Where do you see gaming/modding going in 20 years?

[Brvtality]

Do you think the recent trend of Bethesda to open modding to consoles will catch on and we'll see

more games open to this detail of modding? Will procedurally generated games like No Man's Sky

open up more avenues of creativity or fall to the wayside? Is mobile gaming ever going to surpass

console quality? Just a few questions to get the discussion going. 

[Molevalence]

20 years? VR will probably be the norm by then.

[windpl]

Next game industry crash is looming in air. Software/hardware prices are hiking, and quality is diminishing, and still consumer is bombarded with dlc/drm/mt crap.

What happen after, it is too uncertain too foresee.

[Molevalence]

Next game industry crash is looming in air. Software/hardware prices are hiking, and quality is diminishing, and still consumer is bombarded with dlc/drm/mt crap.

What happen after, it is to uncertain to foresee.

Anyone remember the video game crash of 1983?

 

[Deso561PL]

To fucking hell.

 

I don't give an fuck about VR and other shit, i gonna be caveman.

[Gameplayer]

The Mod avenue for consoles is being sold off as crap to the higher up's.

 

The thing is that there are in fact some very good works out there that put the after market sales for DLC to real shame.  The issue is that aftermarket sales are a very big part of the revenue stream for a whole hella lot of companies.  Console markets are pretty much a pay to play camp.  When faced with $5 dollar outfits and other assorted stuff we PC users get for free or are completely able to build it ourselves...

 

There are an awefully large number of games that make a good deal of their revenue off of the extra's...

A lot of PC users seem to think that good mods require script extenders and really that's incredibly short sighted as they are overlooking just how spoiled we are in comparison.  A good deal of people with access to PC mods are in fact not capable enough mod user's to get the most out of modified play....So in actuality there are rather large numbers of people that are by and far still incapable of seeing just what PC Modding offers...That is gameplay 10 years beyond whats currently accepted by the majority right now.

 

There are of course other issues like the 2 Gig limit....But hey whatever just an obstacle that Im sure that they will come to regret as creative individuals that know enough about what they are in fact doing provide a piece of content that then competes with and completely destroys the "quality" of after market paid content.

 

Mobile Gaming is sure to get better but there is the issue with the cost of the hardware...So really when you stop and think about why Mobile Gaming can present titles to its market that don't uh hold up to PC gaming you really need to strongly consider that by and large most people in the world today are held back by what they are able to afford.

 

It doesn't matter if a platform comes out tomorrow that can be pocket sized and is amazing if the costs for the equipment is out of sight for the larger consumer base.

 

There are some other very over looked issues as well.

 

Talent....

 

The talent is getting worse.

 

For the most part the worlds education system doesn't busy itself training up creative minds and in fact actually does the opposite...It trains up a lot of people to be prepared to turn cranks for corporate world enterprises.  That just means that the few individuals that actually know how to create something new that is engaging and entertaining become far more valuable.....Thing is that Ivory Towers the world over have been falling all over themselves to create papers that then control the flow of what talent can get a job working in said company that provides entertainment as its revenue stream.  This in fact harms the outcome more.

 

I suppose the question is what happens when it becomes clear to the world at large that its the unpaid help that deserves the jobs more than the "trained labor."

 

Almost no one busies themselves building up a lifetime of creating new things and in fact the rigor and actual knowledge of the techniques involved are almost non-existant at least in American Education systems.

 

By far and large almost all Creative Arts Career Positions are held by individuals that know nothing about the actual process and have no right to hold said jobs.

[Vacaliga]

Might see the next level of graphic, 3D models are coming close to look as good as they ever could.

VR will no doubt be as standard as 1080p monitors are today. 

Maybe some sort of tactile feedback will be in place, perhaps even as far as a full body suit.

Consoles will properly be a thing of the past, the current gen is likely the last true consoles we will see, so mods on consoles in that sense will likely be short lived. 

 

Really doubt there will be another crash like the one in the 80s the industry have grown too big at this point, being a gamer is no longer some kind of social stigma, and with everything being digital now a recall is not as big if a deal as it was back then if it even comes to that since after release patches tend to fix most/some of issues.

Some companies might go down at some point but that's really nothing new or significant.   

[zzz72w3r]

 

Next game industry crash is looming in air. Software/hardware prices are hiking, and quality is diminishing, and still consumer is bombarded with dlc/drm/mt crap.

What happen after, it is to uncertain to foresee.

Anyone remember the video game crash of 1983?

 

 

'83 was more a shock than a crash.  North American home console market did see a 97% drop in revenue which was certainly a crash for that sub-sector, however, arcade gaming was far bigger back then and continued to grow despite what happened to Atari.  Atari's market share was almost immediately replaced by PC/Apple and more importantly Ninteno so the industry was actually still growing.

 

The 80s US recession and rise of home PC killed American home consoles and shifted video gaming to Japanese consoles who already dominated the arcades.  In the 90s the rise of Wintel led Sony's decision to subsidize advance HW early in the adoption cycle in its attempt to prevent PC entering the living room.  This resulted in the demise of Sega and almost killed PC gaming.  In 2000s Internet and Xbox brought gaming back to the PC value chain and the beginning of the decline of Japanese gaming industry.   

 

For the next 10-20 years?  That's a $10 billion question. 

 

As for modding, it will depend on the fate of the open Wintel computing.  If close eco-system (where Sony/Android/Apple are and where Microsoft is steering Windows towards) are the future of gaming then modding as we know it has very little room in that world.  "Modding" is likely just user created content as dictated by the developers aka Second Life.

[MadMansGun]

in 20 years? i will be playing GoldenEye on a 40 year old Nintendo 64, to hell with the gaming industry.

 

[afa]

20 years? Some older "die hard hardcore gamers" dying? Maybe not that many yet.

 

VR is a wait and see, it has potential, but lots details need to be work out and it isn't just hardware.

At least it could be a monitor replacer.

 

Hardware singularity. No dedicated PC, console, or mobile. It should be relatively uniform.

 

Hardware vs internet bottleneck

 

Also nuclear holocaust hopefully. The most immersive Fallout experience!

[Reepa7]

20 years... "Call of Duty Superior Warfare Recon 8"

 

but seriously, maybe we'll have the Wii UUii with a 16 gb harddrive 

[Jazzman]

I've got a bad feeling about this.

[nonusnomeni]

our goose will be cooked in next 10 year

sooo...

 

only one game will be played

"wood and food"

 

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

It'll probably be some .Hack shit, that's for sure...

 

and there will be sex bots, so that's cool.

[Dallas-Arbiter]

Amazing graphics, horrible writing, and you'll have to buy the game bit by bit, after an hour of play you'll have to buy a DLC to continue.

 

[Vintovka98]

The future will be run by AI and mega corporations, and games will be played via Brain–computer interfaces and modding will be done by bots.

[Guest endgameaddiction]

Frankly I don't care what Bethesda develops any more. Skyrim and Fallout 4 are perfect examples of streamline and dumbing down. Now that I'm playing Oblivion on and off, I can see how they have detached from RPG and more towards the AG to lure in the casual non-rpg fans.

 

Just waiting for a company to start some new RPG that caters more the actual intellectual gamer until they decide to streamline the game to cater the more less thinker and I just like to push buttons crowd.

 

As far as console modding goes. The way I see it is console eventually catching up to PC because that's precisely what companies that develop games and companies that crate consoles want. It would be to their benefit to have a console function in full capacity as a PC so they can kiss PC goodbye due to piracy. That would be their glorious day. Because it's very true that their games sell mostly on console. It's where they generate more revenue. But surely they are very quick to forget who were the ones who even got them the fame they have now and turn their backs on. Or care the least about beause the game must be made through console and ported to PC. This isn't just Bethesda.

 

I guess the competent pc gamer just has to constantly migrate from one game to another that stays true to what it is until it becomes mainstream. Then it's time to migrate again.

[DocClox]

Do you think the recent trend of Bethesda to open modding to consoles will catch on and we'll see more games open to this detail of modding?

Probably not. You have to understand, what Bethesda did with Morrowind was insane: they gave away their in-house development tools for anyone to use! They didn't just document where to put new dds files to change the colour of a suit of armour, or allow limited scripting to change the text in some conversations. They didn't even make a separate, limited mod tool to control what changes would be made. They gave their users all the tools they needed to make a full-on competing product. The TES Construction Set was a hell of a risk for Bethesda, and one only a relatively young company with not a lot to lose could have made.

 

Recently, they seem to be backing away from that a little. Partly it's the reliance on third party tools; partly the reduced API (or so I'm told) in the FO4 version of Papyrus; partly it's the increasing levels of control they're seeking to exert over the modding community with changes to EULAs and setting up their own distribution portal.

 

I think, inevitably, the pressure to try and increasingly monetize the modding community is going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Not all at once; I don't think there'll be that much difference between Skyrim modding and and FO4 or FO4 modding and the next game. But I worry that it will add up and that in 20 years time Bethesda modding is going to be a shadow of what it is today.

 

I don't think it's all bad. Beth have shown the value of an active modding community and that's encouraging other companies to allow greater modding capabilities in their games. And it seems likely that a newer company might position themselves where Bethesda were 10 years ago and let modders mod and just get on with it.

 

Even if not, the increasing availability and sophistication of development tools is having a very democratising effect. Free and indie games are getting increasingly sophisticated and that's only going to get better. Sites like Patreon and Kickstarter are somewhat poisoning that scene at the moment, but even that seems to be fading. In 20 years time, I think there's going to be more good, free stuff that we can imagine right now.

 

VR ... is probably going to be a format, but I can't see it taking over. 3D first person games didn't spell the end of isometric squad games. Isometric games didn't end forms based simulations or visual novels. And neither of those meant the end of pure text games. VR is going to be a thing, but I think there are still a few issues to be resolved before we know if it's going to be a niche format or the next big thing.

[bjornk]

I don't think I'll live that long (hopefully), but I'll probably be playing old games on my Linux PC... Although it may be quite amusing to watch the heated discussions between the old FO4 fanboys and the new FO5 fanboys... about the "dumbing down"...

[DorkDiva]

I have a feeling in 20 years games will not even be the least of everyone's worries.

[Outlast1]

Honestly from what everyone is saying I am not guru on tech, but from the increasing patterns of new technology coming out I actually think there will be a new type of hard ware maybe not in twenty years but some times down the road. VR revealed something that may not have been seen; Merging PC and console into a single type of machine that provides the same resources and tools as a PC but also works exactly like a console. The thing is as VR gets refined IMO it may be that most of these new hybrid devices will be accessible with any device. No not implants or weird stuff but like your touch phone. Except that any surface in your home, from tables, refrigerators, etc. even your desk will be able to communicate to a tower and be played on. Its probably a pipe dream from some wonky dude like me but look at the pattern, devices can be worn on clothing. Its only a matter of time before situation like The show expanse would be the reality of things but with a Johnny nuemonic feel except with a more refined VR replacing key boards with ability of projecting a screen in front of you removing key boards and mice, gaming wise I think right now we are in a slump, where money is the main focus. Gaming is a business and the purpose is to make money. Gaming companies like Beth when they first started wanted to make brilliant games that all would love but Power or the almighty dollars trumps all. Morrowind, and IMO oblivion are examples of good games made with vision, I love skyrim but As many said its not terrible but terribly short sighted and only looking to make a dollar. Talent is plentiful the problem is that dollars and euro's corrupt creativity. It comes down to do we create a game that is amazing in as many aspects as possible, well written, and just overall a 9.5/10, or create something that sells as much as possible. Young companies always innovate, but once they become established this diminishes. This is just my opinion I could be way freaking off, It just how I look at if I am wrong slap me silly.

[DocClox]

I don't think I'll live that long (hopefully), but I'll probably be playing old games on my Linux PC... Although it may be quite amusing to watch the heated discussions between the old FO4 fanboys and the new FO5 fanboys... about the "dumbing down"...

If they dumb it down any more, there will be slime mould colonies posting to complain that the UI unfairly discriminates in favor of players with fingers.

 

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Added the quote

[yetAnotherLurker]

When I think of modding I think of primarily of three major companies: Paradox, Bethesda, and Mojang. Paradox is really open to modding and total conversions, and since no modder can currently modify in new mechanics, Paradox has no reason to try to make money off of mods as it would likely get them sued (Technically they were almost sued just for mentioning the game of thrones total conversion mod for CK2), and make them lose a large amount of customers, for next to no gain. Minecraft, by Mojang, isn't on Steam and as a result is relatively immune to Valve's plans. Heck, there are classes being offered by some some summercamps and colleges on modding minecraft (the college classes are aimed at kids for the most part, and there are others teaching the basics of electrical engineering). Then there is Bethesda, even if Bethesda singlehandedly manage to kill their own golden goose by monetizing mods, as long as there is another popular game company or franchise that allows mods I am confident that it will inspire other companies to allow mods, and possibly even learn from Bethesda's potential mistake, depending on how it goes. I have inadequate information to even guess on how the game industry as a whole will look, but I am pretty sure modding as a whole will never be killed off (though it may suffer a blow or two over the years).

[Zor2k13]

Twenty years is a long time, we will most likely have some kind of a second crash during that time because companies are pushing and pushing everything to extremes and at some point I think people in general might lose interest in gaming even young people for whatever reason. Things change between generations what if the next few just yawn and gaming and find other things to do?

 

Whatever the internet does in 20 years, gaming will be linked to it big time and change along with it. Multiplayer gaming is the biggest draw for gaming right now and the usual suspects with multiplayer gaming have to die off or get changed big time in 20 years no way people in asia are still gonna be sitting there staring at the same shitty RTS games just with a different version number in 20 years.

 

Also world economics changing a lot, we are gonna see the death of socialism soon and that will create a lot of civil unrest see europe for current examples. When a major ism dies a lot of things and places change so all kinds of markets are gonna change and die and be created over the next 20 years and this will have the biggest impact on gaming which makes me thing young people might not give a dam about gaming so much during that time. Maybe after 20 years+ there will be a renewed interest in gaming if the global economy picks up again somewhere and people get fat and happy again. From what I have been reading that would be asia in general but it will take slightly less that 20 years more like 16. I think the AIIP or asia infrastructure investment bank will play a big part in all this changing in asia by then.

[arpaschad]

in 20 years time huh?...I'd be middle aged that time...I guess with the advent of VR gaming gaining a little steam now it will become the de facto gaming medium in the near future or maybe old school game companies like nintendo will make their own VR machines just to compete...other than that, I think it's safe to assume (IMO) that games would become like those in the "Shadowrun" universe like that Simsense thing...

 

or we will still be in VR...either way, I think modders will still find a way to make experiences better than the default configuration in existing sytems or frameworks...they will have difficulties in dealing with new technology like VR though since to me it seems streamlined and the available material to work it is few since it is just starting out...but given enough time and resources, more material will come out and eventually modders will be able to "jack in" effectively and make their own content...it's hardwired in the human spirit to make something better after all...

 

And I am still waiting for Simsense to happen...just imagine...playing games and porn...not just watching it but being part of it!!! both literally and figuratively...