AceFondu

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Gaming's Future: The Past

So I got to thinking about gaming, its history and evolution, and where I expect to see it in ten years or so. Any good gaming analyst will ask these questions and probably do more research than I did. But from a gamers perspective, one that's seen the business since 1989, (I was 3 playing asteroids and Mario at the time) I've come to understand and appreciate all aspects of the industry, and how it chooses its next path.

Let's begin by looking at the past. In the past games had really two or three avenues. They would either be original properties, sequels to successful games, or games based off the popular movie at the time. To jump ahead, that hasn't changed...interesting point and I hope I've established a precedent.

Then we look at gaming genre's created and developed during the 80's. Shooters were the oldest that being asteroids and space invaders as long as you weren't counting 'Pong' as a game. Many new ideas came to light giving us platformers, RPG's, action adventure, racing, sports, strategy, and anything else I may have missed. The important thing to note here is the list of genre's in video games hasn't evolved much in the past 10 years or so save for the craze that is Guitar Hero and those peripheral games.

Sure, as the years went on graphics evolved, and controllers gained more buttons but what really was changing in gaming? Surprisingly, very little. The biggest jump we've had as of late has been the Nintendo Wii trying a motion control based system. They're marketing campaign struck a cord, and the Wii is a huge success, but will it usher in a new age of gaming? No, not at all. The Wii so far has only used it's motion controls as glorified buttons or joysticks. You waggle it to make Mario spin in Galaxy, or Link to swing his sword in Twilight Princess, nothing a button couldn't do. You can use it to steer a car, though far inferior to a joystick. The list goes on, and it's not a failure on Nintendo's part either. They instilled the 'idea' that gamers were playing differently, when really, they are playing the same games they have been for years, and for Nintendo that's been a massive success. Once this mystery is solved, people will gravitate towards upgrades they can see and hear in graphics and sound. Or, maybe Nintendo has made the first step in fully realizing a 3D gaming world we can interact with. This may still happen, but will it change the way we collect gold, new armor, or jump on goombas? I don't think it will.

And what is the future of gaming? Ultimately more of the same. But ironically, the gaming industry continues to grow every year, every quarter. Why this is the case is actually quite simple if you study the movie industry. Movies have been around far longer, and only the area of special effects and digital imaging has it improved. People aren't better actors, scriptwriters still use words out of the dictionary like anybody else, directors have new tools but they ensure the central characters remain in focus, and a story is still told traditionally with a beginning, middle, climax, and ending.

Case and point look at Capcom and the Mega Man series. This, by far is the most obvious and possibly not the greatest example, but the Mega Man series in its hay-day was the same for roughly 8 games. 6 of them were exactly the same. It sold very well each time. Only until the series evolved out of itself and into something different did its fanbase begin to abandon the series, though they picked up new fans in the process with some titles. Now Capcom is making a 'new' Mega Man game, which will be exactly like the first 6 it made.

Capcom is ahead of its time really, blatantly dipping its hand into the past, whereas other developers struggle to find some way to camouflage past ideas to make them appear new. I don't see this as a bad thing though, heck, I still go to the movies once a week.