Submitted by stoneman217 t3_zu0kdg in Futurology
I’ve been thinking about the future of games, and how our culture recycles the format of games as technologies progress
Examples:
- Ancient / old board games (e.g., chess, risk)
- Sports from the 19th/20th centuries (e.g., baseball, football)
- Video games (e.g., fortnite)
Does it really make sense for all 3 to evolve into the next tech eras? (E.g., life size chess board in VR, realistic fortnite in VR, physically active sports in VR). Or, are there types of games that have a better success chance than others? I honestly think the older games will prevail because of … well… survivor bias.
b_lett t1_j1gms9e wrote
I think VR showed a lot of promise, but it's ultimately too uncomfortable for extended use. Stuff like Beat Saber and Half-Life Alyx is pretty much peak VR still, so it's not making a ton of leaps forward right now.
I've honestly just seen such a resurgence of old as much as people try to push new. Pixel art and retro games are arguably as strong as they've ever been with classic libraries existing on the Switch and indies being very affordable and on all platforms.
I've also seen a big uptick in table top gaming. Deck building games, Dungeons & Dragons and more are all on the rise.
I think playing games will always be a part of how humanity has fun. I think the question may be less about the format of the games themselves, and more about how humans choose to stay connected.
VR implies disconnecting personally in the same room, and being more online. And the way people are moving in online connectivity, it isn't VR. It's streaming, Discord servers, live chats, Twitch, messengers, etc. It seems a lot of people don't want to be so immersed into a game world they lose a lot of communication and interaction with other humans in the process.
I think gaming will move in all directions. So many niche markets and Kickstarters of all kinds are making it because people want a little bit of every thing. There won't be some homogenous push in one direction. Nintendo proved it by going back handheld when others were focused on graphics. How we play is often more important than what we play.
Just my two cents.