As this current generation of consoles begins to compile a decent library of games it is becoming apparent that the current forms of gaming are not going to be receiving a lot more innovation. It almost seems as if we are about to hit the peak of improvement for the current ways we play games.
As I looked back on gaming as a whole I began thinking and formulated a theory. It takes three generations of conoles to perfect the gameplay and playability with the current way of playing games and then there is a paradigm shift in the way we play games. The shift that happened in the past was the transition of 2d into 3d. The 2d era started with the atari 2600, intellevision, and colecovision, then came the nes, and sms, and then came the genesis, snes, and turbographics (there are other consoles for these gens but I just mentioned the big ones). The 3d was from the saturn to current. The 2d and 3d eras did overlap slightly but primarily were seperated across these sets of consoles.
According to my theory the 3d era is coming to a close with this generation and we will see a shift in the way we play or interact with games for the next 3 generations of consoles. My speculations of what that shift might be are virtual reality, or full body motion sensing.
If there is no shift then games will probably cease to improve much. I have no doubt that they would improve graphically, but with how good the visuals are now I don't believe that this would improve the gameplay or playability (those who disagree with this statement here are probably graphics whores).
I believe that this current generation will definitely be the last in the 3d era and there will probably be no new consoles ,except for maybe a more powerfull nintendo console, until the technology or idea is there for the paradigm shift.
You might agree or disagree with my theory, but I believe I have made a good point. Please, feel free to comment arguing against or for this theory. I am ready to take on any argumant against this, but I will try to respect everyones opinions.
interesting
i think i know what your saying but i must ask. do you mean that there will be no new game consoles or do you mean that the way we play games will change completly in the next generation. if your saying that there will be no new consoles, then thats just silly. however, what i believe your saying is that with the next generation of consoles there will be something new. if that is the case then i will not argue against you. we know that the wii has profited substantially just from being the premier motion sensing console on the market. so whoever developes the next generation would probably look at that and say,"that sure does make money, i think we should try something like that." now i wouldnt go as far as to say VR or full body motion sensing, but at least something like the wii has now. i dont think console makers would get rid of 3-d games. to be honest im not entirely sure what you mean by the 3-d era comming to a close. technically they still make 2-d games like bionic commando rearmed, megaman, braid. the only difference is the way we play those games(like i believe you have mentioned). it would be stupid to say that the next generation will be just the same types of consoles with enhanced graphics. i personally think that the console makers will be looking at two things for the next gen other then your basic memory/graphics/processor upgrades. those would be motion sensing (as much as i hate it) and online capabilities.
sorry about some confusion
sorry about some confusion im not the best writer.
I never said 2d games had dissapeared i just meant there not the primary type on the market. Also what I meant with 3d era coming to a close was that something new would become the primary type like a motion sensing or vr era.
thank you for clarifying
while i know you said vr as an example of something to come i elieve that is a long ways off. motion sensing goes on now, as for full body motion sensing we are but a wii peripheral away from something like that. so its going on this generation. next generation would merely take steps toward perfecting the technology. the thing im afraid of is that companies will use the wii as a starting point for their consoles. i just hope that there is some kind of way that we can still use regular controlers with some of those games. while the wii isnt that bad itself, there are many developers (not all)who dont know how to use the motion sensing to its potential.
mind-controler for a game
next gens games will be controlled with our mind
http://www.physorg.com/news124723221.html
cool, huh?
seen it before
and it may or may not be what next gen will be because the technology has to be trained for each individual because of different brainwave patterns among people.
Though there is one that is currently being sold
http://www.pccyber.com/?v=product&i=JOY-OCZ-NIA