the future of home entertainment

[Muscletang]

Since I've been discussing the Xbox 360 and PS3, it got me to thinking. It was 30 years ago that we were given the first video game system. So where do you see video games in the next 30 years?

The first system was around $120 and was a big hit. Now game systems are getting around $300-$500.

The graphics are mind blowing, no longer being basic colored circles and squares but close to photo realistic.

The games are very, very in depth with interaction we can't believe. Half Life 2 we can pick up everyday objects. Knights of the Old Republic allowed interactive conversations with characters.
This is way advanced over moving a yellow circle around a maze.

Game systems are becoming more than game systems. Atari could just play games. The new Xbox 360 and PS3 will play games, CDs, DVDs, web browsers, rumored TiVo, iPod, digital cameras, and who knows what else.
Sony and Microsoft both said they want game systems to be centers of a person's home entertainment system. Wanting them to control everything with ease.

So this brings me back to my question, where do you see things going in the next 30 years?

I see the game Monday Night Football in several years looking real. From the Goodyear blimp shot, down to the facial expressions of the players. You won't be able to tell the difference from a real football game.

I also see the games becoming so in depth as to being virtual reality. Nintendo I hear is doing this with their controler. It playing the game to the player's movements.
In 30 years, could we have virtual reality so advanced we feel we're in the game?

Finally, I see game systems becoming everything almost. They'll do cable, DVD, computer, CD, cameras, phones, stereo, whatever you can think of.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys feel on this subject because I'm sure most of you are gamers.

[xeroinfinity]

holographic 3D gaming and or movies too. First it was vhs, bata, and now the oh so cheap to make DVD. I see the dvd, as it is today, being obsoliet in 10 years. Or atleast a diiferent size and formats.
Remember those midi tapes before cd's? They were a flash in the pan, now only pack rats have them. Lol.

[blakscorpion21]

a system where you connect it to your brain somehow and play the game inside your head. total freedom to do anything all the game will have to supply is an enviroment, storyline, and set5 boundaries. everything will be totally interactive and anything you can do in your imagination is possible, as long as its inside the given boundaries.

[Oz]

Originally Posted by Muscletang

Since I've been discussing the Xbox 360 and PS3, it got me to thinking. It was 30 years ago that we were given the first video game system. So where do you see video games in the next 30 years?

The first system was around $120 and was a big hit. Now game systems are getting around $300-$500.

The graphics are mind blowing, no longer being basic colored circles and squares but close to photo realistic.

The games are very, very in depth with interaction we can't believe. Half Life 2 we can pick up everyday objects. Knights of the Old Republic allowed interactive conversations with characters.
This is way advanced over moving a yellow circle around a maze.

Game systems are becoming more than game systems. Atari could just play games. The new Xbox 360 and PS3 will play games, CDs, DVDs, web browsers, rumored TiVo, iPod, digital cameras, and who knows what else.
Sony and Microsoft both said they want game systems to be centers of a person's home entertainment system. Wanting them to control everything with ease.

So this brings me back to my question, where do you see things going in the next 30 years?

I see the game Monday Night Football in several years looking real. From the Goodyear blimp shot, down to the facial expressions of the players. You won't be able to tell the difference from a real football game.

I also see the games becoming so in depth as to being virtual reality. Nintendo I hear is doing this with their controler. It playing the game to the player's movements.
In 30 years, could we have virtual reality so advanced we feel we're in the game?

Finally, I see game systems becoming everything almost. They'll do cable, DVD, computer, CD, cameras, phones, stereo, whatever you can think of.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys feel on this subject because I'm sure most of you are gamers.

You sound like an ad for a games machine! You should become a salesman.

Mind blowing photo realistic graphics!!

[Oz]

Originally Posted by blakscorpion21

a system where you connect it to your brain somehow and play the game inside your head. total freedom to do anything all the game will have to supply is an enviroment, storyline, and set5 boundaries. everything will be totally interactive and anything you can do in your imagination is possible, as long as its inside the given boundaries.

Got acid?

[Damien]

^Thinkin the samething...

Here's the thing Kyle, we gotta fall before we can rise. Sure, consoles are nice and all...but I'm sure before we have this simply amazing VR, the company's will fall back into something a little less coo, small, sleek looking and it'll be laughed at by people in the future like, "what the heck!?!"

Who remembers virtual boy??? My eyes never were the same after playing that...

[inatalonIXLR8]

I experienced a virtual reality game at a science expo in Malaysia, way back in 1990. You had to stand within a circle, put a huge headset on, and walk around shooting other people using a joy stick to manuver around. The feeling was very engrossed even though there was definately a lack of graphics. I can't even imagine what they might have 16 years later. I did however see something on Discovery channel showing a huge sphere that you climb into and acually walk around. Very cool! Supposedly the military uses them for training. This thing was however way too big to put in a living room. My girlfriend aready complains if I leave a relatively small XBOX on the floor!

Here's an other thought - What about virtual sex? You and your partner could f#(k each other with head gear on, and be say, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Hell ya! You could even invite other online couples to engage next to you and have a masive group orgy in a real time environment where someone has set up cameras on a crowded beach in Hawaii.

Or how about even being able to take a virtual vacation where someone responds to your directional comands in real time with a 3-D video camera. Walking around the streets of some forien country. Ah, the future! There could even be real time, stationary multi-angle cameras at interesting places in the world that you could hop from one to the other to see what is going on around the world at that moment. Imagine being able to watch current events as they are happening live!

So ya, that's where I think we're heading.

[Muscletang]

I think things are going virtual too.

inatalonIXLR8 you raise a very good point. Maybe in a few years, asking "wanna cyber" in a Yahoo chat room will mean a little more.

Here's the thing I'm wondering. Will we just see it, or will we be able to feel it and stuff?
We all know the brain feels, sees, hears, smells, and taste from nerves.
What if some virtual reality system strapped to the back of your neck or something and inputted the electrical charges needed to make this environment? You could see the bad guy, touch the bad guy, hear him, stick your tongue out and taste the dirt on his jacket, and smell the jungle environment you're in.

Could this be possible? Or is it getting too complex to "trick" your brain into these false simulations?

[inatalonIXLR8]

I think it will always be limited to sight , sound, and perhaps smell. The sense of taste and touch would be difficult to manipulate. I have already heard of smells being used as trial in movie theatres to enhance the experience, but for the moment expensive to reproduce.

[knorwj]

hmmm are you sure about that price tag on the original gaming systems? I'm almost positve my mom said she paid 40 bucks or somehtign at sears for the atari system? And I'm almost positive my parents wouldn't have paid that much for a nintendo when they came out. Also I now for a fact I bought nintendo 64 for 125 bucks about 6-7 months after it cam out. So i think the old systems were quite a bit cheaper than 120.

[Muscletang]

Originally Posted by knorwj

hmmm are you sure about that price tag on the original gaming systems? I'm almost positve my mom said she paid 40 bucks or somehtign at sears for the atari system?

Yeah, my dad told me he got his when it first came out, at Sears, and it was like $110-$120. I'm not sure on the exact price but it's in that area.

[Rally Sport]

You know I was thinking, and I dont know about that neck brace thing that Muscletang mentioned, because say that you were playing a shooting game, be Halo, or Quake or your choice of game. Well if you did the back of the neck thing, wouldnt it be like the matrix, where if you died in the game your mind would make it real becuaase thats what it knows and wouldnt you actually die? So that raises a question..

[96Civ]

If video games are made too realistic, we are going to have problems recognizing virtual-reality from actual reality. Imagine not knowing if your still playing a game, or shooting people in real life? I will accept graphics and sounds, but nothing is touching my brainstem.

[Rally Sport]

Originally Posted by 96Civ

If video games are made too realistic, we are going to have problems recognizing virtual-reality from actual reality. Imagine not knowing if your still playing a game, or shooting people in real life? I will accept graphics and sounds, but nothing is touching my brainstem.

Yeah same here, I mean I think we should keep it inside the tv or something like 3D

[Muscletang]

Playstation 9

This is a commercial that was around when the PS2 first came out. I think it's a bit funny but it's along the lines of what we're talking about...

Interactive games