Page 39 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #3

Video Games vs. Virtual Reality

The Battle of the New Millennium

I predict that lifelike virtual reality, that they shouldn't have to hear their The final thing you can do for the
fully integrated with the internet, will be game. Taste and smell will eventually cause is both the most difficult and the
in our homes by 2010. Virtual reality is be simulated by chemicals. I suspect most abstract. We need to program
a technology being rapidly developed we will purchase taste/smell cartridges VR games. Bear with me on this one.
right before our eyes, yet it's evolving in much the same way that we buy ink We all hear more and more about
gradually enough that most of you cartridges for our printers today. "convergence" in technology. You
probably think nothing of it. I hope I have painted the picture know the computers that you can
This isn't to say that you don't real- clearly enough that you can see how watch TV and make phone calls on?
ize what's happening; it's just one of close VR really is. Once we accept These video phones are closing the
those things that's easier to deny. that, the next step is to face the threat gap between computers and consoles.
Partly because we that it poses. This isn't just about Overpopulation causes your average
fear it and partly "classic" gaming but individual's living space to become
because we want it the survival of video smaller and smaller, and the day will
SO BAD, we pre- games as a media or come that one's VR device will be the
fer to think of it as as a "species." It's only entertainment/communication de-
science fiction up survival of the fittest. vice in the home. There will be no
until the very mo- The games and gam- room for consoles or old computers.
ment it is in our ers will have to adapt And even if there IS room, VR will still
hands. We can no to survive in the world be the most popular and a lot of people
longer turn a blind of VR. will spend the majority of their time
eye to the fact that So how are we to there. This will be an ever-increasingly
videogames have keep video games large segment of the population poten-
been "evolving" alive? What can WE tially isolated from "traditional" video
over the last do? Well, two condi- games.
twenty years to reach this VR Pac-Man tions must exist if video games What if, however, because of some
inevitable conclusion. are to continue to thrive. Sup- clever and thoughtful programmer, the
As classic gamers, I believe we ply and demand. The easiest thing you virtual world had a virtual arcade ma-
share the feeling that the majority of can do is download and play games. If chine of Pac-Man...?
modern video games are of less-than- you're not keen on computer gaming, No matter how exciting the prospect
memorable quality. Maybe we're not learn to be. Because the future of of experiencing force-feedback in your
just opinionated and nostalgic; maybe video games (especially the "classic" underwear may sound, let us not forget
we are 100% CORRECT. After all, variety) lies in why we started
would not an incomplete product gen- computers (and playing video
erate an incomplete gaming experi- more specifically, games in the first
ence? If the finished product IS virtual in free computer place. Video
reality, then the latest generations of games), it is inevi- games have al-
consoles are the incomplete "missing table that the mar- ways been a pas-
links" in this "evolution." There HAS to ket for video time, an escape
be something inherently WRONG with games will shrink from the pres-
three-dimensional worlds on a two- dramatically once sures of reality.
dimensional screen. VR is deployed. Do we really want
But with the latest generation of And since that them to be MORE
games, the fully explorable 3-D worlds would make the LIKE REALITY?
DO exist. That means the software for commercial devel- Since the current
VR is already here. They've made opment of video generation of
stereoscopic 3-D glasses, and sur- games unlikely, the VR Missile Command gamers are ac-
round sound is rapidly becoming the games will have to be customed to their 3-D
norm. For total immersion, that's two made by impassioned gamers. This worlds, they will likely transition to VR
senses down, three to go. And that's leads me to the second thing you can without a second thought. YOU, as a
why the seemingly gimmicky "force do - make a video game. If every sin- classic gamer, are one of the chosen to
feedback" controllers haven't died yet. gle one of us made it our goal to make fight this battle for survival. And it is a
Because force feedback isn't merely a just one game within our lifetime, it battle we must win. Otherwise, much
gimmick, it's actually the next big thing; would create a virtually imperishable as "Video killed the radio star," we will
the third of our senses to be artificially reservoir of games. And if we passed all be singing "Video games
stimulated. In ten years, telling gamers that tradition on to the next genera- were killed by VR."
that they should not have to feel their tion... Video games can and MUST
game will be like telling today’s gamers stay alive.
Classic Gamer Magazine Spring 2000 39