Will commercial gaming die?

[mushindo]

Do you think that the gaming industry is slowly self-destructing? How long can you keep the public interested in gaming, when eventually, there'll be nothing to improve? Lets face it, eventually there'll be no hardware constraints hindering software development. Even before that, what can be made that will be considered fresh and new? I am all ready bored with most games today. I can't remember the last time I played a game and went WOW! to the entire game, and not just some aesthetic aspects. Many developers share similar pessimism. So what does everyone else think? Please, oh please, lets keep the comments intelligent and meaningful.

[Soeru]

Well, nothing lasts forever. I feel the same way, I haven't seen an extremely amazing game for about 2 years. But hey, there will always be room for improvement, I dont think gaming will die out any time soon.

[GODJonez]

As long as prices are low, commercial gaming has a chance.

[mushindo]

I could imagine it being 5-8 years before the industry goes into another funk like it did in the 80s, but who knows what'll happen by then

[Soeru]

The 80's gaming era...
/me quivers.
Who knows, a massive screw-up in the gaming industry might be just around the corner.

[Toto]

Yeah, it will. Reading up on statistics, Japan is dying. Not long before the rest of the world follows.

[Xaenn]

I don't know that it'll die any time soon. Take a look at movies. They've been around longer than video games and they surely don't have anything incredibly groundbreaking anymore. They can do pretty much whatever they want with special effects etc.

Therefore I believe when it's gets too the point where hardware/software aren't improving anymore, then there will have to be other appeals to get people into video games.

[Ifrit]

The coolest new game i've played so far is 007: everything or nothing. That game really has something in the car chase missions. Another cool thing was the last mission on Halo, i was amazed by it, it looked like a movie But yes i do admit, games are not going anywhere. Just take a look at the following games: True Crime, Max Payne 1/2, GTA III/VC, 007 EON. They all have the same type of controls and the same slow-mo effects.

[Norgus]

I went for the BAH!!!!! live forever etc..etc.. option.

The industry just cannot dissappear because once we are dead the next generation of kids won't have played the older games, so even if thee is no innovation games will continue to sell and be popular.

Once hardware and software has reached some kind of limit then they will have toi *gasp* make games with interesting storeyline, isnt that a strange idea?

[Deach]

I voted for "Yes it will perish, much like everything else."

But I couldn't really give a shit

[Ifrit]

Originally posted by Norgus
I went for the BAH!!!!! live forever etc..etc.. option.

The industry just cannot dissappear because once we are dead the next generation of kids won't have played the older games, so even if thee is no innovation games will continue to sell and be popular.

Once hardware and software has reached some kind of limit then they will have toi *gasp* make games with interesting storeyline, isnt that a strange idea?

Hey norgus your on to something. The new generation of kids generally dislikes older games cuz of the ugly graphics. But if there in the end was a limit, and all games started having about equal graphics, new kids would play the older games
And interesting storyline? The game company's gotta be really desperate to do something like that

[Norgus]

older games don't get kept on the shelves...
and seriously IF even the old games still kep[t selling then the gaming industry wouldnt have to make ANY new games, just keep selling a huge library of old ones.

[Hangman]

Well by having to make machines no longer game-only consoles but "multimedia machines" shows that the market is getting more demanding. Personally I think the casual gamers will get fed up of all the medicore shit and just stop playing, leaving only true game players left to lap up proper video games. This is where I think Nintendo may get back as market leader again...

[Nima D'Graven]

Yes and no.

According to Sociology (or as far as I can remember from what I was taught almost three years ago) you go through "ages" or times when things are more important and prolific to the World.

Currently, our society is at an age when the Computer is one of the vital things in our time.

Mainly people consider a computer to merely be a PC or a console. But it isn't. A computer is a mobile phone, a kettle, an oven, a microwave, the TV.

In the past there has been the Agricultural age and the Industrial age, and these have both died out and been replaced by something else.

The computing age is slowly but surely following suit (job wise). For example, TV's, video's and DVD's are coming to a point were the expense isn't that great anymore.. So if your TV or video breaks, you simply replace it with a brand new one. Whereas, a man or woman with a job used to repair that TV, etc. People call this "The throw-away trade."

I'm a firm believer in the fact that when you start to lose jobs, then a certain age or trade is dying or it is becoming that way.

Of course it is a slow process, but I think people in our generation may only just START to see a touch of the computing age dying. I know all of you may laugh and say, well what can replace computers?

But did people in the Industrial age ever forsee computers? I don't think so, and even if they did, it would probably be all, "Ahh, ahh heretic, die die!"

However, the most important thing to realise (Especially where gaming is concerned) is that there's always something new coming onto the market.. MMORPG's probably being the largest and greatest improvement to the Gaming market's economy.

Bare in mind that according to figures (Regardless of them being biased or not, I'm not sure of their validity) that gaming makes MORE profit than Hollywood per year.

So depending on how you see it, it might be going either way.

[Norgus]

The industrial and agricultural ages may have passed, but there is still most definately a requirement for both.

Computers are devices that compute, every year we trust computers to do more for us. They may get much faster and use new methods that make them unrecogisibly different but they will still be computers. The need will never die (short of some kind of resource problem).