Blog Assignment: Future of Gaming

The future of gaming for me lies in the realm of storytelling. When people think of the future, the first thing they imagine is technology. You can imagine cool new interfaces that increase the immersivness of games. There will be more sophisticated cameras and VR devices that let you see and haptic devices that let you feel. As gaming becomes an an art form, our culture will elevate some players to idols. There will be game superstars who are paid to sell their performances. Tickets for their live shows would sell out in months in advance. While the future is glittery and exciting, it's not technology and skillz alone that will take us there.

What drives all of this progress is one fundamental thing that doesn't change - good content. In the several exercises where we had to come up with a game, the question I stumbled on frequently was, "Why play this game?" I wanted to find a story that would silence this question by providing a motivation and a sense of purpose. The future of gaming is better writing, better stories. I want to see the line between story and game so blurred they become meaningless distinctions.

The movie industry is huge. Why don't we do more to allow games to enhance linear stories? Imagine you slip your movie into your Xbox 3. During the viewing you get icons that appear on your screen that allow you to play the next scene. While the game does not change the linear story, you can experience all the frustrations of the setting and more deeply connect with the character's perspective. One concrete example is Open Wide, a children's storygame I just wrote. It makes games optional at points along the arc of the story. It shows the viewpoint of two characters through games. You could consider it a game with a lot of cutscenes and cinematics, but it's more of a story in which games are used to understand the motivations and behaviors of the characters.

In summary, games have an exciting future to enhance stories so that eventually the two shall become one.