Gaming Mainstays That'll be Gone in Ten Years

The future is now. Well, okay, not now, but it's slowly arriving in
bits and pieces. Imagine with me, for a moment, what it'll look like
when it's all said and done: your favourite characters in glorious 3D HD
vitamin D TurboVision, excited whispers of PlayStation 5s and Xbox
1080s, and hopefully those hoverboards from Back to The Future. Sure
sounds great, doesn't it? Now snap out of it, because your imagination
is wrong. The future's barreling straight toward us and it's
bulldozing everything you know and love. Here are just a few of the
things you take for granted that – in 10 years or so – will probably be
tossing back drinks in some rundown bar with Betamax, pagers, and,
sniff, the Dreamcast.




Before you break out your pitchfork, this isn't what you think it is. Well, not exactly,
anyway. There will always be games where you can shoot or stab or
Barbie Horse Adventure in solitude, millions of virtual miles removed
from the world's seemingly infinite supply of tea-bagging 12-year-olds.
That said, this is the digital age and our society has become constantly
connected. Valve raised quite a fuss earlier this year when word got
out that Portal 2 would be its last game with "isolated single-player,"
but that's pretty indicative of where things are headed. Whether it's
because of social features, always online schemes a la Diablo III, or
"games as a service" platforms like Autolog and Battlelog, true
isolation's becoming an increasingly rare commodity. Whether that's a
good or bad thing is a matter of personal preference.


Goodness,
you are fast with that pitchfork… Once again, this isn't what it sounds
like. People love gaining experience, leveling up and watching as
largely arbitrary numbers steadily rocket toward infinity. They may even
love it a bit too much, which is why so-called 'RPG elements'
are now popping up in every game short of Pac-Man (give it time).
Standalone RPGs, then, are a dying breed – a standard borne only by the
Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests of the world. Does that mean strategic
complexity's taking an elevator to the afterlife with them? Of course
not, it's just getting a bit of a face-lift. Less telling ("Critical
hit! 34234 damage!") and more showing (That Super Mutant's skull is, er,
no longer in its face).


Unless
E3 makes some big changes in a very small timespan, it's on the way
out. This year's show, especially, was like stepping into some weird
alternate reality where mobile and social gaming never existed, and the
mere mention of the phrase "downloadable" elicited gasps and hushed
whispers. It's not hard to see why: in spite of the media blood frenzy
that converges on the show each year, tearing it limb-from-limb for
every last morsel of news, E3's primarily meant to be a heads-up for
brick-and-mortar retailers. You know, the people with the stores that
have walls and stuff. Problem is, those are drying up fast – or at least
becoming the minority to digital's majority – and E3's struggling to
remain relevant. The end result? Few publishers use it for important
announcements and some have taken to skipping it altogether. At this
point, even opening it up to the public for a day or two might not stave
off the Reaper, seeing as PAX and PAX East sort of have that market
cornered.


Did
you know that humans – not unlike snakes – shed their skin? We just do
it gradually, flake-by-flake, instead of leaving behind a creepy
exoskeleton as a reminder of nature's disgusting majesty. Valve's Steam
service is sort of the same way. It's constantly growing
little-by-little, and that's why it's gotten so far ahead of the curve.
"I and everyone at Valve know that you're only as successful as what
you've done lately," Gabe Newell told PC Gamer (via CVG). "So the idea
that Steam is somehow the answer to digital distribution ignores the
fact that every two or three years, something is going to change
dramatically." And in ten years? Who even knows? If Steam's still
around, it'll be a different animal entirely – especially as things like
cloud gaming find their footing. Alternatively, some brilliant upstart
could end up being the Chell to Valve's GLaDOS. Happily, its name
probably won't be Origin.


It
used to be the case that patches were only for MMOs and grievous
wounds. In both cases, applying them was painful, time-consuming, and –
in many instances – fatal. Nowadays, pretty much every type of game uses
them in some manner or another, for better or worse. As such, the
notion of a 'complete' game will only become more archaic than it
already is as time goes on. It's not all bad, though. Sure, it gives
developers the option to unceremoniously shove games out of the nest,
watch as they pancake against the pavement, and then stitch together
their features for real after launch, but games like Minecraft and Team
Fortress 2 have also emerged from this system. Micro-transactions and
the like, of course, only encourage this trend.


Blasphemy?
Hardly. Even ignoring the rapid growth of the tablet and smartphone
sector, consoles are one goofy '80s sound effect away from transforming
back into PCs on the spot. I mean, what'd you do last time you bought a
PlayStation 3 game? If you answered "Jump right in and revel in instant
gratification," you are a caveman who's been frozen in ice since the
distant Past Year of 2006. Nowadays, you have to download an update,
install the game to your hard drive, go to the PlayStation Store, redeem
your online pass, and then – finally – play the friggin' game.
On top of that, recent rumours suggest the next Xbox will be based
around Windows 9 and Microsoft recently rolled all of its gaming
initiatives – console, PC, and smartphone – under the same umbrella. And
then there's cloud gaming, digital, free-to-play, and tons more to take
into account. The bottom line? Consoles as we know them are on their
deathbed. As for portable consoles – ten years? Try two or three, tops.



Hah,
just kidding. Zombies are never going away, no matter how played out
they become. Similarly, quick-time events, escort missions, piracy,
Angry Birds, and annual Final Fantasy VII remake teases/refutals will
stick around for all of eternity. You cannot hate them to death. I've
tried. Beyond that, however, the future doesn't look better or worse,
per se. Just different. Change is scary, but it's also healthy, natural,
and necessary – especially in a creative medium like gaming. Oh, and it
(hopefully) comes with hoverboards.