Not-too-distant Future Gaming Features

Opinion from Jae - Sunday, 24 January 2010 @ 1:20pm

I often think about the future. Where am I going to travel to next year, how many kids I’m going to have and what pair of underwear I should where tomorrow night. All very hard decisions which are dependant on a lot of factors. For example how many kids I’ll have depends on my wife, my sperm and the house I have. Which pair of underwear I wear depends on my wife, my sperm and which house I’ve left a clean pair in. What I’m trying to say is that everything in the future is dependant on what is available at the time. So think about the near future, the next 1-10 years. What do you think gaming will incorporate to make things better? The obvious things will always be graphics and sound, the easiest avenues to please gamers and get a sense of immersion. So think a little more about the features we’ve introduced over the past decade that are now the norm. Online multiplayer, user created content and motion control just to name a few. I’ve had a think about some that could crop up over the next few years.

No more need for LARP, put your friends faces in games

Facial recognition and personality implementation
This is not necessarily new technology but its something that can become part of common features in games. Some current sports and FPS games give you the ability to take your face and place it onto a player in the game. That is simply the beginning of what can be done. Ideally in the future every game should be able to somehow place your avatar into it. Or perhaps a game can read the content on your machine and use it in your gameworld. Imagine a game like Heavy Rain where you could bring up a menu through your wallet. Within the pages of the menu you could see photos in the background of your family. Or how about a game like Zelda where all the NPCs in your village had the facial and body proportions of those familiar to you in real life. Not only can this tech be used for in-game features but also console security. Fingerprint ID and facial recognition is being used on many laptops and PCs today so you may see these additions in newer consoles. We could go as far as combining facial recognition to gamer age rating. If a kid is too young then certain games or content will be blocked. Ideas just keep popping up in my head when I think about this. Maybe it’s time to get out of the finance industry and into the inventor’s guild.

In Japan cigarette machines use facial recognition to ID your age

Age based content
Following on from facial recognition technology we could consider age based content. Games could have a universal rating suitable for all ages but have content available to the age of the player. With our constant moans and groans about having an R18+ rating, technology can possibly be our saviour to this in the future. Imagine a console scanning your face and determining your age. The age it determines is then programmed into the game you’re playing. Therefore you could buy one copy of Left 4 Dead 6 or Modern Warfare 9 and let the whole family play it. Dead bodies and airport massacres would only be available to the older gamers and kids would get the nerfed version with daisies popping out of bullet wounds. That’s an extreme example but you get my point. Developers and publishers would have little to worry about in terms of game bans as they can cater a game by limiting content to certain ages. Most would oppose, arguing that there can be workarounds to circumvent age based content but I’m sure some smart cookie out there will make this technology possible.

Cross platform: Not just a ladies shoe

Cross platform online multiplayer
To me this one is a no brainer. It was done with games as far back at Quake 3 Arena and Phantasy Star Online. Fast forward 10 years and we really haven’t gotten anywhere. It probably has something to do with every console maker being competitive but in an era where physical space is limited in homes a single console may be all gamers can fit in their living rooms. Said gamer would then be eager to play Team Fortress 13 on his PS6 with PC users and Sega ReDreamcast users (because in my future the DC will make a comeback and Sega will be no.1 again!). I would be more inclined to buy a game if I knew millions would be playing it cross platform making it a long lasting title. The difficulty here would be balancing things out. An RTS would be faster to navigate on a PC than a current console controller so something needs to be able to conquer these sort of barriers.

Localised content
This one is rather controversial because content can be rated or reviewed differently in different regions. I don’t see this as a problem, more so an opportunity to build gaming journalism credibility in localised countries. It’s currently done on a very basic level with games like Singstar. Content is available exclusively, but should be unexclusively, for particular regions. Your next Street Fighter game could have Australian voiced actors or slogans that are true blue dinky-di Aussie. I’d LOL if I saw Ryu yell “Take that Sheila” or Blanka saying “Fully sic” when he electrocutes you. I believe this feature can work well but freedom needs to be available too. If I were a pom living in Australia I’d still want to be able to put Manchester United deco onto my Lotus Elise in Forza 6. An easy solution would be to open up content to everyone but categorise by specific regions. That way multiculturalism and localised content can live happily every after.

Real World based conditions
In terms of world based conditions we’d be looking to take things further than a simple day and night lighting mechanic. Much like Animal Crossing (which doesn’t take into consideration that it’s hot in Australia from Dec – Feb i.e. not snowing!) we can build weather and real world conditions into a game. If the real world was going through a global financial crisis your shops in Final Fantasy XX would sell items cheaper to gain more business or you’d see more people on the streets complaining about how they’ve lost their jobs. The price of petrol goes up in real life so the cost to maintain your car in Grand Theft Auto 8 goes up. Knowing Rockstar they’d probably allow a mod where you can kill all the oil tycoons in the Middle East to make oil cost less!

Universal transaction medium
This is the next step beyond a credit card. Imagine a card that was the size of your SIM card that sat in your phone, on a watch or imbedded into your neck. Yes I do watch a whole bunch of cheesy Sci Fi here and there. This UTC (universal transaction card) can be scanned to buy grocery checkouts, mobile phone billing companies, pay for your videogames on Steam/PSN/Xbox Live as well as hold your universal ID avatar. It would eliminate the need for memory cards, wallets and stupid passwords for all your online gaming registers. It would be efficient to have a console scan your neck, pick up your ID and let you get straight into a game without 5 or 6 menu layers of choosing your profile. I’d say something like this is a little further out than just a decade so look out for something similar when you’re putting on your adult diapers or giving your grandchildren the “back in my day” lecture.

Card scanner a shape of things to come

As we constantly evolve in the science of technology the possibilities are endless. What can now seem impossible will most likely be introduced in a few decades. We are lucky to be living in the world today with the games we have but I can’t help but think what the future holds. I can’t wait till someone makes that sex booth in Minority Report either. Or maybe that kinky brain helmet from Demolition Man.