The Future of Video Games: Individualized Control of the Outcome

Everybody is looking for the next generation of graphics to keep the video game industry alive and kicking. Simple minded fools. Graphics are only as good as your story and a compelling story will beat empty-headed graphics every day of the week. The one thing that is missing in most video games is genuine emotional integration into the design of the plot. Virtual reality as a means of integration into the games themselves grew by leaps and bounds with the Nintendo Wii, PS3 Move and Xbox Kinect. But if the video game industry really wants to put you into the game, as they claim, why not allow gamers to play a vital part in story construction?

Just in case the last video game you played involved a little yellow pie guy chasing monsters around, then you might be surprised to find that today's high tech games take full advantage of the internet by allowing you to download upgrades and accessories. That's fine, of course, but what if the video game downloading model actually allowed you to determine the outcome of the game? How many times have you complained that you wish you could make a movie turn out differently? Fat chance of that for the time being, but a great video game with a disappointing conclusion could become a thing of the past by tomorrow. Imagine being able to join in on the collective thrill of playing the same game as your buddies, beating the same bosses, collecting the same awards…but ending the game in a completely different fashion?

That is the future of video game play. Or, at least, it should be. Rather than spending so much time figuring out how to make the virtual reality of blowing another person's brain out so that it achieves a certain level of realism, surrealism or hyperrealism, how about allowing the fascists psychos out there to end the game only after having wiped out the planet, but allowing the tree-hugging gamers out there to save the planet by instituting tough enough gun control measures.

Or, well, you get the idea, right? If you want a minor but really jerky villain to end the game in the throes of a painful retributive death, then you would download that ending. If you want the ending to require some tasks that are incredibly difficult or, by contrast, much less difficult than is required. The potential for individualized player interaction in controlling the outcome of the overall game is unlimited.

And wouldn't you really rather have more control over the storyline than a slight improvement in graphics?