Wednesday 19 November 2008

History of Video Games: 2000's - the future

In the past, video games caught the attention of gamers by a simple but effective structure in the storyline, characters and technique to playing the game. ‘Tetris’ proved to have an addictive quality to it in 1985 due to the simplicity of the game play which maintained the player’s attention. Realism in gaming is the most common trend of development from previous computer games along with interesting storylines to capture the gamers’ attention.

When the first games with smoother game play, 3D graphics and digitalized images of actors for characters were released, this became a major breakthrough for the gaming industry which developed to remarkable realism in games we see today. Such examples are ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Street Fighter II.’

The industry faces the rising demands of consumer’s expectations for smooth, quick motion graphics and movement along with amazing realism. Companies are under pressure to make their games unique with a competitive edge to make sure their rivals do not ‘win’ their current and potential markets. Reviews from serious gamers can affect the sales of games as some people rely purely on reviews when making a decision about purchasing a game instead of experiencing the game first hand. More negative reviews may lose potential buyers, therefore leading to poor sales.

Introducing virtual reality games with astounding realism is what I ideally want from gaming in the future and this probably is also expected from consumer demands. Tournament games and missions where a group of people can play in a virtual world would be a new, diverse step in gaming. The game would be played by wearing sensors to capture movement and simple headgear to view the virtual world as though the player’s are in a real environment. This could prove to be a success as the ‘Nintendo Wii’ has shown with the early stages of this development. Being able to play one of my favourite combat games ‘Tekken’ in a virtual world would be an amazing experience, taking gaming to a new level.

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