The future of games and technology

Its interesting to see how games is becoming a huge industry, with many more outlets then simply entertainment. The nature of the game is the users interaction with the virtual world and characters. Many companies and universities are using these specially developed games to train staff and students. This practical approach they claim is a safe way to really get to grips with complicated tasks, e.g. medical students can learn on a virtual system to practise complicated procedures, such as heart surgery.

Chris crawford studies narrative and interactivity. He feels gaming is the next step in communication, the same way TV and films and then the internet have influenced the way we communicate and learn.

ESA  (European Space Agency) is keen on the development of virtual worlds as they claim building new worlds, based on space exploration, can be used for training.
However one danger of this type of use is if the virtual world is inaccurate then the training could be invalid. Perhaps this raises the issue that it is important to remember that  the real world will always be more unpredictable and compared to  virtual worlds, that will have a certain amount of randomness built in, it is still a human construct with cycles and patterns. atleast, at the moment.

With developers of virtual worlds looking to push the bar in what they can achieve, their next step is creating a greater variety of particle forms and behaviour as well as greater A.I. Particle systems are whats used to build objects and characters in a 3D space. This system is mainly used for game design and has been developed for this reason. However it is not exclusive to this.






These 2 videos looking at the latest of what microsoft is working on. And many people have come to the same conclusion. Why not combine 3D TV with motion controllers. This is the closest step to accesible virtual reality gaming. And as gamings uses can be used for more than just entertainment, this could mean exciting new oppurtunities for companies and other institutions who would want to take advantage of this.

These links to blogs and peoples own opinion polls and pocasts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHnRNYj3DY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c3oqRlIJ3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmUQKStba10
http://123kinect.com/kinect-3d-screen-without-glasses/