I know there are some obvious ones such as playing games on-line against one or a few other human players, that is the basic feature of it. We probably will also see extras such as demo clips, music etc being made available for games and others such as e-mail features are possible with the on-line gaming networks.
Well there you go, thats just some of the ideas I would like to see used and think we could well see in the future. Of course as they have never been seen then early goes could be very poor or not fully thought through, but the potential is there, just needs to be thought through and a combined effort from all console manufacturers, designers and game developers. It is unlikely to see anything of this size soon as technology and creating it all takes time, but the first developer who makes full use of it could be into something big, much bigger than anything I have seen in my many years of gaming. Looks like gaming could go on for quite some time. If you have any ideas that you think we could see then post them, I would be interested to here them.
Ok first up is On-line regular updates for certain games, I'll talk about updates later but for now use two games as example. A football game like FIFA or Pro evolution soccer and a game like WWF Smackdown.
FIFA
Football is filled with it all, transfers, injuries, new stars. It is about time that we found a way to make games follow the real game as much as possible, this is where the on-line market could provide an extra little help. There could be an option for those who want to use it for regular updates that can be downloaded to a memory card or to a hard disk and then the game could check for them as it loads. The updates for football games could update squad lists, injuries etc so that it makes it seem closer to the real thing. It could allow us to play world cup style tournaments with all the teams that qualify.
Smackdown
A similar idea as above, here all the storylines and all the stars that fail to be included in the game could be added, reducing the difference between storylines on tv to what appear in the games, this would increase the overall appeal of the game and also make it last a lot longer and give more options to the gamer. It is an idea I would like to see used, just to see the full potential that these games are capable of and also to get rid of all those poor sequels with limited differences between the original game it is based on. The game could be set up to check for new updates and promt you to download them or continue without them.
Game Updates
It would be possible with an on-line network to allow updates to be downloaded on to a hard drive and run each time the game loads up. The updates could allow extra features like extra characters, levels, fix little problems. To make sure this works though all games would need to be of a high standard before release so that the updates are not an essential to make the game playable. As long as they don’t turn out in the same way as some PC game patches did in that they were needed to fix major bugs and without them the standard of the game was very poor. Like the two examples before for just regular updates it could be arranged to offer more in the way of making a game that bit better for us gamers.
Mass Multiplayers
Another idea that I not olny think is possible but could also offer something very special to the console industry - multiple player games. Instead of just having 2, 4 or 8 players playing we could see a lot more people taking part in the game. So for example we could see future on-line wrestling games where in a royal rumble match all the wrestlers are controlled by a human playing on-line somewhere in the world. This offers gamers something special and unique as it is something which is almost impossible to think of doing at home at the moment. Or how about a football game where you pick a team and enter a competition playing others who have picked different teams, like a world cup or european cup. The network you play on could also arrange a league and each time you and an oponent are on-line you could play your match. It is a new experience and one which I’m sure a lot of people would like to see implemented, could create some of the most interesting and fun to play games we have ever seen.
Start of competitions?
As I was going through all this another idea popped into my head, after writing a post a while back on professional gaming, another thing I thought more about today as well, I think that the on-line network could play a small part in the process of leading to more and more professional gamers. Small competitions could be set up and the best of the best could play against each other to determine a winner, at first competitions and prizes would be small but with the right approach to it all it could take of very fast.
Fully downloadable Games
Since I started playing games the storage medium games come on have changed, from tapes that take around 30 minutes to load to floppy disks, cartridges, CDs and now DVD's. Now what's next? A number of possibilities but I do see a possibility for games to be downloaded in a similar way to the updates mentioned onto a hard disk except it would be the full game, Ok so we would have to ensure that people can't find a way to obtain them free or pirate them - if they could then this idea is totally not worth it at all. But if the problems can be fixed then it could change things, hopefully lower the price of the games as it cuts out a lot of the middle men so profits go to the game developers - then they have more to spend on making their games even better.
There are advantages and disadvantages to this though, as with anything these days I presume, in that it would cut down costs and the use of a storage medium but on the other hand it could encourage people to try piracy and time it takes to download a full game, damage to file on the disk etc. Are the risks worth trying it or should this be avoided. As I think about it more and more the disadvantages are weighing out the advantages, but I could be missing some.
Testing
Another idea I think we could see is the idea of on-line testers. All pieces of software contain bugs and glitches, games being software are no different. There isn't much way of fully getting rid of all the bugs and glitches, in an ideal world every piece of software would be perfect and bug free but this very rarely happens. Most of the time the bugs are kept to a minimum and have no serious effect on the final version game at all.
Testing. It is an important part of any software development but is it carried out as well as it could and probably should. I have no idea how long games are tested for and how many people are involved but in my view it is an important stage in the games development and it should be taken serious. The problem I see is how long would it take to fully test a game? Surely there must be a time when they might as well stop and release the game as the bugs or glitches that are left probably have no effect at all.
Developers could allow users to download a small demo of the game and allow them to play and then give feed back to the developers about any bugs and improvements that could be made for the final version. I have been playing games for about 13 years and have never met anyone who has been involved in testing games, this way would allow us to get a preview of games and also give developers more options and help with the development of their games. They could allow people who have made good judgements on small demos and offered good feedback in the past to try a full copy before release. It would be beneficial to the developers and also give us all a chance to see if the game really is as good as planned and maybe offer feedback on how they could improve it or bits that have faults.
I know there are some obvious ones such as playing games on-line against one or a few other human players, that is the basic feature of it. We probably will also see extras such as demo clips, music etc being made available for games and others such as e-mail features are possible with the on-line gaming networks.
Well there you go, thats just some of the ideas I would like to see used and think we could well see in the future. Of course as they have never been seen then early goes could be very poor or not fully thought through, but the potential is there, just needs to be thought through and a combined effort from all console manufacturers, designers and game developers. It is unlikely to see anything of this size soon as technology and creating it all takes time, but the first developer who makes full use of it could be into something big, much bigger than anything I have seen in my many years of gaming. Looks like gaming could go on for quite some time. If you have any ideas that you think we could see then post them, I would be interested to here them.