future of gaming essay

What Does the Future of Gaming Look Like?

From virtual reality to artificial intelligence, these technologies are shaping the future of video games.

Video games have steadily risen in popularity for years. And with the  social benefits of video games becoming more apparent, the trend has only accelerated. Gaming is now a bigger industry than movies and sports combined .

Revenue for the global gaming industry reached $183.9 million in 2023, with the number of global gamers surpassing 3.3 billion. It’s not just kids either — the age of the average gamer has jumped from 29 in 2004 to 36 in 2024.

So what’s next? Culturally,  gaming will only continue to become more mainstream. But what tech innovations are shaping the future of video games, and how will they influence the  gaming experience ?

The Future of Gaming

• Virtual reality
• Augmented reality
• Artificial intelligence
• Cloud gaming
• High-fidelity graphics
• Free-to-play
• The metaverse

Virtual Reality

For decades,  virtual reality (VR) — three-dimensional simulations players access via headsets — has tantalized gamers with the prospect of a fully immersive experience. But the technology has been slow to deliver on that promise — although projections still have the VR and AR market reaching $370 billion by 2034, the market still only sits at $11.5 billion in 2024. And despite its buzzy status, it continues to give many consumers pause. 

“Right now we’re sort of in this trough of disillusionment about VR,” Kevin Mack, a VR game developer, told Built In in 2020. “There was a lot of hype around it in 2015 and 2016, and then the whole world sort of got butt-hurt that their first-generation VR headset didn’t instantly morph into the Holodeck .”

Although VR has hit a few bumps along the way, tech and  gaming companies are busy trying to advance the industry, investing considerable resources to develop VR hardware and games. Companies like Meta , Valve ,  PlayStation and Samsung have all ventured into the VR industry over the last several years. Apple is even jumping in on the action with the release of its Vision Pro headset . This trend of investment is likely to continue with the VR game industry projected to grow at  30.5 percent by 2028 .

While VR headsets have developed a reputation for being pricy, bulky and uncomfortable for gaming, companies have been busy making VR more appealing to a wider audience , and hardware prices are dropping. But even when those hurdles are cleared, the fact that the typical VR experience is so socially isolating might limit its upside.

“[VR] is a solitary experience. It’s a thing that you’re doing on your own and it’s a thing that you choose to do to the exclusion of anything else,” Mack said. He enjoys playing VR games, but if someone else is around, he thinks twice before strapping the headset on.

However, this may not always be the case. Mitu Khandaker, a professor at New York University’s Game Center, is hopeful about VR’s role in gaming, she said in a 2020 interview with Built In. Khandaker doesn’t think it’s just going to look like people alone in their homes playing through a headset, so much as a co-located experience that multiple people share in.

“I think that the future of VR is more through social VR,” she said.

Indeed, several VR games — such as  Rec Room and  VRChat — offer social experiences where users can interact and hang out with each other in real time. If VR unlocks more connections with other people, it will be able to earn a prominent place in the future of gaming .

Related Reading 23 Virtual Reality Companies to Know

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) — a kind of gaming technology that superimposes digital images onto the physical world, typically through smartphones or special glasses — broke out onto the gaming scene in 2016.

That’s when parks and plazas swarmed with smartphone-wielders playing Pokémon Go , an AR mobile game in which digital objects — in this case, colorful critters called Pokémon — overlay a person’s natural field of view. The game, which has generated over $8 billion in player spending since its release, was most people’s first brush with AR and remains one of the technology’s biggest success stories.

The game’s secret sauce is its blend of virtual and real , the interplay between digital characters and physical locations. That’s partly why AR took off faster than VR: People have an appetite for games that interact with reality, not remove them from it.

“I think the entertainment experiences in AR aren’t going to try to be immersive experiences,” Mack said. “When I was playing [ Pokémon Go ], I would go to specific places just because there was a Pokémon there. And that’s a powerful social driver.”

Further out into the neighborhood — rather than deeper inside goggles — was the x-factor that led to the  network effect that propelled Pokémon Go into a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon. Its success will no doubt inspire more game studios to capitalize on the consumer demand for games that blend the virtual with the real.

Rogelio Cardona-Rivera, a professor at the University of Utah’s School of Computing, likewise predicts that, in the short term at least, AR will prove to be more fertile ground for game designers than VR.

“Instead of trying to simulate reality altogether, I think designers might find complementing reality a more trackable design challenge,” he told Built In in 2020. “And then we might see some of the lessons from AR folded back into VR.”

AR gaming is most recognizable on mobile phones, but tech companies like Meta and Magic Leap are expanding into AR glasses . Magic Leap’s lightweight, glasses-style headset is specifically made for enterprise applications like healthcare, design and manufacturing. With Meta expected to release its own AR glasses in 2024 , there are sure to be new innovations for gamers interested in AR in the coming years.  

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been used in gaming for decades — most prominently in non-player characters, or NPCs, like the colorful ghosts in Pac-Man or the innocent bystanders in Grand Theft Auto . 

AI in Non-Player Characters

In recent years, game makers have taken a more sophisticated approach to NPCs. Many NPCs are now programmed with behavior trees, which allow them to perform more complex decision-making. The enemy aliens in Halo 2 , for example, have the ability to work together and coordinate their attacks, rather than heedlessly beeline into gunfire one by one like they’re in a cheesy action movie.

 Still, NPCs can only do what is written in their code. Their behavior, however intelligent it seems, is still determined in advance by the game’s designers. In the future, we could see more advanced AI appear in commercial games, but not all are convinced it’s coming anytime soon.

“You can try and build a really cool, comprehensive AI system which is about letting a character behave in all kinds of ways the designer hasn’t anticipated,” Khandaker said. “But if there’s too much of that, there’s no guarantee about which way the story will go and whether it’s going to be any fun.”

In addition to presenting game design challenges, free-range NPCs may be a non-starter when considered from a purely economic perspective.

“Games are a pretty conservative industry, in terms of the willingness that publishers or studios have to take risks,” Khandaker said. “Because there is such a great history in terms of design for what does work in games, there’s a real sense of wanting to keep doing that same thing.”

Putting more sophisticated NPCs in games may be possible. But if it costs a lot of money and fails to improve the player’s experience, studios lose an incentive to make it happen. Still, some designers persist in  NPC enhancements , especially in figuring out ways to make NPCs more believable and human-like .

“The biggest challenge for AI is to mimic what is perhaps the most complex and mysterious capacity of the human brain: imagination,” Julien Desaulniers, the programming team lead of AI and gameplay on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla ,  told GamesRadar . “Having AI generate narrative content is taking this to a whole new level.” 

Generative AI in Gaming

For several years now, designers have been using AI to help them generate game assets , which frees them up from painstakingly drawing each individual tree in a forest or rock formation in a canyon. Instead, designers can offload that work to computers by using a technique called procedural content generation, which has become standard practice in the industry. 

Procedural content generation is also used to create game levels, so the player can enjoy a fresh experience each time. The 2016 game  No Man’s Sky took this technique to the extreme, as the entire open-world environment of the game is procedurally generated and was not sketched out ahead of time by the game’s creators.

Some game makers also rely on  neural networks to tailor-make game levels for players through a process NYU professor Julian Togelius calls experience-driven procedural content generation.

In 2009,  researchers collected player data for Super Mario , quantifying each player’s preferences as they played. Maybe a level had too many jumps and not enough sewers, or coins were hard to reach and bad guys were too easy to defeat. Researchers fed player data to a computer. Once the computer digested the information, it spat out new levels that reflected the player’s preferences. 

AI in the Future of Gaming

While AI generates game assets and, in some cases, entire levels, the livelihoods of human designers aren’t in jeopardy — at least not yet.

“For the foreseeable future, we will not have AI systems that can design a complete game from scratch with anything like the quality, or at least consistency of quality, that a team of human game developers can,” Togelius wrote in his 2018 book  Playing Smart .

While AI may not create entire games yet,  AI-generated art may change the graphics industry in the future. One designer even used AI art to  create a horizontal-scrolling shooter game in just three days. 

Playing with AI art might be fun for creators, but academics and game designers alike are still trying to implement AI systems that will control the game in a way that is engaging for the player. Cardona-Rivera envisions a future in which AI acts as a game master that calls the shots for a human player.

“Imagine what it would mean to have an AI ‘director’ who’s looking at what you’re doing and directing the unfolding experience for you,” he said. “That’s kind of like what my research is trying to do and what a lot of interesting work in the field — not just me — is trying to do.”  

More on AI The Future of AI: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the World

Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming , sometimes called game streaming, is a kind of online gaming that allows players the ability to stream games directly on their device by accessing video games from faraway servers, in the same way they stream Netflix movies on their smart TVs without needing to pop in a DVD first.

In theory, this arrangement makes the gamer’s local hardware less relevant — they can stream the games regardless of their device. And since cloud gaming is typically pitched as a subscription service, it’s moving gamers away from a mentality of owning physical media and toward one of renting digital content.

In the past few years, Sony and Microsoft , which have long been the console gaming incumbents, have rolled out their own cloud gaming services. Gaming chipmaker Nvidia has too. Even Big Tech is getting in on the action. Amazon debuted its cloud gaming offering —  called Luna — in 2020. Even Netflix has started  getting into cloud gaming .

Since it’s expected to surpass $143 billion by 2032 , global cloud gaming is likely here to stay. Gamers without a strong WiFi connection might have laggy cloud gaming experiences, but with the growing number of people who have internet access , that’s likely to change.

High-Fidelity Graphics

PC gaming companies like Nvidia and AMD have made great strides in creating graphics cards that allow for high-fidelity images in games and techniques like ray tracing. High-fidelity graphics are when a game has 3D imagery with a multitude of complex vertices, the points in space where line segments of a shape meet. High-fidelity games usually have ray tracing technology too. 

In the past, things like shadows and reflections and lens flares were essentially painted onto objects within the game. This gave the illusion that light was coming from the sun or moon and reacting as it would when it hit a surface. With ray tracing, an algorithm actually simulates the behavior of light on objects within a game. 

The technology is expected to be a game changer — if consumers are able to get their hands on it. A chip shortage has plagued the industry for the past few years, but there are signs that the shortage is receding . 

Not all games of the future will be designed for such realistic graphics. Especially not indie games. The way Mack sees it, there are two distinct routes game developers can take when it comes to graphics.

One approach is to hire tons of visual artists and technicians to supply vast amounts of art for high-fidelity graphics. That means big budgets, big teams and increasingly realistic graphics, down to every last speck of dirt. This approach is more often used in triple-A games (high-budget games made by big game publishers).  

The other approach is to produce a more stylized — in some cases cartoonish — aesthetic for your game. That way, the costs stay down but the game still looks cool and dodges the criticism: “It doesn’t look realistic!” Mack said this approach is becoming more and more common in the mobile VR space.

Read Triple-A Game Publishers Are Finally Taking Accessibility Seriously

Free-to-Play Games  

Free-to-play games have  exploded in popularity over the past several years, and the free-to-play game market is expected to maintain a value of over $83.2 billion in 2024 .

Many free-to-play games make money from ads, but some games, like Overwatch and Apex Legends , are  free to play but have in-game purchases — like battle passes and skins — that drive revenue.

Several gaming companies are seeing the benefits of offering free-to-play games with in-game purchases. Activision Blizzard, the company behind Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty , reported that it made  $2.46 billion from in-game purchases within a single quarter in 2023.  

The Metaverse

A concept popularized by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science-fiction book Snow Crash , the  metaverse is best understood as an online cyberspace, a parallel virtual realm where everyone can log in and live out their (second) lives . Ideally, the metaverse will combine both virtual and augmented reality, have its own functioning economy and allow complete interoperability.

While we may be a long way off from that, hints of the metaverse are increasingly evident. You see it in gaming platforms like Roblox , where luxury fashion brands like  Gucci host events , and in games like Fortnite, where users can dress up as their favorite Star Wars or Marvel characters and watch virtual music concerts .

The number of companies working to build the metaverse is growing, and it’s only a matter of time before the metaverse, like the internet, will be used for more than just gaming . It may incorporate office work as well. 

But the definition of gaming is expanding. It’s no longer about competition, but connection. If the current trends and future forecasts of the gaming industry clue us into anything about ourselves, it’s that our desire to connect far outpaces our desire to escape.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the future of gaming.

Gaming could become more enhanced, thanks to AI improving non-player characters, AR and VR technologies offering more engaging experiences and cloud streaming making it possible to play games on multiple platforms. In addition, gaming could shift to more mobile formats as free-to-play games on mobile phones grow in popularity.

What will gaming be like in 2050?

Considering the various developments in gaming, it’s very possible that gaming in 2050 could involve immersive games taking place in extended reality environments. These games may also contain highly advanced AI-powered characters and lifelike graphics.

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What is the Future of Gaming?

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Buddhika Jayasingha, What is the Future of Gaming?, ITNOW , Volume 64, Issue 3, Autumn 2022, Pages 8–9, https://doi.org/10.1093/combul/bwac073

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The gaming industry is changing, and it’s changing fast, writes Buddhika Jayasingha, an IT specialist at Future Fish. Before we know it we’ll be playing new types of games in ways we’d never previously imagined.

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How the business of gaming is evolving

January 23, 2022 With an increasing number of people playing, broadcasting, and watching esports, the already booming, multi-billion dollar gaming ecosystem is reaching even greater heights. As the Call of Duty League (#CDL2022) hosts its Kickoff Classic this weekend, and against the backdrop of industry consolidation, it’s a good time to get up to speed on the business of gaming. Dive deeper with insights on the topics that matter, including:

• the digital ecosystems powering today’s increasingly borderless economy
• how brands can build knowledge and credibility in esports
• why digital subscriptions don’t easily translate to video games
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Essay on Video Games

Students are often asked to write an essay on Video Games in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Video Games

Introduction.

Video games are interactive digital entertainment platforms. They are played on devices like computers, consoles, or mobiles.

Types of Video Games

There are many types of video games. Some are educational, others are adventure-based or sports-themed.

Benefits of Video Games

Video games can improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and strategic thinking. They can also be a fun way to relax.

Drawbacks of Video Games

Excessive gaming can lead to health issues like eye strain and lack of physical activity. It can also impact social skills if not balanced with real-world interactions.

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of interactive entertainment, have evolved dramatically from their rudimentary origins in the 1970s. They have penetrated almost every aspect of modern society, becoming a significant part of our culture and a powerful force in the entertainment industry.

The Evolution of Video Games

In their inception, video games were straightforward, consisting of basic graphics and gameplay. However, as technology advanced, so did the complexity and visual appeal of these games. Today, video games are immersive experiences, boasting high-definition graphics, complex narratives, and intricate gameplay mechanics.

The Impact on Society

Video games have a profound impact on society. They have transformed how we spend our leisure time, and have even created new professions, such as professional e-sports players and game developers. In addition, video games have educational potential, as they can develop problem-solving and strategic thinking skills.

Controversies and Criticisms

Despite their popularity, video games have attracted controversy. Critics argue that they promote violence, addiction, and social isolation. However, research on these issues remains inconclusive, and many argue that the benefits of video games outweigh potential negatives.

500 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of digital entertainment that has dramatically evolved over the past few decades, have become a significant part of contemporary culture. They offer a unique blend of interactive storytelling, art, and technology, engaging players in a way that no other medium can. Video games are more than just a pastime; they are a platform for expression, learning, and innovation.

The history of video games is a testament to the incredible technological advancements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From the rudimentary pixel graphics of the 1970s to today’s immersive virtual reality experiences, video games have continuously pushed the boundaries of what is technologically possible. They have transformed from simple, solitary experiences into complex, social phenomena, connecting people from all walks of life.

The Impact of Video Games

The benefits and concerns.

Despite the criticisms often associated with video gaming, such as addiction and violence, numerous studies have highlighted the potential benefits. Video games can improve cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and spatial awareness, and can also foster social interaction and cooperation when played in groups. They can serve as therapeutic tools, helping to manage conditions like anxiety and depression. However, it is essential to maintain a balanced perspective, acknowledging the potential risks and promoting responsible gaming.

The Future of Video Games

The future of video games is as exciting as it is unpredictable. With emerging technologies like virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and cloud gaming, the possibilities for innovation are limitless. Video games are poised to become even more immersive, interactive, and personalized, offering experiences that were once the stuff of science fiction.

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The future of video games

A truly mass medium.

O ver the past couple of decades, video games have grown from a niche hobby into a mass-market industry with annual revenues of $200bn. While toddlers play PAW Patrol, their grandparents are busy solving the day’s Wordle. Our editors and writers discuss the issues that affect gaming and its future, from the changing demographics of players to streaming, privacy and geopolitical soft power.

How do in-game currencies make money for developers? How free is the “free-to-play” model? And how does the evolution of China’s video-games sector compare with the development of America’s industry?

With Tom Wainwright, Hal Hodson and Charlotte Howard.

Visit our subscriber events page to view the schedule for our forthcoming events. Subscribers can also watch recordings of all our previous sessions.

Exploring the future of gaming

The changing face of gaming

The gaming market just keeps getting bigger. It has surpassed movies and music—combined. It is popular in every corner of the globe, with all ages, and with all demographic groups. Gamers are spending more and more time engaged in play, and increasingly it’s a social and community activity. The limits on this growth remain uncharted.

This ongoing market expansion has huge implications for the many businesses operating within the gaming ecosystem, including developers, distributors, content creators, and game platforms. In our first essay in the series, Gaming: The next super platform , we explore the industry’s rapidly growing revenue streams, the drivers of growth, the changing demographics of the gaming universe, and the increasing importance of gaming’s social interactions.

In our second essay, Playing for everyone! , find out why the gaming industry needs to offer the right experiences for all players – new and old – where we uncover opportunities for game platforms and content ecosystems to differentiate end-to-end experiences.

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Esports is the future of all sports – here’s why

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The future of all sports is esports. That may sound like a bold statement but there is growing evidence to support it. Today’s spectators and participants expect to be digitally engaged while they watch. And the most effective way to deliver digital engagement is through “gamification” – the transformation of watching into playing.

While the “real” sports world is still far bigger than the competitive esports community, esports is showing supporters a new kind of future. A future where experiences make the most of fans’ desire for interactivity within their leisure experiences. Today’s consumer does not just want to watch or listen, they also want to participate – and esports integrates these principles into people’s leisure time.

Read more: Will Super Mario ever be an Olympic sport?

The latest transformation that is bringing these two worlds even closer together is the creation of new, virtual reality gaming experiences, which are turning esports into physically active experiences. Virtual reality may just be the technology that unites the two worlds of sports and esports which are, otherwise, struggling to find common ground.

While it may take some years to fully realise the impact of esports, the rise of mobile and virtual reality gaming combine to make a tantalising prospect on which to imagine its future. Consider HADO, a new, two versus two, sports arena-based game consisting of virtual reality battles .

Players each wear VR headsets and strap mobile devices to their arms, through which they can see each others’ actions and fling virtual fireballs at each other – a sort of digital version of dodgeball. One of the reasons that HADO is so important is that it brings a three-dimensional experience to an esports arena, where otherwise they are played out on flat screens for spectators to watch. Sony is even working on a spectator VR system to watch esports in virtual reality.

The rise of affordable virtual reality headsets, are also kick-starting a new fitness revolution , with pimped-up gymnasia fast becoming virtual reality exercise spaces. This convergence of high-end gaming technology with physical fitness may be the most compelling way to bring these two worlds together.

The VR Olympics?

Rumours are that the International Olympic Committee is interested in virtual reality as a possible route for esports inclusion within the Olympic programme. But rather than just being virtual versions of today’s sports, new kinds of sports such as HADO are likely to emerge. Alternatively, the stadia and fields of play of conventional sports may be re-imagined in virtual arenas, designed to maximise excitement. For example, tomorrow’s tennis stars could be playing on VR courts where they are able to move in three dimensions, rather than two. This could be made possible with three dimensional, full-body virtual reality systems where you can feel and truly experience the world around you by wearing a exo-suit to simulate the virtual environment.

In less than one year, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will take place, amid widespread speculation that esports will find a place on – or at least near – the podium. For example, recently in Tokyo an esports hotel has just been launched and is expected to be ready for Games time. As well, Olympic partner Intel recently announced an Olympic-sanctioned esports tournament taking place days before the Games open.

And while esports won’t be a medal sport in Tokyo next year, 2019 is the first year in which a major sports event has included esports medals. In this respect, the South-East Asian Games is pioneering the association with esports and further indicating that this emerging technology is gradually finding its way into sports mega-events.

Read more: Fortnite World Cup and the rise of the esports industry

Meanwhile, talks continue to take place in relation to the programme for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which is likely to follow its two predecessors and have some kind of esports event . And in 2019, the European Games included esports within its cultural programme, rather than the sports programme.

It is worth remembering that, in the early decades of the modern Olympic Games, medals were given for cultural achievements. The original vision was to celebrate sport blended with culture and education, values still enshrined in the Olympic Charter .

So, before we conclude the conversation about the relationship between esports and traditional sports, we should remember that today’s esports may be analogised to the silent film era from 100 years ago. There’s a great deal of technological evolution still to come and esports are still in the process of being established.

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Predicting the future of games is a fool’s errand, but let’s try anyway

We asked a handful of experts to give their best guesses on where gaming is going in the next decade

by Khee Hoon Chan

To celebrate Polygon’s 10th anniversary, we’re rolling out a special issue: The Next 10 , a consideration of what games and entertainment will become over the next decade from some of our favorite artists and writers. Here, freelance writer Khee Hoon Chan digs into the challenges of predicting what directions the game industry will go.

When speculating about the future of anything, there’s a chance predictions will appear dated in hindsight. Take the concept of retrofuturism; despite its quaint, kitschy charm, its aesthetics feel rather (and sometimes deliberately) antiquated: curved geometric designs, chunky phones, and nuclear-powered zeppelins. That’s because the movement was influenced by ’50s- and ’60s-era design and tech trends, which were then extrapolated into the distant future. This datedness is a pitfall Chris Novak is wary of falling into when discussing the shape of gaming a decade from now — especially if that talk were to stem from current gaming trends.

“If you just look at gaming through [the generations of consoles], and you think about the things that became blockbuster hits or blockbuster breakouts […] if you were to try and predict what the one in the next generation would be based on the current generation, you’re basically always going to be wrong,” says Novak. “That’s the one thing history has shown: Nobody expected motion controls; nobody expected all of these things.”

As the former head of Xbox research and design, Novak has a breadth of industry experiences to draw from, having led the user experience journey across gaming at Microsoft for nearly 20 years, and overseeing projects such as Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live. He suggests that it’s more realistic to deliberate over the future of player verbs: the act of play, discover, share, create, and more. He also feels that conversations around trending topics such as the metaverse and blockchain gaming are akin to talking about product and technical features, which are simply “not as existential” as discussions revolving around, for instance, designing future hardware around sustainability.

To celebrate Polygon’s 10th anniversary, we’re spending a week looking 10 years into the future , bringing in experts to predict what games and entertainment will be like in another decade. Check it out !

Johnny Hou, CEO of gaming PC manufacturer NZXT, agrees. “Talking about Web3 and the metaverse is like, I don’t know, 20 years ago or 15 years ago when people were talking about MMOs. [...] It’s a feature, and just because you made a MMO doesn’t mean it makes it a good MMO,” says Hou. “Web3 has this whole blockchain element behind it, and crypto is very exciting, and [there are] a lot of potential opportunities to make money. But from the perspective of a gamer, it just goes back to content.”

Hou defines that content as the next generation of games over the next 10 years. Quake , for instance, led to the WASD gaming configuration now used by PC players everywhere. The popularity of MOBA games, the likes of DOTA and League of Legends , has influenced streaming culture . Then there is the battle royale genre popularized by DayZ , PUBG, and Fortnite , the latter inspiring conversations about what it means to build a modern-day metaverse. Whatever platforms or hardware will come after will naturally be created to support the next big thing in games. “What’s next after MOBA? Is that battle royale?” Hou asks. “[Even] battle royale is really played out now. MOBA is obviously here but, like, what’s next? What’s the next innovation when it comes to gameplay?”

What this means is that designing future hardware, specifically targeted for gaming, can be a sizable challenge, especially when you can’t be sure what you’re designing for. Carl Ledbetter, partner director of device design at Microsoft (and, perhaps most famously, the inventor of the rubber wheel between the left and right mouse buttons), explains that some key considerations for designing gaming hardware include the technology powering the hardware, the design that can house this tech, and the input device — or controller — that is most compatible with the platform. Yet, all of these take a back seat to games; hardware will still have to be dependent on the sorts of games being developed in this not-so-distant future. “The conversation always starts with the games first. What is the game? How does the gamer engage with the game? What is the core of the game? Is it a short, snackable type of game, where you just want to get in and get out [like a] time-filler, or is it about ultimate immersion, where you want to really dive deep into the game and experience it with all it has to offer?” Ledbetter says.

And the answer can be a heady one to grasp. After all, one of the most viral games in recent months has been Trombone Champ , which is about the absurdity of playing classical pieces on the trombone. Not only did it inspire a hilarious glut of poorly performed covers; players were also crafting their own handmade trombones and controllers to blow along to these songs in Trombone Champ .

Yet as much as we love weird hardware, it feels like a safe bet that Nintendo’s next console won’t be based around a trombone. According to experts we spoke to, though, a handful of current trends seem like they will impact how games will evolve over the next decade.

Cloud gaming won’t be going away

Despite the unceremonious demise of Google Stadia in September, industry veterans we spoke to remain optimistic about the potential of cloud gaming. In a decade or so, gaming may very well become a pastime that will become increasingly accessible to more players due to the cloud. “What will evolve is the availability of people to access these more high-end gaming experiences,” says Hou. This has the capacity to change the way people can access more expensive hardware. “Maybe it’s not in the conventional way [...] in terms of [buying] a very powerful computer for the same price as a console, because I think that might be challenging, but [...] things like, I pay a monthly fee for a computer in a cloud that allows me to have access to a $2000 machine, for only 20 bucks a month ... That is actually very similar in terms of affordability.”

And for Marc Whitten, senior vice president and general manager of Unity, cloud gaming will continue to have a presence in the near future, while also further enabling game development. “The cloud is a tool set for creating the games themselves, [and] I think will be much more advanced.” Bringing up Microsoft Flight Simulator as an example, he points out how it leveraged geographic information system data to construct photorealistic images (“AI meets some form of mapping of the entire world”), thus creating an incredibly immersive experience for flight simulator enthusiasts. “It’s going to be that you can rely on extremely rich cloud services, and [...] I just believe there’s going to be a digital twin of everything in the world, like that whatever you think of, there will be digital versions of it.”

Live-service games will be everywhere

The rise of live-service games — that is, games with frequently updated and seasonal content — will likely also continue in the near future. “All games are live games [in the future],” Whitten predicts. “They’re live experiences, and it’s about a continually evolving experience that’s launched from the creator, but built as much from the community playing with it and evolving over time. The idea that they’re almost […] live destinations. But that trend, which I think changes design, it changes how people play, it changes how they think about the time and the game, and I think it’ll just continue to grow over the next 10 years.” Ledbetter, too, also brought up Minecraft’s content updates as an example, stating that this trend will continue to make future games more engaging.

More broadly, Whitten shares that this will lead to a sea change in how toxicity and player safety are being managed in the near future. “If you go back to my first trend, everything’s going to be a live game, and it’s about multiple people playing together,” he explains. ”You don’t run multiplayer services without a significant part of what you spend time on being, How do you evolve those services? And it’s a constant evolution, again, because players interact in new ways as the platform continues.” New technology, as Whitten suggested, may nudge this development along, such as using AI to “automatically find toxicity and field better controls.” While there may be an undercurrent of cynicism over such efforts — gaming toxicity has only peaked over the past few years — it’s imperative that game companies prioritize this change.

“[Managing toxicity] will be a challenge 10 years from now. [...] And if you put enough [players] together, you have to build systems that support making sure that the right tools are there to help protect people,” says Whitten.

Improved graphics, better (and badder) explosions

According to Novak, special effects like explosions are likely to be much more impressive in a decade — and more realistic, thanks to improved physics simulations. Play as a mage, set a distant town on fire with lightning, and watch gargantuan structures and towers crumble in real time, reduced to mere bricks in seconds. It’s a difficult technical feat to pull off for now, but this may just be possible not too far down the road. “The actual mechanics of playing a game are often limited by the CPU, not the GPU,” adds Novak. “It always comes to trying to do more advanced simulation. Making a bunch more enemies [become] very intelligent, making a lot of the world act ‘more real,’ doing much more sophisticated physics, being able to do things outside of where you can see. Doing all of that simulation is actually very, very hard, and typically it’s completely faked in games.”

At the same time, the upward trajectory of gaming graphics will most likely continue even a decade from now. Rendering capabilities will improve, Ledbetter notes, which means “more realism, faster frame rates and higher resolution, and even the ability to render people and faces and expressions.”

Community content will take center stage

Immaculate graphics and realistic explosions aside, Novak sees the next decade of gaming as defined by content generation. This runs the gamut of gaming content that’s more than just commercially produced, but also thrives among the community. What this translates to is activities like streaming and modding — which will only become more prevalent — but also something as simple as crafting short clips out of games so they can be shared on social platforms among small groups of friends. “If there was one change that I think is going to happen, it’s that creation, what it means to create — that entire process will be upended completely,” he says. “Right now there’s a lot of effort on the tooling — the tools that you need to create things — whether it be a video or an in-game mod. The tooling to create things for games is getting much better.”

Rather than just TikTok compilations crafted to the likes of content like “the biggest fails in gaming,” Novak is envisioning a gaming future where community content creation will be democratized and personalized. “Why can’t it be as easy as, you know, if there’s a funny line of dialogue that I want to create because it would be great in-joke between me and my friends in this game, I should be able to create that on my phone and insert that into a game?” he explains. And as such tools become more advanced, this can translate to a much more widespread culture of game modding. “Historically, DOTA was a mod, Counter-Strike was a mod. There have been mods over time, which have become games bigger than even the game they were founded within. That will no longer be an outlier event. You will now see content being published more and more into games.”

This accessibility can also be extended to game discoverability. Instead of just scrolling through web pages of games categorized strictly by their genre, players can instead look for games they like in a more intuitive manner. “The players won’t just be able to find another game. They’ll be able to find things within a game that they enjoy when they do their search, when that discovery option is in front of them,” Novak elaborates. “Imagine the power of being able to simply say, ‘Hey, show me games of great boss battles,’ ‘Show me the games that contributed to the game modes in this game that I love,’ ‘Show me just game modes that I would love.’”

Deliberating the future of games — an exercise that encompasses an astounding variety of interactivity and experiences — can feel like a nebulous thought experiment at times. Perhaps the next big thing in gaming is a wearable tech that’s as diminutive as contact lenses, easily fitted over the curvature of your eyes, allowing you to plug into virtual reality almost instantaneously. Or perhaps it’s simply a new take on first-person shooters that will let players gradually decimate their fragile environments till only the void remains. Such progress can be difficult to predict, but one thing is for sure: Past generations of games have at least shown that unexpected developments will continue to lie in wait.

“I think we will absolutely start to see things like artificial intelligence, the metaverse, game content, and the delivery of content come together in ways that we just started to understand today,” says Ledbetter. “I don’t think we’ll actually be all the way there yet in 10 years, but it’s going to be very different than how it is today. Actually, I think it’s going to be amazing.”

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The evolution of video games as a storytelling medium, and the role of narrative in modern games The evolution of video games as a storytelling medium, and the role of narrative in modern games

This essay aims to investigate the topic of narrative in video games. Specifically, the evolution of narratives in games, and the role of narrative in today’s story-based games. Narrative is all around us; we can interpret all events as stories with plo

January 7, 2019

1.  An Introduction to Narrative

1.1.  defining narrative.

In a paper exploring the field of narrative and its prominence in video games, the logical first step would be to establish a baseline definition of what narrative is. During the past decade or more, many broader interpretations of the word have arisen, stretching the meaning to involve “belief, value, experience, interpretation, or simply content,” [1]. For this essay, a much narrower definition is required, since narrative regarding games (and my approach the subject of narrative in this essay) refers to storytelling, and the relation of events and characters. Therefore, an appropriate definition would be H. Porter Abbott’s, made in 1978, which is “the representation of an event, or a series of events” [2].

            This definition encapsulates the most basic interpretation of the word, and is a nice, simple way to describe narrative when it is referenced or alluded to in this essay. However, I feel that expanding upon this definition before continuing may prove beneficial. In her paper Defining Media from the Perspective of Narratology [1], Marie-Laure Ryan gives three features by which narrative can be explained, which can be summarized as follows: A “Story that takes place in a world populated with individual agents and objects”, which “must undergo not fully predictable changes of state”, and these physical events “must be associated with mental states and events (goals, plans, emotions).” These three features form a very clear rule by which to define narrative and what counts as a narrative or not.

1.2.  A History of Narrative

Since humans have been communicating, they have been using narrative to tell stories, and it is a topic that has been studied since the time of Aristotle, when he laid the foundation for narrative study in Western culture with his book Poetics [3]. Aristotle theorised tragedy (which was in those days a term used to describe a form of theatre in which tragic events were experienced by the main character), and concluded that plot, or “the arrangement of the incidents” [3] was the most important of the six ingredients of a tragedy. The other ingredients, as he described, were Character, Thought, Diction (the way language is used to convey and represent ideas), Song, or Melody, and Spectacle, given in order of importance. Another concept of narrative defined by Aristotle is that any given story must have a beginning, where a problem is encountered, a middle, in which the characters struggle to overcome the problem, and an end in which the problem is resolved.

Aristotle is widely accepted as the biggest influence on the development of literature in the West, and the thoughts we have about the subject today largely come from his ideas. The ingredients of tragedy that he defined can be seen in modern narrative, and in fact they translate to the definition that we put together before. The individual agents and objects refers to character, the change of state is the plot, and the mental states and events are thought. Stemming from Aristotle’s work, the field of narratology was formed, a study that was most prominent around 1960, which aimed to identify what narratives have in common. The way we tell stories and the way we interpret events has been changed a lot by this research and the work done in this field, because it translates to the narratives that are presented to us in our daily lives.

In the world today, narrative has become such a core part of how we interpret events around us. We see it in every medium from musicals and poems to television and radio, and now we see it in video games as well. Through this exposure to the media, as Helen Fulton describes, “...our sense of reality is increasingly structured by narrative.” [4] We begin to think of everything as a structured story, because we understand that every event that we experience in our lives can be told through a narrative. While the main form of storytelling has always been speech, in the modern age narrative is presented to us most prominently through digital media, especially television and (more recently) video games.

1.3.  Narrative in Digital Media

The twentieth century brought about the beginning of the digital age, the age of computers, and television, film and video. Before this, there were significantly less devices through which to tell a story; The main media that conveyed narratives were conversation, books, and plays. But the introduction of film and cinema, which Marie-Laure Ryan describes as the “art of the twentieth century” [5], saw an evolution in how narrative can be told. In her article, Ryan describes how cinema gave new dimensions to novels and theatre. It allows events to be represented as they happen in the present tense, in a similar way to written tales, while also transcending theatre in its visual representation. The ability for film to put its audience in the action through cinematography and music was revolutionary.

Television and the internet make narratives more accessible than ever before, and contributes to the importance that human cognition puts on them. We might see an advert for a cleaning product, where a child spills his or her drink, and a frustrated mother will try in vain to fix the mess with a ‘regular’ cleaning product, and thus turn to the advertised product. Even this example uses a problem and solution narrative to give authenticity to the product, that resonates with audiences because it is relatable. Modern social apps such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram give users the opportunity to experience their friends lives and adventures in the form of ‘stories’. Narratives can be experienced now more than ever before, due to the amount of media we consume through the internet and through our devices. Video games are the next step in digital storytelling, ushering in a new concept of interactive narrative.

2.  Narrative in Games

2.1.  a brief history of video games.

It is strange, perhaps even incredible to consider how quickly video games have developed from when they began in the 1960’s, as we move towards an ever increasingly technologically dependant world. In his book ‘The Singularity Is Near’ [6], Ray Kurzweil compares it to biological evolution, drawing conclusions that over time, advancements become more rapid, as we use tools from previous generations to progress to the next. This has allowed video games to advance at a very high rate. As we step into the world of video games to discover the evolution and the role of narrative in them, we must take a moment to explore the evolution of video games and look at the history of the medium.

As detailed in The Complete History of Video Games [7], the first interactive video game was created in 1962 by MIT student Steve Russell. It was a space combat game aptly called Spacewar [20], where two player-controlled spaceships fought against each other around the gravity well of a star. This was the most basic of games by today’s standards, but it was revolutionary at the time, and paved the way for a lot of development in the field of computer science and programming. Though this game was developed openly by community members over the following years, it wasn’t until almost a decade later in 1971, that it became the first arcade machine (released as Computer Space [21] by Nutting Associates). A year later Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell, who headed the development of Computer Space , and Pong [22] was created by Atari engineer Al Alcorn.

            The first home videogame system was the Odyssey, created by Magnavox in 1972, which could be plugged into a television, and came with several games including Tennis [23] and Ski [24]. Three years later, Atari created a Pong unit for home use as well. In 1977, a series of LED-based handheld games were released by Mattel. From this point, the development of the industry speeds up rapidly, with the main companies like Nintendo, Atari, Sega, Namco, and others start developing games and systems at a higher rate. During this time arcades were doing extremely well, with Pacman [25] being released in 1980, which would go on to sell 300,000 units worldwide. 1986 saw the release of the Nintendo NES, the Sega Master System, and the Atari 7800, which were all very successful. During the 90s, PC gaming started to become prominent with games like Doom [26], and new consoles were introduced, including Sony’s PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. The late 90s brought a new trend in handheld games with popular titles like Pokémon [27]. From here, the games industry would only become more successful, and would develop into what we see today.

2.2.  Narrative in Video Games

In this section, I will begin to explore the first part of the essay title, which is the evolution of narrative in games. I will begin by looking at the different styles of narrative that are usually found in games, and describing each of them in turn. Then, using specific examples, I will explore two games from the 1980s and 90s, and look at their stories and the way in which they show them. Then using the same method, I will investigate two more modern games from this decade. After these discussions, conclusions should be made by comparison about the evolution of narrative in video games.

Here it may also be necessary to mention that not all games have, or focus on narrative. For example, sandbox games, simulation games, sports games and the like have no need for a story or even context behind them. Minecraft [28], as a specific example, provides no semblance of story, no reason as to why the player is there in the world, nor a plot to guide them through their experience. Instead the player is free to create their own story in the world, relying solely on their own imagination to create some form of plot, rather than any interaction with the game itself. Since the most important element of narrative is missing, it cannot be said that Minecraft has a narrative. These games are not the type this essay will be focusing on. For the rest of the paper, the games we look at will be ones that have an obvious narrative attached to them, or that are completely story-based.

2.2.1.  Types of Narratives

The first thing to note about narrative in games is that there it two parts: the structure, referring to the progression of the story, the different sections and subsections, and how they are connected and interconnected to form a plot, and the portrayal: how the game conveys or shows the story. There are three main types of narrative structures that are usually found in games, the first being linear. This is likely a familiar concept, as it is the structure found in other mediums such as literature and film, since these mediums can almost only use this model. The Google definition of linear is ‘progressing from one stage to another in a single series of steps’, and this is essentially the case. In a linear narrative, the story progresses from one event to another in a single straight line, with no deviation, backtracking, or skipping ahead. In games, linear narrative offers players no interaction with the story. They are not given choices that affect the story, and cannot alter it through gameplay, therefore being unable to dictate how the story plays out. The game can only be completed one way: the way that was written by the game designers.

The second type of narrative structure is referred to in game design as the string of pearls model. This is where the story is told in a linear fashion, but can be interrupted by player freedom at times. This is a structure unique to video games, as the interactivity required for the player freedom cannot be found in other mediums. This is typically seen in role-playing games, where the main story is linear - made up of separate sequences in the form of missions or quests. The player is given freedom through exploration and side quests that are given throughout the world. The third narrative structure is a fully branching story, where player choice plays a major role in how the plot and characters in the world develop, and how the game ends. This type of narrative has been attempted before video games, in the form of interactive books: this type of novel gives the reader choices at the end of each chapter, each choice sending the reader to a different chapter, giving them a chance to create their own story. This structure is usually used in fully story-based games.

There is a fourth model known as the amusement park model, which is very like the branching narrative except players access story by exploration rather than by completing missions. For example, a story branch will unlock by finding the NPC that triggers it, rather than unlocking it through previously completed content. This is a common structure for open world games. These different structures can be represented well through graphs, using nodes to represent story elements/sequences, and the connecting lines to show gameplay paths. A node with multiple children represents a choice, where each child is an option. Below are the three narrative structures as graphs:

There are also several different ways that narrative can be shown and conveyed to the player in a game. The first is through cutscenes, which is an exposition of the story in the form of a short cinematic. Cutscenes can combine dialogue and action in a way that keeps the player in action, and are used to convey plot development in games the same way film does. Text is a very traditional way to convey plot. A block of text used at each story event is the primary way a lot of older games give context to the player. Dialogue is another way that players can uncover story elements. Talking to NPCs in the game world can uncover plotlines and context for characters and events, as well as giving quests in games that use the amusement park model. The other, and perhaps the most interesting form of storytelling in games is storytelling through the environment and the game world. Letting the player interpret the story through objects, places, and people in the game world allows them to form their own ideas about the plot. This is the rarest form of storytelling in games, however it is prominent and successful in the game Dark Souls [29] and its subsequent titles. Most games use a combination of these narrative techniques to convey story elements to the player.

2.2.2.  Narrative in Early Games

            Nintendo’s Donkey Kong [30], is widely considered the first game that had a story that players could see unfold on the screen. It was released in 1981, and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who had a very different idea about communicating with the player than the rest of the industry did at that time. According to an article about the history of Donkey Kong, ‘Miyamoto wanted to make sure the whole story, simple though it was, could be told on screen in a way that could be instantly grasped by players’ [8]. Donkey Kong is a 2D platformer, where the player character (an early rendition of Mario) must track down his pet ape who has escaped with the player’s girlfriend. The game uses cutscenes at the beginning of the game showing the ape escaping, and every time the player completes the level, upon which Donkey Kong grabs the girl and climbs to a higher level. Small animations and text serve to convey plot, such as the ‘help’ speech bubble that represents the damsel calling for aid.

Crash Bandicoot [31], released in 1996 by Sony Computer Entertainment, is a 3D platformer following the story of a marsupial as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of the antagonist Dr Neo Cortex. In this game, as with a lot of old-school titles, the story takes a backseat to the gameplay. It instead focuses on the platforming mechanics and level design, in order to make a fun experience for the user. In fact, there are only two expositions of plot: the opening cutscene, where Crash escapes from the Cortex’s castle, and the ending cutscene where Crash saves his girlfriend after the final boss fight with Cortex. The plot simply exists to give context to the player’s actions and to give the player a reason to continue playing through the game.

            What we can see from these games, is that they both employ a classic damsel and destress story. Both the nameless carpenter and Crash are out to rescue their significant other from the antagonist. In both games, the story also takes a secondary role to the gameplay, existing for the sole reason of giving context to the gameplay. The plot serves as motivation for the player, giving them a goal to achieve that makes them want to progress. They are also both linear stories, and that is an indirect result of the gameplay being linear. In both games, the player completes a series of levels sequentially, with no branching options for gameplay, and in turn, no player choices that lead to branching narrative.

2.2.3.  Narrative in Today’s Games

            Skyrim [32], Bethesda Softworks’ fifth instalment of the Elder Scrolls series, is well known in the gaming community, and was met with critical acclaim upon its release in 2011. It tells the story of the Dragonborn, a human with the blood and soul of a dragon. The player controls this Dragonborn, moving through the world of Skyrim to discover locations, people, quests, and ultimately defeat the evil dragon Alduin. The game employs a combination of the string of pearls and amusement park models. The main questline is linear, with player emergency not affecting the outcome of the story. However, the player can explore the world, and take part in other questlines. In all of these optional questlines, the player must make choices that affects the characters and the following quests they can take in regard to that questline. The open world nature of the game, and its non-linear gameplay allow this narrative structure to work.

            Life is Strange [33] is another critically acclaimed title, part of a new trend of episodic games, where content is released periodically in ‘chapters’. Developed by Dotnod Entertainment, it completely revolves around player choice by employing a full branching narrative, where the player’s decisions affect the outcome of the game and produce different endings. The player watches the action unfold before them from the perspective of the main character Max Caulfield, who discovers her ability to rewind time. The player makes choices through multiple choice actions and dialogue, and all these choices affect characters and events in the future. Unlike any of the previous games mentioned, this one is completely story-based, meaning that the gameplay has taken a backseat to the narrative. This is the type of game that tries to tell a story, where the developers have designed the game to give the player a narrative experience that cannot exist in other mediums such as literature or film.

            We can see that these two games are drastically different from the old-school games in the structure of their narrative. These games both use narrative structures that allow player interaction and player choices to have an impact on the outcome of the story. Story in these games is used as a foundation for the game world. It does not feel like a component that is tacked on to the rest of the game, but is instead the backbone of the entire structure of the game.

2.3.  The Evolution of Narrative

By comparing the games from 20-30 years ago, to the games from the current decade, we can look to draw conclusions about the evolution of narrative in video games. First, the structure of progression: we see that while both early games used a linear structure, the last two employ more branching narratives. Players are not able to interact with the story in early games; no matter how they play the game it will always be the same, because they are not given choices to make that will impact the flow of the game, or how the story plays out. Modern games encourage player interaction, by giving them choices that have real consequences, and allowing them to make their own story by the decisions they make.

The role of the narrative has also changed. In the early games, the story existed to provide context to the game, to give players a goal to achieve and a reason to play. It was almost tacked on to some games, and it would not have mattered if these stories had been completely different, or there at all from a gameplay perspective. Nowadays, developers make games with a story in mind, and the gameplay and the narrative become of equal importance in the game. In a blog post about the development of narrative, specifically in the developer Naughty Dog’s games [9], Chris Bowring writes that “In Uncharted the story was merely there to logically funnel you from one segment of gameplay to the next. However, in The Last of Us, the story and gameplay is one cohesive whole.” Bowring also describes how with games like The Last of Us [34], it shows the game industry maturing with its audience. In the early stages of the medium, games were considered toys for children, but now those who played games as a kid are grown up, and the industry is growing with them. The graphic content and the concepts the game explores attest to this.

The fact that games themselves are becoming more advanced and complex, both technologically and gameplay wise, allows game narratives to evolve in the same way. Early games were very restricted by computing power, to small 2D games that could not support the complexity that is needed for such narratives to exist. Modern open world games allow the amusement park model to exist, and the budgets of today’s games allow developers to invest in complex and detailed narratives, and worlds and gameplay that fully support this. Another factor is that the amount of indie games being produced has skyrocketed in recent years, giving way to more experimental games that are not afraid to try new storytelling techniques.

What it ultimately comes down to is the concept of embedded narratives vs emergent narratives. Older games typically have embedded narratives, which means “pre-generated narrative content that exists prior to a player’s interaction with the game” [10]. They have backstories, and “are often used to provide the fictional background for the game, motivation for actions in the game, and development of story arc.” This is what we see in Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong, whereas Skyrim and Life is Strange employ emergent narratives, which “arises from the player’s interaction with the game world, designed levels, [and] rule structure.” “Moment by moment play in the game creates this emergent narrative… depending on [the] user’s actions.” In conclusion, narrative in video games have evolved over time to become more complex and cohesive with the gameplay, moving from embedded to emergent. We have gone from stories being used to show games, to games being used to tell stories.

3.  Exploring Modern Narrative Games

This section of the paper aims to investigate the second part of the essay title: the role of narrative in modern games, by building upon what has already been covered in terms of narrative evolution. To begin, we will look at the latest trends in story-based games, and how interactivity impacts storytelling. Interactivity in games will be discussed, particularly how it can elicit emotion from the player and provide new narrative experiences with new structures and ways that it can be delivered to the player. Finally, I will look at the popularity of modern story-based games and the reasons it appeals to people. Using these points, conclusions can be made about the role of narrative in modern games.

3.1.  Interactive stories

Until Dawn [35], developed by Supermassive Games and released in August of 2015 for the PlayStation 4, ushered in a new age of video games. Until Dawn is a survival horror game, following a group of eight teenagers as they spend the weekend in a ski lodge. They are there to party, but soon realize that they are not the only people on the mountain, and are terrorized throughout the game by a group of cannibals possessed by evil spirits. The player interacts with the game mainly through quick time events, and decisions that are made by pressing one button or another. There are moments when they player can take control of the characters, but it mostly results in what is referred to as a ‘walking simulator’, where the player simply moves the character from one location to the next. The main mechanic in this game is the use of the ‘butterfly effect’, the notion that even the smallest of choices can have massive impacts on future events. Like Life is Strange, this results in is what can only be described as an interactive movie.

In fact, Until Dawn was a collaboration between Hollywood and the game industry. The two lead writers, Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick are both well-established figures in the realm of film, having each written multiple Hollywood films. The script spanned more than 10,000 pages, having to account for all narrative branches, all eight characters and the choices that the player makes. Reznick says that “what’s exciting about games, and specifically narrative-based games, is that you can take that approach from filmmaking, the curated narrative, and then explode it out so that the designers and writers of the game are curating a narrative environment for the player, but the player becomes a complicit collaborator” [11]. From this quote by the writer, we can see that he recognizes that Until Dawn is essentially an interactive movie, approached the same way as a film, the difference being that games allow every possibility of that story to be put into the final product.

Telltale Games have taken this concept, and built a franchise upon it. Founded from the remnants of LucasArts, the studio began to develop entirely story-based games, but they developed games in the same way that television does due to the nature of their games. Thus, Telltale created a new format of games. Episodic releases have been embraced by more and more games since the inception of it, such as Hitman [36] and as mentioned before, Life is Strange. These new trends in narrative games mark a branch from gaming; whether they can still be considered video games is a debate that has been raging online for the past several years. This is an important discussion, but not one that this essay will go into detail about. For this sake of this paper, Telltale Games products will be recognized as video games. Despite this, there is no denying that they are a different breed of game entirely. Interactive games have proven extremely popular, as will be discussed further on, and contribute to pushing storytelling in games and storytelling in general further.

3.2.  Interactivity and Storytelling

                In order to play a game, the player must interact with it, through a human device interface (HID), typically a controller or a mouse and keyboard. Gameplay can only work through player interaction, based on a set of rules provided by the game. However, interactivity impacts not just gameplay, but how the game narrative works and how it tells its story. Craig Lindley explains that “one must learn and then perform a gameplay gestalt in order to progress through the events of the game. To experience the game as a narrative also requires the creation of a narrative gestalt unifying the game experiences into a coherent narrative structure” [12]. From this we can see that for a narrative to exist in a game, there must be a way for the player to interact with it. So the question becomes, how does interactivity impact storytelling in video games?

            An obvious answer, one repeated time and time again, is that by interacting with the characters in the game, the player becomes part of the narrative. In games, players control the pacing of the gameplay, and the movements and actions of the main character, effectively becoming a co-author of the story. The interactivity allows stories to be told from the perspective of the player, rather than that of the main character. An experiment conducted by the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at Hanover University sought to understand players’ identification with video game characters [13]. They got half of their participants to play a game for a period of time, while the other half watched. What they found from participant questionnaires is that “people playing the game and thus having the possibility to act efficiently within the character role identify with the game protagonist to a much larger extent than people do who could not interact with the game.” On top of this, the researchers concluded that “the interactive use of the combat game ‘Battlefield 2’ thus allowed for more intense, ‘authentic’ vicarious or simulated experiences of ‘being’ a soldier in a modern combat scenario”.

            From this research, we can see that games allow players to identify more with the player character because of the interaction with the game. While in movies you can only watch the characters move around the world, games give the player agency, the ability to pilot these characters themselves. In the beginning of The Last of Us, the player takes the role of a young girl at the start of the zombie outbreak. After about 10 minutes of gameplay, the girl is killed. This is shown in a cinematic cut scene, so it is delivered in the same way as a movie, eliciting the same emotions as the scene would in a film. However, by having played as the girl prior to this, they are able to identify more with her and relate to her, making it harder to see her die. By interacting with the game and taking the role of a character the player becomes attached to that role, and so games can, in some ways, more emotion than other mediums.

            The fact that games are inherently an interactive medium opens up a world of possibilities for narrative, and supports a plethora of new storytelling structures and ways in which they are conveyed. A game that must be mentioned, as a specific case study, is Bloodborne [37], From Software’s PlayStation 4 exclusive, released in 2015. In the same realm as Dark Souls, this game uses environmental storytelling, a method exclusive to video games and interactive environments. In the game the player is a hunter, tasked with clearing the city of Yharnam of its people who have turned into beasts. What starts as a gothic horror quickly turns into a cosmic horror, as concepts akin to H.P. Lovecraft’s work arise concerning celestial beings called great ones, and nightmare planes of existence.

On the surface level, and what a player may notice on their first play through of the game, is that there does not appear to be a clear story. There are vague cut scenes that offer unclear exposition, which by themselves make no sense to the player. Players are given clues about where to go in the world to progress, but no clear reason why. There are three endings to the game, one which allows you to allows you to be executed by your mentor, after which you wake up in the city in the morning. Another ending allows you to fight your mentor and take his place, and the third ending sees the player become a great one themselves by defeating the celestial entity called the Moon Presence. At first glance, there is no clear meaning for each of these endings, as there doesn’t seem to be context behind any of them.

            But this is the intention, and indeed the beauty of the storytelling used in this game. There is a story to the world of Bloodborne, a complex narrative that involves history and backstory, branching questlines with player choices that impact the outcome, deep lore concerning the characters and locations in the world. There is a reason for everything in Bloodborne, but the player has to find it themselves. The game does not walk the player through the story in the way other games do. No piece of dialogue or cut scene will ever show the whole story, or explain exactly the situation. But these cut scenes and dialogue, along with items found throughout the game world, are clues, small pieces of a puzzle that must be discovered and put together to reveal the whole picture. There are hundreds of items in the game, ranging from weapons and armour to spells and potions. Each item has a unique description, which serves to uncover a part of the lore. Everything in the world is put there for a reason. A seemingly random item found on a dead body can reveal a clue. Only by interacting with the environment, the characters, and the items in the world, can the player seek to understand the story of Bloodborne.

            This form of storytelling is something that cannot be found in another medium. Bloodborne puts an emphasis on the gameplay by not forcing the narrative on players, allowing them to skip the story completely if they so choose. But if looked into closely enough, it can be seen that everything about the gameplay and the game world is there to support a convoluted narrative whose complexity rivals those of modern story-based games. It merges ludology with narratology in way that is seldom seen in other games. The fact that the player has a choice in experiencing the story or not, that if they want to know about the world and events and the context of the game they have to interact with the world and interpret those clues for themselves speaks volumes about the storytelling capability of video games. The game makes players feel smart if they manage to uncover the plot, and rewards them for their dedication to, and interaction with the story by providing them knowledge of the game and context for their actions. By looking at Bloodborne we can see that games can tell stories in different ways, made possible by the inherent interactivity that is required to play.

3.3.  Why Game Narrative Appeals

                From the previous section, we see that interactivity can provide new narrative experiences within gameplay. Modern games keep pushing strong stories that have real messages to show and a reason to show it. We could ask the question, then, have games become a better storytelling medium than film, television and books. But how would that question be answered? How would one compare one medium to another, or quantify each medium based on its ability to tell a story? Each, of course, have their own strengths and weaknesses, but discussing other mediums is not relevant to this paper. Instead, it may be better to ask why some people choose to play story-based games in order to experience narrative. What about the medium appeals to those hungry for story?

            It has to be said that story-based games are a relatively new concept in games, and though they are clearly on the rise, at the moment are far from being the most popular type of game. In a breakdown of 2016 video game sales in the US by Statista [14], story-based or anything similar was not recognized as a top-8 genre, instead being classed under ‘other’. Despite this, these types of games have some of the highest user ratings on Steam, with Undertale [38], Life is Strange, and The Walking Dead [39] all scoring above a 95% positive rating, and all ranking within the top 50 for positive reviews on Steam [15]. So while not extremely popular at the moment, they do have an overwhelmingly positive reception by players.

            As the investigations in the previous section prove, games are able to give players narrative experiences seldom found in other mediums. A reason that players may choose to play story-based games is because they want to try other narrative forms, such as a branching structure where their choices can make an impact on the game, and where they feel like they can dictate the story. Perhaps people feel like they cannot relate to the stories from other mediums as well as they can with games. They may be too impatient to read books, or sit through a two-hour movie. It may also be to do with the type of stories being told in games, which are generally aimed at a younger generation. People of this generation may feel that the stories being told are more relatable for them.

            A paper from the University of Amsterdam [16] detailing the appeal of interactive storytelling suggests that games takes concepts from other mediums and enhances the user’s experience of them. One such concept is curiosity. “When curiosity occurs, users first perceive a state of uncertainty, which comes along with increased physiological activation.” In games, the user does not just think about what will happen next, but “What will happen if I decide this way?” When playing games, “users may combine different mechanisms of curiosity, which should result in a high frequency and intensity of curiosity-based affective dynamics”. What this says, is that when playing games, there are more ways for players to experience curiosity. Other concepts that the paper discusses in much the same way are suspense, aesthetics, self-enhancement (or a sense of achievement for completing the game or solving the story), and task engagement, otherwise known as flow. This links back to games enhancing the emotion of players due to interaction. Overall, the interaction that players have with the game and its narrative is why people may prefer this medium over others.

3.4.  Role of Narrative in Modern Games

            To conclude this chapter, we look at the overall picture, and look briefly to answer the topic question: what is the role of narrative in modern story-based games? Perhaps the answer is as simple as ‘to tell stories’. Is this not the reason narratives exist in the first place: to communicate events and characters? But narrative is different in video games than it is in other mediums. If books, movies, television, and music seek to tell the stories of the artists behind them, then modern games tell the user’s story. They give the player choices, and a populated environment in which these choices make a difference, and give them control of where those choices take them. Games are being developed to tell stories, and to make the player feel emotions, and think about real-world issues, and so this is the role that narratives take in video games.

4.  The Future of Narrative Games

4.1.  what the future may hold.

                Throughout this paper, games narrative has been discussed thoroughly. We have looked at storytelling in early games, and in modern games, and now, we look forward. To think about the future of story-based games is an interesting topic. It is the same as looking at the future of any form of technology, in the sense that we can never really predict what may happen. The future may hold ideas and concepts that nobody has though of at this time, that may seem impossible now. Who, hundreds of years ago, could fathom the internet? We can speculate though, and we can make educated guesses into what the near future may hold for game narrative. The people most educated on the matter are the game writers themselves. Those who have been in the industry for a long time, seen the developments of the medium, and contributed their own work to the industry. B looking at current trends and asking the professionals, we can seek to answer the question of what the future may hold.

            Phil Spencer is the head of Xbox at Microsoft, and in an interview with The Guardian [14] he explained the current situation and the future of the Xbox, particularly about what they could offer that would attract more people to the Xbox brand. Among other things, he talked about subscription games, referencing Telltale Games and their brand of episodic games. He also mentioned how the subscription model of television promotes storytelling. “[Subscription services] might spur new story-based games coming to market because there’s a new business model to help support their monetization.” Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime allow so much content to be produced and consumed, and offers a platform on which users can access all this content by paying a subscription. Applying the same structure to a game streaming service would allow the same to happen with storytelling in games. More content could be produced and consumed, allowing more stories to be told and experienced very easily. A new business model such as this might improve the future of narrative for games.

            At a fan event in San Francisco in 2015, Some of the biggest and well-distinguished video game writers were interviewed about narrative in games, and in particular, what they think the future of video game narratives may entail. When asked where games and storytelling are going, Jenova Chen, creative director at Thatgamecompany, talked about story streaming. “Maybe in future games, everybody will have different versions of a story, and someone will have a really amazing version that we’ll all want to watch. That might come from dreams” [15]. This is an interesting concept, exploring the move from current branching narratives where players go from one pre-written chunk of story to the next, to narratives where players create even their own chunks, with no need for written scripts. Perhaps procedurally generated narratives could be the future of storytelling.

Chen also mentions even more interactivity between player and game. “Video games [are] still in the era of silent film. The equivalent of sound and words is the ability of AI to understand what we’re saying. Imagine you’re playing a game and not just pressing buttons, but actually talking to the game.” He went on to describe how much more emotional the interaction could be in a video game if you were able to make conversation yourself. From this we can gather that narrative-based games will almost definitely move towards a place where the player can truly interact with the game, rather than using a designed interface to communicate with the world and its characters. It is interesting to think about talking to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system inside of a game. If, in Life is Strange, instead of controlling Max and making decisions based on multiple choice, you as the player are Max, and you can make any decision you wanted when faced with a choice. The future of story games will seek to be more interactive, and look to break down the biggest barriers between the player and the game: the screen, and interface.

4.2.  Future Technology and Narrative

            On the topic of breaking down the screen and the interface, the future of narrative in games will certainly involve Virtual Reality (VR). VR, to give a simple definition, is a simulation of events that users can experience as if they were in the fictional world themselves, through headsets with two screens (one for each eye) and a stereo for sound. It is a very new medium, and is, like games were in the early stages, very restricted by technology. If a game or simulation in VR does not run at a certain frame rate, users can experience severe nausea, and most home computers do not have the processing power to support big, complex games in VR. This means that at the moment, VR games are restricted in terms of graphics and complexity. The large sum of money required to purchase an Oculus Rift or an HTC Vive means that it is not yet viable as a product for the general consumer. However, the medium open up a lot of possibilities for education, medicine, and of course, storytelling.

            In an attempt to research storytelling in VR, Disney Imagineering developed a high-fidelity virtual reality attraction based on the film Aladdin, where guests are able to pilot a flying carpet through a virtual environment. Their findings are detailed in a paper [16] that I will presently discuss. Through their efforts to create a simulation that could tell a story, the team found that VR was a much different medium, and there were a lot of challenges when designing the narrative experience. The fact that the camera is fully controlled by the player means that scenes have to be designed around this. Pacing a story can be difficult, because, like in video games, the player controls the pace of the gameplay. Sound is also tricky because it is typically used to carry emotional tone for a scene, however the developers no longer control the timing. Despite these difficulties though, they managed to produce an experience that captured the imaginations of those who tested it. They concluded the research with a few main points, two of which were that “the illusion is compelling enough that most guests accept being in a synthetically generated environment and focus on the environment, not the technology.” And that “VR appeals to everyone. Both genders and all ages had similar responses to [the] attraction.”

            What we can learn from this experiment with VR, is that there is no doubt that it will become a standard medium of storytelling in the future. It has the ability to transport the player into another realm of existence entirely; a world to themselves, the ultimate form of escapism. This is the first step towards the future that Jenova Chen describes, and as VR keeps developing and improves as technology evolves it will become increasingly immersive for players. It will allow them to tell their own stories and take control of the narrative. This is certainly the future of storytelling in games.

5.  Conclusion

In this paper, we have sought to understand the evolution of games as a storytelling medium, as well as the role of narrative in modern games, and how it may change in the future. By looking at the narrative structures of old-school games from 20-30 years ago, and comparing them to the narratives of modern games, it can be recognized that games have gone from using a linear structure with embedded narrative, to branching structures with emergent narratives. Games now allow players to take control of the narrative, by giving them choices with meaningful consequences that affect the outcome of the story. Storytelling has matured, going from meaningless damsel in distress cases that serve to motivate the player, to being at the forefront of the game with real messages and important stories to tell.

We see modern trends in story-based games, where gameplay takes a backseat to branching narratives, as in Telltale games and Until Dawn. We find that interactivity enhances the ability for games to tell stories. From research about player character identification it can be seen how even in a linear narrative such as in The Last of Us, interaction with the game and character can elicit more emotions than other mediums, leaving a bigger impact on the player. And the cast study of Bloodborne shows the potential games have for different kinds of storytelling, and how they can be effective and rewarding for the audience. For these reasons, we see an increase in storytelling games, and that these games are being met with critical success. Being able to interact with a game is a strong argument for video games being a viable storytelling medium.

We have also looked in to the future of storytelling in games. We see that story-based games may become even more popular, as new business models provide platforms for content similar to TV streaming websites like Netflix. With VR, and a host of other experimental technologies on the rise, narratives in games are looking to become more immersive and interactive, giving the player full control by putting them into the game.

Could Aristotle, when creating the rules of narrative, have ever envisioned what would become of his work. That his theories and his work would be the foundation of mediums of storytelling that would not exist for thousands of years. Video games as a medium for storytelling have evolved so significantly in the last 30 years, that even those who incepted video games could not possibly have known how far we have come. And we, educated as we are in the field, cannot possibly imagine how far we have to go.

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Future of Video Games

How it works

In many centuries, technology has been a big contributor to human history. It has helped humans advance in many different areas of life. It has provided us with the abilities to advance the human race, and gain more knowledge than our previous ancestors. Technology over the years has advanced rapidly. Not that long ago, the very first cell phone was an extraordinary invention that caught the world by storm. It helped talking with people from long distances remotely seem like a futuristic invention.

Now we have smartphones that can almost run themselves. Our smartphones now can process better and faster, than our old computers 10 years ago.

I believe that technology is the most beneficial and fastest growing advancement in our economy today. Not only is technology beneficial for personal use, but also for medical advancements. Just like the very first cellphone, medical technology today has also shown to advance very rapidly. It has quickly shown to extend our lifetime and help treat and prevent diseases around the world.

I have researched many different types of technological advances. One specific technology that I found the most interesting is video games. As technology advances, Video games is one invention that has caught the attention of millions of people around the world. It is an invention that hasn’t even been around for more than 80 years. It is a technology that is still advancing rapidly and is only going to get better as computers process faster. Today, video games are a multi-billion dollar industry. It has many different forms, it can be played on your phone, computer, and a console. The console is by far the most popular, and there are three big console companies that manufacture these products. These manufacturers are Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox. As every year technology advances, there are more capabilities in a console.

Since consoles are the most well-known form of playing a video game. In addition to consoles, on-demand gaming and cloud gaming is becoming more popular. Just like the music industry on-demand music and digital music has taken over. It is doing the same with video games. The overall population seeks its games within the consoles online store. Now you don’t have to go out and buy a video game. You can buy games in the comfort of your own home. Another form of video game that has been trending is virtual reality. Gamers now have the ability to play video games in a different form. Instead of playing using a TV, you can now play games with a headset. It is a 3D world simulation where you control the movements with your own body. This technology advancement is not only for video games but it is also suitable to watch TV and movies. VR is another technological advancement that can be improved as technological advances. It can have many different possibilities, instead of a video game. You can be in a book and become the main character. All these what ifs, is what makes the future of technology very interesting and we are far from reaching the end.

Another form of technology that is branched with VR is wearable technology. The watch, it is an old form of jewelry that has been around for centuries. With the advancements of technology, the Smartwatch is another way the video game industry has helped it succeed. Although the watch isn’t like a video game, it has been helping gamers and non-gamers stay fit. As gaming is traditionally viewed as a lazy hobby. Involving a lot of inactivity for long hours, it has shown to really help to get more gamers moving and involved with fitness. Fitness apps have helped get funding from the gaming community. It tracks your movement and workout sessions, all on the same computer on your wrist. This would seem impossible many years ago but it is amazing to see how far and fast technology is advancing.

Video games aren’t just a lazy hobby than many assume. It is a form of technology that is beneficial for different parts of the brain. Its an exercise for the body and the mind. They are many different benefits to video games. It helps increase grey matter in the brain. As well as, help refine learned and hardwired skills. It can also enhance your ability to learn. It can also improve your focus and attention. In some cases, it can even help you through depression. Even though many find video games controversial to your health. It can improve your life, but as always to everything, it is good only to a limit and not overdoing it.

To an average consumer, they might see video games as a simple interactive simulation. In contrary, it is so much more. Today, video games are now proving that they can help us improve brains processing speed. It allows to become storytellers and mentally train our minds to interact with a difficult task. Video games can help us to become mentally active, kids today have an extraordinary multitasking skill to achieve things. It helps kids become smarter with achieving a difficult task. In games, we produce a reaction. Our brain increases multitasking, and also release dopamine in the brain. As games get harder, and you achieve the hard goal. you release dopamine in the brain. This process makes gamers, seeks out that same reaction and want to achieve hard task to receive that release of dopamine in the brain.

As gaming trends to become more and more popular, video games can help us to become better critical thinkers. In every game, there is always a story mode to play. Just like a novel book, video games are very similar to books. They have an original story that has the main character and a plot. As we play along and follow the story, it can help us to be not only active to what everything is going on but also engaged deeply into the story. It can help in understanding facts and opinions, It can help us also in evaluating arguments and evidence. Since there are hundreds of games out right now. It’s really another world that a person can get into. if you think about its like books were turned into a video game and you can play as the character. There are so many possibilities for stories.

As technology advances, I believe it can aid us to become more intelligent than we have ever reached before. Technology has expanded our access to education, now all the information that you need is easily available. It’s extraordinary that our smartphones have only been around under 20 years. As technology aids our personal lives, It can also aid in education. In ways where the classroom is no longer a barrier. Now, students can learn new ways of learning and communicate, while working together. This could be done with VR or other forms of technology. Opportunities like this have been expanded by technology.

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Impact of Videogames on Children Essay

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Introduction

Modern children live in an extremely digitalized environment characterized by the availability of information and specific ways to spend free time. Today, most young people prefer to spend time in front of the computer, either doing their homework or socializing by using social networks. Another trend of contemporary society is the high popularity of video games that become more complex, similar to reality, and demanding much time. The constantly updating content along with the ability to play with friends online attract children. In such a way, videogames replace other activities such as running, walking, or socializing in the street. The given change of priorities triggers vigorous debates about the possible effects of games on children, their physical and mental development, and long-term consequences. For this reason, the given research is devoted to the issue of videogames and how they influence children. To investigate the problem, the following thesis is offered:

The adverse effects of videogames on children might include the development of anxiety, depression, changes in brain functioning, problems with weight, socialization, and trigger the evolution of chronic diseases; however, they can also positively influence children increasing visuospatial cognition, attention, creativity, and reducing aggression levels.

The development of the videogames industry resulted in the emergence of complex games that create attractive images and exciting tasks to engage players and hold their attention. Statistics show that 66% of children aged 8 to 12 years play video games about 2 hours per day, while teens aged 13 to 17 play about 2,5 hours per day (Halbrook et al. 1097). However, in real life, the numbers can be even higher because of the inability to trace the amount of time spent on such activities. It means, for children, videogames become the main type of activity practiced every day.

Addiction and Accessibility

Another problem linked to videogames is their ability to precondition addiction. They affect the brain similarly to drugs as they stimulate the pleasure center and trigger the release of dopamine responsible for the emergence of specific behaviors (Paturel). In such a way, playing videogames, children feel the need to spend more time. The problem is complicated by the fact that today, games are spread globally, and there is hardly an area, excluding the poorest ones with no Internet or computers, where children are deprived of a chance to play (Paturel). The combination of addiction and accessibility contributes to the spread of videogames and the growing topicality of the question of how they impact the physical and mental health of a child.

Mental Development of a Child

One of the main problems linked to videogames is their influence on the mental development of a child. Childhood is the period fundamental for the mental development of a child, and numerous factors might have either a positive or negative effects on their brain and behaviors (Lobel et al. 885). In such a way, the fact that videogames become the central way to spend free time, replacing the previous activities, attracts the attention of researchers as it has a direct impact on the psyche and health of an individual. However, there is still no consensus on whether videogames have only negative or positive effects.

Brain Functioning

One of the popular fears is that videogames can affect brain functioning. Some researchers assume that excessive gaming in childhood can physically rewire the brain and introduce irreversible changes into its work (Paturel). The recent Chinese research presupposing two control groups showed that gamers (individuals spending about 10 hours a day online) have less gray matter if to compare with people who spend less than two hours online (Paturel). In such a way, gaming can be dangerous as it affects various brain areas, depending on the type of game and reaction it cultivates.

Depression and Anxiety

There is also a belief that games might precondition the development of depression and anxiety in children. The given states are mainly associated with failures in online games, the inability to get some achievement, or bullying, one of the common practices on the Internet. The research shows that excessive gaming might precondition dopamine exhaustion, emotional suppression, and the lack of motivation to achieve various real-life goals (Paturel). Moreover, people with depression might suffer from the deterioration of their states caused by addictive playing (Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence”). Analyzing the impact of videogames on anxiety, researchers also offer various assumptions. First of all, gaming can be a normal and healthy way to relieve stress and decrease anxiety levels by engaging in online activities (Pellissier). However, for children with gaming disorder, using gaming as the anxiety coping mechanism can be dangerous and contribute to the accumulation of negative effects and increased risks (Pellissier). In such a way, video games have diverse effects on depression and anxiety, including the positive and negative ones.

Lack of Socialization

The lack of socialization and contact with peers in real life is one of the most popular fears among parents. Today, most games demand much time; moreover, they are focused on cooperation online by using the Internet, which means that children do not have to leave their houses to communicate with other people. It preconditions the increased time they spend at home. The recent research states that there is a direct correlation between the time spent online and social skills, or the higher the gaming addiction, the less the social skills (Lobel et al. 885). Children might demonstrate the inability to communicate in real life because of the absence of the demanded experience.

Weight Management and Chronic Diseases

Excessive gaming can also result in poor weight management. Gamers usually have snacks consisting of unhealthy food such as sweets, chips, or soda (Halbrook et al. 1100). The given dietary patterns create the basis for the emergence of several problems. First, they might acquire extra weight and suffer from obesity. At the same time, spending much time in front of the computer with decreased physical activity and wrong posture might result in the development of scoliosis and other problems with the locomotor system (Lobel et al. 885). Moreover, there is an increased risk of acquiring chronic diseases such as gastritis. From this perspective, videogames can be dangerous for children.

Nature-Deficit Disorder

Spending much time at home and playing videogames, children devote less attention to real life and the world surrounding them. Thus, Louv states that the threatening tendency towards the decreased exposure of children to nature can be observed in Western countries today (23). The given nature-deficit disorder has a negative impact on children and society as for health development, they need to interact with the environment and acquire all benefits from this cooperation (Louv 45). The inability to remain in contact with the world affects all systems of the child body and prevents them from healthy evolution. For this reason, videogames should be viewed as the factor limiting children’s access to nature and triggering the growth of the nature-deficit disorder.

Enhancement of Brain Capabilities

However, it is critical to mention the fact that there are also positive effects linked to videogames. For instance, studies show that by playing action games, players improve their visual capabilities, including tracking multiple objects, reaction, storing, and manipulating them in specific memory centers in the brain (Paturel). Because of the need to consider several factors at the same time, players have to perform multiple tasks simultaneously and make immediate decisions, which affects their brains and makes them more flexible (Paturel). These positive effects differentiate gamers from other children and help them to cope with diverse tasks while visiting their educational establishments.

Playing action games is also directly correlated with reaction speed. Investigations show that gamers who spend much time in this sort of activities have a lower speed of reaction (Paturel). It is explained by the fact that their gaming sessions can be viewed as training, which results in the formation of bonds in the brain and the development of skills (Pellissier). Because multiple repetitions of the same actions are an effective form of learning, gamers acquire new capabilities linked to similar situations (Paturel).

Imagination

There are also different opinions on how videogames affect the imagination. Thus, most studies conclude that modern role-playing games (RPG) contribute to the development of creative and imaginary qualities of the child brain (Halbrook et al. 1100). They offer a person a unique world, and a player should use his/her imagination to dive into it and associate his/her hero with himself/herself. Additionally, quests and strategies might precondition the rise of strategic thinking and the ability to resolve problematic puzzles or questions (Halbrook et al. 1100). For this reason, videogames can be viewed as a factor stimulating the development of this aspect of the brain’s functioning.

Recommendation

In such a way, there is no unified opinion about whether videogames should be viewed as a positive or negative factor impacting the mental development of a child. This complexity comes from the fact that there are both positive and negative effects associated with gaming. However, all sources emphasize the dangerous nature of excessive gaming and addiction. It means that parents are recommended to control their children playing patterns to avoid spending too much time in the virtual world and guarantee that they interact with the world and their peers in real life.

Altogether, videogames have both positive and negative effects on children. They might precondition the development of chronic diseases and extra weight, high anxiety, and depression levels, along with the changes in brain functioning. The highly-addictive nature increases the risks of spending too much time in games. However, there are also positive effects, such as better reaction, motor skills, visuospatial cognition, and creativity, which are trained during gaming sessions. For this reason, it is vital to continue the further investigation of the problem to outline more effects and conclude whether children’s brains suffer critical damage from games or they can be a tool to stimulate its development and optimal functioning.

Works Cited

Halbrook, Yemaya J., et al. “When and How Video Games Can Be Good: A Review of the Positive Effects of Video Games on Well-Being.” Perspectives on Psychological Science , vol. 14, no. 6, Nov. 2019, pp. 1096–1104.

Lobel, Adam, et al. “Video Gaming and Children’s Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence , vol. 46, no. 4, 2017, pp. 884-897. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0646-z.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder . Algonquin Books, 2008.

Paturel, Amy. “ Game Theory: The Effects of Video Games on the Brain .” Brain & Life , Web.

Pellissier, Hank. “ Your child’s Brain on Technology: Video Games .” Great Schools , 2014, Web.

“Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence.” American Academy of Child & Adolescents Psychiatry , 2015, Web.

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What’s next: The future of esports

Online viewership of competitive video gaming is up, but social distancing and tighter budgets will present challenges

In person or online? In the early days, video gamers went to the corner arcade. Then, later, they ordered pizza and crashed friends’ homes to wire together rows of consoles and computers for local area network parties. As internet speeds rose, though, gaming moved online, where players gathered to navigate fantasy worlds or blast each other in simulated war zones.

Today, competitive esports is increasingly an in-person venture. Gaming relies ever more on live tournaments replete with huge stages, giant video screens and thunderous crowds. But COVID-19 stay-at-home orders have prompted something of a return to old ways as players have no option but to compete only online.

Mark Deppe, director of UCI Esports and commissioner of the North America Scholastic Esports Federation, says that the coronavirus-caused cancellation of many tournaments punched a hole in the business of gaming – even as online viewership has risen. Here, he discusses current and future ramifications of COVID-19 on esports.

Most people think of gaming as something that happens at home and online, but for the world of competitive esports, that’s not really the case. How have esports been affected by the stay-at-home directives?

COVID-19 has been both a challenge and a boon for esports. More people are playing video games and watching online content than ever before. The UCI teams have been able to compete in collegiate tournaments from home. With that said, all major live events were cancelled, including the Overwatch League matches in March and April and the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational , which was originally scheduled for May. I think the sizzle of esports that comes with major live events is missing, but the community and broader ecosystem are thriving.

How are UCI’s esports teams coping with the pandemic-related shutdowns and cancellations?

We feel the same disappointment that many folks do. Our League of Legends team was a top contender for the national championship this year, and our season was cancelled during the playoffs. On the other hand, our Overwatch team will have that opportunity since their season has just resumed and will finish up online.

Esports is still figuring out its business model and major revenue streams. How has the pandemic changed the conversation around the business of esports?

In general, esports have never been profitable. Live events are part of the strategy to get us there. I think the real opportunity for esports revenue is the monetization of viewership through ad sales and sponsorships. With more people online and fewer options in movies and with traditional sports, this could be a moment for esports to shine. Many can still happen online and even thrive. The major professional leagues have all restarted through purely online competition. It’s not ideal, but it is possible. Internet lag times do prevent some games, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, from being played competitively online. I expect live events to play a big role for top-tier esports in the future, but the vast majority of esports engagement will be online.

How will esports fare post-pandemic compared to traditional sports?

​For the most part, I think we’ll face similar challenges. Finances will be stressed, and budgets will be cut. The real question is whether or not team owners and decision-makers choose to allocate their resources differently. We might see traditional sports team owners shift investment into esports – or they might double down on traditional sports. We’re already seeing top game streaming platforms being used for alternative purposes, including traditional sports. The NFL has broadcast games on Twitch, and NASA recently broadcast the SpaceX launch. Media companies are increasingly trying to connect with young people, and traditional avenues like cable television aren’t where millennials spend time.

What factors will esports tournament organizers need to bear in mind as they think about hosting in-person events again?

We certainly need to reconfigure our competitive spaces to allow for social distancing. Players really only need to be in the same building, on the same digital network, so that gives organizers a lot of flexibility with spacing of seats. The slightly harder challenge is protecting working staff and spectators, but every events person in the world is already working on those contingencies. Esports should be much easier to implement than sports where players have physical contact with one another. Here at UCI, we have a world-class esports arena, and we’re prepping for social distancing measures within the arena. We’ll have reduced capacity and shorter operating hours. We still plan on being a home for gamers and a place where people can meet up and have fun.

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games

Tony Tulathimutte on the future of video game criticism

Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,” Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative.

I hoped to have a conversation with a writer about games that went a little deeper. There were two main reasons I turned to the Whiting Award-winning writer Tony Tulathimutte. The first was because of his response in an interview with Playboy , in which he said that his interest in gaming probably “had something to do with my desire to bend or break formal conventions in fiction.” The second was his three thousand word essay about Clash of Clans , “Clash Rules Everything Around Me,” which was exactly the type of essay about gaming I wanted to see more of. Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens , which we listed as one of the 25 best novels of 2016 .

What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The ‘ Field of Dreams’ approach.

Graham Oliver: Can we have this conversation without getting stuck trying to legitimize video games as a medium?

Tony Tulathimutte: “Are video games art?” “Have we had the video game Citizen Kane  yet?”

GO: That’s such a boring and overdone conversation. I think it’s more interesting to look at the ways in which video games actually do interact with literature, and not to hold the conversation just as a demonstration of our respect.

TT: Take the respect for granted and go from there. I thought about starting a literary magazine about video games a while back, but the discourse had by then become so toxic that, even with the most anodyne academic essay you could write, the best you could hope for was that it would be ignored. There needs to be more space for this kind of writing, but I just didn’t want to wade into it then. I feel a little better about it now, which is why I did the Clash of Clans  essay.

GO: What is the difference between video game-related essays showing up on a literary site, versus a site where the primary purpose is the intersection of video games and literature? What could that site do that can’t be done (or isn’t being done) otherwise?

TT: Part of it is just volume. You can’t have a general interest magazine like the New Yorker covering video games to the same depth or degree as it does film or music or even theater. Every big magazine at this point covers video games occasionally — I know the New Yorker has written about Minecraft and No Man’s Sky , for instance. New York Magazine just did a big essay on gaming more broadly.

But for some reason, there’s no video game editor at the New Yorker , no dedicated departments or verticals, except at newer places like VICE, Vox , The Verge . Unlike music or movies, video games aren’t equally distributed through the culture; it’s more compartmentalized. This owes in part to a marketing apparatus around games that caters to and fosters a specific audience, and because the audience for certain genres — responding to these pressures — became self-selecting, especially with respect to gender. Video games may be art, but they are also a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] industry, which makes them no different from any other STEM field in that regard.

GO: It’s a question of access. I was thinking about your Clash essay; you have this entire paragraph that has to explain this massively popular and mechanically fairly simple game. Does that automatically turn off an audience who are already proficient in those basics? In which case, are you only writing for people who don’t game? I suppose that’s another conundrum of coverage in a general interest publication…

TT: If you read an essay by Susan Sontag or Martin Amis about the great books, or by André Bazin about film, they can assume a certain level of knowledge about the text or film from their audience. I can write that way about games on my own time and my own dime, but there’s no presumed canon or general readership for games, because they’re not taught in schools and not regularly discussed in big publications. So you either write for the diehards — the equivalent of film buffs or bookworms — or for novices.

GO: Is that why we haven’t had novels which interact with video games the way David Foster Wallace did with tennis, or Ann Patchett with opera? Neither of their books included explanatory paragraphs; it’s so ingrained in our culture that it seems almost impossible to have grown up without some idea of what tennis or opera are.

TT: Most people have played a game, and the average gamer spends six hours a week playing them. I think it has less to do with the medium inherently than just the failure of writers who have approached the subject. I haven’t read everything on games, but so far, the fledgling efforts have been too literal or kind of corny. Some writers seem to think that you’re supposed to transpose the form of games into fiction — to provide this very lightly remediated experience of reading a book so that it feels like you’re playing a game.

The last thing you want to do is create a watered-down experience of gaming in a text. A book should still work as a book. It’s the usual difficulty of writing about other mediums; there’s that old chestnut that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. But there are special considerations for how to write about any form in a way that conveys deep presence and vividness comparable to the experience itself.

GO: When you’re writing about games in one form or another, do you find you prefer to write for someone who is like you — very interested in both writing and video games — or is your preference for someone in that liminal space somewhere between them?

TT: I approach it as I do with all my creative writing, which is to write for the audience of Tony. That frees to me to write things irrespective of their publishability. Right now I’m working on a long essay about Metal Gear Solid  — the whole series. That’s between ten and twenty games, depending on which ones you call canon. The dialogue alone stacks up to something like sixty thousand words each. And the companion synopsis is almost three thousand words. I’m just trying to make points about the series that haven’t been made before. Would Kill Screen or The New York Review of Books ever run that? Hell to the fuck no.

If writers keep doing this, eventually there will be a readership equipped to deal with it. For the longest time there have been really smart people playing video games and wondering where all the good criticism was. It’s a discoverability issue, to a certain extent. There’s so much good writing out there about games, but most games-writing outlets cater to fairly niche perspectives. Action Button is extremely good, irreverent creative criticism, probably my favorite. Five Out of Ten is academically oriented, Kill Screen is mainstream journalism. What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The Field of Dreams approach.

GO: You said earlier (and you’ve also mentioned it in your Playboy interview) that the discourse around games is toxic and partisan. Are you talking about within or outside of the gaming community?

TT: All of it. Partisan lines have been drawn within it for purposes far beyond aesthetic disagreement. In part because so much of this discourse occurs in a medium where people are not held accountable for their words, i.e. on the internet.

GO: How does that compare to conversations within the literary community? You’ve written before, for instance, about the MFA vs. NYC debate .

TT: I want to do my part to de-estrange gaming discourse. Not de-stigmatize or demystify, but de-estrange. This cancerous shit happens everywhere — it just happens in a spectacularly aggressive and organized way in gaming.

GO: When you’re not actually writing about video games, what place do they hold in your life? Are they the stress relief at the end of the day, the reward after two hours of writing? Or something you try to avoid when you’re in the middle of a big project?

TT: I’ve played video games since I was three years old. I have loved video games a lot longer than I’ve loved literature — which is not to say more. Actually… yeah, probably more. It just so happens that I’m a writer. I don’t feel the guilt that some people do who, even if they enjoy gaming, approach it feeling as if it’s a waste of time, or a form of entertainment which takes them away from their “real life.” You wouldn’t condemn a cineaste or a lover of literature. But a fug of non-respectability still attends video games.

That said, the reward mechanisms in most games are designed to get you hooked in cognitive motivational ways that don’t apply to most literature. So it’s absolutely possible for games to displace other things that you would want to do just as much. I don’t struggle to fit them into my life, but I probably would, if my life consisted of much more than just teaching and writing.

GO: I suppose I was thinking more about the effect on your mental state. For instance, I have to save video games for the end of the day, because I have a hard time going from the almost meditative state of game-playing into writing. How does it fit in, not in the sense of time but in how it interacts with your ability to produce writing afterwards?

TT: If a visual narrative enters my head before I start writing, it’s enormously difficult to pull myself back into writing. A huge amount of psychic inertia has to be overcome to transition from consuming a narrative to assembling one. I have a lot of wacko bird theories as to why. Perhaps language is such an information-poor medium that it demands a sparseness of input, so that you can have room to envision or create new stuff in your head. Maybe the act of viewing, which puts you in the posture of evaluation and judgment, beefs up the inner critic that makes it hard to write. That’s all pure superstition, I have nothing to base that on.

GO: What about when it comes to the type of video game? You’ve mentioned playing DotA 2 in other interviews, which is very different from more narrative-heavy single player games. In the middle of a big writing project, do you find yourself drawn more to one type of game over another?

TT: With the caveat that writers are the worst self-appraisers, I’ll say that I have not noticed any influence from the type of games I’m playing on what I write. I think games engage an entirely different part of my brain, which might also account for the difficulty I have toggling between those two modes. That said, I think longer games can work like long books — immersively — where you have to pinch your nose and take a deep breath before plunging into the Neapolitan books and it just becomes the medium you swim in for months. Some games demand a higher or more frequent degree of engagement to get any kind of nuance at all. You can play a thousand hours of DotA 2 , without coming anywhere near understanding it.

GO: How does that compare to the relationship between reading and your own work? Do you avoid other people’s writing when working, or do you keep books on your desk for the sake of referencing them?

TT: I do. I try to keep a messy puddle of books around my work area, in case I want to steal something from somebody else. But I Google as much as I refer to other books. I don’t disconnect from the internet when I’m writing, like some writers who have this almost mystical anathema against technology. I generally find I benefit from my procrastination.

You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: You referred to language as being information-poor a minute ago, which reminds me of the AGNI essay you wrote on boredom. The thesis of that essay was basically that boredom in literature is okay. Can you also apply that idea to video games? Can there be meaningful or productive boredom while playing, through the act of repetition, for instance? I just played Her Story, which I know you enjoyed, and while it has a super interesting story you have to slog through a certain amount of repetition to get to it.

TT: The democratization of game creation is producing a wider range of games, like the Super 8 camera did with film. You can have vignette-style games like Nina Freeman’s —  Cibele , how do you Do It? , Freshman Year , etc. You can have “walking simulators” that are almost purely meditative, like Gone Home , Firewatch , or Dear Esther . I just saw a piece on a game based on Thoreau’s Walden .

The impulses and tendencies that make people want to create literature are present. It will happen more as people are able to do what they want to do, without enormous corporate financial support or even crowdfunding, which, to an extent, just moves the bottom line to having to be crowd-pleasing. Games can be plenty boring in spite of themselves, even if that’s not what they’re trying to do. It’s a cliché by now to point out that the most time investment-heavy games like World of Warcraft consist largely of “grinding.” Or, if you play something like DotA 2 , queuing for a game.

GO: For DotA 2 you also have to spend a lot of time reading up on viable builds. Work that’s not in actually playing the game.

TT: Yes, although I will say that that intellectual work doesn’t feel like tedious labor to me. I have fun looking up builds. The deep strategy and understanding are coextensive with the pleasure of playing the game.

Moments of boredom are built into games for reasons that range from comedy to suspense. I think a lot about the moment in Final Fantasy VI where you’re directed to just wait at the edge of a floating continent for a character to come along. On the one hand you’re sitting watching a clock tick down. On the other hand, it’s extremely tense.

Contrasting aesthetic effects in games to those in other media is not always productive, because it’s like playing Twenty Questions. Can games do X like books? Can games do Y like films? In the same way we should assume games are art, and that there’s an audience out there hungry to make something of them, we should assume that games can do anything. You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: I go to these academic conferences where a similar conversation is happening among professors who write in the field of gaming studies. Some bring in literary and film theory, and try to lay that on top of video games, while others reject that. The tools and the language are already there from other fields, so it seems easy. On the other hand, it can be kind of reductive, and perhaps prevents you from having the more meaningful conversation.

TT: Right, or even just the conversation you’re trying to have. There are also those efforts to create a language around game studies, partly I think try to legitimatize it in the eyes of the academy. You get people going on about the Ludologists versus the Narratologists, about ludonarrative dissonance, copping these quasi-academic terms. I can see the point of systematizing things, but my favorite criticism helps you not to just describe and understand, but to enjoy stuff more.

GO: How much do you worry about the effect that being an “out” gamer will have on your literary career?

TT: If I were bashful or coy about my love of video games I wouldn’t do this interview. The same goes for pornography or television. Even the language of being “out” implies a political and social pressure or an importance that just doesn’t exist. I’d hate to believe that being a writer means living in a constant state of deposition, publicizing everything you do, think, or feel. The fact that I like video games isn’t interesting. Video games are interesting. I love talking about them with smart people, both within and outside of gaming culture. But I’m also perfectly happy to be left alone with them.

GO: Do you hope there’s a day around the corner where a game developer decides to make a narrative-heavy game like Life is Strange , Her Story , or Kentucky Route Zero , and they look at a list of literary authors to figure out who should write it?

TT: Not at all. I believe that I can do a lot of things in writing, but I haven’t felt an urge to create a video game since the third grade. It’s always good to have some kind of interest that is totally pure, where you’re going to be an eternal fan, because sausage-making can disillusion you fast. If part of the charge of art comes from mystique or sheer baffled admiration, that’s something I want to preserve in at least a few departments of my life.

GO: As a writer, you’re expected to be both a creator and a thoughtful critic as well. It seems like once you publish a book, there is an expectation that you’ll be reviewing or blurbing for other books for the rest of your life. How does your approach to writing about literature differ from your essays on games?

TT: I review books as a practitioner; I know what goes into putting one together, so I can pan one that isn’t well-made. I write about games as an appreciator, in that I want to take something I like and enlarge people’s sense of pleasure or wonder at it. This doesn’t mean that I can’t be critical of a game. I have negative things to say about everything. But because I’m not highly qualified to trivialize or disparage a game on the level of craft — for instance, a sunbeam in a video game might look shitty and aliased because of technological or budgetary constraints that I’m not aware of — my main task is to study its narrative and to add value.

GO: You’ve been thinking about games critically for a long time. I read that you wrote your theses — both in undergrad and for your first master’s degree — on video game interaction. What were you looking at in those?

TT: I majored in something called Symbolic Systems, which would be called cognitive sciences anywhere else. They add linguistics and philosophy to the standard curriculum of formal logic, computer science, and cognitive psychology. I applied the extremely specific language of human-computer interaction studies to video games. So I wrote pretty dry literature surveys of game-writing and interaction theory, and how the latter could be applied to the former.

One was about game controller design, which ended up anticipating the Nintendo Wii controller by a couple of years. I talked about the potential for modular design and gestural input. The second thesis was about menus. They’re the basis of turn-based RPGs, and in games their definitional boundaries are weird. Take the Warp Zone Pipes in Super Mario Brothers . You go over a ceiling and drop into a room where you’re invited to select one of three pipes to go through. It is very clearly a menu, where you’re selecting one of three options, but it’s also a part of the action.

God, I sound so stoned when I talk about this.

GO: I hate to keep mentioning Her Story , but I just started it today. In that game, the user interface also has this blurry boundary. You read a ReadMe file to learn how to use the system, but that’s all part of the in-game computer you interact with as part of the story.

TT: Yeah, it’s brilliant. Any computer interaction can be extrapolated into a game premise. Here it’s basically Database Search: The Game, but it’s fun and well written. To analogize with literature, there are plenty of stories whose premise comes from its formal conceit. My favorite is “ Going for a Beer ” by Robert Coover. He takes a simple sentence gimmick — where two things that happen at different times are written as though they’re simultaneous — and it becomes the conceit of the story. The story is, “what if your life was composed of moments with endings and beginnings but no middles?”

GO: Form matching content. That happens in all types of art, right? There was a piece on Hamilton which pointed out that, as the first half progresses, the Marquis de Lafayette’s rhymes get denser and faster, coinciding with him being in America and increasingly speaking English. The music reflects the plot.

TT: Form generating content, I would say. It’s a classical idea. Sometimes it’s done very explicitly, like with Oulipo. It can be super corny, but it’s a dependable source of inspiration.

It’s Tristram Shandy-levels of batshit.

GO: Going back to your idea for a game-writing website, were you imagining a place that just collected the kind of long-form writing you want to see, or were you also imagining a community that would be built around it?

TT: I am not too concerned with building community. The idea was simply to get critical essays on games­ — not fiction, poetry, reviews, or personal essays, but literary analysis. Like the essay I’m working on about the Metal Gear Solid series… So many of the male characters lose their hands and are sterile and have daddy issues and misinterpret the will of one female character, The Boss. Aside from the glaring Freudian overtones, what’s that about? This is not stuff that figures into the plot as it plays out, but is something that I think screams out for conversation.

GO: I was a Nintendo kid and then jumped to PC gaming, so I never got into the Metal Gear  games.

TT: It’s like the Infinite Jest of games. As far as I know, it’s the longest continuous scripted narrative in games. You can make a strained case for things like Zelda or Metroid , but this is the most sustained vision from an auteurist figure, Hideo Kojima, and it’s just bonkers. It’s Tristram Shandy -levels of batshit.

GO: Well, that sells it. I now have to ask the big, speculative question, since you just called it the Infinite Jest of games. What do you think David Foster Wallace’s writing would have been like, had he been obsessed with video games rather than television?

TT: This question is so enormously counterfactual it might as well be a novel. The guy was hugely tech-avoidant. He typed with one finger on an old computer. But games seem very contiguous with his concerns in Infinite Jest . Though who’s to say Virginia Woolf wouldn’t have also gotten equally invested in games? Wallace is a gimme because of the technological overlap, but to me the more interesting speculative question is, What would a game written by P.G. Wodehouse be like? I want to see an essay on  that .

How to Have Fun Destroying Yourself: An Interview with Tony Tulathimutte, Author of Private Citizens

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Our gamified future

A window into 2030 gaming and its influence on industry and society

A disease is devastating the earth. Humanity is at risk of extinction, and you are its last hope. Ancient flora is thought to be the key – travel back 65 million years to a prehistoric world to unlock the cure. Beware, you’re not alone. Terrifying historic predators roam. How long can you survive?

Imagine that you’re experiencing this through a hyper-realistic game on an advanced virtual reality (VR) headset with a quality far surpassing today's most sophisticated games. By 2030, such truly immersive extended reality (XR) experiences are expected to become the norm, accelerating gaming technology's profound influence on people, society, and even industry.

Take education, for example: Through the advancement of augmented reality (AR) technology and spatial mapping, digital worlds will be embedded in physical reality. On a field trip to the Roman Colosseum, children might see and hear it as it was 1,950 years ago. With rich, interactive experiences like this, it will be possible to improve student engagement in a world where attention spans are increasingly hard to hold.

In industry, gamified employee training will improve the absorption of information, developing more effective and competent workforces. Factory workers might learn the working parts of a car from a digital twin in the form of a game before working on the real thing, allowing consequence-free mistakes and progression-based research and development.

What is the future of gaming?

Gaming will be everywhere and will include everyone. Games will become centered around more active spatial XR experiences – encouraging more movement and interaction while boosting immersion. Barriers to collaboration will disappear, bridging gaps between people globally who may not have otherwise had the chance to meet.

Why will the advancement of technology be essential to the evolution of gaming?

Connectivity is at the heart of gaming, be it a powerful, seamless network connection or improved communication between people. Cloud gaming will unlock gaming in real time, reducing the need for downloading and storage, and enabling gamers to do more of what they love, wherever they wish to do it.

How will we make our 2030 vision a reality?

Bringing the 2030 vision to life will rely on a vast array of network advancements, including increased bandwidth, minimal latency, and an adaptive Network Compute Fabric. These capabilities will ensure the most optimal usage of network resources, while we see a move away from graphic user interfaces (GUIs) toward natural user interfaces (NUIs).

Gaming: An expanding definition

It’s important to define “gaming” and what it means to be a “gamer.” Many believe that the key ingredient of gaming is interactivity, and this is what separates it from conventional video-based entertainment like television or movies. With gaming, an active role is taken on by the participant, as opposed to a passive one.

With today’s gaming as varied as it is, most people game in one way or another – whether they know it or not!

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Ericsson ConsumerLab has uncovered six gamer segments among global smartphone users. These segments include:

extreme heavy gamers (playing equally on consoles, smart TVs, PCs and mobile devices) PC-centric heavy mobile-centric heavy casual (killing time) casual (social) light gamers

Among the segments, game times range between 3 and 50+ hours a week.

A recent ConsumerLab study found that half of the heavy and light gamer groups believe that an optimized gaming experience with low latency and increased immersion is crucial for them.

It is predicted that mobile-centric gaming will boom with the advancement of cloud gaming. Cloud gaming (or streaming games) is a new way of consuming video games that is set to grow with 54 percent of respondents agreeing that cloud gaming will be an industry game changer. Connectivity for cloud gaming is vital, with 55 percent agreeing that they would play more cloud games on mobile networks if 5G was more widely available.

How many people are gaming?

In 2022, 80 percent of smartphone users across 37 surveyed markets in a ConsumerLab study said they play video games daily (on any device). In 2012, this figure was 62 percent.

What devices are being used?

Since 2012, the share of people gaming on a smartphone has increased from 49 percent to 72 percent, and the share of those using portable consoles for gaming has increased from 22 to 31 percent. Conversely, the share of people gaming on stationary consoles has decreased from 43 percent in 2012 to 33 percent in 2022.

This less sedentary style of gaming, supported by the growing use of AR and VR headsets, highlights the need for a high-performance network to facilitate cloud gaming. Further, as demonstrated during the Mobile World Congress event, a quality of service on demand (QoD) application programming interface (API) can deliver a much more consistent user experience while using high-traffic mobile networks.

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Gaming’s influence on our everyday lives

Gaming’s influence is already far-reaching, from business and education to sustainability and healthcare. For example, language learning apps and fitness-based smart watches use gamified features including point-based tests, personal bests, achievement badges and trophies.

The technology used for gaming is also widely applied to non-gaming use cases. Low-latency computing developed for gaming is being used to run factories of robots from hundreds of miles away in real time. There is a production facility deep in the Ecuadorian jungle as well as a uranium mine in northern Canada that employ this technology to perform real-time commands, removing the need for workforces to be stationed in extremely remote locations. In the case of emergencies, snap decisions can be executed immediately, saving time, money and lives.

Games like Niantic’s Pokémon GO have already dragged gaming from its previously sedentary existence by taking gamers outside into the real world to see our planet populated by Pokémon. The hunt was on as millions around the globe picked up their phones and joined the quest to “catch ‘em all.” Niantic’s AR-based game boosts social interaction, mental health and general fitness along the way. It’s game experiences like this that are changing the definition (and demographic) of “gamers.”

The user benefits of gaming

“We encourage people to get out and exercise, explore the world around them and also interact with their community in real-world environments.”

Sarah Gilarsky Head of Telco Partnerships, Niantic

Games are also being used for the greater good. The creators of Minecraft have, with the help of Ericsson, teamed up with the United Nations to work on in-game building that replicates in the real world. The UN has used this technology to map and design building work across the globe in areas damaged by natural disasters or war. This could speed up the process of building planning, providing relief to those who need it quicker and more effectively.

Gaming has long helped with therapy and rehabilitation efforts. Nintendo devices have helped the elderly with “brain training” games that boost memory, focus and mental sharpness with fantastic results. Its Wii console has also helped those requiring physical rehab after an accident or surgery to re-gain motor skills.

More generally, greater awareness is being generated around sustainability goals through gamification. A variety of companies (such as Ecologi and Ecosia) utilize leaderboards, badges and challenges to trigger people’s competitiveness and keep them recycling, planting trees and reducing their carbon footprints.

Overcoming barriers to achieve 2030’s gaming goals

In order to achieve gaming’s 2030 goals, there are challenges to overcome, and the first is technological. At present, the network is able to support the vast amounts of data being uploaded and downloaded to and from a myriad of devices. But as we advance towards 2030, there will be greater demand for high-quality, secure connectivity, as well as the need for low latency and high bandwidth to facilitate the amount of data and edge computing involved in the games of the future.

With over five million monthly downloads of apps built using its software, Unity is the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content. Its mission is to give anyone the opportunity and the power to create innovative RT3D experiences.

Unity sees a future where gaming and connectivity technology is ubiquitous and accessible, with everyone from your grandmother to your four-year-old son using technology originally built for gaming. These imperative, persistent, social and realistic experiences will be picked up and used by anyone, easily – from e-commerce training to smart facilities. But it’s that low latency and high bandwidth over a trusted platform which is required to make it happen.

“People are able to tell their stories like never before .”

Callan Carpenter VP of Digital Twin Solutions, Unity

Secondly, there is a need for breakout devices. VR and AR technologies are still considered niche and found primarily among early adopters. VR headsets face another issue when it comes to mainstream uptake – they’re bulky and suffer from poor battery life.

A further issue is that a social stigma attached to gaming still exists – the idea that gamers are isolated, reclusive, “nerdy” and that gaming is unproductive. But today, almost everyone is a gamer, and it’s important to remember that games can also get us moving.

Game development company, HADO, has ventured into the gap in the market which fuses physical sport with esport to address the growing concern about the lack of movement from today’s young people. HADO, an AR-based techno-sport, sees players on a real-world court competing in a physically demanding game of virtual dodgeball. At the game’s core, fun and engagement come first, and fitness naturally follows. To level up, improved location technology to enhance the game experience is a key area that Ericsson technologies can help drive forward. 

When playing in a virtual setting, strength and size suddenly matter much less. HADO have created a space that is accessible to all including those with visual impairment or amputations. Recently, the company set up a tournament between two schools in Birmingham in the UK, where one team were made up of special educational needs (SEN) students, who held their own on the court and played at the same level as their opposition.

“We want to see HADO offered at school as one of the main PE options alongside football, gymnastics and basketball because we know just how incredibly engaging it is.” 

Jim Sephton Managing Director, HADO

The journey is evolving

Ericsson is tackling the technological challenges head-on with insights from consumers and game developers. Alongside the development of the network, the way we use gaming devices is set to improve as we transition from GUIs to NUIs – natural human abilities will control technology as opposed to artificial devices. This will enable the inclusion of more people as buttons and joysticks become a thing of the past, and multi-sensory experiences with gesture and voice control become commonplace. Immersion will increase through the mainstream adoption of haptic feedback suits.

The rise of esports has led to an increase of gaming spectators watching via broadcasters like Twitch or Huya. This has amassed huge numbers of fans all around the world, and players and fans can interact with one another, driving deeper engagement.

Game development company, Tension, produces interactive experiences that merge with real-life events. For example, you can watch a live hockey match from your chosen camera angle, see real-time player stats, and rewind key action points to analyze from different perspectives, all within a real-time 3D game. Making traditionally passive entertainment viewing, like live sports events and cinema, active through the adoption of gamified technology is a key area of focus ahead of 2030.

“ I want to be my own director … I want gaming to open up so the fans or the players can do what they want, when they want to do it.”

Magnus Björkman Co-founder and CEO, Tension

Ericsson is focused on increasing bandwidth – enabling more uploads and downloads to take place – and reducing latency to ensure real-time interactions are smooth and accurate. Its Network Compute Fabric (NCF) is evolving beyond edge computing to create a symbiotic relationship between connectivity and computing capabilities. This will enable the mutual growth of an interconnected system in which gaming can thrive, with a network that is flexible and scalable, adapting to the instant needs of the application in real time. Alongside this, with games becoming more integrated into daily life, user security and privacy become more prevalent, and this is something that Ericsson is focused on delivering while maintaining data integrity.

Progressing to the next checkpoint

When we talk about connectivity, we understand the importance of the technological advancement, but we also see the importance of improving connectivity between people.

As technologies such as the NCF evolves further, we will see a deeper connection forming between gaming, network technology and people – a move toward truly limitless connectivity. With the improvement and mainstream rollout of XR technology, gaming will become far more accessible, enabling people to connect to whatever, wherever they are.

This “borderless” world of connectivity will have a far-reaching impact, enabling faster, more efficient advancement in business and personal lives. What could be more impactful than bringing people together? Parents can solve real-world issues and children can explore the prehistoric world, from wherever they wish. Or imagine hyper-realistic AR being utilized to help a student in a coffee shop obtain real-time coaching to support their engineering internship. Behind them, a young couple appear to swipe in front of their faces, virtually browsing holiday destinations. This will all be possible through the advancement of gaming technology.

With the achievements of game developers and network providers like Ericsson, gaming is well and truly mainstream. This, with the addition of improved gaming devices such as lighter, lower-profile XR glasses and NUI-based input devices, will bring people together and improve users’ everyday lives.

With everything that the future of gaming has to offer, how will you play in 2030?

Contributors

Sarah Gilarsky

Peter Rinderud

Michael Björn

Peter Linder

Eric Blomquist

David Lindero

Jim Sephton

Magnus Björkman

Related links.

• Minecraft can increase problem solving, collaboration and learning - phys.org
• Innovative technology for inclusive urban design
• The digital building blocks of better communities - UN News
• Niantic’s adorable pet game Peridot launches in May - The Verge
• A quick guide to your digital carbon footprint

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